Chapter 36 : A Pipe Bomb Went Rippin’ Through Her Womb

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

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“I knew it was a bomb the second it exploded. I felt it rip through me with a force more powerful and terrible than anything I could imagine. It blew right through my car seat, shattering my pelvis, crushing my lower backbone, and leaving me instantly paralyzed. Slumped over in my seat, unable to move, I couldn’t feel my legs, but desperate pain filled my body. I didn’t know such pain existed. I could feel the life force draining from me, and I knew I was dying. I tried to think of my children’s faces to find a reason to stay alive, but the pain was too great, and I couldn’t picture them.”[1]

—Judi Bari’s recollection of the bombing, February 2, 1990.

“I heard a ‘crack’, and my head began to ring like a sitar…like ‘nnnnnnnnnrrrrrrrrrrrrrr’, and the car came to a screeching halt. The first thought in my mind was, ‘Oh no, not again!’ because last August we had been rear-ended by a logging truck without ever seeing it coming, and here we are again, me and Judi in a car. But this time, my head was bleeding and I knew I had a seat belt on, and I couldn’t figure out how come my head was bleeding if I hadn’t hit the windshield. Then I heard somebody scream out. ‘It’s a bomb, there was a bomb!’ And then it all made sense; somebody had tried to kill us.”[2]

—Darryl Cherney’s account of the bombing, May 24, 1990.

At this point, Cherney looked over at Bari where, “she was slumped in her seat, screaming in pain, but as far as I could tell, her body was in one peace.”[3] Bari recalls only being able to make guttural sounds in an attempt to say “help” and vaguely recalls that Cherney kept repeating “I love you,” to her, and that she was going to live, in spite of what had happened.[4]

The blast distorted Bari’s white 1981 Sabaru GL car’s unibody frame, tore out its left side and sent debris and heavy blue-grey smoke flying into the air. It blew out some of the windows and left a trail of fragments on Park Boulevard.[5] The shattered, smoking car veered 100 feet down the road, clipping parked cars and light poles along the way, and hit another vehicle—a delivery truck driven by 40-year-old Ken Rich from Castro Valley—before coming to a stop against a curb in front of Oakland High School, where students were jogging as part of their physical education class.[6] Had the explosion occurred just forty minutes later, it might have injured the students crossing the road to patronize the local shops for lunch. The nearby public school’s officials would keep the students inside campus buildings for several hours until the blast area was declared safe.[7] Rich’s vehicle then hit a woman pedestrian who had a heart attack.[8] He had happened to have been driving the other way, and noticed the smoke billowing from Bari’s vehicle just before it hit his own.[9]

The explosion startled the workers and owners at nearby businesses. “It sounded like they dropped a bomb from a jet or something,” recalled the manager of a nearby Oil Changers, “the whole street just shook.”[10] One of the garage mechanics, who identified himself as “Charles”, added, “It sounded like a cherry bomb in a tin can. It was pretty loud. I kind of felt it in my body, and I was inside.”[11] Sokhi Dosanjli, the clerk at a local convenience store reported that the smoke was so thick that, “You couldn’t see anything for awhile”, including the nearby MacArthur Freeway.[12]

Shannon Mar was immediately aware that something had gone horribly wrong. Since she was leading the way, she did not immediately see the blast, but she quickly heard it and smelled the residue of explosives. She recalled, “The car shook, heat rushed through the windows, and I smelled sulfur. I looked in the rear-view mirror, and (all I could see was) smoke.” Bari’s car rolled past her own just before hitting Ken Rich’s vehicle and then hitting the curb. Marr immediately came to a stop, exited her car, and ran to Bari’s bombed-out vehicle (where Ken Rich was already standing) to determine the condition of her friends. Marr said, “Judi was stuck in her seat. She kept saying, ‘It hurts. It hurts. I can’t breathe.’ Darryl had a gash over one eye and it was gushing blood.”[13]

Meanwhile, Dave Kemnitzer had fallen slightly behind, but by now he had arrived near the intersection of MacArthur and Park Boulevards. He emerged from his vehicle screaming, “It’s the loggers! The loggers are trying to kill us!” At that moment, Ken Rich ran to Bari’s car and saw Cherney emerge. He recalled, “I’ve been in Vietnam and I’ve seen bombed out cars before. This one took a heavy hit. I’m amazed the people are still alive.”[14] Rich had been trained in first aid, but he described Bari’s car as “so mangled” that he felt it would be more effective, “to let the paramedics treat the victims.” He then recalled Marr running up to him, exclaiming, “They’re my friends!”[15]

Bob Vandemeer, the president of a San Rafael demolitions company, just happened to have been driving behind Bari on his way to an Oakland A’s baseball game.[16] The force of the explosion made him bounce up in the seat of his pickup truck. He then noticed, “a big blue cloud of smoke (which) smelled like gunpowder. (Then) things started falling from the air—parts of (Bari’s) car.”[17] After the explosion, he immediately summoned police from his mobile telephone.[18] He then approached the vehicle where Rich, Marr, and Kemnitzer were congregating. He, like Rich, reported, “(Bari) was unconscious, and sort of smashed up against the door on the driver’s side…As I approached, (Cherney) popped up, bleeding pretty bad all over. He started yelling, “Help! Get me out of here!”[19]

* * * * *

Vandemeer needn’t have bothered contacting the law; agents had already been dispatched to the scene. Within ten minutes, an FBI agent by the name of McKinley[20] arrived, almost as if he had anticipated the events that occurred.[21] He was quickly followed by about 15 others, as well as agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF), all of whose offices were located across the Bay in San Francisco.[22] The Oakland Police, whose base of operations at the time was much closer, arrived a good fifteen minutes later, and with the police arrived the media to photograph the carnage.”[23] Even though Park Boulevard was merely a local through street rather than a main thoroughfare (such as MacArthur), the blast still caused a major traffic jam, which forced the rerouting of public transit buses from the area.[24]

After a few minutes of discussion and arguing by the various law enforcement agencies, the FBI assumed jurisdiction, and (without any credible evidence) immediately decided that Bari and Cherney had been knowingly transporting the bomb in order to engage in an action of sabotage in Santa Cruz, much like the incident that had occurred the previous month. Paramedics then arrived. First they attended to Cherney, who kept shouting out his name to passersby, lest he be “disappeared” like the victims of the right wing government in El Salvador, until the paramedics finally ordered him to keep quiet.[25] At least one police officer later (falsely) reported that Cherney told them that he thought that somebody had thrown a bomb at them through one of the car’s windows.[26] After the paramedics had finished with Cherney, then removed Bari from her car using the Jaws of Life.[27]

Bari and Cherney were soon dispatched to nearby Highland Hospital by ambulance, not yet cognizant that they were about to be placed under arrest. Meanwhile Kemnitzer and Mar were detained at the Oakland police station and questioned for at least six hours before being released.[28] The two cooperated with the investigation because they were initially led to believe that law enforcement officials were attempting to protect Bari and Cherney from their would-be assassins, but they soon learned otherwise. Kemnitzer’s apartment was searched by the Oakland Police, the FBI, and the BATF without a warrant.[29] The damaged Subaru was towed to a parking lot under the Nimitz Freeway by the main Oakland Police station in downtown Oakland.[30] Kemnitzer’s car was also impounded, and he had to pay $173.58 for its release despite the fact he had committed no crime.[31]

Bari recalled little of the next twelve hours other than vague recollections of being loaded onto a gurney and into an ambulance, and then taken to the hospital in excruciating pain.[32] She recounted being hugged by a nurse upon her arrival at the hospital. She also remembered:

“I woke up in the hospital 12 hours later, groggy and confused from shock and morphine. My leg was in traction, tubes trailed from my body, and I was absolutely immobile. As my eyes gradually focused, I made out two figures standing over me. They were cops. Slowly I began to understand that they were trying to question me. ‘You are under arrest for possession of explosives,’ one of them said. And even in this devastated condition, my survival instincts kicked in. ‘I won’t talk to you without a lawyer,’ I mumbled, and drifted back into unconsciousness.”[33]

At one point, Bari was removed from critical care by the Oakland Police, and transferred to the hospital’s jail ward, a move Bari’s attending doctors protested vehemently.[34] Bari later discovered, through legal depositions, that the Oakland Police had met her at the hospital and questioned her as she was wheeled into surgery, because, according to questioning officer, Bari’s statements were considered “death bed confessions” which carry a special legal status, and are not considered “hear-say” evidence. However, when asked “who did this?” Bari simply replied over and over again, “Timber…Fort Bragg…Nazis…Death Threats.”[35] At one point Bari did manage to provide the phone number to the Mendocino Environment Center, and the police officer who heard it contacted the MEC and informed Betty Ball of what had occurred.[36]

It was a miracle that the blast hadn’t claimed Bari’s life, but somehow, over the weekend, her medical condition, while serious, remained stable. She had no damage to vital organs, but did suffer facial cuts, a shattered pelvis, and internal bleeding that was stopped by surgery at Highland Hospital in Oakland.” [37] Bari recalled:

“It hurt so bad, that I just begged them to put me out, and they told me they were going to operate and cut out my colon and give me a bag that my shit would come out of, and I told them to let me die instead. And they went in there (surgery) and apparently they didn’t have to do it. And they told me I wouldn’t walk and I wouldn’t be able to control my body functions, but to their great surprise and my great relief—I was wondering who was going to change my diapers for the next 50 years—but it turns out that was an incorrect diagnosis and I’m already regaining control. I don’t know if I’m going to walk, but I’m definitely going to be able to control my body functions.”[38]

Darryl Cherney, meanwhile, suffered perforated ear drums (which resulted in a temporary partial hearing loss) and a scratched right cornea.[39] He was treated for lacerations and then immediately taken into custody and was interrogated at the Oakland Police station by Oakland Police and the FBI for seven hours (until 3:00 AM) without an attorney present.[40] He was denied food and water as well as bathroom privileges.[41] During the questioning, the FBI agents were initially friendly, until they had convinced Cherney to waive his Fifth Amendment rights, which he did, because he was concerned that perhaps the same bomber had placed a similar device in his own vehicle.[42] After that their questioning turned hostile, at which point they told Cherney, “Now we can find out if that was your bomb or not, so why don’t you just tell us.” The shell shocked activist replied, “Hey man, it never even occurred to me you would even remotely consider that we would be carrying a bomb in our car!”[43] While this was taking place, FBI agents sealed off Cherney’s residence near Garberville. According to FBI spokesman Duke Diedrich, the agency’s conducted an investigation all through the night of May 24, 1990 all over northern California.[44]

While Bari and Cherney were detained, their fellow activists tried desperately to piece what had happened together and act. For twenty-four hours following the bombing, Bari and Cherney were isolated from their supporters while they were grilled by police and FBI agents who told the press that that the couple were suspected their own bombing.[45] The authorities argued that the bomb had been in the back seat of Bari’s vehicle, on the left read floorboards, behind the driver’s seat in plain sight. Oakland Police Lieutenant Clyde “Mike” Sims declared, “The evidence is strong that they were (knowingly) transporting this device, and that’s why they were arrested. Based on our determination of the placement of the device in the car, we believe they should have known it was there. We believe it went off accidentally.”[46] Earth First!er Karen Pickett attempted to see both Cherney and Bari—even claiming to be one of Bari’s sisters in a failed attempt to gain access to Bari’s hospital room. She was arrested, then taken to the Oakland Police station where she, too, was detained for further questioning.[47] Kemnitzer reported that the Police, “were questioning me on the assumption that I was (a) member of some terrorist gang. Neither I or Judi or anyone involved with Earth First! (has) anything to do with explosives.”[48]

* * * * *

Meanwhile, in Santa Cruz, Lisa Henry and Zack Stenz had been working diligently and busily to organize the concert at which Bari and Cherney were to perform. Henry in particular had concentrated her efforts on promoting the event, distributing posters and press releases, making public service announcements, and numerous phone calls. Lisa Henry recalled:

“I walked in the door (of my home) and my housemate put her hands on my shoulders and she said, ‘You have to sit down.’

“I replied, ‘They’re dead, aren’t they.’

“And she said, ‘No, they’re not dead. But Judi is in intensive care and she might not live.’ Then she told me Darryl had a broken wrist and had concussions.         

“I was just in shock, but I grabbed a piece of paper, and as I went into shock, I started writing everything I had to do.”[49]

Henry, Stenz, Karen DeBraal (who had also received death threats postmarked from Los Angeles and San Diego locations the previous month), and one other activist were visited and questioned by investigators from the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s office.[50] At this point, Henry’s housemates, already wary from the discovery that the FBI had tapped their phone due to the infamous but unconnected-to-Earth First! “Earth Night Action” the previous month, escorted her out of the house, led her to a car, and drove her to a friend’s house. “We can’t deal with this. Do your work somewhere else,” they told her, and began the process of having Henry expelled from the residence permanently.[51]

* * * * *

The Police and FBI weren’t making it easy for Bari and Cherney to be freed by their comrades either. Bail was initially set at $3,000. When supporters who had raised that amount came to pay it, they found that it had been raised to $12,000 by Oakland-Piedmont Municipal Court Judge Horace Wheatley.[52] The activists gathered the remainder only to discover it had been raised again to $100,000, again by the judge, which was an unheard of amount.[53] Oakland Police Sergeant Ramon Paniagua had requested the increase, declaring, “We’re talking about a very dangerous device here, and I don’t want (Bari and Cherney) outside (of custody).[54] Wheatley explained that he had taken Paniagua, who had declared the pair a “flight risk”, at his word without so much as a question, and misidentified them both as hailing from Guerneville (in Sonoma County).[55] Bari soon received legal counsel, but Cherney was denied the same until well into the next day.[56] Bari’s lawyer, Susan Jordan, was initially denied, but eventually granted, permission to talk with her client. The lawyer reported that Bari was so heavily sedated she could not carry on a sustained conversation. Bari expressed fear for her life, but was able to deny responsibility for the blast. Other than Jordan, only law enforcement and medical personal were allowed contact with Bari during the first few days.[57]

The FBI and Oakland Police had no evidence on which to charge Bari and Cherney, but they went to desperate lengths to find some. They searched and ransacked both Bari’s and Cherney’s houses, without a warrant, starting on the day after the bombing[58], and seized 111 common household items that they claimed could have been used to construct the bomb.[59] These included a red marker, duct tape, glue, and several bags of nails, all of which were diligently bagged and tagged, described to the press by the FBI (with great fanfare) as proof of Bari’s and Cherney’s guilt, and then sent to the FBI crime lab for analysis.[60] They took thirty grocery bags full of documents as well as window frames and sections of walls from Bari’s dwelling, and three from Cherney’s.[61] Among the first item listed found among Cherney’s possessions was reported to be a monkeywrench, and even if that had been what they’d found, it was not particularly damning evidence (as it turned out, the implement actually seized was a common pipe wrench).[62] Most of the items seized could be found among the possessions of just about any rural homesteader, but the FBI never conducted any investigations of anyone else, except for Bari’s and Cherney’s fellow organizers.[63]

* * * * *

For days after the bombing, Bay Area law enforcement agencies interrogated local activists and tried to get them to admit that Bari and Cherney were knowingly transporting a bomb.[64] Oakland Police and agents from the BATF with guns drawn and without a search warrant raided and ransacked the Seeds of Peace House on California Street in Berkeley.[65] Eight members of Seeds and one man who simply happened to be passing by were arrested and handcuffed.[66] One Seeds activist, a man, recalls asking the police what was going on, to which they responded, “We can’t tell you.”[67] According to Sarah Seeds, a self-described “middle aged, middle class, middle management” activist from “middle America”, when Seeds member Jim Squatter inquired too persistently about the reasons for their being detained, law enforcement pulled him aside and isolated him out of sight of the other detainees.[68] “When people come in with guns drawn, that sounds like a police state,” he later recalled.[69]

Following the ordeal, Sarah Seeds declared that she would “never scoff at the clichéd ‘bad cop’ movie ever again; that’s really how they behaved.” This group, like Kemnitzer cooperated with law enforcement, because they initially assumed that the latter were attempting to protect Bari and Cherney, but when they were taken into custody, the men were put in isolation while the women were placed into a holding tank. When they finally returned to their house on California Street, they found the house unlocked and unattended.[70] Seeds of Peace wasn’t the only group targeted besides Earth First!. FBI and Police agents also raided the Rainforest Action Network office.[71] The Oakland Police Homicide division and the FBI also sent agents Nevada City to depose IWW members Utah Philips and Joanna Robinson.[72]

On Friday, May 25, while police were still searching Cherney’s residence in Piercy, Oakland Police deliberately delayed a press conference, because no evidence linking Bari and Cherney to the bomb had been found. When they finally spoke, they would only state that the two were under arrest for suspicion of possession and transport of explosives.[73] The media reported that the FBI was attempting to link Bari and Cherney to environmental bombings throughout the state. Even though Bari and Cherney were under arrest, Alameda County assistant District Attorney Chris Carpenter filed no formal charges against them.[74] Despite months of fake press releases, timber industry violence, and death threats, the FBI decided that Bari and Cherney were the only suspects.[75] Law enforcement agents even searched Cherney’s van, located a box of tapes, and then blew these up and sent the videos to the mainstream press.[76] The media framed this event as if the police were detonating explosives or bombs, however in addition to failing to identify the exploded material as music albums, exploded with the police’s own ordinance, they also neglected to reveal that Cherney had requested that the police search his van in order to protect fellow Earth First! musician, George Shook, in case the real bomber had planted another device targeting him.[77] After the police had exploded the “suspicious” box of tapes, hundreds of feet of cassette tape could be seen dangling from nearby utility poles.[78]

When Darryl Cherney heard of these developments, he was incensed. He repeatedly insisted that neither he nor Bari had any foreknowledge of the bomb. “Judi has an alibi for every minute of her day on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday,” he declared.[79] He added, “By arresting me, the police and the district attorney are hiding the fact that they are incapable of going after the would-be assassin. What’s particularly frightening is that the killer didn’t finish the job. This whole thing reeks of an FBI operation.”[80]

* * * * *

The bomb that exploded in Bari’s car, and the very rapid (but utterly false) determination by the Oakland Police and FBI that the activists had been knowingly transporting the device when it had accidentally detonated, immediately made national news headlines.[81] As they had following the Arizona FBI sting operation, the Corporate Media essentially parroted the official FBI and Police line that Bari and Cherney were guilty of knowingly transporting explosives. As Judi Bari recollects:

“The media had a field day with this news, as the FBI and Oakland Police provided them with the images they needed to make it look like they had busted up a ring of terrorists. They raided Seeds of Peace House without a warrant, turned the place upside down in a fruitless search, and led the occupants away in handcuffs, only to release them a few hours later, after the reporters and cameras had gone home. TV news that night included not only the raid, but an interview with a neighbor who said there were strange goings on in that house, with lights on at all hours. When Seeds of Peace responded that they were a non-violent collective who cooks food for mass nonviolent actions, the neighbor replied, ‘I don’t know that they’re cooking over there. It doesn’t smell like food. Maybe PCP.’

“Another image shown over and over on the TV news was the search of Darryl’s van. Of course the police found nothing, but they sure put on a good show. They picked out a ‘suspicious’ box of tapes of Darryl’s incendiary music, cordoned off the block, and blew it up in front of the TV cameras, supposedly to see if it contained a bomb. ‘No additional explosives were found,’ reported the TV, as if explosives had been found in the first place.

“The standard bail for the charges against us was $12,000. Not only was this too easy to raise, but it was clearly not enough for the dangerous criminals they made us out to be. So, circumventing the normal procedures, the Oakland Police went straight to the judge, without even a lawyer there to represent us. Darryl and I were both declared a flight risk and a danger to the public, even though I was unconscious in the hospital with my leg in traction and my pelvis broken in 10 places. And our bail was raised to $100,000 each, spawning a new round of headlines and giving credence to the charge of terrorism.

“The news quickly went national, with newspapers across the country screaming about Earth First!ers carrying bombs. It was the only time we ever made the front page of the New York Times. The press ate up the police lies with a big spoon, instantly convicting us in their stories. ‘Two members of the radical environmental group Earth First! were injured Thursday by their own pipe bomb,’ began the lead article in the San Jose Mercury News. ‘Earth First! leaders hurt in a pipe bomb explosion yesterday have no one but themselves to blame for their injuries,’ smirked the blow-dried talking heads on the TV news. And I don’t know how many of us are really aware of how much this hurt Earth First!’s image on a national scale.”[82]

The San Francisco Bay Area corporate media’s handling of the entire affair was for the most part especially atrocious, accepting the police account without question or hesitation. The worst offender was the Oakland Tribune, which ran an article on May 26, full of inaccuracies, half truths, and outright lies about Earth First!, reporting that authorities were speculating that Bari and Cherney were transporting a bomb in order for the device to appear to accidentally detonate to drum up sympathy for their martyrdom. It also quoted John Ross, executive vice president of the California Cattleman’s Association (who opposed Big Green which was on the ballot along with Forests Forever), accusing Earth First! of vandalizing his group’s Sacramento office one night in January 1989 and firebombing an auction warehouse in the Central Valley town of Dixon. Ross of course, offered no proof to back up these damning accusations (Earth First! didn’t yet have a Sacramento chapter at the time), but the Tribune reported them as fact without question.[83] Again, it was if the organizers of Redwood Summer were somehow to blame for exposing the violence and corruption that had already existed for decades simply by challenging business as usual, which is often the spineless accusation made by those along for the ride.[84]

As he had at the Mendocino Board of Supervisors’ meeting three weeks previously, Jerry Philbrick accused Earth First! of instigating violence:

“Since we’ve been talking to them over the last 3 or 4 weeks in public and secret meetings (secret to keep the press out) they’ve been preaching to us nonviolence and they want to be peaceful and we were just starting to believe them a little bit. In fact, you know I sat next to Judi Bari for two-and-a-half hours (two days) ago at a meeting where she was trying to convince us that there’s absolutely no violence included in these symbolic demonstrations that they want to have…I was mad because I thought the basic thing we had been talking about, the trust at these meetings, had been violated by packing around a bomb.”[85]

It’s entirely possible that some of the gyppos and workers perspectives had been colored by still more fake Earth First! look-alike pamphlets that had been distributed by Georgia Pacific in Fort Bragg on or around May 25, 1990 which seemed deliberately intended to stir up even further lynch mob hysteria.[86] Already, Pacific Lumber and Louisiana Pacific had done so through the auspices of Hill and Knowlton prior to the bombing.

The three principle Corporate Timber targets of Redwood Summer each issued statements condemning the bombing which—while they ostensibly wished Bari and Cherney a speedy recovery—were at best ambiguous in assigning blame for the bombing, even implying (as the FBI and Oakland Police had asserted) that the victims were the perpetrators.

G-P public relations manager Don Perry stated, “We were shocked to hear this had occurred. We were just shocked. (The company) deplores this action…We hope that whoever is responsible for this act is apprehended or prosecuted…and quickly.”[87]

L-P’s Shep Tucker proclaimed:

“I think what we’ve decided to say about the whole thing is it’s unfortunate. We’re just going to let the authorities do their thing and see what they have to say…It scares the heck out of a lot of people. There are radicals on both ends. How do you control these elements? There’s a feeling of what not knowing what to do.”[88]

Tucker, of course, failed to disclose his role as a WECARE spokesman and that WECARE members and their close associates in Mothers’ Watch had drafted fake Earth First! press releases and had connections to the violent and reactionary Sahara Club.[89] He did say, “(L-P) does not condone violence of any form against people or property…(this bombing is) an unfortunate and tragic event.”[90]

John Campbell issued a statement wishing, “(That) Ms. Bari and Mr. Cherney fully recover from the injuries they received in this appalling accident.”[91] However, he also declared, “Pacific Lumber does not in any way, shape, or form condone or promote violence whether it be spiking trees, blowing up power lines, or bombing cars. Pacific Lumber is unequivocal in its denunciation of violence, be it directed towards humans or equipment,” which all but implied that Bari and Cherney had been responsible for their own assassination attempt, the mysterious Earth Night Action in Santa Cruz, or the near decapitation of George Alexander, none of which were true.[92] P-L evidently neglected to mention Dave Galitz’s private praise of Dick Abshire’s having decked Greg King the previous year.[93]

As could be expected, the same people that had accused Judi Bari of “provoking violence” and “polarizing the community” in the beginning of May were equally quick to either say “I told you so” or worse still, swallow the FBI’s and Oakland Police’s line that Bari and Cherney were suspects in their own bombing. Barry Keene declared that the incident was “tragic evidence that extreme confrontation from whatever source leads to violence,” and blamed the organizers of Redwood Summer for “romanticizing violence” which was something akin to accusing an assault victim of provoking their assailant.[94]

Don Nelson uncritically accepted the FBI and Oakland Police contention that they had enough evidence on which to hold Bari and Cherney and called it “a sad comment on the whole situation.” He again appealed to organizers to cancel Redwood Summer,[95] and he quickly dismissed the notion that a logger might have planted the bomb (a suggestion that neither Bari nor Cherney had made), declaring,

“Nobody who works for a living would have that on their minds. A logger might be guilty of punching somebody when provoked in anger, but they would not put together a premeditated act like that…The environmental community ought to be very careful about casting blame on loggers or the Oakland Police, as I’ve heard them doing already.”[96]

Nelson evidently didn’t consider the attack on Bari and Cherney by Donald Blake or the firing off of a shotgun by David Lancaster or the latter’s younger brother as “premeditated” acts of violence. He then went on to make the absurd accusation that Earth First! had been “adversarial and confrontational in their meetings with (his) union,” all the while omitting the rank and file opposition within IWA Local #3-469 to Nelson’s collaboration with G-P.[97]

Mendocino County Supervisor Marilyn Butcher declared, “I think it’s absolutely terrible that this has escalated to this…This is what I’ve worried about all along…I’m concerned about the crazies from outside coming to the area.”[98]

Nelson Redding denounced Earth First!, on National Public Radio, as being “Worse than the People’s Temple”.[99]

Jim Eddie said, “I’m nervous about this Judi Bari-Darryl Cherney thing. It may create violence the county really doesn’t need…We don’t have the money to go to the more remote areas of the county to protect people.”[100]

Mendocino County Sheriff Tim Shea stated, “It’s terrible. I hate to see things like that happen. The only thing I’m trying to do is help prevent anybody from being seriously injured, whether they be law enforcement, protesters, or other people. Our goal is to keep everything as peaceful as we possibly can.” We went on to blame the Corporate Media for giving Redwood Summer too much attention, which he implied was the cause of the bombing to begin with.[101]

Marilyn Butcher’s virtual political twin in Humboldt County, Anna Sparks, declared “There’s a lot of mixed reactions up here. The ones that support (Cherney) are real sympathetic, and the ones that don’t support him, I guess, are kind of elated that he has brought a mishap upon himself.”[102]

Maribelle Anderson opined, “We’ve asked before, and we’re asking again that (Redwood Summer) be called off…I believe law enforcement when they say the evidence shows the people involved were carrying explosives.”[103]

Although Art Harwood had been meeting with Bari, he also urged organizers to call off Redwood Summer.[104]

Joanne Wilson, manager of the Garberville Chamber of Commerce stated, “at this point we just hope nobody gets hurt, and inferred that Redwood Summer had split the community into “Green” and “Yellow” camps, with a tiny handful seeking “middle ground” representing neutral “Blue” faction.[105] The splits were real of course, but Wilson was blaming the victims, because the real divisions had been sown by Corporate Timber.

North Coast News columnist Nancy Barth questioned Bari and Cherney’s commitment to nonviolence, as if the victims were somehow to blame for their own attack.[106]

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat stopped short of accusing Bari and Cherney of guilt, but nevertheless suggested that the attack on them had been incited by their militancy, opining:

“The violence that has simmered below the surface of the battle over California’s Redwoods exploded at noon Thursday on an Oakland Street…Earth First!’s critics must strongly, publically denounce any use of violence. Some timber leaders have accused Bari and Cherney of ‘inciting’ rough-tough logger-types. Tempers may be high, fuses may be short, but political; disputes cannot be resolved by silencing the voices of the opposition.”[107]

Nowhere in the editorial did the editor mention the misinformation and violent rhetoric spread by Corporate Timber’s front groups and the gyppos. Not once did they allude to the death threats received by the Redwood Summer organizers. They issued not so much as one peep about Donnie Blake, the Lancasters, or Dick Abshire.

James Tuso and Rich Wiseman, both candidates running for the position of Mendocino County Sheriff (to replace the soon to be retiring Tim Shea) believed that there was evidence to support the charges against Bari and Cherney by the FBI, because they had read it in the mainstream newspapers, heard it on mainstream radio news, or watched it on TV. When pressed for what the evidence was by New Settler interviewer Lynne Dahl, Tuso admitted, “I don’t know,” and further opined, “We don’t live in a society today where we give people bum raps. We just can’t tolerate that sort of thing.” When queried by Dahl if the bombing could have been a setup by the FBI and/or the Oakland Police, Tuso could only meekly respond, “God, I don’t want to believe that at all. That’s not what this country is built on.”[108] Rich Wiseman was no better, stating,

“According to what I’ve read in the newspapers, the authorities feel that they clearly have the evidence were transporting the bomb otherwise they wouldn’t have made the arrest. Keep in mind that this is Oakland; I know that the FBI’s also involved in the investigation. I don’t think they just go out and arrest people unless they have clear evidence.”[109]

Evidently Tuso and Wiseman had neglected to follow the news about the “Arizona Five” very closely, because arresting people without evidence against them was precisely what occurred there.

As for the died-in-the-wool reactionaries, there was no ambiguity. Bari and Cherney were responsible for their own bombing (even if someone else had placed the bomb in their car), the lack of evidence be damned. Willits News columnist Ed Burton who commonly parroted right wing talking points on environmental issues—much like Glenn Simmons—doubted that Earth First! had any more than “a handful” of supporters and dismissed Earth First!’s commitment to nonviolence stating, “The truth is they appear to be violent folks who enjoy the publicity.”[110]

The Sahara Club waxed gleeful, even celebratory towards the bombing. One member in particular wrote:

“I am truly sorry to hear of you (sic) accident involving an exploding pipe bomb in your car. I am a military police officer who would be glad to offer my assistance in future demolitions, I am only sorry you were not blown up in the explosion. Perhaps you should use more C-4 next time. Catch a clue; your people are injuring good law-abiding citizens, and preventing them from earning a living by doing honest work. I hope you go to jail.”[111]

Yet, that statement wasn’t the worst. The ultimate example of, salt-in-the-wounds, in-your-face hatred came from the leadership itself who issued a statement which read:

“BOMB THAT CROTCH! Judi Bari, the Earth First! bat slug…blew herself halfway to hell and back while transporting a bomb in her Subaru…Bari, who had her crotch blown off, will never be able to reproduce again. We’re just trying to figure out what (sic) would volunteer to inseminate her if she had all her parts. The last we heard, Judi and her friends were pouting and licking their wounds.”[112]

This vile statement was as misogynistic as it was violent, and it was seen by many as highly symbolic of the attack on a powerful woman such as Bari as well as the ongoing rape of the Earth.

* * * * *

For the activists involved in Redwood Summer as well as the broader forestry reform movement, there was no question that the bombing was an attempt at discrediting and disrupting Redwood Summer and everything connected to it. Naomi Wagner summed up the feeling of many of the people involved by recounting:

“My first feeling, was one of many, it was one of total shock and numbness and the inability to grasp just how serious this was. And then in addition to the shock of the actual bombing and injuries, the insult added to injury of their being accused of being the agents of their own destruction.

“At first, I just wanted to shut out the reality, and I wanted to believe that Judi is a strong woman and she’ll get over it, she’ll be okay, she’ll be fine. I didn’t allow it to enter my consciousness that she could be permanently crippled. I wanted very much to believe this was a temporary setback, because all the momentum and euphoria of the Movement and something being done about these problems was shattered when the bomb went off.”[113]

From jail, Darryl Cherney urged supporters of Redwood Summer not to let the threat of repression deter them from their cause:

“At the beginning of Freedom Summer in Mississippi in 1964, some of the key organizers were jailed for the entire summer. And of course there was the three murders of (James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner) that came early on. And yet that did not deter the organization and the success of the voter registration drive in Mississippi, and in the same manner, we do not expect these incidents to deter or stymie the success of Redwood Summer. In the spirit of those people who fought so bravely in Mississippi, I say we shall overcome, and Redwood Summer will go on.”[114]

In spite of the negative press, the organizers and supporters of Redwood Summer were indeed steadfast in their resolve, and if anything, the bombing and subsequent arrest of Bari and Cherney increased their support. Letters to the editor almost universally in support of them came pouring in to most local and regional newspapers.[115]          

Earth First! cofounder, Dave Foreman—who still awaited trial due to the FBI’s entrapment of him and four other activists in Arizona—declared, “Our feeling is that the police are taking the easy way out…We hope they’ll start looking for the real bomber.”[116] He added, “Any rumors that they were transporting a bomb are as outrageous as suggesting that about Martin Luther King in the campaigns in the south.”[117]

Fellow founder Mike Roselle denounced the FBI’s and Oakland Police’s immediate charges that Bari and Cherney were guilty as being wrong from the get go.[118]

David Chatfield, the national director of Greenpeace at the time declared, “This is crazy.

This is a real injustice that there’s a 12-hour investigation (leading to the arrests) when these people have gotten eight weeks of threats.”[119] Over the weekend after the bombing, Greenpeace hired a private investigator to find the real bomber.[120]

Shannon Marr who had been leading the way when the bomb exploded stated unequivocally, “I know they didn’t blow themselves up. That’s a true fact.” [121]

David Kemnitzer agreed, declaring, “It’s just not conceivable (that they’d be guilty).”[122]

Karen Pickett declared that the idea that Bari and Cherney were knowingly transporting a bomb was “absolutely ludicrous.”[123] She added, “I think that they’re looking in entirely the wrong places, and I don’t think that they’re doing a thorough investigation. I think that the police tactics need to be investigated here.”[124]

Betty Ball was convinced the bombing was a deliberate attempt to disrupt Earth First!, not just assassinate Judi Bari (and Darryl Cherney), declaring, “This bombing is a vicious, brutal act perpetrated not just against Judi and Darryl but against our whole movement. The bomber wanted not only to destroy these two people, but the forest they are giving their lives to protect.”[125]

The Man Who Walks in the Woods pointed to the death threats received by Redwood Summer organizers as a clue that this bombing was an attempt to make good on them. “I can tell you for absolute certain, (Cherney) would not be involved in violence. If there was a bomb, it was planted there.”[126]

Pam Davis called the charges against Bari and Cherney “ludicrous” and added, “The bombing and police ‘investigation’ is an attempt to keep two of the most effective organizers out of commission for Redwood Summer.”[127] “I think (Corporate Timber) want to sabotage us to scare us away so they can attack our movement. I know Judi Bari. I’ve known her for years. I do not believe she would use an explosive device. It’s not the style that she operates with.”[128]

IWW folksinger Utah Phillips publically denounced the charges against Bari and Cherney as being “absurd”.[129]

Oregon Earth First!er, Kelpie Wilson, reminded everyone that Bari and Cherney had renounced tree spiking as a tactic and that this was solid evidence of their commitment to nonviolence.[130]

Karen Wood offered similar thoughts, adding, “The FBI is in the business of suppressing and oppressing political groups. I don’t know who did it, but I know Judi and Darryl did not.”[131]

Mendocino Earth First!er, Marilyn Scott-Brandon, agreed, stating, “They are vibrant minstrels who have taken a vow of nonviolence.”

Patti Lipmanson, one of Bari’s many friends described the latter as “a feisty, warm person. She’s tough, honest, and very smart. Her overwhelming quality is one of courage.”

Pam Miller, a nonviolence trainer for Redwood Summer declared, “It’s deeply upsetting to me that the police would make such an accusation when it’s false.”[132]

Darlene Comingore called the charges against the activists, “outrageous, totally wrong, (and), impossible.”[133]

Zack Stenz opined, “The real fundamental questions are remaining unasked; whose interest is this in, to have these two people bombed?”[134] He continued, “People like to slap the label eco-terrorists on Earth First! members, but Earth First! has demonstrated over and over its commitment to nonviolence. This shows very clearly which side the violence comes from.”[135]

Roanne Withers had originally intended only a peripheral involvement in the campaign, but while in San Diego for a medical procedure, she happened to see a televised CNN report on the bombing (ironically while she was reading about Bari and Cherney in the latest issue of Smithsonian). She recalls standing up, screaming in horror, and then contacting Betty and Gary Ball to inform them that she would return to Mendocino County immediately and put all of her efforts into Redwood Summer.[136]

Gene Lawhorn, now a staunch supporter of Redwood Summer, declared, “To me, Judi with a bomb is like Jesus with an M-16 or Gandhi with a (missile). She’s got two kids, a family; she’d never put them in danger.”[137]

Kevin McCoy, another Earth First!er declared, “It was not their bomb. It was planted there by somebody else, and now it’s being blamed on them, because it’s easy to blame a ‘radical’, but ‘radical’ to us just means involved, aware, informed, and willing to take chances and take risks.”[138]

George Shook agreed, stating, “It’s transparent what has happened. It’s the classic frame. They’re trying to take out two of our most effective leaders.”[139]

Brian Willson issued a statement following the bombing from New York admonishing supporters of Redwood Summer to, “carry on this struggle with escalated vigor…let us put out a call for thousands of people to join in Redwood Summer to save our earth and the old-growth forests.”[140]

Keith McHenry, speaking for the San Francisco chapter of Food Not Bombs stated, “(Bari and Cherney) are well known to be nonviolent, well known to not use explosives. Despite this, the police seem not to be considering any other possibility. What’s going on?”[141]

Mem Hill, no stranger to timber-industry violence, herself another nonviolence trainer for Redwood Summer, disputed the charges against Bari and Cherney, saying, “What the media keeps missing is that we’re totally nonviolent. Judi wouldn’t have had a bomb. She’s not that kind of person.” She added:

“This doesn’t sound like the kind of thing any logger would do—it’s too insidious. It sounds like something a paid hit man would do, but why would the industry be so stupid?” Why would they want to make a martyr out of Judi? Judi considers timber workers to be our allies because our goals are the same. We want sustained growth, and we want a good economy.”[142]

Long time Mendocino County environmentalist, Mitch Clogg, declared:

“Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney are seen by industry and the police as public enemies and trouble makers. At the same time, they are perceived by radicals and environmentalists as their front line heroes. So when the police and the establishment get their hands on people like that, they’ll use whatever means they can to punish them. Extralegal means when you use a flimsy pretext for charging somebody. When you put a $100,000 bail on someone, it winds up costing those arrested a lot of money. Judi and Darryl are being punished by an officialdom that finds them threatening. It’s an old, old story. Anyone familiar with American labor history can cite chapter and verse that it was much like this.”[143]

Rob Anderson opined:

“When we heard of the bombing of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney’s car last Thursday, we admit to a brief moment of doubt: Perhaps, in their anger at the rape of the earth, Judi and Darryl, in contradiction of months of organizing and public statements, were actually carrying a bomb. But a moment’s reflection discounted the idea as preposterous. After months of meetings, promotion, and statements on nonviolence would Judi and Darryl risk the whole Redwood Summer—not to mention their future credibility with the environmental movement—to do a bombing? If so, what possible target could they find in the Bay Area to justify such a risk?”[144]

Anderson then satirically hypothesized the (nonexistent) conversation that took place between Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney:

“We can imagine the conversation Judi and Darryl had as they loaded up the car in Ukiah:

[Judi]: ‘Say, why don’t we do a bombing while we’re in the Bay Area?

[Darryl]: ‘Great idea! Where’s the bomb?’

[Judi]: ‘I think we left it under the bed.’

[Darryl]: ‘Here it is. I’ll just hook it up to the timer and put it in plain view—so we don’t forget it—behind the driver’s seat’

[Judi]: ‘That’s typical, Darryl. You’re too much of a wimp to put it behind your seat.’” [145]

North Coast News environmental columnist Nat Bingham, whose perspectives not only often did present a reasonable attempt at a middle ground between environmental activists and timber workers, but who was one of the few to give a voice to the often overlooked small coastal fishermen, weighed in on the bombing as well. Bingham was mildly sympathetic to, though often critical of, Redwood Summer as well as Forests Forever. He also considered the FBI’s official line to be simply untenable:

“To arm a bomb means to make it ready to go off. The police said the evidence collected at the site of the explosion indicated that the device was a pipe bomb. While it is remotely possible that static electricity could have accidentally set off the bomb if the detonator was attached to it, it seems unlikely that they would choose to drive around accompanied by a live, ready-to-go bomb.

“The more serious question is what would be the benefit to the Earth First! movement right now if they are trying to move in the direction of non-violence? The whole thing about the Summer in the Redwoods and the 5,000 students that were supposed to be coming to the North Coast was that it was going to be a nonviolent action. Even if they had successfully bombed something, where is the public relations gain? If they were in fact the perpetrators, then they definitely win the North Coast Crime Club annual ineptitude in crime award…

“Now let’s try it on me other way. It makes sense as a plot to discredit Earth First! If it was loggers trying to kill Darryl and Judi, I think the attack would have been successful. How many car bombings have you seen on TV or read about where the victims weren’t killed? Three or four sticks of dynamite near the gas tank, wired to the car ignition and there’s not much left. But a small bomb that doesn’t kill does not create martyrs, it sets up an arrest and subsequent criminal legal procedure which could discredit and financially drain the environmental movement.

“It could have just as easily come from the right wing lunatic fringe as the left. Just such tactics were used against the Black Panthers in the late 1970’s by the Oakland Police (coincidence?).”[146]

Michael Connelly, a regular reader of the Anderson Valley Advertiser, was equally skeptical pointing out:

“Judi and Darryl…were on their way to Santa Cruz (to do a concert and talk) and later on to San Luis Obispo to do the same. You don’t carry bombs around when you’re on tour. What were they going to do—blow up logging equipment on a U.C. campus? Judi was receiving so many death threats that carrying a gun in the car would seem more appropriate but since she is nonviolent we can rule that out too.”[147]

Leftist intellectual and long time Mendocino County resident Alexander Cockburn compared Judi Bari to murdered Brazilian Rainforest activist and labor organizer Chico Mendes.[148] He noted that “…if you try to build such coalitions you make dangerous enemies. No one familiar with Bari, Cherney, and the Earth First! group in Mendocino County believes for a second that the two were wittingly carrying a bomb in their car.” Cockburn then cited the now all too familiar and numerous examples of violence perpetrated against the likes of Bari, Cherney, Greg King, and other Earth First!ers in Mendocino and Humboldt Counties in recent years.[149]

Social ecologist and anarchist critic of Earth First! Murray Bookchin pledged his solidarity with Earth First! (though the New York Times quoted him out of context as describing Earth First as “eco-fascists”, a statement Bookchin denied having made).[150]    

Judi Bari’s mother, Ruth, declared that her daughter was, “too smart to put a bomb under her seat,” adding, “She just wouldn’t do a thing like that.”[151]

Although the Corporate Press had focused largely on Redwood Summer and the environmental aspects of the campaign, they said almost nothing about Judi Bari’s labor organizing efforts. Earth First! organizer Karen Pickett agreed that Bari’s labor organizing may have been one of the motivating factors behind her attempted assassination, arguing that, “The lumber industry paradigm cannot tolerate an Earth First!er and Wobbly organizing their workers. It is doubtful that anyone hated Judi Bari more than Georgia Pacific.”[152] (And the same could be said about P-L and Darryl Cherney or L-P and both activists).

Anna Marie Stenberg was convinced, “It was definitely the labor stuff that got her.”[153]

San Francisco Bay Area IWW member and Redwood Summer supporter Jess Grant declared, “(Bari and Cherney) were combining the labor issue and the environmental issue. That is why Judi and Darryl were so dangerous to the timber barons.”[154]

In fact, one of the reasons for scheduling the first major demonstration in Samoa was to draw attention to L-P’s anti-labor practices and raw log exports as much as it was a statement against their logging to infinity (although many, including Bari, would argue that both were one and the same), Likewise, the targeting of Fort Bragg was to protest G-P’s ongoing exploitation of its workers, whether through speedups, automation, or the company’s still ongoing resistance to paying restitution to the workers injured in the PCB spill.[155]

G-P spokesperson David Odgers grudgingly admitted publically the truth of this contention by stating, “(Bari) was successful in driving a wedge between the companies and the workers…she was trying to create dissatisfaction with the companies.”[156] The only inaccuracy in Odgers’ statement is that “Bari was trying to create dissatisfaction”, when, in fact, it already existed on a widespread scale.

Even gyppo owners Art Harwood, and Bill Bailey agreed that Bari was at least willing to listen to what they had to say and sent Judi Bari sympathetic get-well messages in the wake of the bombing.[157] And Jerry Philbrick conceded that it didn’t make sense that Bari and Cherney would be guilty, stating, “Oh, it makes sense that someone tried to whack her. I don’t disregard that at all.”[158]

* * * * *

Immediately following the arrests, Bari’s and Cherney’s supporters organized solidarity vigils in Arcata, Fort Bragg, Oakland, Potter Valley, Santa Rosa, and Ukiah. Over the weekend activists conducted steady vigils at the hospital and Oakland Police Station.[159] Mike Roselle declared, “We haven’t been fired up like this in the ten-year history of Earth First!…We’re not scared. We’re going to redouble our efforts.[160] About 50 activists including George Shook and Kelpie Wilson attended a rally at the latter location at which supporters held signs reading, “Trees, Not Bombs”[161], until it was dispersed by the Oakland Police ostensibly in response to complaints from local residents.[162] The Arcata vigil drew 20 attendees.[163] Over 250 attended the Santa Rosa rally. Some carried signs blaming the FBI for the bombing and urged people to recall Sacco and Vanzetti, Karen Silkwood, and the all too numerous victims of COINTELPRO.[164]

The vigil in Ukiah took place at the Ukiah County Courthouse and was attended by 100 demonstrators and supporters. Among those in attendance were Art and Becky Harwood, Jim Little, and Bill and Judith Bailey. Harwood and Bailey reiterated their sympathy for Bari and Cherney and pledged their support for sustainable forestry, even if their view of it was somewhat different than that of many Earth First!ers.[165]

Betty Ball reiterated that the charges against Bari and Cherney were “totally nonsensical,” and there was “absolutely no shred of evidence (against them).”[166]

Don Lipmanson reminded everyone that not only had the organizers of Redwood Summer (including Bari and Cherney) renounced tree spiking, they had also renounced monkeywrenching as well, further stating, “While these have been accepted Earth First! tactics in the past, explosives never have been.”[167]

Bruce Anderson, pointing to a plainclothes Mendocino County deputy videotaping the peaceful crowd, declared:

“Our side hasn’t committed a single act of violence, yet we’re under surveillance. They can bomb us, beat us, and put us in jail, but we’re not going to stop. Instead of hundreds of people we’re now going to have thousands this summer. I know Judi Bari and it’s not going to stop her.”[168]

He added, “We will have the country’s media, and they’ll see what kind of place Mendocino County is.”[169]

Walter Smith declared, “Judi’s not against the timber workers, she’s for them. She was the only one who spoke up for the timber workers at Georgia-Pacific when they were exposed to PCBs.”[170]

MEC member Richard Johnson compared the bombing to FBI COINTELPRO operations that disrupted leftist organizations in the 1960s and 1970s, declaring, “Who’s behind it will come out, I’m quite sure, like Watergate.”[171]

Norm de Vall also denied that Bari and Cherney were guilty, stating, “They’re simply too smart (to have knowingly carried a bomb).[172]

Even Republican candidate Tim Stoen, who was challenging Doug Bosco for his congressional seat expressed his support for the victims. Even though he was not allowed to speak publically, due to his opposition to Redwood Summer, the man whose child had been murdered along with many other victims at the infamous Jonestown nevertheless defended Bari and Cherney.[173]

* * * * *

Earth First! – IWW Local #1 members Anna Marie Stenberg and Tom Cahill very quickly organized a rally and candlelight vigil in Fort Bragg. Stenberg spent at least 36 straight hours on the phone, some of it being interviewed on various local radio talk shows, to drum up support. About 250 people, including Jerry Philbrick, attended despite a light rain.[174] The rally had been originally planned to occur at the main gate of the G-P mill, but after Don Nelson publically condemned the idea, the location was moved to a more neutral site.[175] The demonstrators—some of them in tears—hugged and sang songs like We Shall Overcome and Solidarity Forever.[176] They prayed and lit candles. There was an open mike to allow the crowd to share their thoughts.[177] Stenberg reported on Bari’s condition, her children, and the police activity around their house.

As was to be expected, a group of about a half dozen counter demonstrators rallied across the street. Fort Bragg logger Rex Smith held a sign reading “Save Our Jobs – Don’t Support Earth First!” (even though Earth First! had done more in the past two years to advocate for the preservation of existing timber jobs as well as advocating for additional employment than anyone else).[178] In response to this, New Settler Interview owner and publisher Beth Bosk, herself a Redwood Summer supporter urged Philbrick to speak (since the latter coached Bosk’s son in Little League ball). The gyppo owner, who was still unsure what to believe, created quite a stir when he spoke, stating:

“You’ve been telling us that we can trust these guys to be non­violent. What’s going on with this bomb?…What you’ve done is lost the trust we’ve had. But I want to tell you if somebody gets bombed up here or hurt by something, then about 150 people in your organization are going to eat it. And it’s going to be the whole community, because they are going to jump them. They are not going to wait around anymore, they are not going to give you any more chances, because now you’ve got the normal person mad besides the logger. I’m not in fear for myself—it’s my equipment I don’t want to get damaged, and I don’t want any of my employees getting hurt driving down the roads in their logging trucks either. But if any bombs go off up here, all hell’s going to break loose.”[179]

Philbrick hadn’t intended his statement to be taken as a threat, however. He was speaking from a place of genuine fear, in no small part due to the misinformation put forth by the FBI and parroted by the Corporate Press. He agreed, publically, that the corporations were as much to blame for the trial facing the timber industry as anyone. Stenberg was able to calm Philbrick down and get him to at least admit that Bari and Cherney were not likely suspects.[180] She recalled:

“I said, ‘Jerry, you sat next to that woman for two hours, the other night. She’s a mother with two kids and she was going down to see my son. Don’t tell me you believe that she put the bomb in her car and she sat on it?

“You know how smart Judi is, maybe you don’t know how nonviolent she is, but you do know how smart she is. You don’t have to believe me, but at least keep your eyes and ears open and don’t believe the crap that’s on the media!’ We went on and on like this for 45 minutes.

“It ended with Jerry and I hugging and Jerry asking how to send flowers to Judi, would she accept them? ‘Of course she would,’ I said, ‘She’s in extreme pain right now, but when she wakes up and sees them it will make her heart feel good.’

“And then we planned the next timber talks in Willits.”[181]

Philbrick reiterate that while was no fan of Earth First!, he was even less enamored with Corporate Timber:

“I tried to tell them at (the) vigil…that they’re barking around the ankles and knees of the situation instead of the head and heart and that’s the corporation. I’ve been in favor of sustained yield. I’m considering my future and my son’s future and I want there to be some logging jobs here in 15 or 20 years.”[182]

Indeed, the only violence that occurred at this rally was by a 17-year-old who threw an object at the crowd from a passing car, according to Fort Bragg Police Chief, Tom Bickell. For his part, the Chief called the bombing frightening, and added, “When I heard about it, I got a chill. Whoever put it there, the fact that there (were) explosives scares me.”[183]

* * * * *

Supporters organized rallies outside of northwestern California as well. On May 25, 1990, Los Angeles Earth First!ers, led by Peter Bralver, organized two emergency protests. The first took place at noon at the west Los Angeles Federal Building, where the local FBI offices are located. 20 demonstrators gathered at the busy east corner of the Federal Building’s lawn with banners denouncing the FBI. At least five TV stations and two radio news outlets covered the event. LA Earth First!ers showed the media a recent death threat that they had received, no doubt connected with those received by Redwood Summer organizers. After that, three Earth First!ers entered the building, passed the security guards unmolested, rode the elevator to the seventeenth floor, and entered the FBI offices, all of which the media covered. There the Earth First!ers stood their ground and told the FBI—with the media present—that they would not be deterred by intimidation by the powers that be. The Earth First!ers then marched a short distance to the local Maxxam offices and unfurled a banner that had been used to protest Maxxam’s activities in the ritzy community of Rancho Mirage, California. The rallies were well received by passersby and drivers who honked in support.[184]

In Santa Cruz, Lisa Henry and Zack Stenz hastily organized a rally in support of Bari and Cherney, and despite the difficult conditions and helter skelter of everything going on, it was well attended. Henry recounts:

“[T]here were all these news people there and everyone wanted to know what happened. People had come. The UCSC Organic Farmers’ Garden asked if they could ship their entire harvest to Redwood Summer. An undercover cop came up and started asking me stuff about myself.

“He was the first one who said to us, ‘The FBI believes that they did it themselves.’

“And I was so outraged. I hadn’t heard any news from any Earth First!ers, still, I knew they would never be carrying a bomb. It was a set up. I told him that. And it was nice to see that out in the news from the very get-go in Santa Cruz, without the AP stuff and the FBI bullshit getting into the news before we could have a say.

“The next days were just spent in a daze. I got kicked out of the house. I kept organizing vigils and my housemates just couldn’t deal with my organizing.”

In spite of that, some of Henry’s friends who had experience in other organizations, including CISPES, Lockheed Action Collective, and the Animal Liberation Front offered their support and even the use of their networks to help Lisa Henry continue her work organizing Redwood Summer.[185]

Meanwhile, the Bay Area IWW issued the following statement:

“The IWW is appalled by the attempted murder yesterday of two of its members, Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, and the FBI’s subsequent effort to implicate them in the car bombing which left both of them hospitalized.

“We believe that Judi and Darryl were targeted for this attack because of their effectiveness in organizing against the clearcutting of old-growth redwood in the Northwest. They had begun to organize timber workers into the IWW as part of their campaign to halt clearcutting, because it was becoming clear to everyone that when the trees were all gone, there would be no more jobs either. It was this ability to link the labor and environmental issues which made Judi and Darryl so dangerous to the timber barons, whose profiteering depends on the continuing antagonism between these two movements.

“We demand a fair and thorough investigation by the police of this deplorable attack, but we realize that only intense, constant pressure from the public can assure us of one. We must not allow this tragedy to be turned against the very community of activists who are it victims.”[186]

Utah Phillips urged members of the IWW as well as former members to support and get involved in Redwood Summer, which he described as one of the most promising organizing efforts that the IWW had contributed to in years.[187] Anna Marie Stenberg echoed these sentiments, stating,

“I’d like to see the whole Union endorse the Redwood Summer actions, to make it an EF!-IWW joint project. If the IWW can’t do that, the Union should at least try to hold actions internationally (simultaneous with the major Redwood Summer demonstrations)…the other thing that local branches can do is to sponsor some of their members to come out here as organizers. We need to build a much stronger Wobbly presence here, and we need as many people as possible. We need to reinforce the labor consciousness here with more movement people who see that as their main concern, but yet also see the ecology as inseparable from their class consciousness. We need people who are serious, committed to the ideals of the IWW, and disciplined enough to work to achieve justice for the mill workers and lumber workers here.”[188]

“The responsibility for this violence is on the shoulders of corporate America and their right hand, law enforcement agencies. Timber and millworkers are victims of this violence as much as activists are.”[189]

Stenberg urged members of the IWW to send Judi Bari cards and letters of encouragement, “full of humor and fun”.[190] Following Stenberg’s lead, the IWW’s General Secretary-Treasurer, Jeff Ditz issued the following statement:

“As the IWW General Secretary Treasurer, I express my deepest anger and regret over police and FBI actions against IWW members Judi Bari and Daryl Cherney. Bari and Cherney are two of the IWW’s best organizers; their presence at our last September’s IWW convention inspired all of us and deepened my own commitment to organizing. Their work at organizing workers on the shop floor and in their communities and building a coalition between workers and environmentalists is revolutionary unionism at its best.

“The IWW holds true to the established Wobbly principle that an injury to one is an injury to all! I am enraged at the injuries sustained by Bari and Cherney as a result of a bomb placed in their car and am deeply suspicious of federal government and lumber industry involvement in this attempt on their lives. Both are deeply nonviolent people, and I ask all Wobblies to come to the support of Bari and Cherney and to either attend the Redwood Summer actions, contribute to the Judi Bari defense fund, or sponsor local support actions across the country.”[191]

Back in Northwestern California, on May 26, Pam Davis and the would-be Earth First! – IWW Local 2 quickly cobbled together a rally in Santa Rosa at Old Courthouse Square. To a cheering crowd, Davis announced that several more groups, including Greenpeace, the Christic Institute, and the IWW had pledged their solidarity with the accused activists. The loudest cheer erupted when she announced that Amnesty International had even offered to look into the bombing and investigate the possibility that Bari and Cherney had been the victims of state repression. Additionally, four Sonoma County environmental groups, Citizens for Watershed Protection, the Forestville Citizens for Sensible Growth, the Western Sonoma County Rural Alliance, and Californians Organized to Acquire Access to State Tidelands (COAAST) issued a statement endorsing Redwood Summer. Lionel Gambill also pledged his support for Bari and Cherney, adding, “I used to think there were 100 issues. I finally decided it’s one issue with 100 faces. The issue is the abuse of power, and the violence that results from it. This is a worldwide problem, whether it’s Tiananmen Square, South Africa (under Apartheid), or Oakland.”[192]

* * * * *

On Monday, May 28, 1990, Darryl Cherney was bailed out, early in the morning well after most of the vigil in support for him (and Bari) had dispersed.[193] For reasons unexplained to this day, Cherney’s shoes were not returned to him, forcing him to walk out of the Oakland Police station in bare feet.[194] Upon his release, he was immediately greeted by press. Without missing a beat, he declared:

“Certainly, our activism and our struggle to save ancient redwoods up north has left us with many people who are very angry with our successes at slowing down the logging…It feels terrific to be out and maybe we can move over to the hospital now and keep the vigil going for Judi Bari.”[195]

On Tuesday, May 29, the judge held the first arraignment hearing, and it was at this time Alameda County assistant District Attorney Chris Carpenter admitted that no formal changes were being filed against Bari and Cherney, at least not yet.[196] Supporters, including Seeds of Peace members wore duct-tape arm bands in the courtroom in silent protest over the lack of probable cause.[197] The attorneys arranged for a continuance of the arraignment, which allowed Cherney to go free, at least temporarily (if this had not occurred, he could have been arrested and jailed again, despite having made bail).[198]

Still the solidarity rallies continued. On Saturday, June 2, 1990, St. Louis IWW members, members of an organization called Workers Democracy, and Big River Earth First!ers held a rally for justice demanding an unbiased investigation into the bombing. Nearly forty demonstrators converged on the federal building chanting, “Things are really weird”, and “The FBI did it—don’t you forget it.” The theme of the rally was “No death squads in the USA,” a reference to COINTELPRO’s covert operations that had included assassinations and near assassinations of political dissidents (most notably 32 members of the Black Panther Party). In contrast, the rally-goers questioned the notion that two nonviolent activists would blow themselves up.[199]

In early June, in Carbondale, Illinois, a group of Shawnee Earth First!ers held a press conference at the Federal Building located there, and then proceeded to the local FBI office. There they surrendered all “weapons” in their possession, which consisted of writing paper, stress tabs, aspirin, paint brushes, a telephone and phone book, a car tire, and a water pistol. The FBI was not present and made no comment.[200] Throughout the North Coast and beyond, none of Bari’s and Cherney’s supporters were willing to swallow the notion that they were guilty.[201] However the IWW was not alone among the union movement in condemning the bombing of Bari and Cherney.

Even though Don Nelson continued to refer to Bari and Cherney, as well as Roanne Withers and Anna Marie Stenberg as “elitist agitators” after the bombing,[202] these charges were rebutted by other union militants around the country.[203] Demonstrating that Bari and Cherney were considered bonafide labor spokespeople, despite Don Nelson’s rants to the contrary, several more progressive labor union officials drafted and signed the following resolution:

“We, the undersigned unionists, condemn the bombing assassination attempt against labor and environmental activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney. This act of terrorism is not only an attack on the environmental movement but on the labor movement as well. Judi Bari is a long-time labor organizer and environmentalist who has sought to link these two movements for the protection of both the ecosystem and workers’ jobs. Bari and Cherney have fought to save the last remaining old-growth forests which the timber companies, in their quest for profits, have targeted for massive clearcutting before proposed forest protection initiatives are enacted, this Fall.”

“Timber companies have sought to pit workers and environmentalists against one another. We believe Bari and Cherney have been targeted for violence and criminal prosecution because they have successfully demonstrated that the defense of timber workers jobs is dependent on the protection of the forests.”

“We call on the entire labor movement to take a clear stand in solidarity with Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney. Their struggle is our struggle.”[204]

Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney also received support from the Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation (SAC)—the Swedish anarcho-syndicalist federation[205]; the Scottish Direct Action Movement (also a syndicalist organization)[206]; and the Anarchist Black Cross of Denmark.[207]

On June 7, while the first Redwood Summer rallies were beginning in Sacramento, the DA released Bari from legal custody, so she could receive visitors, but it also meant that she was unguarded by police, which was a problem, because someone had tried to assassinate her.[208] Also, if Bari were arrested again, she could have been transferred back to the jail ward in Highland Hospital, where only one nurse was on duty, which would have put Bari’s life in even worse danger than it already was. Redwood Summer organizers therefore made sure that she had round the clock security provided by friends and comrades.[209]

Although Judi Bari had been devastated by the bombing, both physically and emotionally, and no doubt still felt a great deal of fear and terror, her spirits were greatly bolstered by the overwhelming solidarity as well as the outpouring of support she received in the form of letters and poems as well as visitors. Karen Pickett was the first visitor able to finally gain admission to Bari’s hospital room. She described Bari’s resolve thusly:

“People ask how Judi’s doing after I visit her in the hospital and I want to say she’s doing great, but somehow that sounds strange to say about someone who has been in a great deal of pain and is immobilized in traction with a severely broken pelvis and damaged leg. But the concept of ‘doing great’ is relative, and I am so impressed with how this woman—this strong, vital and courageous woman—is coping with her injuries and with the horror of the attack on her: Judi would rather be working on a press release at base camp, out on the campaign trail, playing her fiddle at a rally, instead of lying in a hospital bed while her body’s forces mend her bones, nerves, tissues. But I think she is doing great because from her prone position she has been strategizing, philosophizing, laughing, singing and even playing music. Judi still has several weeks of traction ahead of her (8 weeks in all) and then additional recovery time, but she is getting stronger and better every day. Since being released from police custody pending the district attorney’s decision on the filing of charges, she has had private 24 hour a day security, and close friends have been able to visit her.”[210]

On June 6, 1990, in an interview conducted by KPFA FM, (in a very groggy state) Bari thanked her supporters, stating:

“Thank you to all the Earth First!ers and peace people and movement people in general for this tremendous outpouring of concern and support. It really makes me feel better knowing that you all are down there, and knowing that I’m not alone and we’re not alone. That’s something we’ve always felt in Earth First! that we are a movement. I think it’s important for us to remember where the real violence is being done. The real violence is being done to the forest, not as much as to the organizers. I hope that this will not deter people from coming this summer to save the redwood forest, because terrorism is a horrible tactic, and we know that the timber companies will use it. But terrorism cannot stand up to mass nonviolence. To be very nonviolent and very public—that’s the only way we can win. We can’t wait another year—this is our last year. So please come to the forest this summer and as soon as I’m out of here I’ll be there with you.”[211]

She had survived an assassination attempt, and yet there was little doubt that, in spite of her brush with death, Judi Bari would live to organize another day.