From Independent Political Report:
The Mountain Party’s (the West Virginia affiliate of the Green Party) candidate for US Senate Jesse Johnson participated today in an anti-mountaintop removal protest at the White House. More than 100 people were arrested at the protest in an act of civil disobedience, although Johnson does not appear to be one of them. Continue Reading
The Northern Virginia Green Party will launch its new Internet Radio Show Thursday, the 29th, at 10 p.m. It is called NoVa Greens Talk and will feature Bo Webb, an anti-mountaintop removal activist. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nova_greens/2010/07/30/nova-greens-talk-ending-mountaintop-removal
Jesse Johnson of the West Virginia Mountain Party needs to raise $1,740 by today (Friday 23 July) to pay the filing fee to enter the race for US Senate as the candidate of the West Virginia Mountain Party, West Virginia’s state affiliate of Green Party US.
You can donate online at the jesse4ussenate facebook page.
Jesse Johnson is well known to many Greens for his 2008 bid for the Green Party’s presidential nomination. He has previously run for US Senate and twice for governor of West Virginia, receiving 4.5% of the vote in 2008 as well as the endorsements of the Sierra Club and the Citizens’ Action Committee. The West Virginia Mountain Party is WV’s only party that opposes mountaintop removal coal mining, which Johnson has called “ground zero for global climate change”.
Help us put a tireless fighter for the Earth on the ballot: donate to Jesse Johnson’s campaign now.
Recent Green Party candidate for New York City mayor Reverend Billy has been working with a coalition of activists to pressure JP Morgan Chase to stop financing mountaintop removal mining. Rev. Billy declared victory yesterday in an email to supporters:
Chase bank officials agreed at their annual shareholder meeting to stop underwriting the strip-mining called “Mountaintop Removal (MTR).” Less than two years ago, the bank managed a $690 million bond offering with the top MTR mining company, Massey Energy.
Most environmental orgs, including Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and the Sierra Club, joined citizens’ coalitions, including “Alliance for Appalachia” as well as activists willing to block gates and tree-sit – our friends at “Climate Ground Zero.” RAN pressured the bank from within, buying shares and agitating at annual meetings, including the most recent meeting on May 18, 2010.
In New York, we at the Life After Shopping Church sculpted “mountains in lobbies” in branch banks throughout the city. This is the practice of leaving little peaks of damaged West Virginia mountain soil in front of ATMs with information sheets that describe the impact of MTR.
Our YouTube video of activist-customers closing their accounts while informing bank officers of the cancer, asthma and heart ailments among those who live in the valleys below MTR operations was a hit on the Net. Continue Reading