By June 11 - It's Going Down, May 9, 2018

Welcome to the 2018 June 11th International Day of Solidarity with Marius Mason and all long-term anarchist prisoners interview series! With these interviews we seek to keep alive the recent histories of repression, resistance, and prisoner solidarity. To better know the prisoners we support, to grapple with some of the challenges of prisoner solidarity, to learn from and support each other across generations, struggles, borders, and ideologies.

Last year we spoke with Sean Swain, Josh Harper, Daniel McGowen, supporters of Eric King, the Cleveland 4, and both Joseph Buddenburg and Nicole Kissane. Those can be found under the resources tab in the 2017 section at June11.org. They turned out so amazing and moving. They turned out so amazing and we really encourage everyone to check them out if they haven’t yet!

That brings us to 2018.

The theme for June 11th this year is how to maintain the long-term movements and commitments that are necessary for supporting our comrades both 7, 10 years and in turn be regenerating and nourishing to us in our struggles. We hope through y’alls engagement with June 11th events, writing, music, actions and these interviews, we can really dig into these questions.

So with all of our guests this year, we’ll be discussing those concepts that as well as their own stories, their passions, and their work. First we have with us Panagioti from Fight Toxic Prisons, or FTP as it’s often been affectionately referred to, which is “organizing resistance at the intersection of mass incarceration and the environment.” One of the main ways they do this is holding a major convergence every year right around June 11th. And those connections is really important because of the history of June 11th beginning with solidarity for eco prisoner Jeff Leurs in 2004, and then after Jeff’s release eco-anarchists Marius Mason and Eric McDavid.

Eric of course was released in 2015, but Marius remains a primary focus for June 11th. The Fight Toxic Prisons convergence started in DC in 2016, moved to Texas in 2017, where Marius is currently held in federal prison, and is coming to Pittsburgh later this year.

By Comrade Malik - It's Going Down, May 7, 2018

Political prisoner and member of IWOC Keith “Malik” Washington bring us an in-depth breakdown of the intersections of hog farming, mass incarceration, and environmental destruction.

“The pre-eminence of environmentalism in the 21^st century is a novel political and historical development. Ecology is a new body of scientific description and knowledge upon which social, economic, political and ethical ideas and practices have become premised. Ecosystem science suggests that political, social, and economic arrangements must be compatible with, and ideally optimize, natural ecological processes. Harming ecosystems is considered ethically, politically, and ecologically wrong.” – Graham Purchase, Green Flame: Kropotkin and the Birth of Ecology 1)

When a persyn says that they are a “water protector,” an animal and plant lover, they more often than not identify with being classified as an environmentalist. However, if you live in the United States of Amerika, you must become an expert in biology, water analysis, and be proficient in identifying poisons and pathogens which routinely appear in your immediate environment, your food, and your water supply.

More specifically, you must actually transform yourself into a private investigator. For who is able to decipher and figure out the complex and conspiratorial relationships which currently exist between capitalist corporate entities who persistently pollute the environment, and federal and state agencies? Government departments who have been commissioned to protect the people, our land, air, and water from being corrupted and exploited by these immoral and unethical corporate capitalist entities. Our planet and our health is in peril and total jeopardy.

What I have discovered is that the State of Texas has conspired with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to downplay and cover-up toxic and contaminated water supplies in State-run prisons as well as the rural communities which have found themselves in close proximity to these toxic sites. It is not just the prisoners in Texas who are suffering the ill effects.

I have also discovered that what is happening in Texas is not unique. I’ve learned of another imprisoned environmentalist in the State of Pennsylvania who is housed at a prison known as Frackville. The prisoner’s name is Bryant Arroyo and he has uncovered the exact same custom, policy, and corrupt government practices in his state.

In a recent essay published in Socialist Viewpoint magazine, Arroyo stated “In general, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) knows it has a water crisis on its hands. The top agencies like the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and EPA know about this open-secret and have conspired to deliberately ignore most, if not all, of the prisoners’ official complaints. DEP has received four drinking water violations from the EPA. But the underlying problem is money, money, and more money.” 2)

Bryant Arroyo cites money as the underlying problem. I find that quite remarkable, because recently I have been studying the spending habits of Scott Pruitt, the director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 3) As I see it, Pruitt and his cronies have aggressively forced roll-backs of anti-pollution measures. Simultaneously, Pruitt has conspired to line the pockets of close associates and other cronies. $100,000 a month for private jet memberships, bullet proof vehicles, and bulletproof desks?

Pruitt has been so busy squandering and wasting tax payer dollars that he has virtually ignored environmental disasters taking place in plain sight! Senator Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island has begun to investigate Pruitt’s careless spending. My question is, when will the Environmental Protection Agency start doing some protecting of the environment?

By Joe Sabo - Richmond IWW, April 25, 2018

May Day in Richmond this year has been organized as a celebration of working people and worker’s power. We will meet at Abner Clay park in Richmond at 5pm for a people’s banquet, music, comradery and other awesome events! This celebration has been collectively organized by the Richmond chapters or Organizing for a Free Society, Democratic Socialists of America, and the Richmond IWW General membership branch.

The following platform was penned collectively by the various representatives of each of the aforementioned groups and has been approved via consensus:

May 1st is International Workers’ Day. Unlike other holidays, it is not a day to commemorate bloody wars for empire. It is not a day for shopping. May Day is a day for the vast majority of us who must labor for the profit of a tiny minority. May Day is a day without borders, where workers of all countries unite in celebration of our collective potential and power, recognizing the capitalist bosses and their state as our common enemy, and liberation as our common goal. May Day is a day to reconnect with a more sustainable form of existence, for workers to share in the abundant harvest that is the product of our collective social labor.

May Day is widely celebrated throughout the world with protests, boycotts, sabotage, and strikes against a system of exploitation: it is a day without work. May Day is not recognized as a holiday by the rulers of the USA, though it originates in our country. However, despite this lack of “official” recognition, working people have always celebrated May Day. Before the capitalists kicked the peasantry off the land and privatized every aspect of our lives, May Day was a day to celebrate the fertility and abundance of the earth with communal singing, dancing, loving, eating, and drinking.

After capitalism began to spread its reach throughout the world, May Day became a day of working class resistance: on May 4, 1886, immigrant workers in Chicago went on strike for the eight-hour day, better working conditions, and higher pay. In response, the government arrested and executed 7 working class activists – the Haymarket Martyrs – in 1887. Since then, anti-capitalist workers have chosen the 1st of May to commemorate and continue their struggle for liberation. On May Day 2006, when millions of immigrant workers went on strike against workplace injustice and racist immigration policies in the USA, we were once again reminded of the real spirit of May Day.

May Day 2018 is a day of struggle against fascism and imperialism, and a day of celebration to affirm the value of life against the killers of the earth. We mobilize on May Day against white supremacy and in defense of Black Lives, Muslims, immigrants, and all indigenous people and people of color. We mobilize on May Day against mass incarceration and in defense of prison abolition. We mobilize on May Day against heteropatriarchy and in defense of queer and trans lives and reproductive freedom. We mobilize on May Day against the capitalist exploitation of the working class, against slavery and unpaid labor, and against the destruction of our environment. We mobilize on May Day because another world is possible.

Our goal is to foster collaboration among the multiple autonomous organizations and projects operating in the city of Richmond, Virginia. We hope that May Day can be an opportunity for horizontal exchange of diverse ideas and experiences, and to form bonds based on common affinities and commitment to revolutionary struggle.

By Joe Sabo - Richmond IWW, March 12, 2018

The Richmond General Membership Branch (GMB) of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Stands in Solidarity with Resistance to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Mountain Valley Pipeline and the Movement for Environmental Justice.

Whereas: Dominion Energy, EQT Midstream Partners, and their corporate and banking partners are guilty of and complicit in surveying without consent, property rights loss, decline in property values, construction of over-sized extreme-pressure pipelines on unstable terrain, water contamination, forest fragmentation, endangerment of at-risk species, harm to the natural resources relied upon by the working class, insufficient emergency preparedness, and the jeopardization of the cultural and natural history of the Commonwealth of Virginia in their efforts to construct the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP); and

Whereas: The coal, oil, and gas industry, and many other unsustainable industries, sacrifice the health and safety of the working class and poor communities, especially many indigenous communities and communities of color. These communities are subject to environmental racism and classism and are often ignored and violated during the permitting process of such projects; and

Whereas: These communities often are forced to defend themselves with direct action which puts them at greater risk of violence and incarceration from the state and private security; and

Whereas: Contrary to the woefully inadequate assessments of greenhouse gases emitted by the ACP and MVP made by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the construction of these pipelines will contribute to the acceleration of already dangerous levels of currently existing greenhouse gas emissions which are contributing to the already dangerous effects of climate change, which could lead to a dead planet with no jobs; and

Whereas: Water protectors have supported regulatory and judicial efforts to halt the ACP and MVP but acknowledge that direct action in the form of resistance camps and other tactics will also be needed to shut down construction of the pipelines to protect the water and natural resources such as the rivers, mountain passes, and agricultural areas that the working class in the area depend upon; and

Whereas: Neither the ACP nor the MVP will provide anywhere near the number of permanent union jobs the promoters of these projects promise they will; and

Whereas: More permanent union jobs can be created at union wages by decommissioning oil pipelines and upgrading water pipeline infrastructure, such as in Flint, Michigan. LiUNA and many labor unions currently have jobs working in the renewable energy sector such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric and could organize for a rapid transition of energy production and manufacturing to be safe for the workers, the surrounding communities and the environment. Though these renewable energy jobs are currently, typically non-union, trade unions, if so determined, could easily develop a successful green energy organizing program, using solidarity unionism, which would revitalize the currently struggling labor movement. Far more jobs currently exist in the growing renewable energy sector than in the declining fossil fuel sector. Also, these pipeline projects will not deliver the promised “energy security” or “energy independence” promised by their promoters, including the Building Trades officials among them, and;

Whereas: Many unions, including the IWW, ILWU, ATU, APWU, LiUNA-City Employees Local 236, CWA, UE, SEIU, NNU, Pride at Work, A. Phillip Randolph Institute, the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, Labor for Standing Rock, and many members of other Labor organizations have already publicly stated opposition to pipelines; and

Whereas: President Donald Trump’s executive orders that dismantle environmental regulation and ostensibly “clear a path” for the completion of the aforementioned pipelines are contradictory in nature and are designed primarily to divide workers and environmentalists over the false dichotomy of “jobs versus the environment”; and

Whereas: Virginia’s elite leadership, notably former Governor Terry McAuliffe and current Governor Ralph Northam, as well as a large majority of Dominion-funded legislators in Richmond, many of whom are so-called “environmentally friendly” Democrats, have repeatedly ignored the wishes of the People of the Commonwealth of Virginia to enact and enforce legislation that curbs the destructive actions of Dominion Energy; now, therefore be it

Resolved, that the Richmond GMB of the IWW:

1. reaffirms the IWW’s opposition to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL Pipeline as well as officially declares its opposition to the construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline; and

2. donates $100 to the ACP/MVP resistance camp supply fund and urges our Union’s members, the Labor Movement, and the working class to make Dominion Energy and EQT Midstream Partners struggle for every mile of pipeline, and to pass resolutions like this one, and donate, join, and organize in solidarity with the resistance to ACP and MVP and the movement for environmental justice, locally and abroad; and

3. calls on rank and file members of the Building Trades, Teamsters, International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, the Laborers’ International Union of North America, and other unions who have declared support for these pipelines and other unsustainable projects to implement Green Bans and take direct action by striking and/or slowing down in solidarity with the communities resisting the MVP and ACP and other projects that are exploitive of the working class and the planet we inhabit; and

4. calls on the working class, unions, and the unsustainable companies that employ them, including Dominion Energy and EQT Midstream Partners, as well as their financial supporters, such as Virginia-based Union Bank & Trust, to develop and rapidly implement a “Just Transition” plan for workers in unsustainable industries, such as pipeline and oil industry workers, to be trained and given union jobs in the green energy sector; and

5. reaffirms our belief and commitment to revolutionary industrial unionism, environmental justice, and community self-defense with our goal to “organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth.”