Appalachian American Heroes Face Brutal State Repression in Virginia

I recently went to visit my friends at the Yellow Finch Tree sit in Elliston, VA. My friends have been bravely resisting the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) for 4 years, putting their bodies on the line to stop the wholesale destruction of the only ancient forest we have left in Virginia. The MVP project is a criminally insane 42 inch fracked gas pipeline currently being blasted and trenched into the most ecologically sensitive areas of Appalachia, poisoning our water and killing everything in its wide path. Living in the forest on the side of a steep hill and on tiny platforms high in the trees they intend to save, my friends at Yellow Finch are the bravest warriors protecting the sacred that I know and they need and deserve our support right now.

Since their efforts at slowing down construction to give legal challenges a chance to save what’s left have been successful in many ways, the State has become annoyed with their non-compliance with ecocide. Violent, militarized police and lawless mercenary security guards, modern day Pinkertons if you will, have taken to raiding the Yellow Finch camp and snatching up any young woman they can get their hands on and taking them to jail on nefarious charges. Currently, my friends do not have enough bail money to get their friends out of jail.  You can help.

Approaching Yellow Finch, we pulled over to take pictures of the multiple environmental violations we could see.

We were quickly approached by police and security, taking pictures of us and our car. They attempted to find out our names, despite not having broken any laws.

As we approached the camp, we were struck with how steep the side of the mountain was that the pipeline crew was working on, in their excavators. We had heard of three excavators that had been flipped by MVP employees over the past nine days and we saw pictures of two. This is what the side of the mountain looked like after the last excavator flipped and came crashing down the side of the mountain.

In their haste to complete the project, MVP crews have become reckless and dangerous.

Once we got to camp, we learned of the brutality and trauma our stolen sisters faced during the recent raid of the camp and the desperation to get them out, uncertain of the suffering they face inside.

Voting is not enough. We are facing extinction! Voting is the absolute least you can do to change the thoroughly corrupt and dysfunctional system we are forced to navigate. This system, designed by capitalist psychopaths to serve capitalist psychopaths, is not democratic and never has been. Our so-called democratic system is an illusion designed to appear democratic. We are living in a fascist police state in Virginia. The police are protecting corporations that make their profit by practicing genocide.

For more than a year, every consecutive month has been the hottest in recorded history. Climate change is no longer a far off concept but a lived reality. There is no more time to pass the buck. Our young friends at Yellow Finch are putting their bodies on the line, standing up and fighting back for all of us. Please visit Appalachains Against Pipelines on Facebook and Twitter for daily updates and message with your offers of support. If you can’t throw down in person, throw down with your cash. Our brave young friends are waiting to hear from you.