From: Sam Law <walmas@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 4, 2012 at 11:49 AM
Subject: [Shaleshock] Report Back and Call out for Solidarity from Riverdale Mobile Home Park Blockade
Hey Fractivists and Friends,
I'm writing you this email to let you know about an amazing opportunity to confront the fracking industry and show them that they cannot target our communities without serious opposition. Today, I drove down to Jersey Shore, PA where Aqua America is trying to forcibly displace residents of the Riverdale Mobile Home Park to make way for a new 3 million gallon a day water withdrawal plant, crucial infrastructure for the Pennsylvania hydraulic fracturing industry. For four days, about 40 residents and allies are have been blockading the entrances to the community, fighting the construction that threatens to raze their community and they need our help!
The residents are demanding that Aqua America permit them to remain in their homes, give them the right to return if they have already left and give them full compensation for moving and other costs. Lawyers from the community will be meeting with Aqua America tomorrow to arrange a settlement, so it is crucial that we put pressure on Aqua America right away. Never has it been more clear that gas industry's promises of economic growth has a monstrous flipside and that hardworking communities will be destroyed for the profit of a few.
More information about circumstances leading up to the present situation can be found at Saveriverdale.com or ecowatch.org.
The Riverdale Mobile Home Park is a hive of activity. Residents are working on figuring out the logistics and legal implications of the barricades that are currently set up. Volunteers from across Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York are also here some for the day, others camping out. They are working on running security for the community, working with the media, exploring legal avenues for defending the community, maintaining the website and being on hand in case people are needed to take action to block construction vehicles from entering the community.
Solidarity is urgently needed. This could take a variety of forms. The most help people could be is to come down here, meet members of the community, and stay for as long as they can. People who are willing to take principled moral action and risk arrest are strongly encouraged to come down. The strength of the camp relies in maintaining the numbers of people who are here and as volunteers leave to go home, more people, in both arrestable and non-arrestable roles, will be needed to replace them. Riverdale is only 2.5 hours away from Ithaca and extremely close for others in the Southern Tier. As one of the first mobilizations in what promises to be a summer of action, Riverdale Mobile Trailer Home Park is a flashpoint, sending a strong message across the region that people will not stand by as fracking infrastructure destroys our communities.
If you can't come down there are still ways to help! You can organize solidarity actions, attend the Susquehanna Riverwater Basin Commission meeting June 7th in Binghampton, donate money or spread awareness. Donations to the bail fund can be made through WePay. You can keep up to date with the status of campaign by visiting the website or liking it on Facebook or following it on Twitter. You can also forward this email to other relevant list serves.
in solidarity,
Sam Law
Summer Coordinator
Shaleshock Citizens Action Alliance
--
May you, and all beings
be happy and free from suffering :)
-- ancient Buddhist Prayer (Metta)
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