(Press Release) By Kelpie Wilson, Jennifer Beigel, Ed Denson, and Mickey Dulas – June 20, 1990
“We’re not going to take the blame for disappearing timber jobs while L-P is opening up new mills in Mexico and closing them down in California,” said Mickey Dulas of Earth First! These sentiments, along with a call for forest protection and sustainable logging will be the theme at Redwood Summer’s first rally, which will take place at the gates of the huge Louisiana-Pacific mill complex in Samoa, California on June 20th, 1990 at 11:00 AM. Featured at the rally will be speakers including writer Alexander Cockburn, publisher Bruce Anderson, Denis Hayes of Earth Day 1990, Randy Hayes of Rainforest Action Network, Ida Honorof of People for Clean Air and Water, IWW union organizer Jess Grant, and Earth First organizer Mickey Dulas. Folk artists Joanne Rand and Clan Dyken will play music. A picket line by the IWW and a guerilla flotilla in the bay will occur simultaneously.
“The export of rough cut logs to Mexico is taking away the right to work from local wood workers,” said Kelpie Wilson of Redwood Summer. “We’re calling on timber workers and local residents to join us in protesting Louisiana Pacific’s destruction of both the ecology and the economy of the Northcoast.” According to figures from the California Employment Development Department and the State Board of Equalization, Humboldt county timber employment has dropped over 35% in the last decade while timber production has risen by over 50%. “This trend was clearly established before Earth First! began doing actions on the Northcoast,” said Kelpie Wilson.
“I feel terribly sorry for any unemployed workers in the timber industry,” said Ed Denson of Redwood Summer. “they should be blaming the people who brought them to this situation, the timber industry of the Northcoast. Exports, automation and overcutting have destroyed the timber economy of Humboldt and Mendocino counties.”
Over the last two years, Louisiana Pacific has been closing mills up and down Northern California. In 1989, 132 workers were laid off at the Potter Valley mill and the equipment was shipped to Mexico to take advantage of wages that average 80 cents an hour. L-P chief Harry Merlo made 7.5 million last year according to the Wall Street Journal.
“L-P’s anti-labor record is legendary,” said Darryl Cherney; “In 1984, they fired 2000 workers at once to bust the union; in 1989 they appealed the $1,200 fine imposed by the state over the death of Fortunado Reyes in the Ukiah plant. We don’t know what value L-P puts on a human life, but apparently $1,200 is too much,” said Cherney. “Now that L-P is moving to Mexico, we’re saying ‘adios’ to both the jobs and the forests.”
In April, Judi Bari, organizer for Earth First! and IWW local #1, proposed a Mendocino County initiative be put on the ballot to declare eminent domain seizure of all L-P’s holdings. The proposal was seriously considered by members of the board of supervisors, including Norm DeVall.
“What L-P is doing is immoral, if not illegal. it is a direct attack on those living in this community, taking away the livelihood of families and the life support of entire ecosystems,” said Jennifer Beigel of Earth First! “There is nothing to stop L-P from siphoning profits and jobs out of our area while destroying the last of the redwood forests, except the resistance of local communities.”