Press Release

July 3, 2002

Contact: Dave Cooper, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition at 304-522-0246

Bush July 4th visit to Ripley, W. Va. sparks protests

Citizens seek independence from corporate control of government

RIPLEY, W.Va. - Some West Virginians want to declare independence from the tyranny of the coal industry - which results in mountaintop removal and other abuses - and they'll be on hand at the Ripley Fourth of July celebration to let President Bush know that. They'll be joined by people from surrounding states who also want to see an end to the erosion of environmental laws and civil liberties brought on by the corporate domination of the American political landscape.

"Here in West Virginia, as elsewhere across our nation, corporations are running roughshod over democracy," said Dave Cooper, an organizer with the Huntington, W.Va.-based Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC). "Coal companies drive people from their homes when they blow up our mountaintops, raze the most biologically diverse temperate forests on earth, and then illegally dump the rubble into our streams. Bush is rewarding coal companies and other corporate lawbreakers by attacking environmental laws and civil liberties left and right."

The protestors plan to assemble near the United National Bank in Ripley at 8:15 a.m. and walk into downtown Ripley. Protest organizers expect participants from several West Virginia towns and cities, as well as from Pittsburgh, and Marietta and Athens, Ohio.

"President George W. Bush takes millions of campaign dollars from executives of Enron and other corporate criminals who steal billions from citizen investors and workers' pension funds," said Frank Young of Ripley. "Bush should be apologizing instead of pandering for political support from the very victims of his corporate political machine. His obviously political appearance in my hometown on this day of liberty is an affront to political decency."

"With the love of this land comes the vigilance that Jefferson, Franklin, and the signers of the Declaration of Independence warned us to uphold. Veterans stood their ground to defend our liberty," said Chuck Wyrostok, an OVEC member. "Today huge multinational corporations that wouldn't stand up for the USA in a dog fight instead chip away at our civil liberties by duping our leaders into signing global treaties that override American sovereign laws.

"Just down the road from Ripley, in the little town of Spencer, we already have lost over 400 jobs to NAFTA," Wyrostok added. "Bush and his corporate funders want more of the same, shamelessly moving forward with the corporate-driven agenda, despite the fraudulent corruption within Enron, Cheney's Halliburton, WorldCom and so many others."

"The Fourth of July is the day we celebrate, not so much the birth of a new nation, but the birth of the idea that the people should rule - all the people," said Mary Wildfire, another activist with OVEC. "Lately, it's the corporate 'persons' who rule, and they're doing a terrible job of it. The Bush-Cheney-Ashcroft troika is threatening civil liberties in a way that demands we speak up."

For more information

--On mountaintop removal: 
www.ohvec.org;

 --On corporate control of democracy and globalization:
www.globalexchange.org
www.opensecrets.org
www.poclad.org
www.citizenworks.org www.empoweringdemocracy.org;www.grannyd.com www.tradewatch.org

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