MATTOLE TREE-SIT BEING RAIDED

sunfox do not insult our local law enforcement by your stupidity. We have SHERIFF officers here in Humbolt not sherrifs as mentioned in your message. You need to understand that the trees you and your so called brothers are sitting in are not your trees. They belong to someone else. I understand a hired climber had to rescue one of the tree-sitters in the Mattole because he could not get back to his tree after being on a traverse. People such as yourself should be held accountable for for such dangerous actions encouraged by people engaged in illegal actions on private property. This young person said he was trained by someone on Friday to climb trees and Monday he had to rescued from a situation that could have killed him because of mis-information from people like yourself or jenny card. He also communicated other pertinent information that will be turned over to local law enforcement along with a vehicle license number ending with 552 Ford escort. You know who you are and we will find you.

Here is a brief bio of Maxxam's activities since their takeover of both Kaiser Aluminum and Pacific Lumber in the mid eighties..

KAISER ALUMINUM & CHEMICAL

300 Lakeside Dr., Oakland CA 94643
telephone 415-271-3300

Began as a construction company building roads in British Columbia, Canada in 1913; helped build the Bonneville, Grand Coulee, and Hoover dams in the 1930s and 1940s; built ships for World War. Got into aluminum by buying Tacoma, Washington and Baton Rouge, Louisiana plants sold by Alcoa because of anti-trust action. Kaiser Aluminum has operations in two dozen countries. Kaiser Permanente is a health-maintenance organization.

Kaiser was acquired by Maxxam in 1988. See entry for Maxxam.
Kaiser is one of the main producers of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

VALCO is a joint aluminum smelting operation formed between Kaiser and Reynolds Metals, powered by the Akosumbo dam on the Volta River in Ghana. Financed by the World Bank. The area inundated by the dam covers five percent of the country, and displaced 80,000 people (Earth Island Institute's International Dams Newsletter, v.2, n.1, 1987). VALCO (Volta Aluminum Company Ltd.) is owned 78 percent by Maxxam, 10 percent by Reynolds, and 12 percent by private interests; 80,000 people were relocated from 740 villages; the dam flooded 8,500 square kilometers; Ghana gave Valco low electric rates and numerous tax breaks; (Yao Graham, Drought Dims Ghana's Hydroelectric Power, World Rivers Review, Nov. 1995, p. 6-7; contact African Agenda, PO Box 94154, Yeoville 2198, Johannesburg, South Africa, afagenda [at] iaccess.za).

See Alpart (Jamaican bauxite joint venture).




MAXXAM

10880 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1600, Los Angeles CA 90024
telephone 213-474-6264

Run by Houston corporate raider Charles E. Hurwitz. Maxxam acquired Pacific Lumber in 1985 and Kaiser Aluminum in 1988. Scotia Pacific Holdings Company is a subsidiary (Wild Forest Review, Oct-Nov. 1995, p. 10).

In 1985, Maxxam took over Pacific Lumber for about $900 million. The takeover was partially financed with junk bonds through Drexel, Burnham, Lambert (Drexel Burnham's methods, and their employment of racketeer Michael Milken, led to DB's bankruptcy in 1990, and Milken's imprisonment). A New York Stock Exchange investigation of the takeover suggested insider trading, but no charges were filed. Maxxam avoids bankruptcy by liquidating the assets of the companies it buys -- in this case, 196,000 acres of the last of the redwood forests, owned by Pacific Lumber. Maxxam's CEO, Charles Hurwitz, also controlled the failed United Financial Group and United Savings Association of Texas; the FDIC has a $548 million outstanding claim against UFG. Hurwitz has proposed selling 4,500 acres of redwoods to the federal government for $600 million (Daly, Ned, "Ravaging the Redwoods: Charles Hurwitz, Michael Milken and the Cost of Greed," Multinational Monitor, Sept. 1994, p. 11-14). In August 1995, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation filed suit against Charles Hurwitz for $250 million in connection with the failure of the United Savings Association of Texas, which cost taxpayers more than $1.5 billion. According to the suit, Hurwitz liquidated funds from USAT, laundered them through Michael Milkin's firm Drexel Burnham Lambert, and used the money to finance the takeover of Pacific Lumber with junk bonds. Logging rates were tripled, assets were sold off, and the pension fund was liquidated to service the $750 million debt the takeover incurred. Deceptive financial reporting and corporate subsidiary shell games were played in order to cover up the arrangements (TAP-Resources, Aug. 10, 1995; Taxpayer Assets Project, PO Box 19367, Washington D.C. 20036). The Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment was inspired by the struggle against Maxxam, the owner of Pacific Lumber, which is cutting redwood trees, and Kaiser Aluminum, which replaced union Steelworkers with scabs (http://www.asje.org). December 1999 was the second anniversary of Julia Butterfly Hill's sitting 180 feet off the ground in a redwood tree in a grove which was not included in the $480 million state and federal government buyout of redwood trees held by Maxxam. For more information contact the Circle of Life Foundation, telephone (707)923-9522 or http://www.lunatree.org

Maxxam was on the Council on Economic Priorities' 1992 short list of worst environmental offenders, for its responsibility for 19 Superfund sites, its willful violations of occupational safety and health laws, and its releases of toxic chemicals (Mother Jones, Jan/Feb 1993; and the Earth Island Journal, Winter 1993, p. 20), and on its 1995 Worst Polluters List.

MAXXAM Bibliography:

Harris, David. 1995. The Last Stand: The War Between Wall Street And Main Street Over California's Ancient Redwoods. New York: Times Books.

Maxxam's Largest Investor Scolds Hurwitz. Earth First! Mar-Apr. 1997, p. 15. (California Public Employees' Retirement System (CALPERS), a $108 billion pension fund, owns $15 million in MAXXAM stock. Patricia Macht, spokewoman for CALPERS, warned MAXXAM of the public outcry and potential legislative backlash from failure to save the Headwaters redwood forest. Three school employee unions -- California School Employees Association, California Federation of Teachers, and Faculty Association of California Community Colleges -- have gone on record in suuport of the Clinton administration proposal to acquire 60,000 acres of mostly cutover MAXXAM timberland -- nearly ten times the proposed 7,500 acre Headwaters preserve).

Morose, Hugh. Logging, Landslides and Lawsuits: Headwaters Forest vs. Pacific Lumber. Earth First! Mar-Apr. 1997, p. 15. (February 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Marbled Murrelet v. Pacific Lumber, filed in 1992, affirmed F&WS ruling that habitat modification constitutes harm and harassment and an illegal taking of endangered species; discusses Clinton proposal to acquire the Headwaters forest; the state Sustained Yield Plan and federal Habitat Conservation Plan).



above from endgame.org

http://www.endgame.org/dtc/m.html


http://www.endgame.org/dtc/k.html


Theft of employee pensions by Maxxam indicates that worker rights are not their top priority. There were several hundred Pacific Lumber employees who initially protested and signed a petition opposing the takeover of Pacific Lumber by Maxxam..

Contract logging and helicopter logging (Columbia helicopter) are high risk jobs with little or no benefits, and definitely no labor union support. The IWW has expressed some interest in organizing loggers/truck drivers, but with contract logging this is very difficult..

http://www.iww.org/

Judi Bari was successful at bringing loggers, steelworkers (laid off from Kaiser after Maxxam's takeover) and environmentalists together unified in opposition to Maxxam. The Redwood Summer campaign saved old growth trees and let the world know about the destruction caused by Maxxam in Humboldt and elsewhere..

The car bomb that severely injured Judi and Darryl Cherney was a possible message and deterrent to activists that any effective activism could result in serious injury to the organizers. Justice for Judi Bari is still waiting in the winds..

All activists i have met in Humboldt and elsewhere love life and living on Earth. We don't want to risk our physical well being any more than anybody else, yet the calling for defense of our Mother Earth and all her living inhabitants is often too strong to ignore, even in the interest of self preservation..

The recent "suicides" and "accidents" that recently took the lives of activists (Gary Webb, Hunter Thomas, Joan Norman, etc..) could also be dismissed as coincidence, yet the probability seems a bit high to deny..

Neo-conservatives like Charles Hurwitz possess a powerful grip on the lives of many people in Humboldt County and elsewhere. The Bush-Hurwitz cabal is capable of anything, so we all need to watch our collective backs and keep on struggling..

luna moth

Maybe I'll have to contact a few of my black bear friends again. They did a pretty good job of cleaning you out of the trees a couple of months ago. What is the matter, you stand up to Palco and Maxxam but can't handle a visit by my cousins. Too funny

well its just another victory for the Mattole! Cant touch this!

Betis avoided a citizens arrest ! You got away this time Tricky! Im waiting with the paperwork in hand.What ARRGH you gonna do now?Are you going to run down another forest defender with the chevy truck PL issued to you?Your number has been called.....

don't let that paper work burn a hole in your hands. I'm easy to find. Either put-up or shut-up.

Well you and your Sherrifs, are behaving like goons. Hope thats not to insulting. As for your idle threats.... No one is afraid. And as far as getting arrested goes. Thats why we're there, to get arrested..... So bring it on :)


Rise up in Defense of mother earth
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Freshwater_Treesit/

I appreciate that there are people trying to halt Maxxams destruction of the forest that was stolen from the indigenous Mattole people. However I think forest defenders need to find some restraint when and not be baited by stupid comments made by pro-PL people.

Hey sunnyfox have you been to the mattole to see the beautiful stumps. Now you and your friends can clean up all the garbage you left in the trees and on the forest floor. It will be easier for you to clean the tree tops now since they are on the ground. Please call 616-7848 if you can help sunnyfox clean-up his mess.