Five arrested in Virginia coal blockade

[limpyhobbler]

"Just kickin some ass"

BRISTOL, VA.— Three residents of Central Appalachia and supporters with Mountain Justice chained themselves to an industrial tank of black water in front of Alpha Natural Resources’ Bristol, Va., headquarters to protest Alpha’s mountaintop removal strip mining and coal slurry operations across the region.

“I’m risking arrest today because mountaintop removal has to end now for the future viability of Appalachia,” says Emily Gillespie of Roanoke, Va., whose work with the Mountain Justice movement is inspired by Appalachian women’s history of non-violent resistance. The tank of water represents coal contamination from affected communities across the Appalachian region.

The group called for Alpha to stop seeking an expansion of the Brushy Fork coal slurry impoundment in Raleigh County, W.Va. “We want Kevin Crutchfield, CEO of Alpha Natural Resources, to produce a signed document expressing that they won’t seek the expansion of the Brushy Fork Impoundment before we leave,” Junior Walk, 23, from the Brushy Fork area said.

“I live downstream from Alpha’s Brushy Fork coal slurry impoundment on Coal River. If that impoundment breaks, my whole family would be killed,” Walk said, “Even if it doesn’t, we’re still being poisoned by Alpha’s mining wastes everyday. I’m here to bring the reality of that destruction to the corporate authorities who are causing it, but who don’t have to suffer its consequences.”
...

http://rampscampaign.org/alpha-hq-shut-down-by-demonstrators-tank-of-dirty-water/

[midnight]

1. K&R

[midnight]

2. This is what HOPE and CHANGE looks like.... And it is Audacious....

[FarPoint]

3. This is a fight we need to continue

and win! The land has been destroyed by mountaintop removal....the communities in Appalachia have been exploited by the coal industry...

One may say it is a form of slave labor or indentured servant style employment to the coal barons.

Enough.

[bvar22]

4. It is worse than that.

This more closely resembles the Dark Ages,
where the ROYALTY owned everything:
mountaintops, valleys, rivers, land, and the people that lived on them,
and could destroy land, resources, and peoples on a whim.

[FarPoint]

5. I understand completely....

My father grew-up under the Clincho Coal domain in Clintwood Va. My heart ache for the land and people.

[bvar22]

6. DURec

aside from rather amateurish overuse of transitions,
I thought the video accompanying this great John Prine song was heart wrenching.

[FarPoint]

7. Thank you for sharing.......

I'm at a loss for words to describe my sadness. So very true.

[Scuba]

8. Thank you protesters!!!