Today, hundreds marched and saw fourteen community and climate activists arrested as the Midwest Rising! Convergence took the streets of St. Louis to protest Bank of America and Peabody Coal.
The arrest action occurred in the intersection connecting Bank of America's St. Louis offices and Peabody's national headquarters.
It’s going to be some hot business this summer, and we ain’t talkin about the triple digit heat wave hitting much of the country. There is a rebellious spirit sweeping the U.S.A. as people are fighting back against the fossil fuel industry from coast to coast.
I love the smell of direct action in the morning.
“When you decide to be something, you can be it. That's what they don't tell you in the church. When I was your age they would say we can become cops, or criminals. Today, what I'm saying to you is this: when you're facing a loaded gun, what's the difference?”
-Frank Costello, The Departed
Coal companies are bound and determined to get that dirty black rock out of the Powder River Basin and send it over to Asian markets to line their pockets. While the EPA is pressing for stricter regulations on coal plants and the anti-coal movement stops new coal fired power plants from being built and existing coal plants from having their lives extended, coal companies like Arch Coal, Ambre Energy and Peabody Energy are looking at Japan, China and India for new markets.
“The corporations take advantage of people in Appalachia, and
this is happening all over Appalachia, not just West Virginia… We have
to save one mountain at a time.”
-Psera Newman, Lexington KY
Billy Bragg sings about there being power in a union. But after the past week, I see that there is power not just in unions, but in unity.
Amidst threats and intimidation by King Coal's supporters, 600 courageous marchers kicked off a five day march from Marmet, WV to Blair Mountain.
Lots of attention is being focused on coal exports in the Northwest these days.
Coal is the topic on everyone's minds. Greenpeace are taking over smokestacks in Chicago. People are marching on Blair Mountain.
