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Protester "Chipmunks" Halt Work at Tar Sands Mine; 5 Arrested

Submitted by x332349 on Sat, 10/04/2014 - 12:22

By Raphael Cordray - Utah Tar Sands Resistance, September 24, 2014

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

PR SPRINGS, Utah--Protesters again stopped work at the construction site of the first tar sands mine in the US. Five people were later arrested and jailed but the campaign to stop the mine said the resistance will not relent until all tar sands plans are canceled.

By moving quickly through the site to obstruct numerous construction vehicles, just a handful of speedy protesters were able to shut down the enormous construction project on a sprawling 213 acres in Utah's Book Cliffs.

The action took place Sept. 23.

"Direct, physical intervention is necessary to halt the completion of this toxic project," said one protester. "If just five percent of those people at the People's Climate March in New York City came to Utah, we could shut down tar sands construction for good--and probably get away with it."

A playful video of the action released by Utah Tar Sands Resistance shows protesters donning chipmunk masks, running, dancing and posing for pictures among the many halted machines.Despite the humor, protesters say Utah tar sands development threatens the safety of drinking water for 40 million people and would cause irreparable damage to the land, including clear-cutting of old-growth juniper, fir and pine forest.

US Oil Sands began major construction of their strip mine in 2014 and hopes for commercial sales beginning sometime in 2015. Hundreds of people have participated in actions disrupting construction work this year, vowing to prevent functioning of the mine.

Tags: 
tar sands
Utah
direct action

Journalist sues Utah tar sands refinery for illegal "terrorism" police detention

Submitted by x332349 on Fri, 09/05/2014 - 14:14

By x373644 - press release, September 3, 2014

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

SALT LAKE CITY--An award-winning independent journalist filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Tesoro and the Salt Lake City Police Department for illegally detaining him and accusing him of terrorism for taking photographs of a refinery. 

Jesse Fruhwirth posted a video on the Internet of December 16, 2013, when an ice storm and power outage prompted a major pollution event at Tesoro's tar sands refinery in the Rose Park neighborhood.

"I was in bed reading and through my window suddenly I could see that the night sky was ablaze as if all of Rose Park was on fire," says Fruhwirth. "Only the refinery was on fire, but I knew that such huge flare offs were extra dangerous events for babies, old people and sick people and I thought it was important to film the fire that might severely sicken or kill some of my neighbors that night."

Fruhwirth also filmed the interaction he had with a police officer who ordered him to stop filming. In the video, Salt Lake officer Yvette Zayas tells Fruhwirth that she detained him for taking pictures of "critical infrastructure,” that she would refer her report to a "Joint Terrorism Task Force" to protect "homeland security."

Zayas is simultaneously a paid employee of Tesoro and SLCPD, but that night she was working directly on Tesoro's payroll.

Tags: 
Tesoro
tar sands
green unionism
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
Jesse Fruwirth
Utah

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