mountaintop removal
Occupy: Rev. Billy's Freak Storm
The change that is in the air, that we all feel. No-one really knows why we are blessed with the common feeling. This same slaughter of the innocents has gone on for so long. This same mystical financing of poisoned farms, of dead oceans, of cancerous children and national false emotions - all this comes at us now as a bad surprise. We have a fresh rage. We have a shout that is honest, thousand of us. We are occupying our civic institutions stolen so long ago by men in suits, and surrounded by confused police. All at once, we want a better life and don't want to wait. Then this discovery: It is a better life to demand a better life! Revolujah!
Email this pageGRITtv: Sept. 28 2010
This past week saw protests against mountaintop removal and strip mining around the US. GRITtv coal correspondent Jeff Biggers attended one in Illinois, while around 100 people were arrested in front of the White House, including climate scientist James Hansen. There's no enthusiasm gap, Biggers notes, when it comes to the anti-coal protesters, many of whom have been fighting the destruction of their communities for decades. Biggers checks in with us via Skype from southern Illinois, where he's been covering the protests, and discusses the next move for anti-coal activists and the Obama administration. Speaking of coal miners and activism, Richard Trumka has a message for all the so-called progressives who don't actually look out for working people: "We can't be a world-class economy unless we make things." It's the key to rebuilding our infrastructure after years of neglect, after what he notes was "the party the rich had that we didn't get to go to," to helping to stabilize the climate and most importantly, to digging us out of the economic hole we're in. Creating jobs, green jobs, innovative manufacturing jobs, he argues, could solve all of that. Trumka is president of the AFL-CIO, but he became known to many Americans through the fiery speech he gave to the Steelworkers' union against racism and in favor of Barack Obama. He joined Laura in the GRITtv studio for a frank conversation about jobs, the economy, and Obama's administration.
GRITtv: Jeff Biggers: Uprising Against Coal Mining
This past week saw protests against mountaintop removal and strip mining around the U.S.--GRITtv coal correspondent Jeff Biggers attended one in Illinois, while around 100 people were arrested in front of the White House, including climate scientist James Hansen. There's no enthusiasm gap, Biggers notes, when it comes to the anti-coal protesters, many of whom have been fighting the destruction of their communities for decades. Biggers checks in with us via Skype from southern Illinois, where he's been covering the protests, and discusses the next move for anti-coal activists and the Obama administration.
GRITtv: Jeff Biggers: In the Midst of a Coal Field War
Yet another coal miner was killed on the job this week, and journalist and author Jeff Biggers says that the situation has reached crisis level--that it's a war on miners. He also notes that abuse of the land and abuse of the people who work on it has always gone hand in hand, so as pressure for mountaintop removal and new coal mines mounts, so do safety violations--the latest being a story broken by NPR, that a methane gas monitor at the Little Big Branch mine, where 29 workers died in an explosion in April, had been deliberately shut down. Biggers joins us to fill us in on the latest news from coal country--and from D.C., where Lisa Jackson and the E.P.A. faced a unique protest.
GRITtv: Jeff Biggers: Beyond Blankenship
As the community around the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia mourns its dead and papers report that miners are not being allowed to attend their friends' funerals, S&P Equity Research upgraded the company's stock from a "hold" to a "buy." Just another example of profits before people, notes Jeff Biggers, author of "Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland." Biggers joins us via Skype to talk about the tragedy at the Massey Energy mine and the legacy of coal, and warns that while it might be easy to point fingers at Massey's egregious violations of safety rules and its grandstanding CEO Don Blankenship, the entire mining culture is fraught with the same problems. GRITtv with Laura Flanders brings participatory democracy onto your computer screen and into your living room, bridging the gap between audience and advocates. Watch any show, at any time: http://grittv.org Distributed by Tubemogul.
"Democracy Now!": Wed. Mar. 31 2010
Al Jazeera's chief Wadah Khanfar talks about Obama’s expansion of the Afghan War, US policy in the Middle East, and the role of independent media; “We Are Tearing Down Our Mountains,” says photojournalist Antrim Caskey about West Virginia’s fight against mountaintop removal coal mining. "Democracy Now!" is a daily independent newshour.
GRITtv: Senior Citizens March to End Mountaintop Removal
In West Virginia this week, at least 28 senior citizens between the ages of 50 and 88 marched in opposition to the destructive process of mountaintop removal coal mining. In addition to environmental concerns, they stressed the union miners' battle to get their jobs back and the fact that normal mining creates more jobs than mountaintop strip mining. The peaceful walk was 25 miles long and was covered by many local media outlets. Thanks to Mobile Broadcast News for the video!
