By Gene Lawhorn, Earth First! Journal, September 22, 1990.
Gene Lawhorn's article ran along side Paul Watson's in the aforementioned issue of the Earth First! Journal. Given the fact that the outgoing Journal staff leaned towards the pro-side of the tree spiking debate, it is commendable as well as remarkable that they chose to include Lawhorn's counterpoint.
I have been working in the wood products industry for five years. In that time I have worked veneer mills, sawmills, and plywood mills. I have become an environmental activist while standing on the picket line fighting wage and benefit cuts. During the strike against Roseburg Forest Products (the world's largest privately owned wood products manufacturer) which lasted from January 9th to May 15th of 1989, I noticed that all the cars and trucks that crossed our picket line were flying the timber industry's yellow support ribbon. The yellow ribbon is supposed to represent solidarity with the timber workers, timber management, and a steady supply of Federal (old-growth) timber. To many of us the yellow ribbon represents greed, ecological destruction, negative polarization, and scabbing. Once I became aware of these things I began to study environmental issues. I studied Fish and Wildlife's Spotted Owl reports and I studied and still study how the ancient forest ecosystem works. I realized that not only the was the Spotted Owl endangered, but in fact the whole Pacific Northwest ancient forest ecosystem was in jeopardy. These studies led to studies of global environmental problems.
Becoming aware of global environmental problems and of the ecological importance of the Pacific Northwest ancient forest helped me understand why Earth First! activists participate in direct action tactics such as tree sitting or chaining themselves to bulldozers, or ecotage such as sabotaging heavy equipment and tree spiking. But even though I understand the why-fors, all the where-ases (or tactics) cannot be justified! This is especially so with the tactic of tree spiking.
Shortly after I returned to work from the strike (where we suffered wage and benefit cuts amounting to over $1400 a year), I was operating a log splitter on the deck of the debarker. Not far behind me was a circular saw which was out of view from where I was standing. The saw operator sits behind a half inch of Plexiglas in an air conditioned booth. The saw at that time hit a spike and all around the mental fragments from the saw and the spike flew like shrapnel from a bomb. Not one piece hit the Plexiglas, and luckily none hit me. But it was a frightening experience and made me realize how dangerous tree spiking is to mill workers. In the first veneer mill I worked in, the two saw operators had no protection other than their hard hats and safety glasses. We tried to get management to place Plexiglas panels in front of the saws but they refused. There are hundreds of these small non-union mills throughout the Pacific Northwest where safety is nonexistent. Any action an Earth First! activist does that endangers the lives of other human beings cannot be justified!
Tree spiking not only endangers mill-workers and loggers, but also discredits all environmentalists. Some timber bosses will run a spiked log through a mill so they can point the finger at an environmental activist and, say, "see, they not only want to kill you too." The timber industry doesn't give a damn about the safety of their employees. I had to call OSHA in a few months ago just to get the bastards to meet with our safety committee. OSHA fined them over $12,000 for safety violations. Only then were we able to get some very unsafe things fixed, because we hit them in their pocketbook.
The timber industry loves the fact that some Earth First! activists advocate tree-spiking. It gives them a great propaganda tool. Take for example the false press releases sent to the news media by the industry after California Earth First! activists renounced tree spiking. These releases stated that Earth First! would continue tree spiking. Someone even forged Judi Bari's and Darryl Cherney's signatures on them. Also note that the death threats against Judi and Darryl started shortly after the spiking renunciation. It scared the hell out of the timber industry and its ass-kissing supporters to see Earth First! (and) IWW activists building alliances with loggers and mill workers. That's why they tried to assassinate Judi and Darryl. The last thing corporations want is their employees demanding an accountability as to how the environment is being treated by the employers.
Workers, whether they be oil, chemical, and atomic workers, pulp and paper workers, or wood workers, must join forces environmental activists to demand not only an accountability as to wages, benefits, and health and safety, but also to demand environmental accountability. Environmental activists must be work to help create other options for workers so they'll feel secure in demanding that accountability.
In Oregon, labor and environmental activists have joined forces to form a group called Labor-Environmentalist Solidarity Network (LESN--pronounced lesson) to help bridge the gap that separates workers and environmentalists, and to support with direct nonviolent action the causes of each. In our group are Earth First! activists, steel workers, carpenters, state workers, and many other workers, and environmentalists from many organizations.
Earth First! activists in Oregon and California have done the right thing in renouncing the use of tree spiking, and also in building alliances with wood workers, Indian activists, Black activists, and Feminists. After all, the environment, indigenous peoples, minorities, women, and workers the whole world over (especially in Third World nations) are being exploited by the system that places money and power over the well being of the planet. We all have a common interest in clean water, air, and healthy forests.
To help bridge the gap that separates workers and environmental activists, and to help make the work place safe for mill workers and loggers, I urge all Earth First! activist to renounce the tactic of tree spiking. The work place for wood workers is dangerous enough without the added dangers of spiked trees, and the workers are not the enemies of environmental activists, but can be and will be their most valuable allies in the future. Renouncing tree spiking is not a compromise, but a move forward. Bear in mind that if a movement cannot progress and make positive changes, it will die! Also bear in mind that as much as the timber industry likes tree spiking, a nation-wide Earth First! renunciation of spiking would be the ultimate form of ecotage propaganda.
