Anarchists among the logging blockades

via It's Going Down

Vancouver Island, BC: Gate Locked as RCMP Ramps up to Attack Growing Logging Blockades

Report on ongoing resistance to old-growth logging on so-called Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

photo: Fairy Creek Blockade

In so-called British Columbia, a campaign to stop the logging of old-growth forests has been building, with a network of active blockades forming a direct line of resistance to logging. According to the Fairy Creek Blockade on Instagram:

Our movement is growing far beyond what anyone originally imagined. We are holding down a half dozen forest protection camps, and this fight is becoming about a lot more than just the forest. The time will soon come when the RCMP will show up in an attempt to break our movement. When they do we need you to be ready to spring into action and join us on the front lines.

After over 285 days of direct resistance to the logging of old-growth forest, on May 17th, “they announced they will be setting up a checkpoint on McClure Road near the Caycuse Blockade, with arrests to follow.”

In a statement sent to It’s Going Down anonymously by anarchists involved in the blockade, forest defenders wrote:

On May 17 2021, the same day RCMP scum began enforcing Teal Jones Group’s court injunction against long-term logging blockades in Pacheedaht and Ditidaht territory, we locked TJG’s gate on Grierson Main road.

This action happened inside the injunction zone, within a few hours of the pigs beginning their assault on the brave land defenders at Caycuse blockade.

This gate, one of many in the area installed by Teal Jones to restrict access to their operations, is so easily turned against them. It now obstructs them from further destroying the upper reaches of the already ravaged Camper Creek watershed.

Fuck the injunction. Fuck Teal Jones. FUCK the police. The land is too big for you to control.

And hey liberals, let’s get real. Defending the last 1% of old growth forests only, while actively promoting all other industrial logging in so called BC, is like trying to save a few wild animals in a tiny zoo, while promoting the factory farming of millions of others.

-Some anarchists.

In a call for solidarity and support, the Fairy Creek Blockade wrote on Instagram:

[L]and defenders have been preventing the clear cutting of old growth forest on Southern Vancouver Island for over 9 months, and now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are beginning to arrest protesters to clear the way for Industry to log some of our last old growth forests.

We need everyone to join us on the frontlines! Bring your friends and friends, bring your kids. Join us at Fairy Creek HQ. It’s on Google Maps and just a few hundred meters of pavement, from there you will be redeployed to where you are needed the most! There is room for both arrestable and non-arrestable positions at camp. Come self-sufficient.

For updates, follow the Fairy Creek Blockade here.

There are 47 Comments

**throws some newspaper boxes in the street**

1)500 hammers and 50,000 3 inch nails are legal cheap tools.
2)A steel punch drives the final part of the head of the nail below the surface of the tree's bark thereby making it difficult to locate and remove.
3)Chainsaws do not function when they encounter metal things.

These days folk who can drive a nail straight in with a hammer are fewer in the 21st century than in the 20th and 19th, however a nail gun costing a little bit more could do a better and faster job. Also, green activists are usually not from the construction or tradesman blue collar or working classes and are likely to do more injury to themselves with a nail-gun, or even a hammer lol.
Howeve If there is one multi-talented anarch artiste type good with their hands I'm sure this person, with a nail gun, assuming they are firing 1 nail every 10 seconds including reloading and walking to next tree, could in a 24 hr period sink in 8,640 nails.

Also, assuming 4 nails per tree for good lateral spread, this would involve 2, 640 trees per day approx.

you don't have to nail every tree, the threat of spiked trees is the deterrent as the loggers can't know if a tree is spiked or not

Somehow I don't get how's this an efficient tactic, since you need a lot of nails in every tree in order to make sure that chainsaws will hit a nail. I just doubt the mathematical probability of it.

But camps involving tree-sitting and forest barricades have shown some relatively good results over the decades, and are better for socializing and having fun in the forest. Beyond that, not sure this is the best site for discussing the more effective tactics.

it's not about the chainsaws ya doofus. why don't you ask questions if you don't know?

it's about processing the tree at the mill later: its monetary value is severely damaged by even the whisper of a threat of a nail lurking in there somewhere, even tho there was only ever one incident of economic sabotage causing serious injury to a mill worker.

fucks with that bottom dollar. POW, right in the capitalist nutsack

The wood from a retailer,

not sure why you wanna fuck with trees.

.... again, if you don't understand, then ask questions

Hitting capitalists in the nutsack is what we should be doing!

then why throw shade?

didnt say anything about "fucking with trees", was explaining the history of tree spiking
are you just an abrasive person? :)

Oh, so its all about having fun, getting stoned and getting laid huh? We forest anarchs LOVE OUR TREES and spiking every tree makes sure that when loggers get metal detectors, if every tree is spiked 4 times, it would take sooo long to remove or make it possible to cut down a tree that it would not become economically feasable. Why isn't this the best site? If you're frightened go to church!

long run. I've thought a lot about "fucking the system", to "end the destruction", and came to the conclusion that there isn't anything more threatening than murdering someone.

Think about it, what's more costly: a dead body or two on a lumber site, or a little bit of "wasted" time? Employees don't care about wasted time, the more they sit around and wait, the more coins they put in their pocket. What's the deal with assuming that screwing with a single lumber mill is going to end the chopping of trees? Society isn't just one capitalist.

Insurance is the death of long term vandalism, and there's enough capital to hire security guards.

you can't eat wood. What makes lumberjacks so important as enemies? These comments are making way less sense than what the groups in the article are doing. Should we just go out and kill farmers, or fuck with farmland? You morons need to actually try doing something with your hands to understand why you can't fuck with capitalism by "attacking the system".

I'll disregard that last debatable sentence, and agree that logging ain't the most crucial frontline of eco-struggle, or at least shouldn't be. If you really want to understand why it's such a big deal, it's due to the liberal activism that's been occurring on the island and elsewhere in posh areas of the West Coast. Logging in fact ain't the most devastating industry, as unless there's some really shitty tree planting going (which is often the case tho) the ecosystems at least got a (tiny) chance to regrow.

Real estate sprawls, on the other hand, represents a long-term annihilation of ecosystems, wider fucking up with wildlife's patterns, while at the same time supporting/being supported by an energetically-demanding tech grid, based on cars and telecoms. The ridiculous liberal attempts at "eco-friendly" houses are nothing but more capitalist greenwashing, as even when they're really as such, the whole aspect of the way land is more widely impacted by this tech grid is left out of the picture.

So I don't wanna say this anti-logging resistance is pointless. But like with SHAC back in the days, this was pretty obvious that this struggle was way too focused on a single antagonist and failed at addressing a much wider systemic problem, that is still around today.

the last sentence was in response to comments erased without a clear reason, and the fact that certain user of this website prefers psychological attack rather than actually thinking about the implications of being an anarchist. It's not some "left solidarity" bullshit, it's taking your life back, not believing carte-blanche what somebody tells you, seeing things as they are instead of submitting to self-sacrifice for the future...

Yeah, the systemic problem of building houses with wood rather than out of steel and petro-chemical industrial derived materials. Its ironic, but cutting down trees is more green than making sheet cladding and laminated polycarbonate furniture.

none of it is 'green'. the systemic problem is growth, period. we don't need to cut down any more trees, nor do we need to forge steel or make plastic. we need ween off our consumption by re-using and re-purposing what we have already taken from the planet instead of mindlessly consuming more and then we need to stop. stop and rethink our relationships to the natural world. to actually become a partner in our relationships to the earth and all of life. and yes, i know that most of the the 8 billion of us on the planet do not have the political or cultural will to do this on the scale needed to really address the problems (so-called green new deals just mean more extraction and consumption). but we can still each find this relationship for ourselves and fight for what we know to be right. we can practice harm reduction, self defense and love. find who/what you love, care for it/them and defend it/them. it doesn't matter if we 'win', for this is where we will find meaning and our truest selves. de-growth (collapse) will happen whether we plan for it or not. much love to the forest defenders, see you in the woods.

so how exactly would NOT "focus[ing] on a single antagonist" help a struggle not to fail? i'm genuinely asking.

in my experience, the more people try to use systemic analysis while discussing the what-to-do, the more the enemy is everywhere and nowhere, leading to even more scattered and incoherent efforts.

put another way, how is it even possible to resist without "focus[ing] on a single antagonist"? at least, temporarily?

not to be too churlish, but these kinds of discussions point to a noticeable dearth of strategic thinking among anarchists, especially strugglistas. most anarchist system analyses lead to a notoriously parochial solipsism coupled with arrogance and misanthropy. is it any wonder that most anarchists are insufferable bores (and boors)?

I don't mind some churlishness but fuck you for not bothering to address the question in any meaningful way! a thousand times, fuck you sir, madam or preferred pronoun! keating like a muhfucker, etc

why is it my responsibility -- or by your implication, my *obligation*! -- to address the question (presumably you mean strategy)? i refuse to consider myself a strategist, unlike the thousand other anarchists who roam the streets and forests filled with self-assurance and self-importance -- and who, like me, have virtually nothing to show for it. clearly i am not keating; nowhere did i mention soap, stink, sandboxes, subcultures, weenies, or enlisted people...

System, being an egoist is the first step. Then there are antagonists and those who childishly step on your toes.

Do not oppose egoism as a part of humanity, it only leads to masochism. Reclaim your place as a semi-nihilistic animal.

We’d like to discuss your thoughts on these and other matters. Call in to AnarchyRadio, Tuesdays between 7-8PM PST, 541-346-0645.

Sincerely,

Your fans at AnarchyRadio

It’s one of the last intact old growth forests on Vancouver Island. You can’t replant an old growth forest. Vancouver island isn’t a cute little cartoon island that you can walk across in a few minutes. It’s bigger than Israel or Belgium or the state of Vermont, for example. Imagine if you lived in Israel or Belgium or Vermont and the last old growth forest was going to be cut down. Plenty of people are outraged at the stupidity and senselessness. Lots of eco anarchists in these parts, so of course some of them and their friends are there protesting. But also Indigenous activists and elders, radical ecologists, liberal reformists, etc

. It’s more like a single point that encompasses indigenous reoccupation of traditional territories and life way knowledge, a rejection of the managing and control of the ‘commons’ by the market and the state, ecological struggles, the betrayal of liberal-leftists by a social democratic government, it even encompasses a sort of anger around feelings of spiritual and aesthetic emptiness...

all of which is rather ...pretty thoughts? currently colliding at speed with the reality of state violence.

those people in uniforms with very ugly thoughts! poetry don't work on them.

You think that people within a region, from various political outlooks, coming together and using direct action and other resistance strategies, to try and protect an ancient and important ecosystem in their area from industrial plunder and destruction, sanctioned by a social democratic government no less, is merely poetry?

Knowing several of the people involved I can say for a fact that this isn’t a single issue for them, it’s where they’ve chosen to prioritize their energy at this time.

For me these types of actions dwarf urban activism in their depth and breadth. You seem to think it’s just pointless, naive hippieism. I see them as the types of starting points that build a foundation for the possibility of regional cultures that value long term goals, community resistance, a sense of purpose, connections to the past ( through the indigenous elders who are there) and future ( because there is an inherent care for a viable future), autonomous efforts ( outside unions and parties), etc,

easy now weird ... if you want to know what I meant, you could ask instead of leaping to those hostile conclusions there?

but yes, a certain degree of naivete has been on display in fairy creek imo, which is typical of the "moralsuasion" meets the guns and brute force story that anyone who's been around activism for awhile is familiar with.

no more or less naivete than I tend to see in the cities, for that matter. perhaps that's just your bias?

most contemporary lefty progressive folks from the environmental movement have some version of this problem with their praxis. what does being peaceful even mean when you have almost no capacity to actually defend yourself?

poetry is the only thing that works on them. poetry is the only thing that has ever worked.

yeah, way to flex on behalf of poets lol

look, I meant these people are well intentioned and I admire that ok? I'm not dismissing the validity of this struggle

it's just that sending "poets" in to battle is an especially sick and cruel thing to do and I've always hated certain activist dynamics for this shit. high minded ideas and little-to-no capacity or support for a real conflict. it's icky! always hard to watch.

tell us then where has an alternative “worked” better? where and when has a well prepared and trained and (insert all the great thing you think required) made things *better* to your satisfaction? i want to live there. we all do. you’re turning your nose up based on which success? is it lasting? has it lasted? in a thousand years when your atoms are floating over the ashes of what was once vancouver island will they think, “if only those *poets* had properly trained......”? critique is fun. we are so wise!

I'm not "turning my nose up" asshole. whoever hurt you can answer for your weird interpretations of what I wrote.

i'm just sick of watching people sleep walk in to completely one sided conflicts with the state. why wouldn't I be? these aren't even new critiques of activism, they're standard insurrectionary anarchist observations that date back to at least the 90s.

the ZAD was the obvious contemporary example, if your question was in good faith (which it wasn't) and a thousand other times thru history where blockades were a bit more fierce than this.

so you want to live in the world I'm talking about but you don't what to talk about how to get there? or am I just pissing you off in this particular moment?

you certainly were and always are. and then so quick to anger over actions and activities of others while holding all the answers yet never revealing them to the people like moses from the mountain.

which zad? nddl? was that a success? is that what you desire and is that acceptable? do you have any idea what you’re talking about?

how about “you show us how it’s done,” to use one of your catch phrases.

kisses

sure yeah, maybe I'm completely full of shit.

you'd have to do more than be snarky to find out, if you actually wanted to know ;)

i accept your apology.
moving on,
down the dark mountain

sigh! you know ... if we're not assuming I'm a clout chaser on @news (lol), saying things just to seem cool or whatever ...

then everything I said could easily be from a place of care. like, I don't like seeing people who just want to protect trees getting hurt by trained paramilitaries... stuff like that. it's another possibility

Which brings us back to the nail/hammer tactic. Sneak in at night in canoes, nailed-blitz 100 trees per night, then get out before sunrise. Do this on a continuously evolving plan using night-vision goggles etc.
Be fun also for the adrenaline junky activists amongst your friends.

logging equipment though, while the whole thing is going on with the blockades. It's NOT THAT HARD to destroy vehicles from the inside out, even add the tire slashing to utterly destroy the thing!

I heard from a friend a while back...that sugar in the gas tank...works. We're talking about nails in the trees to make the process more expensive, but what if you could fuck up the vehicles before the protesters get kicked off their newly claimed land???

1)Thanx for the reply Calvin, actually saw Myth Busters debunk the sugar in tank method, its the quantity required, not a cup or 2. Larger additives to tanks delay rather than destroy, could buy a few days of time for flushing fuel systems, but doesn't the engine or transmission. Water would be a big delay directly added through oil filler caps, tanks and transmission oil filler caps. Night goggles.
2)You've got big scary guard dogs in an enclosure! Tranquilizing dart guns or tranquilizer baited meat to put them to sleep.
3)Bolt cutters
4)Valve gring paste mixed with oil into pourable liquid placed into squìrting ketchup sauce dispensers for discreetly injecting into engine.
5)Stealthy departure leaving no trace of any entrance including repairing fence breach if it is obvious.
Regards--Dark Anarch Forest Prince

and destroy are practically the same, right?

I mean how many gaurd dogs vs. vehicles, don't dogs like food?

I feel like the dearth of "how to sabotage" manuals by anarchs is pretty big problem, wouldn't you say?? I mean there's just infinite...wow...i mean bombs, gasoline, shit, paint balloons, the list goes on...loosening lug nuts...psychological terrorism...

Your special forces tactics are of little use to Stirnerian Anarcho-Knights of the Realm.

You'll realize that a lot of these details will take just too long and the priority in doing any attack is fast & stealthy logistics. Wasting time on repairing a stupid fence is stupid. A real ninja does their task and vanishes without a fuss. By experience, the lighter and more volatile you are, the better. So avoid the loads of bulky equipment and gear. Like avoid the punky ripped clothing or the usual goretek black bloc crap... they'll be your worst enemy through a night forest.

Night goggles should help but the good ones are super expensive. Lotsa crappy gadgets made in China will be just more toxic waste.

Best tip on top... just quit being paranoid and stressing yourself up with absurd details, especially for low-intensity shit. I did so many of these nightly schizo trips to know that sometimes stuff in broad daylight can be way cooler and even attract some sympathizers if you're lucky.

Militaries got something anarchists don't, which is a chain of command (with all the related discipline, and training). If you don't want a chain of command, that's fine, but don't expect succeeding wih Special Forces tactics, that are meant for a specific organizational culture you likely don't have.

Oh, I was just making suggestions for the average newbie young green activist who is fresh out of a sheltered middle-class environment, which is what basically they all are and would only manage a modicum of success by taking all the bulky equipment. Also the fence repair task would satisfy their obsessìve compulsive tendencies they've acquired from their sheltered bourgeois upbringing.
I myself, as a Stirnerian lone wolf warrior would terrify the whole timber industry by walking straight in through the front gate having removed the entire face of the company's manager with a box-cutter the night before and worn it over my face, telling the guard at the gate that I would be working overtime and to go home.
No Hollywood-esque ninja fantasies which you suggest, not possible outside CGI special effects, but don't throw away your popcorn, you can eat it whilst fantasizing around the fire singing Kumbyah.

It doesn't really matter anymore, fish, insects and plankton will die and a global climate apocalypse will make a cleared patch of trees insignificant to the big picture of total toxic overload and plagues. Just enjoy whatever time you have left on this human capitalist ravaged planet.*scowls*

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