By Staff, Industrial Worker – June 1990
Earth First! - IWW organizers, Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney were injured by a car bomb on May 24 in Oakland California. The bomb, with a timer, had been placed in Judi Bari’s car, and detonated while she was driving. The FBI was on the scene within ten minutes. The explosion follows several months of death threats by timber company interests against Bari and Cherney. The death threats and apparent murder attempt are a response to effective EF! - IWW organizing against clear-cutting and exporting of jobs by timber companies in Northern California. A Vietnam Veteran who observed the explosion said it was as a large as any he had ever seen.
Bari and Cherney were taken to Highland Hospital where Bari at press time is in serious but stable condition with a broken pelvis and soft tissue damage, injuries to the right leg, and face. Her internal bleeding was surgically stopped. Darryl Cherney sustained a broken arm and injuries to the right eye. Cherney was immediately taken into custody after being treated for lacerations and was questioned at the Oakland police station by police and FBI agents for seven hours without an attorney present. Bari is expected to be seized upon release from the hospital, and has also had no access to attorneys.
Karen Pickett, an Earth First! activist attempted to see Bari and Cherney. She was questioned by the FBI then taken to the Oakland police station where she was detained for further questioning.
Bari and Cherney have been charged with a felony: possession and transportation of an explosive device. It can be expected that the government will attempt to portray Earth First! organizers as “eco-terrorists”. In reality, neither Earth First! nor the IWW have advocated or engaged in violence. Earth First! has made a special point to call for nonviolence in the Redwood actions this summer.
The car-bombing in Oakland has all the markings of a classic COINTELPRO operation to disrupt political organizing in the US. That is, the government physically attacks the main organizers of an action, cripples the primary support group, and then blames the victims for the events. Anna-Marie Stenberg, EF! - IWW activist says, “The responsibility for this violence is on the shoulders of corporate America and their right hand, law enforcement agencies. Timber and millworkers are victims of this violence as much as activists are.”
IWW and Earth First! in Humboldt and Mendocino Counties have called for an end to clear-cutting and conversion to sustained growth harvesting. Sustained growth is the only way to preserve the forests, jobs and communities of the region. Bari and Cherney have been leading spokespersons for these changes.
Stenberg said “They ripped her exactly where they ripped Mother Earth: in the Pelvic Region. Our commitment to the nonviolence and action has intensified. Timber and Mill workers are calling from all over to support us.”
Bari and Cherney were in Oakland for a meeting with Seeds of Peace which is providing logistical support for the Redwood Summer actions happening this summer in the Redwood country of Northern California.
Redwood Summer is a nationwide call for people to come to California to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience to protect the forests from clear cutting. A thousand people are expected to take part in these actions this summer.
Within minutes after the bombing, police searched the Seeds of Peace house sealing off the block and arresting all the people they found there. Most had been released without charges within a few hours.
This is the second attempt on the lives of Bari and Cherney. Last summer, they were nearly killed when a logging truck rammed their car, causing it to fly through the air and crash into another vehicle. A recently obtained photo shows that the truck and driver involved were the same truck and driver that had been blockaded by Earth First! at a Louisiana Pacific logging operation less than 24 hours earlier. “It was chilling to see these photos and have our worst fears confirmed,” said Bari, “I believe this man tried to kill us”. Bari had demanded investigations of this pattern of violence by California Attorney General John Vande Kamp and the Mendocino California Grand Jury. According to Stenberg, who has worked closely with Bari: “When Judi told the county law enforcement that she’s had 30 death threats against her, they said show me a dead body and we’ll investigate.”
Earth First! in the timber country have disavowed the tactic of tree spiking as anti-worker. Bari and Cherney have been major advocates for rejecting this tactic. Lumber companies, like other capitalist corporations, ignore health and safety threats to workers. Any injuries of workers by tree spikes resulting from unsafe conditions in the lumber mills would only be portrayed by the companies as the responsibility of environmental activists.
While the mainstream unions in the timber industry, (such as the) International Woodworkers Association (IWA) have been fretting over how fast to make how many concessions (and attempting to raise dues to counter the effects of a dwindling membership), IWW organizers have advanced proposals for sustained growth and protection of worker’s income and communities. Successful organizing against clearcutting has the lumber companies scared. The active expression of environmental concerns from a class analysis perspective by EF! - IWW organizers has the potential of such success that it has driven the corporate interests to violence and threats of violence.