By Feather Forestwalker – Mendocino Commentary, July 26, 1990
“Earth First! Profits last!” we chanted as we marched down Main Street in Fort Bragg this past Saturday. The weather was perfect for keeping cool heads in what was a nonviolent protest; foggy. Before our procession moved down Highway 1 towards Georgia-Pacific’s main entrance, we staged a peaceful rally in the old lumber field across from Rossi’s, a field ironically owned by Georgia-Pacific, and a field in which we were threatened with being charged with trespassing on. After 4½ hours of music; speakers, and milling around to various booths in a peaceful carnival-type atmosphere, we gathered at the road leading to Highway 1 (Main Street), where the police had blocked all traffic to allow us passage through town.
The message was loud and clear; “Worker-Community ownership” of mills and forest lands—out with the corporate greed-mongers. Many of the 2,000 or so demonstrators were locals who believe in saving our planet. Some were even millworkers and ex-millworkers, loggers and ex-loggers, and fisher folks who agreed with us so-called “jobless gypsies” (to borrow a phrase used by a Sonoma County newspaper) that the overcutting of our forest must stop. One ex-mill worker spoke to all who listened that he’d gone on welfare upon quitting his job, once he realized that he was working in an industry that is run by corporate giants out to line their own pockets with profits yielded by the desecration of our forests. One protester mentioned that the environmentalists are not “out to get their jobs;” rather that we don’t support the timber industry, but we do support the timber workers; and we’re concerned that if current timber harvest practices continue, there won’t be enough trees left for harvesting in five years or so, and they’ll lose their jobs anyway. If the community and workers can unite together for a buy-out of the mills, they can succeed in getting a more responsible harvest practice implemented that will endure, leaving old growth forests for the wildlife and people to enjoy.
The rally pushed a point even further home to me; on the protesters side, men and women joined together in mutual understanding and harmony; on the Solidarity side, men were waving fists and “flipping the bird” at the demonstrators, wielding cans of beer and shouting obscenities at us. There were women present on the “yellow ribbon” side. What this said to me, loud arid clear, is that where men and women are in harmony, peace and love prevails. Where men and women are not in harmony, turmoil, strife and fear prevails. So, to all you Earth First!ers out there; continue on in unison; you have love and peace on your side, and, to quote a placard seen at the rally; “If you’re not forest, you’re against us.”
May we all be filled with the joy and beauty that can be found when men and women are in harmony, from the forests, with love.