The news resounded among the thousands fighting the monstrous mining project near the Wolf River in northeastern Wisconsin: Exxon Minerals Corporation has sold its share of the Crandon Mining Company to Rio Algom Corporation for $17.5 million. Exxon's divestment is a qualified but important victory in the 23-year-old campaign against the mine. Exxon Corporation has been the lead on this project every time it has come up for a permit, and Exxon has been the primary rallying point for anti-mining forces.

Now Exxon has departed the fray and abandoned its 44-million-ton toxic waste dump at the headwaters of the Wolf River to its lesser known (but equally revolting) corporate ally, Rio Algom Corporation of Toronto, Ontario.

Grassroots environmental efforts across Wisconsin have forced Exxon out of the state. A recent poll taken by the St. Paul Pioneer Press stated that only 26 percent of Wisconsinites support this project. Likewise, groups across the state, including grassroots ecological organizations, numerous labor union and regional labor federations, county boards, city councils and tribal organizations have supported a strong Mining Moratorium Bill to disallow new metallic sulfide mining until a company proves a safe record - 10 years of operation with no acid leakage at a similar mine. The bill has widespread support and has made it through a number of hurdles.

It was first passed in the state Senate by a vote of 29-3 last spring. In the House, last minute maneuvering resulted in an amendment that attempted to define pollution in a very vague manner, thereby taking the moratorium out of the bill. Let's just say that people across Wisconsin were outraged.

As the newly gutted bill headed back to the Senate for a final vote, activists got on the phones and started a storm of protest. On February 2, some 70 people from a dozen Wisconsin communities assembled outside the House chamber and began a 12-hour occupation of the Capitol.

Throughout the day, protesters maintained a vigilant watch on the goings-on in the halls of marble, sang a half dozen versions of "Solidarity Forever" and redecorated the west wing of the Capitol. A two-hour sit-in disrupted the office of State Representative Marc Duff, chair of the Assembly's "Environment" Committee and principal gutter of the Mining Moratorium Bill. Representative Duff, by the way, is the genius who uttered the following, splayed across front pages statewide: "I would hope that my fellow representatives would not vote with the majority, but with their colleagues on this one."

Late in the afternoon of the protest, gubernatorial candidate Ed Garvey, a populist and a labor lawyer representing the town of Nashville against the Crandon Mine, stopped by to say, "If I'm Governor, mark my words, there will be no Crandon Mine."

As the day wore on, news arrived on two fronts: First, the Capitol police informed the assembled crowd that they would be subject to arrest at 6 p.m., normal closing time for the Capitol complex; second, some hours later, protesters found out that the Senate leadership had decided to vote on the Mining Moratorium Bill a week and a half earlier than it had been scheduled.

The next day, the Senate altered the amendment to close the loopholes in the bill. Then they passed it, sent it back to the Assembly where it was approved and forwarded to Governor "Toxic Tommy" Thompson. Toxic Tommy is hinting that he'll sign the bill, for he says, "the people want it."

Future actions in opposition to toxic mining include Earth Day actions and a march from Lake Superior to the state Capitol set to begin May 29.

For more information, contact Midwest Headwaters Earth First!, 731 State St., Madison, WI 53711; (608) 255-8765.

In the aftermath of last year's EF! RRR, the trials of the Crandon 29 began March 11. Letters of support are appreciated and donations are welcomed. Send checks to the EF! July 7 Support Committee at the address above.