Cascadia Free State
At Warner Creek, Oregon, members of Earth First! conducted an 11-month blockade that successfully protected the Warner Creek forest from logging. Activists established a "Cascadia Free State" in the middle of the only road to the forest, complete with "a watchtower, a moat and drawbridge, a wide variety of barricades, and frequent trainings and planning meetings for establishing other 'Free States'." [1] People dug large ditches in the road, chained themselves to logging trucks and concrete-filled barrels, and erected a bipod that trucks could not drive past without endangering the inhabitants. One supporter held a 75-day hunger strike. Over the course of the summer, other free states emerged in Oregon and Idaho. The camp attracted many visitors. One resident estimated that between 500 and 1,000 supporters had come to see it and help out. In August 1996, Forest Service authorities arrived and let the protesters know the Clinton administration had decided not to allow logging in the forest. It turned out they told the truth, but at the time they refused to provide documentation. So, four women--Lupin, Raven, Hemlock and Madrone--refused to leave and were arrested. A bulldozer destroyed the camp, but the campaign had won. [2].
- ↑ notes from nowhere, We are Everywhere: The Irresistable Rise of Global Anti-Capitalism, 53-55. http://artactivism.gn.apc.org/allpdfs/050-Reclaim%20the%20Streets.pdf.
- ↑ pickAxe, http://www.crimethinc.com/movies/pickaxe.html. Kera Abraham, "Flames of Dissent," Eugene Weekly, 1 November 2006, http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2006/11/02/coverstory.html.
