Direct Actions Shut Down Multiple Mountain Valley Pipeline Construction Sites

Report from Appalachians Against Pipeline on continued direct actions against the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Originally posted to social media. 

Direct actions have shut down multiple Mountain Valley Pipeline construction sites. At one location, three people have locked down to construction equipment and are joined by a large group of supporters. A second site high up on so-called Peters Mountain has been taken over by pipeline resisters, with one person locking down.

With all levels of the federal government colluding to try and push forward this disastrous pipeline project, direct action is our only chance to stop it. Join us on the frontlines by filling out our intake form aapsolidarity.org. And donate to support resistance here.

We are also taking action today to name the connection between MVP, and the genocide unfolding in Gaza.

MVP boasts that they would supply fracked gas to several major U.S. military installations, including the Pentagon and the Radford Army Ammunition Plant in Virginia. The plant is operated by BAE Systems, a British weapons corporation that supplies Israel with white phosphorus munitions, fighter jets, and other weapons that are being used to murder Palestinians.

We must stop MVP and we must Free Palestine.

“Violence on the earth begets violence on human beings,” stated Tara Houska, who is locked to construction equipment today. “We must do all we can to heal our relationship, our hearts with nature and with one another. End apartheid. Free Gaza. Stop Mountain Valley Pipeline. There are no sacrifice zones.”

Local resident Crystal Mello spoke about the impacts to Appalachian land and community: “My neighbors’ lives are on the line. The blast range from the pipeline is very far reaching; it can incinerate homes, farms, communities, even the local fire department. The company itself, Mountain Valley Pipeline, has already self-reported over 100 instances of the pipeline shifting through slips and landslides. In virtually every place with construction, you can see signs of permit violations. I understand why people choose to take direct action.”

Another person who is locked to equipment today stated: “I am in this fight against the MVP pipeline and for Indigenous sovereignty because all struggles are deeply linked and I believe in the collective project of building the world we want. A world with no prisons and no cops, where everyone has access to clean water, where we can trust that the air we breathe will not make us sick, where our systems are designed around care and not profit. This is a world where Palestine is free, and we are not loyal to violent nation-states but rather to each other.”

Today’s action highlighted the connection between MVP, the military industrial complex, and the massacare happening in Gaza. MVP would ship fracked-gas to the Pentagon and fuel multiple military bases as well as the Radford Army Ammunition Plant in Virginia. The plant is operated by BAE Systems, a British weapons corporation that supplies Israel with white phosphorus munitions, fighter jets, and other weapons that are being used to murder Palestinians.

We will continue taking action for the land, for the mountains, for Palestine, and for all of people impacted by colonization and climate change.

Join Us.