Chapter 35 : “You Brought it On Yourself, Judi”

By Steve Ongerth - From the book, Redwood Uprising: Book 1

Download a free PDF version of this chapter.

“A lot of social movements get called terrorism. It dehumanizes (them). People have tried working through the system for years. It didn’t work.”

—Alison Bowman, editor, City on a Hill [1]

“The vast majority of people in this world neither own nor believe in ‘private property’, not because they are communists, but because they know it is not possible to own the Earth. This applies to the animals, too, which overall are a hell of a lot smarter than most humans.”

—Darryl Cherney, May 22, 1990 [2]

Darryl Cherney returned from Arizona, refreshed and ready to resume organizing, but the situation in Humboldt and Mendocino County was as volatile as ever. The buildup to Redwood Summer was exceeding all the organizers’ expectations. It was clear to everyone that the North Coast was about to experience a civil war. Accusations of “polarization” and “violent rhetoric” were constantly leveled at the Earth First! and IWW activists preparing to organize Redwood Summer, and many of these came from both local and corporate media outlets. The picture they painted was one of a once peaceful and prosperous region of logging communities disrupted by environmental extremists bent on wreaking havoc on the struggling, hard working timber workers of the region. Such descriptions couldn’t have been more divorced from reality.

Judi Bari had made it clear from the get go that the Redwood Summer demonstrators would not engage in hostile confrontations with the loggers, even if their actions impacted them directly:

“Our very style (if you look into Wobbly history) was taken from the loggers. We’ve had, since I’ve been in Earth First, an unwritten code that the loggers should be treated as potential allies. And we should be totally respectful of them. We are the only environmental group that I know of that has established the kind of relations with the rank and file loggers that we have. We’ve spoken for their interests, we’ve met with them, we even have a union local (IWW Local #1) with them. We have all different levels of rank and file loggers working with us. At the Eminent Domain demonstrations we appeared in public with the loggers and mill workers. We are not going to be yelling at the loggers because we have respect for them as working people.” [3]

Between the months of March and April, the campaign had gone from being just Bari, Cherney, an increasingly reluctant Greg King, and about a dozen others to as many as 100 different organizers. Meetings routinely averaged 60 participants. Almost all of them were local residents and not “outside agitators.” [4]

If anything, it was the forces of reaction that engaged in the most polarization. Indeed, in just the short period while Darryl Cherney vacationed in Arizona, Glenn Simmons continued to editorialize similarly in the pages of the Humboldt Beacon and Fortuna Advance, denouncing the organizers of Redwood Summer, because (according to Simmons) they “didn’t believe in God” (specifically a Christian Fundamentalist incarnation of “God”). [5] The Mendocino County chapter of the “Associated California Loggers” (still one more employer organization) accused environmentalists of “terrorism” (but cited no specific acts as evidence). [6] L-P spent $100,000 to construct a barbed wire fence surrounding its Ukiah mill to “protect” its employees from Earth First! “terrorists”. [7] Georgia Pacific cancelled public tours of its facility in Fort Bragg, and threatened to restrict access to its lands also ostensibly for similar reasons. [8] Simpson Timber spokesman Ryan Hamilton accused Redwood Summer of “setting a somber tone (that) could become a frightening situation.” [9] A group of “pro-timber” Yellow Ribbon supporters held a demonstration in Fort Bragg denouncing Earth First!, Redwood Summer, and Forests Forever. [10] One local resident, in a letter to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat even warned against covering Earth First! in the media, lest the “good people” of the North Coast would soon find bombs inside their cars! [11]

Indeed, after the incident in Santa Cruz, every act of vandalism, sabotage, or even accidents were blamed on Earth First! There was often no way to tell if any of these incidents were real or manufactured either. For example, in the first few days of May, a Humboldt County gyppo operator in Redway, Van Meter Logging, received an anonymous bomb threat from somebody claiming to be from Earth First!, but this was either a crazy nut (with no association to Earth First! whatsoever), a fabrication by Pam Van Meter herself, or worse still, a another attempt by somebody to monkeywrench the monkeywrenchers in a dangerous act of subterfuge. “(The anonymous bomb threat) was definitely not Earth First!. Earth First! does not engage in attacks against people or terrorism. I sincerely feel sorry for this woman, but we had nothing to do with it,” declared Judi Bari. Van Meter was unsatisfied with this response, and still blamed Earth First!, stating, “If it wasn’t for them, it wouldn’t have happened in the first place,” which was akin to blaming the victims in Mississippi Summer for inciting the racist repression against them. As it turned out, no bomb ever surfaced, at least not in Redway. [12]

There were plenty of actual threats against Earth First! and its allies, however, and not just anonymous death threats any longer. For example, Humboldt County supervisor Anna Sparks declared, “I think you’re asking for trouble, because they’re (going to be) up here protesting the jobs of the loggers and taking away their livelihoods through their protests and taking away the constitutional rights of people. You can’t help but bring violence in!” [13] This was bad enough, but in Mendocino County Charles Stone, a right wing radio talk show host with ties to actual extremist organizations (to which crypto-fascist Jack Azevedo also belonged) was now using his daily program on KDAC in Fort Bragg to whip up hysteria against Judi Bari and Redwood Summer. Following the incident in Santa Cruz, he urged his regular listeners, who included many of the local gyppos, to pressure the Board of Supervisors to “order” the Redwood Summer to appear so that the “real, god fearing citizens” of the county could pin them down and force them to admit all of their nefarious, secret agendas (whatever those were). [14] Surprisingly, supervisor Liz Henry, of all people, agreed, and placed the matter of Redwood Summer on the agenda for the May 1 meeting. [15]

Supervisor Henry no doubt naïvely assumed that she could negotiate some sort of agreement whereby the demonstrations would not result “in serious injury or economic disruption”, but this failed to understand the true nature of the problem. As was the case in the original Mississippi Summer, appealing to the rule of law was impossible when the law was bought and paid for by the perpetrators of the injustice being challenged in the first place. It was at best foolhardy to ignore the fact that economic disruption had already been occurring (at the hands of the corporations) now for over a decade. Bari faced a Catch 22. She knew that little was to be gained by appearing at what was likely to be a star chamber of hostility, but to not appear would allow the charges against Redwood Summer to go unanswered, and Bari was determined not to back down in the face of prejudice this time. Knowing that she would be hopelessly outnumbered, she enlisted as many allies as she could muster.

Naomi Wagner recollected:

“Timber people had asked the supervisors to put the issue of Redwood Summer on the agenda, and they were going to be showing up in force to protest the whole affair and demand the supervisors ‘Do Something’.

“Judi had called me and said she felt she wanted to be there to stand up to their charges and that she wanted some support. And really, it was on a woman-to-woman basis that I went there at that time and that probably supersedes all the political aspects, that I don‘t want to see another woman threatened.

“Certainly not because she is exercising her right to free speech. And I don’t care how unpopular what she says may be. I don’t even care if I disagree with it, she doesn’t deserve to be threatened.” [16]

If Liz Henry had hoped for a civil discussion, she was to be greatly disillusioned. As Bari had predicted, the chambers were filled with a small number of Redwood Summer organizers vastly outnumbered by angry and hostile Gyppo owners and their spouses who had been alerted to the meeting and incited to show up en masse by Charles Stone. [17] These included Tom Loop (who was part of many of the same right wing organizations as Azevedo and Stone) [18], Jerry Philbrick, and Maribelle Anderson (the wife of Gyppo operator Mike Anderson), as well as Doug Goss, L-P head of security for its Ukiah facility. [19] Board chair James Eddie was ill, so Norm de Vall chaired the meeting in his place.

Liz Henry began by admonishing Judi Bari to provide some estimate of Redwood Summer’s scope and duration. In the face of all of the violent anti-environmentalist rhetoric, Henry’s primary concern seemed to be budgetary matters rather than the big picture, namely the wholesale destruction of the North Coast’s forests (and with that its timber job base). The Supervisor questioned why Bari suggested that the county call out the National Guard (if it felt that law enforcement was necessary and it couldn’t afford to finance its own police costs) and denounced the suggestion as irresponsible. [20] Bari conceded that she had indeed made that suggestion in the context of reminding the supervisor that balancing Mendocino County’s budget was not Earth First’s job, but Henry had forgotten that the idea had also been suggested by her fellow supervisor Norm de Vall. [21] “Calling in the National Guard is a last resort and only the governor can do that,” interrupted Sheriff Tim Shea angrily, adding that doing so meant that county had already lost control of the situation. [22]

Supervisor de Vall was not any more constructive however, declaring that Redwood Summer “(fell) short of reality” and added that “the workers and independent logging contractors (didn’t) set corporate policies,” an obvious point that Judi Bari had many times herself made clear. [23] Bari reiterated—for the hundredth time, it seemed—that she understood the concerns of the timber workers and knew they were not responsible for the policies of their Corporate masters. [24] De Vall then demanded to know how Bari could call Earth First!’s actions “nonviolent” if they involved blocking the pathway of somebody who was going to work, evidently forgetting for the moment that the then current Corporate Timber practices threatened all jobs on the North Coast. Bari responded, “If somebody is slowed down for a day, they are not going to be prevented from making a living,” which was sensible, but the gyppos booed and hissed at the notion. [25]

At this point, an increasingly agitated Liz Henry declared, “If one person is killed or seriously injured, I don’t think I can continue in this position.” The problem was that more than one person had already been seriously injured (Mem Hill, Greg King, Pam Davis and her two children, Darryl Cherney, Judi Bari herself and her two children) over the course of the previous year and nothing had been done to redress that. Earth First! had gone to great pains to adhere to strict nonviolence guidelines which had only been met with sneering disdain by its enemies, fake press releases (which later were revealed to be the work of pro corporate timber vigilantes), and death threats. [26] In spite of this, Liz Henry requested that Redwood Summer be scaled back. [27]

Bruce Anderson, commenting on the meeting himself, likened de Vall and Henry to similar “responsible” liberals who had acted similarly in the past, opining:

“You’ve probably noted by now the similarities between Mississippi Summer in the California redwoods and the original Mississippi Summer. The first Mississippi Summer was a voter registration effort in the South by roughly a thousand persons, mostly college students. Then as now, the pseudo liberals (Liz Henry, Norman de Vall, Gail Lucas type) opposed Mississippi Summer on the grounds the demonstrations would provoke a violent response. Let criminals triumph rather than confront them, in other words. Then as now, the corporate newspapers denounced the effort as the work of free-floating ‘outside agitators’, maybe even communists, as if there were no real issues involved.” [28]

Bari reiterated that Earth First! was not responsible for the County’s budgetary woes and attempted to rightfully place the blame at the foot of corporations such as L-P. While she was in the process of discussing the real issues, such as Corporate Timber’s 225 percent overcutting, the mill closures, the spotted owl, and pollution of the water, Supervisor Nelson Redding interrupted her asking “to hear from someone else.”

Almost as if on cue, the gyppos keyed up the Corporate Timber scripted rhetoric against organizers of Redwood Summer. Top Loop (decked out in logging apparel, including his hardhat) declared, “As a woodsman I feel that we are becoming the endangered species. What a pathetic situation. A logger is going to have to spend half his time making a living and the other half defending his right to continue to make a living if this Mississippi Summer is pulled off.” [29] He then compared the supervisors to Neville Chamberlain, accusing them of appeasing Earth First!ers, and then went on to accuse Earth First! of being like the Nazis, Attila the Hun, and the Ku Klux Klan, a supremely ironic statement given the actual circumstances. [30]

“Satan!” retorted an unfazed and defiant Judi Bari, “You forgot Satan!”, which made the small group of Earth First! allies laugh in the face of the hostile crowd. [31]

The next speaker, Maribelle Anderson, wife of Gyppo logging contractor Mike Anderson told the supervisors, “Even if it’s nonviolent, even if the roads are blocked, that will threaten our livelihood.” [32] She further relayed, “I’m trying to stay calm…logging is my life and I hope it will be my future,” that, “Earth First! was not interested in the livelihood of the timber workers” and that, “Decent people would call [Redwood Summer] off”. [33]

She was followed by Comptche Gyppo owner Jerry Philbrick, who went as far as making veiled threats in his address to the board, proclaiming:

“If Earth First! wants to demonstrate, more power to ‘em, but the first guy that comes on my property and damages a piece of our equipment or my employees, the shit’s going to hit the fan. I’m sorry to say that, but I mean it. [34]

“We didn’t start this thing…We’re not out there looking for Earth First!ers yet…We’ll use whatever force is necessary.” [35]

At this point, Judi Bari again spoke up, trying once again to illustrate that those on the receiving end of the violent rhetoric and actual threats were the activists and not the representatives of Corporate Timber, specifically citing the “implicit violence” in Philbrick’s statement. Then, (in the words of Robert Anderson):

“…unintimidated by either the presence of blustering, macho (gyppo) logger (owners) or the presence of Sheriff Tim Shea in the seat next to her—making her case for the Mississippi Summer in the Redwoods in a voice that, shall we say, needed no amplification. Bari maintained, as Earth First! has all along, that they’re planning nothing but nonviolent protests to slow down the industry’s 225 percent over-cut, but that the timber industry is behind a campaign of misinformation which is stirring up hatred and violence toward Earth First! Bari displayed a copy of a forged inflammatory Earth First! press release, which has been distributed at mills and in logging towns. She showed the Board a copy of a death threat she received. She also displayed an aerial photo of the Skunk Train line, showing a narrow band of trees on each side of the track, which gives passengers the impression they’re traveling through a forest. Bari pointed out that the corporations are destroying the forests and future timber jobs along with it. [36]

Bari attempted to draw attention to the hate campaign orchestrated by Stone and the death threats she and others had received and the county’s law enforcement had rudely ignored. [37] She made special mention of the example with her picture, taken at a previous supervisors’ meeting with the riflescope superimposed over her image. [38] She pointed out that she was not accusing anyone, but noted that it could have been produced by any of the gyppo operators present. [39] When Bari referred to Stone’s radio program as “Radio K-KKK” for inciting lynch-mob hysteria against herself and other organizers of Redwood Summer, supervisor Marilyn Butcher interrupted her grumbling, “You brought it on yourself, Judi,” [40]

Bari quickly retorted, “Well L-P and G-P brought (Redwood Summer) on themselves.” [41]

“Judi either you shut up or I’m leaving,” responded Butcher angrily. [42]

At this point, Sheriff Tim Shea declared, “I have better things to do [43]; I can’t sit here all day” before he stood up and stormed out of the chamber. “Good Riddance” grumbled another Earth First!er in the crowd [44], while Butcher, paced angrily around the dais like a caged tiger. [45]

Shea returned long enough to issue a prepared statement about his department’s preparations for redwood summer, including the possibility that they might call “for outside assistance.” [46] In a strange but true moment seemingly out of a Hollywood farce, and definitely symbolic of the absurd Alice In Wonderland like quality of the Supervisor’s meeting, Sheriff Shea had to have his statement read by the County Clerk as the county’s top law enforcement official had neglected to bring along his reading glasses. [47] The statement included a demand that the organizers of Redwood Summer announce each of their demonstrations in advance to the police. [48] Judi Bari responded by pointing out that this would make effective demonstrations impossible and that the police should instead refocus their efforts on their adversaries’ violence. [49] Shea meekly responded that he had also warned local logging contractors against using vigilante justice against demonstrators, a fairly ineffectual gesture given the situation. [50]

Rather than acknowledge Bari, the four supervisors present responded with stone-faced silence. [51] L-P spokesman Jack Sweeley however—who had also attended the meeting—spoke up for Corporate Timber and argued as if the interests of the gyppos were the same as L-P’s and had the further temerity to accuse the supervisors of disrespecting them.

* * * * *

It didn’t take long for Sheriff Shea to reveal what the “better things (he had) to do” were. Rather than investigate the death threats received by Bari and her comrades, he instead spent the next several weeks obsessing over the legal limits to picket sign handle size. The Sheriff—not once, not twice, but three times—attempted to introduce a resolution before the Board of Supervisors limiting the size of picket sign handles (sometimes used by demonstrators in mass protests) to ¼ inch. Coined the “Stupid Sign Ordinance” by Anderson Valley Advertiser commentator Robert Anderson, this was clearly an attempt to hamstring Redwood Summer. [52] Judi Bari pointed out that ¼ inch pieces of wood would be useless for the purposes of holding up signs and impossible to find, and noted that Shea argued as evidence in favor of his proposed “Urgency Ordinance” an example of a student organized pro-Palestinian demonstration held in Beverly Hills ten years previously. That Earth First! had never used picket sign handles as weapons was a fact Shea conveniently omitted. [53] The supervisors rejected the ordinance each time, but it was not as courageous an act on their part as it might have seemed at first glance. To pass the emergency ordinance, a four-vote majority would be required, and Jim Eddie was unavailable each time due to illness. The only supervisor willing to vote against the measure each time was Norm de Vall, but it was enough to defeat the ordinance.

* * * * *

The local politicians and right wing radio “shock jocks”, such as Stone, were bad enough. Self-described “progressive” radio host Ed Kowas who hosted a call-in talk show with his life partner, Andre Conners on KMFB in Fort Bragg inadvertently contributed to the hysteria himself. Conners, an Earth First!er who described herself as “a west coast hippie”, supported Redwood Summer. Meanwhile, Kowas, a lawyer from the Midwest who had witnessed violence over the Civil Rights demonstrations in South Bend Indiana in 1967 and 1968 feared that Redwood Summer would lead to violence (on the part of loggers) and “give the North Coast a ‘Belfast’ reputation.” [54] Initially Kowas proposed that all Redwood Summer demonstrations take at least 50-100 feet away from any logging operations. Judi Bari was quick to point out that while most planned Redwood Summer actions would indeed coincidentally follow these guidelines, due to the nature of the protests, a handful, such as tree-sits, would necessarily take place within a shorter range. [55]

Conners and Kowas did allow Bari to call in regularly each day and give updates, though on May 10, Bari was preempted when Jerry Philbrick called in to offer his perspective. [56] Kowas felt that both sides were “sounding more and more radical,” so he announced on air that he would be quitting his show, and possibly staying away for as much as six months. [57] Conners publically disagreed with him on the air and this created a media circus in its own right. Kowas eventually relented and returned to the air a month later [58], but in the meantime, the corporate media used this rather small incident to further fan the flames of divisiveness. [59] Kowas needn’t have acted so rashly, because, by many estimates, people from all sides by as much as 75% margin favored Kowas and Conners remaining on the air. The crux of the problem wasn’t that the organizers of Redwood Summer were provoking violence, but rather they were exposing already existing violence; Conners herself pointed out that the logging issue had been creating tensions now for over two decades. [60]

The politicians were no better than the media. They, too, continually blamed the Redwood Summer organizers for “polarizing the community”, when clearly it was Corporate Timber and its front groups that was doing this. The politicos, for the most part, jumped on the “blame the messenger” bandwagon, because 1990 was an election year, and a good deal of their campaign contributions came from the timber industry. For example, Republican congressional candidate Tim Stoen, like Ed Kowas and Liz Henry, had suggested much less militant demonstrations, a proposal that Bari denounced as “irresponsible”, given the fact that less militant tactics hadn’t worked. Peace and Freedom candidate Darlene Comingore echoed Bari’s sentiment on the matter. [61] Lionel Gambill was somewhat more cautions, but nevertheless announced his support for the summer of protests as well. Both Republican Frank Riggs and incumbent Democrat Doug Bosco, of course, opposed it. Judi Bari pointed out that she expected most politicians to oppose Redwood Summer, because “if they’d been doing their jobs, this wouldn’t be necessary.” [62]

* * * * *

Indeed, whenever somebody did try to do their job, it was usually the result of pressure from Earth First! and other radicals that made this possible. On May 14, 1990, Mendocino County’s Forest Advisory Committee, by a vote of 11 to 6, resolved to send a series of emergency recommendations to the Board of Supervisors. [63] The FAC was an idea conceived of by Hans Burkhardt (among others) who was one of the first Mendocino County resident to identify the problems associated with the depletion of local timberlands. Burkhardt and others approached the County Supervisors with the idea of establishing the committee, and the latter agreed, most likely because they saw it as a way to pass the buck. Evidently they had never expected the FAC to actually function. The persistent attendance and advocacy of local residents, such as Naomi Wagner and David Drell, helped push the FAC to take such a proactive stance. Said Wagner:

“(W)e started to participate in the public comment periods, to start to define the issues ourselves, to say, ‘Here’s what we think and feel,’ and that did start to really become a part of the process.

“At a certain point, it seemed that the integrity of some of the environmental people on the committee was being called into doubt by the way the other members were relating. They were resorting to all kinds of silly arguments—Don Nelson will hate the word ‘silly’—but they were just resorting to subterfuge, and blocking, and stalling any discussion of the real issues.

“So we said, ‘Look, we don’t want to see you hard-working environmentalists treated this way, and if you don’t feel you can introduce a motion to reduce the cut, then we’re going to.’

“As it turned out, they had already been considering that, and I think that just in the same way Fish & Game and Water Quality Control need public input and pressure to give them the support to make their non-concurrences and to stand up to CDF, the Forest Advisory Committee needed that input from the public.” [64]

Included in the recommendations was a five-point proposal developed by a rancher named Richard Wilson (which had been slightly amended by an economics subcommittee) calling for (1) a substantial reduction in corporate timber harvests down to levels equaling growth, to be phased in over the next five years; (2) assessing a special “resource depletion fee” equaling 20 percent of the stumpage value on any timber harvested in excess of that; (3) the fees would contribute to a fund to ease the economic dislocation experienced by timber workers as a result of the proposed reduction and/or to enhance the productivity of the county’s forest lands; (4) a halt to any further conversion of timber production land to other uses, including deed restrictions “to provide for timber-production in perpetuity” on any unmerged parcels held in timber production zoning; and (5) that the County’s “industrial land owners” (namely timber corporations like G-P and L-P) would be required to provide the County Assessor’s Office and the CDF with figures for timber inventory and growth (this was unprecedented, since normally such information was proprietary and jealously guarded by the timber corporations). Said fees would be used confidentially to calculate the allowable harvest rate before additional fees were assessed. [65]

The FAC was by no means unanimous in its decision. G-P’s resource manager, Ted Deer, declared the provision calling for an inventory request “illegal” (presumably because the land was “private property” and environmental interconnectedness be damned). Following the course set by Bosco, Hauser, Keene, Hurwitz, and Merlo, Deer promised that G-P would “voluntarily” slow its harvest over the coming decade, but of course offered no enforcement mechanism. Don Nelson proposed an amendment that would have held all but the provision on timberland conversion until further study on the details on the economic mitigations could be carried out, but it was defeated by a vote of 9-6, with two abstentions. In disgust, Nelson argued that the proposed recommendations didn’t “really deal with the workers.” However, Walter Smith spoke in favor of the proposal in his capacity as a timber worker, thus debunking Nelson’s claim. Committee chair Wayne Miller, who owned forest lands north and east of Fort Bragg and was a reliable supporter of Corporate Timber, opposed the recommendations, but Henry Gundling, who also owned timber lands in the County voted to approve the measure. G-P spokesman Allan Oberkfeld and L-P spokesman Jack Sweeley opposed the measure [66], but Chuck McFadden and John Teie, representatives of the CDF and USFS, favored it. [67]

Overall, the supporters of forestry reform regarded the vote as a positive development. Long time forest activist Meca Wawona urged the committee to pass the proposal, even though, in her opinion, the plan didn’t go far enough, though she was pleased that it passed. “The public is sending a message to the Board of Forestry that they want to see an end to over-cutting, and I think we took a first step toward that today. [68] Walter Smith called the vote a “strong consensus” which crossed the perceived “timber – environmentalist” divide. Smith declared, “If it wasn’t unanimous, it was 65 percent in favor and that is certainly a mandate.” [69] Don Nelson, however, waxed as negatively as ever.

In a hysterical letter written to just about every publication in both Humboldt and Mendocino Counties, Nelson, channeling TEAM and WECARE, predicted economic Armageddon. As he had with his public opposition to Forest Forever, Nelson either plucked estimates and figures out of thin air and swallowed corporate timber rhetoric whole, claiming that the proposed recommendations would result in the loss of 800 direct jobs and 1600 peripheral jobs over the coming five years, costing workers a collective total reduction in wages exceeding $166,000,000. [70] There was absolutely no way Nelson could have conducted an independent scientific study to prove this on his own, any more than he could have done so in response to Forests Forever. Walter Smith pointed out that even if Nelson’s figures were accurate by sheer dumb luck, the eventual results of the status quo would turn out far worse by all reputable accounts, and in any case, by now anyone with command of the facts could easily expose Nelson’s supposed defense of timber workers as empty rhetoric. [71] Not content with inventing facts and figures, Nelson further stoked the potential fires of the vigilante mobs by stating, “Environmentalists-Preservations, of whatever stripe, are our enemies. They are out to get us. When the fight comes on the initiatives in November, there may be no middle ground. It will be us against them and if we lose, we are gone.” [72] He went on to suggest that the workers should look to the corporations to help them in saving their jobs! [73]

Rather than engage in divisiveness or polarizing rhetoric, the supporters of Redwood Summer continued to urge the opposite. Country Activist Co-editor Bob Martel, himself a former machine shop worker, rebutted Nelson offering several proposals on how timber workers and environmental activists could work together to forge viable alternatives in the wake of the FAC’s recommendations, including such ideas as:

“Democratization of workplace management; diversification of product lines; exportation of finished products only; institution of incentive/disincentive for above; developing worker training/retraining programs; developing an education/social service program serving all; and establishing a community development credit union with an entrepreneurial development program.” [74]

Nelson had no response. Clearly, the “bonafide” labor representative was not at all interested in dialog, despite his many letters suggesting that instead of protests. Bill Evans was less charitable in his condemnation of Don Nelson, stating:

Don Nelson and those under his sway should get a grip on themselves. Their present conduct makes them a threat to public order and safety. They may not want to believe the environmental situation but yelling fire in a crowded theatre only fuels what already is a tense situation. We don’t want another Kent State. [75]

Walter Smith further contradicted Nelson’s rhetoric, further demonstrating that the alleged union leader’s claim to speak for timber workers was anything but bonafide:

Automation has made (timber) mills far more efficient and growth can’t possibly keep up what can be cut…Nelson should be negotiating with G-P about early retirements and preparing his (rank and file union members) for what is going to happen here. A lot of mills have closed and more are going to close.” [76]

As if that weren’t enough, Don Nelson’s own son, Crawdad, had offered to conduct trainings for Redwood Summer activists on how to hold a dialog with timber workers as part of the nonviolence trainings. [77] In spite of all of these developments, Earth First! and its allies continued to be accused of “polarizing” the community.

* * * * *

The Corporate Media conducted its share of polarization by blurring the line between actual rank and file timber workers and gyppo owners—often identifying the latter as “loggers”, whether or not they ever put their hands on logging equipment, and many of them did not. Although these distinctions were quite familiar to those who lived in timber dependent communities, they were not understood by the layperson outside of the region. Rarely did any reporter attempt to illustrate just how diverse the opinions of actual timber workers were. The lone exception was Santa Rosa Press Democrat timber reporter and Ukiah bureau chief Mike Geniella.

Geniella produced an extensive two part investigative expose called “Revolution in the Redwoods” which ran in the May 6 and 7, 1990 editions of the Redwood Empire’s most prominent daily periodical. Hardly monolithic, the timber workers’ (and gyppos) opinions were varied, nuanced, and highly critical of corporate timber, regardless what their stances were on Forests Forever or Earth First!. The first day’s articles focused primarily on workers in Humboldt County. Geniella gave extensive coverage to actual current P-L workers, including Johnny Jeffers and Jay Thornsbury, who—though they were harshly critical of Earth First! (or at least their view of Earth First! which was wildly exaggerated by corporate propaganda)—openly denounced Charles Hurwitz. [78] Geniella also reported on the efforts of current and retired P-L workers Kelly Bettiga, Pete Kayes, John Maurer, and Lester Reynolds, who were more receptive to Earth First! (and the IWW) and their efforts to organize an alternative to Maxxam’s ownership. [79] This was counterbalanced by predictably pro-Hurwitz and pro-Corporate Timber arguments offered by TEAM’s Ralph Lee. [80] Mike Anderson was also featured, but even he admitted that Redwood Summer and Forests Forever had already been a positive development (though not perhaps as their organizers had intended), because it had “smacked a mule of an industry right between the eyes.” [81]

The second series of articles focused primarily on the workers in Mendocino County and were no less varied and nuanced. One article extensively covered the debate and discussion over Forests Forever as well as the Mendocino County Forest Advisory Committee’s proposed recommendations. [82] Another offered historical perspective and painful reminders that liquidation logging had already eliminated many of the giant redwoods from Mendocino County as early as a century earlier. [83] L-P Millworker Joe Neal and his wife, Laurie, expressed opposition to Forests Forever, but agreed that the ballot initiative was a direct result of the corporation’s greed and overcutting. [84] Philo gyppo logger Larry Burch echoed that sentiment and cited L-P’s greed and destructiveness as his reason for breaking away. [85] Geniella also gave space to Walter Smith to express his outspokenness on the issue. [86]

Smith, unlike the media stereotype of timber workers, expressed opinions on environmentalists that was quite different than the standard dismissal of the latter as “unwashed out-of-town-jobless-hippies-on-drugs.” Indeed, his perspective was entirely class conscious:

“I feel akin to a lot of environmentalists, but I don’t feel akin, for example, to the lawyers who run the National Resources Defense Council. I don’t feel close to the Sierra Club, but I feel close to some of the individuals who are trying to make changes. I (agree with) Anna Marie Stenberg and Roanne Withers, for example, about turning the woods back over to the communities and the workers.” [87]

At least one reader (Mary Ann Tavasci) spoke favorably of the series but pondered whether negligence by OSHA, collaborationism by the timber workers’ unions, or corporate takeovers by the likes of Charles Hurwitz should have received more coverage. [88]

Credit for the growing attention to the actual perspectives of the timber workers, rather than the stereotypical “Once-ler” image was largely due to the effectiveness of Judi Bari as an organizer. Whatever opinion one had about Judi Bari, it was quite clear that she was extremely effective at undermining the Corporate Timber stranglehold on the North Coast. As Anderson Valley Advertiser editor Bruce Anderson described her in direct reference to her challenging the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors:

“Bari, if you’ve never had the pleasure of seeing her in action, is a brilliant public speaker. She gets it out there loud, clear, and fast without becoming rattled or otherwise distracted when the inevitable counterattack begins. She’s the most effective radical activist the AVA has ever seen, and we’ve seen a few…” [89]

Several locals debated over whether or not Judi Bari should receive so much coverage. [90] Given the amount of coverage given to her opponents and the constant barrage of misinformation about Earth First!, it was amazing that she received any attention (other than critical) at all, though clearly she had emerged as the focal point of the coalescing populist upsurge against business as usual. [91]

Indeed, Bari’s leadership had been so effective, that Earth First! – IWW Local #1 had managed to convince Art Harwood to organize many of Mendocino County’s gyppo operators to negotiate with their adversaries on their own terms rather than those of the County Supervisors (the Humboldt County gyppos were still very much under the influence of TEAM and WECARE by contrast). Bari and Harwood had already established a dialog following the Lorax controversy. Following the contentious Board of Supervisors’ meeting, Judi Bari as well as Naomi Wagner immediately attempted to hold a dialog with some of the gyppos and their spouses. [92] Naomi Wagner relayed the sense that even the gyppos knew they were being manipulated by Corporate Timber’s divide and conquer tactics:

“Things definitely were quite melodramatic, and I thought, very childish. I thought, this is absurd. Why can’t we talk about this? Why do we have to behave like kids fighting? It occurred to me that we were being set-up by the corporations, that this is exactly what they want, for the local people to be fighting each other while they walk off laughing to the bank.

“I got up and made some remarks. I said, ‘This is ‘let’s you and him fight.’ And I said that I don’t want to be pitted against the local timber workers or LTOs, and I don’t want them to be pitted against us, and that I would resist that definition that we were enemies. I refused to buy into that.

“At the end of the meeting, a lot of the tension seemed to be defused—people had vented, and I thought that was healthy. So when the meeting was adjourned, we all made a bee-line for our counterparts and started talking. And Judi was talking with a logger’s wife, and I was talking with an LTO and I said, ‘Look, why don’t we get together and talk?’

“It turned out that at the same time, practically simultaneously, Art Harwood had called (Bill Bailey) and suggested they re­open some kind of discussion along the lines of the talks they’d had around the Lorax issue. It all fell into place. Art Harwood graciously made the facilities available, hired a facilitator, and we started having talks.” [93]

Harwood appealed to many gyppo loggers, truckers, and related business owners, including Bill and Judith Bailey, Wayne Hiatt, Tom Loop, Rich Padula (of R & J Logging), Robert “Mancher” Pardini, James Smith (of S & W Logging), and even Jerry Philbrick to meet with a coalition of Redwood Summer organizers. The latter was led by Bari and Wagner and also included Betty and Gary Ball, Rick Cloninger, Pam Davis, Bill Evans, Anna Marie Stenberg, Steve Day of Eel River Habitat Conservation Planning, and John Welch of the Cahto Wilderness Coalition. As Judi Bari described the meetings:

“What we’re doing is negotiating with a mediator. The rule is no press and no publicity as to what the content of the meetings are, so in a protected atmosphere we can talk and yell at each other and establish what we have in common. We did this with the Harwoods during the Lorax controversy and actually succeeded in calming down a real tough situation.” [94]

Another rule that was established from the beginning is that no corporate spokespeople, such as L-P’s Shep Tucker would be involved.

The first meeting was deemed a success and plans were established to hold meetings every two weeks throughout Redwood Summer. One of the first and most important accords they reached stipulated that all forms of monkeywrenching—not just tree spiking—would be forbidden during Redwood Summer. This made sense, because the gyppos owned their own equipment (it wasn’t leased to them, except in the case of Okerstrom’s use of L-P’s feller-bunchers), and to sabotage it would have no economic impact on the corporations who were the actual problem. Another agreement they reached concerned Redwood Summer’s main actions. Four major demonstrations had been tentatively planned, three of which would target L-P, G-P, and Pacific Lumber, and one would target the US Forest Service. Their times and locations would be announced in advance within the North Coast and beyond. Smaller demonstrations would also take place during the summer. Some of these would be announced in advance, but others might not be. The gyppos were free, of course, to organize counterdemonstrations. [95] The significance of these summit meetings could not be minimized, and they further showed that the gyppos could be enticed to chart a course independent of Corporate Timber.

* * * * *

The Redwood Summer organizers’ commitment to nonviolence brought several other activists and groups into the fold. One of the most significant such groups was Seeds of Peace, which had formed in 1987 during the Great Peace March. [96] Seeds of Peace organizer Jim Squatter emphasized that it was the commitment to nonviolence that inspired his group to pledge its support. [97] Their endorsement was no small thing. Similar in many ways to the much more famous Food Not Bombs, the involvement of Seeds of Peace would provide much needed material support for the coming summer of protests. They had a mobile food kitchen, capable of feeding hundreds of people, a water tank on trailer wheels, and a school bus converted into a mobile bunkhouse. They had committed to serving food and water to the Redwood Summer activists throughout the upcoming season, and they had already proven their capability the previous October during the Loma Prieta Earthquake. [98] Nevertheless, right wing fanatics, such as Tom Loop referred to Seeds of Peace as “another left wing pressure group”, as if sharing food freely somehow involved coercion. [99]

In direct contrast to Loop, antiwar activist Brian Willson pledged his support for Redwood Summer. This was a powerful statement from a well respected new ally. Willson, a Vietnam veteran, had lost his legs three years previously when he had attempted to block a train carrying weapons from the Concord Naval Weapons facility. On May 17, Willson joined Bari, Cherney and about 100 demonstrators at a rally on the steps of the Mendocino County Courthouse in Ukiah to officially kickoff Redwood Summer. [100] “Nonviolence is not something that comes naturally to me,” declared Willson, “I’m a white male who grew up in the United States and I’m sick of violence. It takes a lot of courage to deal with hostility (by responding) with nonviolence…I’m an expert on violence, and I simply don’t agree with it anymore.” [101] Willson continued:

“Nonviolence takes a lot of solidarity...It takes a lot of interaction, discussion and affinity. And it involves overcoming fear. Until you are tested by hostility, you really don’t know nonviolence.

“It is very important this summer that if any violence occurs that it be very, very obvious who is committing the brutality. It is very important that your behavior be impeccable, and that the revelation of who is committing the brutality be very clear to the larger public.

“Nonviolence is not any safer than violence. It provokes a lot of feeling. It brings to the surface the violence that’s already present in the culture, the attitudes and the patterns of society.

“But it is a powerful force precisely because it provides an alternative that transcends ideologies, conditions, and patterns that we have all been steeped in,” [102]

Darryl Cherney displayed yet another death threat he’d received to the assembled crowd. He was followed by Darlene Comingore, who emphasized the connection between the struggle to preserve the environment and the struggle of organized labor and justice worldwide. [103]

To the overwhelming approval of the crowd, Judi Bari elaborated on the issues that brought a sense of urgency to Redwood Summer:

“We’re looking at a lot of craziness in Mendocino County lately, and it hasn’t been coming from Earth First!. The local sheriff had been acting like Mississippi’s Bull Connor and he has been supporting a county ordinance that requires picket sticks to be just ¼ inch in thickness. And while the county insists on measuring the width of our sticks, they are permitting the timber companies to log at full throttle…

“There’s a lot more that we can do to save the old growth. We’re not going be stopped by trucking companies that run us off the road, by logging companies who break our noses, by district attorneys who won’t prosecute, by cops who won’t arrest, or by any of those kind of things…

“Legal means don’t work when we have corporations that don’t give a damn about the law. That’s why we’re calling on people to physically use nonviolence to slow down logging operations in Mendocino, Humboldt, and Trinity Counties this year. That’s the only chance that we’re going to have to anything left to save.

“This summer, we’re going to see the power of nonviolent resistance here. We don’t accept their society, we don’t accept their way of doing things, we don’t accept their violence to the earth, and we’re going to show them the power of nonviolence this summer. No more redwood destruction. Redwood Summer. Shut it down!” [104]

The pledge of nonviolence, tree spiking renunciation, and meetings with the gyppos were obviously not enough to stave off the continued harassment by the Corporate Timber and its agents, however. Huge profits were at stake, and Redwood Summer challenged that. To emphasize the point, Mendocino County Sheriffs’ deputies insisted on videotaping the Ukiah rally. [105] The Corporate Media’s reporting had been sensationalist and seemed eager to stir up controversy for months now, and despite efforts to cool tensions (led largely by Earth First! and members of the IWW), the media’s reporting remained unchanged in its tone. [106] As far as they were concerned, Redwood Summer would be a bloodbath. They were about to be proven right.

* * * * *

Redwood Summer was all set to begin on June 1, 1990, and momentum was accelerating daily. Earth First! – IWW Local #1 had planned one last organizing push before the summer began: an Earth First! style road show of northern California to various universities and colleges to drum up further support. On Tuesday, May 22, 1990, Judi Bari, Utah Phillips, and other Redwood Summer organizers held one last meeting with the coalition of gyppo loggers organized by Art Harwood. By all accounts the meeting went well. According to Judi Bari, she, Dakota Sid Clifford, Utah Phillips, and Joanna Robinson spent that night at Bari’s home in Redwood Valley. [107] Meanwhile, at Stanford, Darryl Cherney—in the process of recruiting students for Redwood Summer—told a group of approximately 50 Stanford undergraduates that Redwood Summer would not be “a dinner party…The question is: are you prepared to meet violence with nonviolence?” [108]

That same day, Pam Davis wrote to Bay Area IWW Secretary-Treasurer Jess Grant announcing her intentions to organize “Earth First! – IWW Local #2” in the Sonoma County area as part of the growing efforts to build Redwood Summer. [109]

In Santa Cruz, California, Lisa Henry had mobilized local students for an organizing meeting at the university that would ultimately draw 150 participants. [110] Already students and other activists were on their way to northwestern California and more were planning to come. On Wednesday, May 23, 1990, Judi Bari attended a press conference called by Mem Hill, at the activist’s attorney’s office, where the latter announced that she had filed a suit against Lancaster Logging and local authorities over the violent confrontation that took place at Whitethorn where her nose was broken. California State police and sheriff’s deputies from both Humboldt and Mendocino Counties had refused to intervene, and Mendocino County D.A. Susan Massini had refused to prosecute. [111] Following that, Bari, Dakota Sid Clifford, Phillips, and Robinson left Mendocino County to attend a planning meeting at the Seeds of Peace house in Berkeley, California. [112]

On the eve of Redwood Summer, it had become apparent that Judi Bari had emerged as the principle organizer of the summer long campaigns. “‘Judi Bari’ doesn’t even seem like my name anymore. Everything about me is so public,” she stated. [113] Even the death threats were no longer intimidating her as they once had. [114] “They were scary at first, when there were two or three, but when you’re on your 10^th death threat, they lose their immediacy,” she declared. [115] Darryl Cherney was not as positive, publically expressing worry about the still escalating tensions on the North Coast, though he hoped the influx of “freedom riders” might help prevent violence. [116]

The meeting in Berkeley comprehensively dealt with the logistics and scope of Redwood Summer, including everything from establishing a basecamp in the forest, setting up nonviolence training centers, fundraising, networking with other organizations, food drives, and various actions. It was at this meeting that the four major actions planned for Redwood Summer were finalized. The primary actions would consist of (1) a blockade of the Louisiana-Pacific Export Dock at Samoa, to be held on June 20, 1990, which would include an IWW “community” picket line; union workers at the L-P plant would be urged not to cross it. Coincidentally this demonstration would also be close to the Simpson pulp mill; (2) a rally and march in Fort Bragg at the Georgia Pacific Mill to be held on July 21, 1990; (3) a week of action in Sequoia National Forest to be held August 27-30 to protest subservience to corporate timber practices by the US Forest Service and impending clearcuts of the giant Sequoias; and (4) a Labor Day action targeting Pacific Lumber. The specific time and details of this last action were still to be determined. [117] The meeting was very long and concluded around 11 PM that night, but much had been accomplished. [118]

Everything seemed to be falling into place. Following the meeting, Utah Phillips and Joanna Robinson returned to their home in Nevada City, along with Dakota Sid Clifford. [119] Darryl Cherney was currently touring at all of the nearby universities and colleges, along with fellow Earth First! musician George Shook, to rally support for Redwood Summer, and also, according to Darryl Cherney, to take their minds off of the death threats and to distract from the frayed nerves resulting from the increasing pressures of organizing the campaign. [120] Bari was to appear at only two of these events and return home to Redwood Valley to continue organizing from there. Bari and Cherney’s immediate next planned destination was Santa Cruz the following evening where they were to participate in a concert organized by Lisa Henry and Zack Stenz. Bari spent the night in Oakland in a spare room offered to her by Seeds of Peace organizer Dave Kemnitzer, because, according to Bari, “there were so many people sleeping on the floor of the Seeds of Peace (House).” [121]

Judi Bari got an early start on May 24, because she had a long day ahead of her. That morning Cherney was given a ride by Seeds of Peace organizer Shannon Mar—who was working on a grant proposal for Redwood Summer with him—to Kemnitzer’s house in Oakland on Park Boulevard. [122] The two ate breakfast with Bari and Kemnitzer and then worked on the grant. [123] Cherney and Bari then rehearsed songs because, according to Bari, she hadn’t performed much with him since their breakup and she felt she was losing her ability to play. After rehearsing their second song, the two decided to return to the Seeds of Peace in Berkeley, to meet up with George Shook so the three could practice together. [124] Bari was not familiar with the geography of Oakland, so, on the spur of the moment, Mar offered to lead the way in her vehicle while Cherney rode with Bari while she followed. [125] They departed shortly before noon, with Kemnitzer following the first two cars in his own a few minutes later (after which he planned to proceed to work). Mar was a fast driver and Bari had difficulty keeping up. The time was approximately 11:53 AM. A couple of blocks from Keminitzer’s house, near the intersection of Park and MacArthur Boulevards, one block from the Interstate 580 freeway, Mar disappeared around a corner. [126] Every one of them would always remember what happened two minutes later. [127]