District Court issued an injunction halting
them for now, ruling that the Montana
Department of Transportation violated the
Montana Environmental Policy Act by failing
to consider alternative routes, to consider
decommissioning the highway modifi cations
needed for the project, or to conduct an
independent evaluation of the proposal.
Once oil is extracted from the tar sands
in a toxic process, the oil is shipped to
the U.S. via a pipeline. Conservationists
and some native tribes have been fi ghting
the proposed $13-billion Keystone XL
pipeline system that would bring even
more tar-sands oil to U.S. refi neries.
Adding fuel to the fi re is the recent
spill of at least 1,000 barrels of oil into the
Yellowstone River by Exxon’s Silvertip
Pipeline. As it turns out, the Silvertip
sometimes carries the heavier and more
toxic tar sands crude that causes more
wear and tear on pipes than regular “sweet
crude,” according to a recent Reuters story.
As dawn drew near, Earth First!ers
began the 5 am wake-up calls. A revolution,
if the wake-up calls were to be believed, is
not going to happen in your sleeping bag.
Luckily for the sleepy 70 or so protesters,
the calls were followed by coffee and
breakfast prepared by the Seeds of Peace
Collective, which brings everything from
mobile kitchens to medics in support
of environmental, economic and social
justice actions.
Banners were furled, car pools were
organized and, fi nally, directions were
given out. Imperial Oil was convinced EF!
was targeting its megaload parked not far
from the Earth First! campsite and had hired
extra security. EF! and Rising Tide instead
were heading for Helena, Montana’s state
Capitol, for a surprise conversation with
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer. Most of
the protesters only learned of the location
as they got into the vehicles. For most
actions, Pedersen said, “information is on
a need-to-know basis.” Other members of
the group didn’t know there would be a
lockdown, or who would do it.
Activists, some like Pedersen who
knew they might be arrested, and others
who preferred to be “nonarrestables” and
help get the message out in other ways,
piled into vans, trucks and a small painted
school bus EF!ers had driven from Maine.
Local law enforcement appeared ready
for some sort of action; at least one of the
vehicles in the caravan that rolled slowly
out of the mountains and through Missoula
was given a traffi c warning. The truck the
EW reporter rode in was followed by police
for several miles outside of Helena, but the
two-hour trek from the Rendezvous site to
the state Capitol was largely uneventful.
At 11 am the protesters marched to the
Capitol building and poured in through
the doors that were opened by EF!ers who
had arrived earlier. About 20 or 30 people
stayed outside to chant and sing under
large banners that had been hung from the
fl agpoles outside the building.
“I’m really impressed at your climbing
skills,” one of the police offi cers at the
scene told an EF!er. “That wasn’t me,” she
said. “Oh,” said the cop. “I just wanted to
compliment you.”
The EF!er, regardless of whether she
was one of the climbers, wasn’t going to
fall for that trick. “I wish I could say it
was,” she said with a smile, “but I can’t.”
Adrian Guerrero of Rising Tide and
Earth First! tells the crowd the
tar sands and their infrastructure
are an attack on the environment,
indigenous peoples and the
working class
PHOTO BY MURPHY WOODHOUSE
Meanwhile, inside the governor’s
suite, six protesters locked arms through
the devices called sleeping dragons. They
slid arms into PVC pipes and locked their
wrists together with carabiners. The pipes
were wrapped in chicken wire, tar and duct
tape to make extraction more diffi cult.
Each pipe was painted black and in white
letters that proclaimed “No Megaloads”
and “No Pipelines.”
The activists said they were there to see
Gov. Schweitzer. He passed the message on
that he was willing to meet one-on-one. “No
thanks,” said EF!; “meet with all of us.”
The governor agreed to meet in the
historic reception room. EF! decided
through a consensus process that the group
would dialogue with the politician.
It seems impossible that 70 to 100
protesters could reach consensus in any
amount of time, but the decision, was
reached within minutes. Decision by
consensus is something EF! does often,
sometimes in gatherings of hundreds.
Opinions are conveyed by hand signals
— a twinkling of the fi ngers on both hands
means yes. The direct action session at
the Rondy practiced enacting high-stress,
short-time-limit scenarios and asked small
groups to reach consensus quickly and
fairly, then critiqued the process.
The group gathered around the table.
Schweitzer, known for his “folksy”
attitude, stood and spoke in media-friendly
sound bites to try to persuade EF! and
the public of the safety of newer pipeline
technology and its use of horizontal drilling
techniques, and of his concerns about
Exxon’s handling of the Yellowstone spill.
EF! and Rising Tide had nuances
to the issues they were bringing to the
table — the poisoning and exploitation
of indigenous peoples, concerns over the
rivers the XL pipeline will cross, effects on
Johannes Pedersen of Eugene
is led away by the Helena police
to the cheers of other protesters
PHOTO BY CAMILLA MORTENSEN
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
the ecosystem — but the essential message
was clear and succinct: Kick Big Oil out.
“No, that’s probably not going to happen
today,” said Schweitzer.
“Then we’re not going to leave,” Granger
responded. From the back of the room,
someone called out, “We’re here to establish
a no-compromise position. That’s our job.”
Spontaneously, one of the protesters
played a ragtime tune on the piano, and
members of the group began to dance,
some on the table. The governor left, and
the six protesters with their arms in the
sleeping dragon locked themselves in a
circle in front of the governor’s offi ces.
Helena’s Civil Disobedience Team
was called in. Helena Police Assistant
Chief Dave Jeseritz said the joint city-
county CDT was created in about 2005 and
trains every other month, but this was “the
fi rst deployment since 2006 when we had to
use our hands-on experience in the fi eld.”
In contrast to protests in Eugene, where
the police have been known to overreact —
once repeatedly Tasing an activist doing street
theater about pesticide sprays — the CDT
stayed in dialogue with EF!’s police liaison,
giving warnings that the protesters would
be arrested and what the charges would be.
EF! also had media liaisons, a legal observer,
support to keep the locked-down protesters
safe and hydrated, and videographers.
The CDT allowed the liaisons and
support to stay, though the other protesters
were told to take their activities to the
rotunda instead of the offi ces, or risk arrest.
“That’s our methodology,” said Jeseritz,
“not to be heavy handed from the start.” He
added, “That’s not to say we can’t ramp it
up if we need to.”
One protester unlocked and left. The
fi ve remaining had made a solidarity pact
to face the same charges, Pedersen said.
The offi cers offered the protesters the
opportunity to unlock themselves and not
face a charge of obstruction. They declined.
The CDT slowly cut through the fi rst
sleeping dragon; the team took an hour to
make its way through the fi rst device. After
that it went faster, and before the Capitol
closed its doors for the day at 5 pm, the fi ve
protesters were freed of their own locking
devices and placed in handcuffs. They
were taken to Helena Municipal Court
where they entered not guilty pleas to
misdemeanor charges of criminal trespass
and obstructing a peace offi cer and were
released without bail.
The story of the protest was picked
up nationwide, from USA Today to the
Associated Press. Granger said “the
national media chose to report on our action
in a reasonable and even sophisticated way
— focusing on the issues at hand, on the
informed and intelligent questions raised
by the demonstrators, and on Schweitzer’s
disingenuous and hypocritical dealings
with the Montana public vis-à-vis the
pipeline spill and proposed fossil fuels
infrastructure projects around the state.”
Pedersen said such protests from
Oregon to Montana are a response to “the
tremendous amount of money and time
thrown by the elite at squelching knowledge
of environmental and social justice.”
Here in Eugene, Cascadia Forest Defenders will be
putting on an action camp to skill-share in areas related
to direct action and strategic campaigning in Oregon’s
public forests from July 22 to the 25 in the Elliott State
Forest, the site of an ongoing battle over old-growth
logging. More info, including ride-share information, can
be found at www.forestdefensenow.com
EUGENE WEEKLY
JULY 21, 2011
11