By Karen Pickett, Scott Parkin, and Bob Buzzanco - Green and Red, May 22, 2024
On May 24, 1990, a car bomb ripped through environmental and IWW labor organizer Judi Bari's car nearly killing her and her comrade Darryl Cherney. Bari and Cherney were part of Earth First's Headwaters campaign and had fought long and hard to stop clear-cutting redwood forests in Northern California by ravenous timber companies. They were organizing a campaign that summer called "Redwood Summer" that had planned to do mass action against logging. The F.B.I. and the Oakland police immediately arrested Bari and Cherney as the culprits in their own bombing.
Judi Bari passed away from cancer in 1997. In 2002, Bari (posthumously) and Cherney won a $4.4 million lawsuit against the F.B.I. and the Oakland PD for violating their civil rights. May 24 is now an official holiday in the city of Oakland.
In our latest episode, we talk with Earth First! organizer Karen Pickett (@KP4redwoods), a close friend and comrade of Bari and Cherney, about Earth First!, the Northern California timber wars, Judi Bari's role as environmental and labor organizer, the bombing and the subsequent lawsuit.