The
Constitution Pipeline Company, aka Williams Partners, came in force
onto the Holleran family land in New Milford, Pa. yesterday. Federal
marshals armed with assault rifles accompanied workers armed with chain
saws across the open field up to where the woods began. Talk about
overkill. Talk about exposing the ugly truth of how things really work
in the gas industry.
Supporters
of the Hollerans had painted “freedom flags” in red, white and blue
onto about 14 trees right at the edge of the field. As the workers did
their dirty work, they seemed to avoid cutting any of them at first.
Finally, after an hour or so of cutting others trees further in, they
came back and cut most of the freedom trees.
These
should-be-unconstitutional acts of the Constitution Pipeline Company
were sanctioned by a federal judge who said in court on February 19th
that if people had problems with their land being taken by eminent
domain for private profit, their recourse was to petition Congress. Hah!
The
Holleran family and the scores of supporters rallying behind them had a
much better understanding of how our very flawed democracy is supposed
to work. In the best traditions of this country—Shays Rebellion,
abolitionists, suffragettes, labor organizers, civil rights and gay
rights movements-- they took grassroots-based direct action to hold off
the Williams gang, doing so for 31 days, garnering widespread media
coverage in the Scranton/Binghamton area and far beyond. Without
question, their stand inspired many other landowners who are facing the
same abuse of eminent domain for corporate gain.
It
should be noted that it took Williams Partners 11 days to get it
together to come to the Holleran family land after claiming in federal
court February 19th that they were facing an emergency situation and the judge had to act quickly.
Indications
are that part of the reason for their slowness, maybe the main part,
was the support of the chain saw workers imported from around the
country—Louisiana, Oregon, Washington—for the stand being taken by the
Hollerans. Two weeks ago I went with local people to a bar where
conversations had been going on for a couple of weeks with the workers
after work. I talked to one of them from Oregon. He told me that if the
same thing the Hollerans were experiencing happened to him and his
family, those eminent domain-ing them would be met with shotguns.
I
asked him where the crew of workers stood on what the Hollerans were
doing. He said, “its about 50-50.” So I was elated to hear, about four
days ago, that the workers were now united 100% against going on to the
Holleran land.
We
knew that didn’t necessarily mean that they would put down their chain
saws and remain in their trucks and cars if they were told to walk
across that Holleran field. We knew the threat of being fired for doing
so was no small thing. But we were still gratified and hoping for the
best.
As
it turned out, yesterday the company brought other chain saw workers,
at least in part. And despite the presence of dozens of us with our
cameras and signs and our call-outs when the chain saws were silent,
standing 150 feet away from the land taken by eminent domain where
Williams wants to build their pipeline, about half of the trees were cut
down. It’s expected they will return today to try to finish up.
There
was a lot of media presence yesterday. TV news crews from Scranton and
Binghamton. A Time Warner cameraman. NPR from Philadelphia. Megan
Holleran doing radio interviews via cell phone. And more.
So
the fracked gas industry won one yesterday, and the Hollerans and the
people lost. But the fight to prevent the Constitution pipeline from
being built and to prevent the construction of new fracking or other
fossil fuel infrastructure was strengthened by this battle. Many more
people in the area now know the truth about the kind of company Williams
is. They know that there is a small army of people willing to support
those landowners willing to fight for their land and their rights. And
that army is growing, all over the country.
Ted Glick has been an activist and organizer since 1968. He is currently most active with Beyond Extreme Energy. Past writings and other information can be found at http://tedglick.com, and he can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jtglick.
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