By Judy Nichols – North Coast News, July 19, 1990
The decorating scheme of the Community Solidarity Coalition’s new office on Main Street can be summed up in one word—yellow—the color often used to remember hostages.
The office serves as headquarters for planning counter-demonstrations this weekend to offset the Redwood Summer rally and march, and will remain open through the fall to fight the Forests Forever initiative on the November ballot.
Surrounded by yellow posters, yellow T-shirts and yellow caps, volunteers tie ribbon into thousands of small, yellow bows to be worn by supporters.
For the volunteers, the hostage analogy may be apt; most say they would rather not be here.
“I’d rather be at home,” said Maribelle Anderson, the coalition’s spokeswoman. “But we need a positive way to save jobs, save our families, save our community.”
Sprinkled in this sea of yellow are a few bits of red, white and blue, small American flags to go along with the themes of family, community and job security.
Anderson, who organized the solidarity chicken barbecue last month, frequently calls on the image of family, a tactic that does not sit well with organizers of the Earth First! demonstrations.
“I’m a mom,” said Anna Marie Stenberg, a day-care operator who has been organizing the Earth First! rally and march. “I bake pies.”
But Anderson says she harps on the family theme because that’s what she thinks is threatened by “extreme” measures like the Forests Forever initiative.
Anderson’s husband Mike is on the state Board of Forestry, and together they own Anderson Logging in Fort Bragg. At a press conference to announce the coalition’s plans, she predicted the initiative could cost 100,000 jobs.
“We need to save the trees. We need sustainable forests. But do we need to lose 100,000 jobs?” she asked. “The real target is big corporations, but we’re the real victims.
Workers and their families are looking for direction.”
Don Nelson, union representative of the millworkers who has helped organize the office, said the initiative would be “double lumber prices immediately after the election.
“You can forget about low-cost housing in California,” he said.
Anderson and Nelson both referred to the initiative as the “Earth First! initiative,” rather than the Forests Forever initiative, as it is commonly called, and Nelson said Earth First!ers have claimed authorship.
When Kathy Bailey, a supporter of the initiative, questioned their characterization, she was vigorously “asked” to wait until after the press conference to discuss the matter.
Bailey said that Earth First! did not write the initiative, which was authored by the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Planning and Conservation League and EPIC, and has been endorsed by more than a hundred environmental and business groups.
Nelson said that, if it is misrepresentative to call it the Earth First! initiative, “it’s also misrepresentation to call (the timber industry initiative) ‘Big Stump’.”
Literature at the office also refers to the “Earth First! initiative” and offers tactics to fight it, including sample letters to send to politicians, suggested answers to questions from reporters, and a list of suggestions like calling radio talk shows, writing letters, sending family pictures to representatives to show “the faces behind the issues,” and putting positive signs in the back window of cars.[1]
“Earth First! and similar groups do all these things and more very well.,” the literature Slates. “They are very organized and active. They are kicking our butts by being more productive and communicating better. With a little organization and less time than you think, we can be effective, too. We have friends across the country to help.
“Nobody, even industry leaders will win this war for us,” it continues. “The public must see the families that make up the core of our community.”
Nelson said the effort is being financed mainly by individuals, but acknowledged that Georgia Pacific has given “in-kind” contributions including the furniture for the office.
Nelson and Anderson were both vague about how much money had been donated and by whom, but Nelson said there was between $5,000 and $6,000 left over from the June rally, and that, Georgia-Pacific may have contributed “a small amount” of cash.
Dave Odgers, G-P’s public relations director for Western Wood Products Operations, which includes the Fort Bragg plant, said the company had contributed, but declined to reveal how much.
“We’ve fed in some support,” he said.
“First in volunteers from our hourly and salaried ranks for everything from carpentry to serving chicken. And second in dollars, but I don’t think we care to say how much, officially. And we’ve given them all the moral support we can.”
Nelson said a lot of the money has come from $25 donations from small loggers and local businesses.
“And we’ll be asking for more,” he said. “We need to take this campaign to LA.”
Anderson…said the effort has brought out lots of volunteer help.
Carletta Hollenback, whose brother and father both worked in the timber industry, said she was tying ribbons a few hours a week “so people in Fort Bragg are able to continue working as independent joggers.”
Bonnie Nelson, a painter for 11 years at the Georgia-Pacific mill, said the issue is survival.
“My job’s on the line,” she said. ‘‘I want to keep it. My husband’s worked for 16 years at GP. I have a lot of friends who work there. They’re all worried about their jobs.”
Karen Koskinen, whose husband has been a mechanic with Eastman Transportation for 17 years, said she was volunteering “because it’s time to show some support.”
“We’re being made to look like the bad guys here,” she said. “We’re as concerned about the environmental issues as the other side.”
“Now we have two sides that are angry,” she said. “I don’t see a whole lot of people willing to sit down calmly and talk.”
Claudia Frago, who is organizing the parade, owns a small business called Gift Solutions, but said she is helping “because I love the community, the timber workers, and their families.”
Maribelle Anderson said the issue has caused the community to “pull together like nothing I’ve ever seen.”
“You know how it is when you try to get volunteers, when you mention PTA, people look the other way,” she said. “But I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
While Maribelle Anderson fights to keep talking positive, community scars are already showing as neighbors line up on one side or the other.
Her sister-in-law, Tracy, compares the feelings to those she experienced after losing a baby daughter this year.
“It hurts like that,” she said. “It’s like losing a loved one. I don’t take anything for granted anymore.”
Notes:
[1] This advice was not taken particularly seriously be some of the rank & file of the yellow ribbon camp, some of whose cars sported bumper stickers with slogans such as “Earth First! can kiss my axe” and “hippies are parasites”, which not only grossly misrepresented the green side but also had violent undertones.