About 80 climate justice land defenders enforced a full-day work stoppage at a tar sands mine in the Book Cliffs of Utah July 21, 2014. Multiple technical and non-technical blockades were deployed to keep the peace and prevent further destruction by construction crews. The proposed tar sands mine area--PR Springs on the East Tavaputs Plateau--was stolen from the Utes last century. Recently US EPA has demanded information from the tar sands company regarding certain toxic waste dangers that will be an inevitable result of the projects progress, threatening a vital water source to Ute people. The pollution from this project will pose a special threat to the very people from whom the land was stolen. It has recently come to light that the mine is located on land still controlled for the Utes. This battle will continue to be fought both in the courts and on the land. Tensions with police were high for several hours throughout they day as cops sought to break a series of blockades and restore the violent land scraping and development. Twenty-one people were arrested and several were injured. Undeterred by aggressive and repeatedly violent acts by the Uintah County Sheriffs Department and the School Institutional Trust Lands Administration to break the peoples resolve, the series of blockades stopped the company and law enforcement from restoring the violent status quo that day. Tar Sands mining operations remained shut down for at least a week after the blockade. The only moral reaction to systemic injustice is relentless resistance
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 17:34:37 +0000
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