Mattole Free State Raided! Come one, come all, to the forest!

Last Thursday night, on July 19th, 2001, a new blockade went up at the bottleneck of the roads leading to Maxxam Corp.'s newest Timber Harvest Plans(THPs) in the Mattole Free State. The next morning, on J20, the blockade was discovered by a Maxxam crew, who took one look, and left. Maxxam was kept out of the Free State for a full week, until the Humboldt Co. sheriff's dept., along with Maxxam-hired climbers, raided the blockade, this past Friday morning, on the 27th of July. Two activists were arrested, and the blockade was successfully dismantled, allowing Maxxam and the police state access to the Free State. Several THPs are pending at this time, so Maxxam does not have the green light to go ahead and log the Mattole at this time; one THP is awaiting a judge's decision, and others are still making their way through the California Dept. of Forestry's(CDF's) approval process.
Meanwhile, more and more people continue to arrive from around the world, and the numbers and energy is definitely growing in the Mattole Free State. The call to action was put out at both the Earth First! Rendezvous and the National Rainbow Gathering, so all kinds of people have been arriving, and are now living in the Free State. More people are wanted and needed, so pack your bags and head for the forest!
Multiple tree-sits have been going up in the Free State, so, if you're interested in tree-sitting, then come to the Free State. There is also a ground-based occupation going on, as well as an in-town support crew, so there's a role for everyone;)
As of now, the Judi Bari bombing trial is scheduled to begin October 1st; in this monumental trial, Earth First! is suing the FBI and Oakland Police Dept. for conspiring to frame Earth First! for bombing themselves, while the real bomber was never investigated, in a car bombing incident back in 1990. Both Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney survived the bombing, although Judi was severely wounded(a pipe bomb went ripping through her womb), and passed away in 1997, from cancer. The trial will be in federal court, in Oakland, CA, so come on out for that one, too.
Also, the civil suit against Maxxam Corp. for the "wrongful death" of activist David "Gypsy" Chain, on September 17th, 1998, will be going to trial on October 15th, 2001, also in federal court in Oakland! Yep, October is going to be busy for everyone, and many truths will be revealed to many people during that time. It will be a real family gathering, so come on out to support truth and justice, and feel the love of real people, who really just want to be happy, and to see the world living in a good way.
The FDIC and Office of Thrift Supervision(OTS) are still going after ole Charles Hurwitz, CEO of Maxxam Corp., for his role in the big S&L scam of the late '80s, the same one that sent Mike Milken to soft corporate prison for a couple years. Hurwitz's share of that scam was $1.6 billion, and the government is actually going after him for it. Guess ole Hurwitz stole from the wrong folks that time, so now the feds want their money back. This opens up one possible solution to the Mattole Old Growth situation...a "debt-for-nature" swap that would relieve Hurwitz of some of his debt, in exchange for public ownership of the Old Growth (3,000 acres of OG Doug Fir in the Mattole, and several residual groves of OG Redwood and Doug Fir trees) around Humboldt County. People can call and write letters to the White House, the FDIC, the OTS, your senators and congresspeople, etc. and push for this debt-for-nature swap. Another possibility is to allow Hurwitz to trade all of Pacific Lumber Co., and Kaiser Aluminum, for full relief of his debt. You can get good phone numbers and addresses at http://www.jailhurwitz.com.
Finally, a campaign idea came to me, when I was out in the Free State, of making all corporate timberland publicly accessible, BECAUSE the CDF has a "public comment period" in the approval process of every THP. Now, how is the public supposed to be able to make intelligent comments on areas that we can't even walk through, without risking arrest? Are we supposed to base our comments on their maps and their surveys? Where's the accountability there? I think we might really have them on this one, and this could be a way to free up the land, millions of acres around the world. If more people could actually see what the corporations are really doing, then we would have a much better chance at stopping them. Much like the WTO, the IMF/World Bank, the Global Climate Change Conference, and the G8 meetings, the public is shut out of the processes that are making major decisions and having tremendous impacts on the lives of billions of people, and this trend must be stopped, now!
How many more will lose their lives as victims to this corporate neo-fascism? Judi Bari,David "Gypsy" Chain, David Sanes Rodriguez(Vieques), Martin Luther King, John Lennon, and now two killed at the G8, in addition to the millions of people dying every day as a result of sanctions, bombings, imprisonment, starvation, disease, and broken hearts; how long before people WAKE UP, get back to the Earth, out of the cities, and start living in a good way?!?! The time is now...come the the Mattole Free State....