In the long history of the destruction of British Columbia's rainforest, one of the more offensive timber industry practices is the export of raw, unprocessed logs to foreign buyers, mainly Japan. While the government fools the public about the health of the forests in BC, the industry exports massive quantities of wood, cutting back its labour force and blaming it on high taxes and overly rigorous environmental protection. To highlight the hypocrisy, activists from the Forest Action Network (FAN) and People's Action for Threatened Habitat (PATH) joined forces for a month-long series of protests and actions targeting raw log exports in the province.
1998 had been a quiet year for direct action in Vancouver, but that all changed on the morning of October 28 when activists approached the ship Oriente Victoria at Ballantyne Pier in Vancouver as it was loading raw logs bound for Japan. Two small, inflatable motor boats called zodiacs and the FAN vessel Starlet approached a floating boom and displayed banners reading, "Log Exports = Job Exports," and "Stop Raw Log Exports," while speaking to workers. Although we had decided not to prevent work in any way, company supervisors acted aggressively, playing "chicken" with one zodiac by dropping logs over its bow and sides, trying to scare it away. Undaunted, the crew held its position alongside the logs, speaking to the longshoreman and winning support from them both for their courage and the truth of their position. After several hours on the water we returned to our base, promising to return soon.
Our return came less than 48 hours later as the ship prepared for its departure. In the previous two days we had decided to escalate our activities and attempt to stop the logs from leaving the port. As FAN activists approached the vessel, Barney Kern of PATH scaled the bow line of the Victoria and hung himself and his banner between the shore and the ship, effectively stopping it from leaving. Within 30 minutes the ship had been immobilized and sloganized. Barney held the bow line throughout the day, until police moved in and arrested him around 5 p.m. Once again, support from workers was good, with tug boat operators giving us the thumbs up and sailors waving and laughing. Company officials were once again hostile, attempting to cut off our boats as we escorted the ship out of the harbour. Luckily, the maneuverability of our zodiacs proved too much for their aggressive charges, and we headed back to base as night fell across the water.
Until this point, no work had been stopped, though our message had been presented in a variety of ways. Media coverage had been good, but we had still not prevented any logs from being loaded, and so we decided to take the next logical step and put ourselves between the logs and ships. But activists began to drift off and interest waned during the ensuing two weeks while we waited for the next ship. Finally, our ship came in--two actually, the Royal Forest and the Oriente Grace, the sister ship of our initial target.
We hit the water on November 19 intent on stopping the loading for at least three hours. At 10:15 a.m. we headed across Vancouver harbour at top speed (giving ferry passengers a pretty unique morning sight!). Within minutes we had arrived at the Orient Grace, and five activists armed with golf shoes and body banners jumped aboard the logs. While the longshoremen were on their break we occupied the logs, taking up positions directly under the cranes and assessing where they would attempt to load first. No opposition was voiced by any of the workers, and activists allowed them to hook lines to the logs, climbing aboard as soon as the logs were attached. Tense moments followed as the ship foremen ordered the crane operators to bring the logs up and the lines under the logs tightened beneath and around us. One activist used this moment to climb up the sling lines onto the crane hook itself, forcing the issue even further. No one else moved. Despite the forceful orders of the foremen to lift the logs, the crane operators threw up their hands in defeat and climbed down from their towers. We had succeeded in immobilizing one ship! While two activists remained under the cranes, speaking to workers and sharing jokes and cookies, the zodiacs zoomed to ship two.
The Royal Forest had been loading while we immobilized the Oriente Grace, and as we arrived the crane lifted one lot of logs into the air. With monkey-like agility, an activist ran across the logs and used a line hanging down the side of the ship to climb 50 feet onto the deck and into the hold! By getting under the logs about to be dropped into the hold, the activist forced the crane operator to return the logs to the water. Two other activists had succeeded in immobilizing the second and third cranes. In under 45 minutes we had forced both ships to cease operating, discovering in the process that this was the maiden voyage of the Royal Forest! What a baptism! Let's hope it's a sign of things to come. Attempts by the police to fool us off the logs by reading an invalid injunction failed, and at 4:30 p.m. we were still in place! By law, workers cannot load raw logs after dark so they headed home, happy to be paid for a day of sitting around, talking and drinking tea provided by Starlet. We followed soon after, wet, cold and tired but ready to hit the logs the next morning.
Friday morning turned out to be the most intense day yet. We had reached an agreement with the longshoremen that we would not show up until 8:30 a.m. so they would be clocked in and receive at least half a day's pay. When we arrived at around 8:40 we discovered that the shipping company had sacrificed the loading of the Royal Forest and used the log booms adjacent to it to block our entrance to the slip! There was no way for our boats to get us near the Oriente Grace, and they were loading as we watched. Within minutes we were pulling a zodiac (less an engine) across the logs towards the blocked off area. As soon as we neared the inner harbour, a tug boat charged at us, and a company official jabbed a log pick at our boat, puncturing the zodiac's front chamber. He then attempted to tie us to the tug. Despite our entreaties that this was a nonviolent protest, the thug continued to wrestle with us and our equipment, even as his compatriots walked away from the scene saying they wanted nothing to do with him. After a 15-minute struggle, six of us managed to pull the boat away from this lunatic and into the slip, giving us access to the logs. Against a strong wind, three activists paddled for the logs as the ship foremen waited on the booms with their log picks pointing directly at us. As we neared the booms one of the foremen stabbed at our boat but was prevented from doing any damage by activist Texas Joe, who grabbed the pole and put himself between its spike and the boat. As this was happening a second company hack stabbed our port air chamber, giving us no choice but to get on the logs as we now had an unusable boat! Two amazing things happened as we crawled out of our rapidly deflating zodiac onto the logs. First, motivated by the struggle, two of our fellow activists jumped in the water and swam to the booms in near-freezing water to join us. Second, the longshoremen walked off the job, leaving no one to load the wood. Suddenly there were five activists and two angry company representatives on the booms. Sensing their disadvantage, the reps retreated to the ship, leaving us alone on the booms, successful in our attempt to stop the ships from loading. Since we had no means of retreat we settled in and prepared to stay the day. At one point, a representative from the union local came down and expressed his support.
We had exceeded our own expectations by over a day and a half of activities, won worker and union support, cost the company a lot of money and sent a clear message that our will to stop them was stronger than theirs to continue. All of this happened without one arrest, preparing us for our final act of 1998--a 1,000-kilometer drive north to stop them in Bella Coola, home of FAN and heart of the Great Bear Rainforest.
During the actions we had been informed that the company was sending supervisors to Bella Coola in order to load logs. One of these same supervisors had been overheard declaring how happy he was he wouldn't have to deal with "any of those Vancouver protesters." On Sunday night a vanful of activists left Vancouver, arriving in Bella Coola late the next day. Within two days a Franken-zodiac had been constructed from spare parts lying around, a small engine, a skiff and other essential items, found and borrowed.
The next morning we attacked. As one skiff was drawing the attention of the crew in a slow paddle towards the ship's port side, the Franken-zod pulled up to the ship and an activist climbed aboard the stern line. He was quickly lowered down by the ship crew, but fast action by the zodiac crew got the boat positioned underneath him. He climbed up again and was lowered again. While the captain of the boat was hemorrhaging in apoplectic rage, screaming at us full-lung, another activist pulled alongside the stern line and, after our climber was lowered for a third time, attached herself and the skiff to the line. A local motor vessel joined the fray, and two men wielding knives and acting very aggressively slashed at the banner we had attached to the line and attempted to cut and pry the boat off the line. Water cannons were brought out, and the activists were sprayed, but we held our ground and refused to budge. A tense standoff continued through the remainder of the day until police moved in and arrested us as dusk approached. Once again we had succeeded in interfering substantially in the raw log export trade. Notice has now been served to the irresponsible and greedy timber exporters of this province--activists in BC will continue standing up until the destruction of our world's last rainforests comes to an end.
Thanks to all who participated and to Greenpeace for the loans! The Forest Action Network and People's Action for Threatened Habitat intend to keep things busy this year--contact us in '99 for activity info! Save the Great Bear Rainforest! Get a life, hug a tree!
Forest Action Network, POB 625, Bella Coola, BC VOT 1CO; (250) 299-5800; fax 799-5830; fanbc@envirolink.org; www.fanweb.org. People's Action for Threatened Habitat, POB 19596, Vancouver, BC, V5T 4E7; (604) 255-4454.