Judi Bari
Encyclopedia
Judi Bari was an American
environmentalist
and labor leader, a feminist, and the principal organizer of Earth First! campaigns against logging
in the ancient redwood forests of Northern California
in the 1980s and '90. She also organized efforts through Earth First! - Industrial Workers of the World
Local 1 to bring timber workers and environmentalists together in common cause.
traveled through Oakland, California
, on their way to Santa Cruz. Bari and Cherney were on an organizing tour for "Redwood Summer
", a campaign of nonviolent protests focused on saving redwood forests in Northern California and building connections with loggers through the IWW.
When the Oakland police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) immediately accused Bari and Cherney of knowingly carrying a bomb for use in an act of terrorism
, the story made headlines nationwide. Bari's supporters pointed out that the explosive was a pipe bomb packed with nails for shrapnel effect, and that it was equipped with a motion trigger to ensure that it would explode only when the car was driven by Bari. The bomb was also placed directly under the driver's seat, not in the back seat or luggage area as it presumably would have been if Bari had been transporting it knowingly. After seven weeks of continual news stories citing repeated police claims that all evidence pointed to Bari and Cherney as culprits, the District Attorney announced that he would not file any formal charges against the pair due to insufficient evidence against them.
The bomb closely resembled one that had been left outside a Louisiana Pacific lumber mill office in Cloverdale, CA. That bomb included a pipe bomb and a can of gasoline, but it misfired, failing to ignite and doing no damage. Bari denied any connection with the lumber mill bomb, which she suspected was placed specifically to frame her, as it was found next to a homemade sign saying "LP screws millworkers," which was something she would be expected to say.
The bomb in Oakland on May 24 also closely resembled "crime scenes" fabricated by the FBI in a "bomb school" held in redwood country earlier that year. The FBI school was intended to train local and state police officers on how to investigate bomb scenes. The school taught that bomb explosions inside a vehicle were not likely to involve targets of bombing but indicated the knowing, criminal transportation of homemade bombs. This was said to be because it was difficult to break into a locked car to plant a bomb.
Bari had received numerous death threats citing her anti-logging activism in the weeks before the bombing. She had reported them to local police, and after the bombing Bari's attorney turned written threats over to the FBI for investigation. The local police and the FBI never investigated, court evidence later showed.
Just days after the bombing, while Bari was still in hospital, Mike Geniella of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat received a letter claiming responsibility for placing the bomb in Bari's car and at the Cloverdale L-P mill. It was written in a high-flown, biblical style and signed "The Lord's Avenger," who stated further that his or her motivation was Bari's defense of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Ukiah, California, during an anti-abortion protest. The letter also described the construction of the bombs in great detail. Some, including Bari and her friends, suspected at first that The Lord's Avenger was Bill Staley, a mill worker and religiously zealous man who had harassed the director of the Ukiah clinic, allegedly threatening to rape her and to blow up the clinic itself on several occasions. Bari later came to believe, however, that Staley was not responsible for the letter, which she felt was intended to sow confusion and throw people off the track of the true bomber.
In 2002, a jury in their federal civil lawsuit
exonerated Bari and Cherney by ordering four FBI agents and three Oakland Police officers to pay a total of $4.4 million to Cherney and to Bari's estate for violation of their First Amendment
rights to freedom of speech
and freedom of assembly
or to organize and for false arrest and unlawful search and seizure in violation of their Fourth Amendment
rights. Fully 80% of the damages were for the First Amendment violations. Bari died on March 2, 1997 of breast cancer
, five years before her exoneration.http://articles.sfgate.com/2002-06-11/news/17547153_1_fbi-agents-bari-and-cherney-verdict At trial the FBI and the Oakland Police pointed fingers at each other.
While neither would admit wrongdoing, the jury found both liable finding "both agencies admitted they had amassed intelligence on the couple before the bombing."http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/16/us/truth-is-still-elusive-in-1990-pipe-bombing.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm This evidence supported the jury's finding that both the FBI and the Oakland police persecuted Bari and Cherney for being bombed instead of trying to find the true perpetrators in order to discredit and sabotage Earth First!
and the upcoming Redwood Summer
, thereby violating their First Amendment
rights and justifying the large award. Simply, instead of looking for the actual terrorists, they persecuted the victims of that terror because of their political activism.
The story of the case and the trial inspired an award winning documentary movie, The Forest For The Trees. The film, which aired on PBS and the Sundance Channel, follows the case through the lead attorney, civil rights legend Dennis Cunningham, and is told by his daughter, Bernadine Mellis.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygu1-1slcHA Among the awards received was the Grand Prize at the Green Film Festival in Seoul. The late Howard Zinn
said, "the film itself is so inspiring I hope it will be seen widely."http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/fftt.html
Bari wrote many essays and articles and gave speeches, some of which she compiled into her book Timber Warshttp://www.amazon.com/dp/1567510264 (Common Courage Press, 1994).
In early 2005, a critical biography of Bari titled The Secret Wars of Judi Bari, by Kate Coleman, drew fierce condemnation from Cherney, Bari's estate, and their friends and supporters, who claimed hundreds of factual errors and a bias against Bari and Earth First! They also pointed out that the book was published by Encounter Books
, a non-profit publishing house founded by neoconservative Peter Collier and funded primarily by arch-conservative foundations not sympathetic to Bari's causes. Coleman presented speculation that Bari's ex-husband had planted the bomb in hopes of killing her and Cherney. A review of the book in the LA Times titled, Too many rumors, too few facts to examine eco-activism case, said, "the reporting is thin and sloppy, and the humdrum prose is marred by dubious speculation."
Bari was the daughter of mathematician Ruth Aaronson Bari
and sister of the New York Times science journalist Gina Kolata
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
environmentalist
Environmentalist
An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...
and labor leader, a feminist, and the principal organizer of Earth First! campaigns against logging
Logging
Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...
in the ancient redwood forests of Northern California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in the 1980s and '90. She also organized efforts through Earth First! - Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
Local 1 to bring timber workers and environmentalists together in common cause.
The Car Bombing
On May 24, 1990, Bari was severely injured by a pipe bomb which exploded in her car as she and fellow Earth First! member Darryl CherneyDarryl Cherney
Darryl Cherney is a musician and environmental activist. He is member of the Earth First! environmental movement. He lives in Humboldt County, California....
traveled through Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, on their way to Santa Cruz. Bari and Cherney were on an organizing tour for "Redwood Summer
Redwood Summer
Organized in 1990, Redwood Summer was a movement of environmental activism aimed at protecting old-growth Redwood trees from logging by northern California timber companies...
", a campaign of nonviolent protests focused on saving redwood forests in Northern California and building connections with loggers through the IWW.
When the Oakland police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI) immediately accused Bari and Cherney of knowingly carrying a bomb for use in an act of terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
, the story made headlines nationwide. Bari's supporters pointed out that the explosive was a pipe bomb packed with nails for shrapnel effect, and that it was equipped with a motion trigger to ensure that it would explode only when the car was driven by Bari. The bomb was also placed directly under the driver's seat, not in the back seat or luggage area as it presumably would have been if Bari had been transporting it knowingly. After seven weeks of continual news stories citing repeated police claims that all evidence pointed to Bari and Cherney as culprits, the District Attorney announced that he would not file any formal charges against the pair due to insufficient evidence against them.
The bomb closely resembled one that had been left outside a Louisiana Pacific lumber mill office in Cloverdale, CA. That bomb included a pipe bomb and a can of gasoline, but it misfired, failing to ignite and doing no damage. Bari denied any connection with the lumber mill bomb, which she suspected was placed specifically to frame her, as it was found next to a homemade sign saying "LP screws millworkers," which was something she would be expected to say.
The bomb in Oakland on May 24 also closely resembled "crime scenes" fabricated by the FBI in a "bomb school" held in redwood country earlier that year. The FBI school was intended to train local and state police officers on how to investigate bomb scenes. The school taught that bomb explosions inside a vehicle were not likely to involve targets of bombing but indicated the knowing, criminal transportation of homemade bombs. This was said to be because it was difficult to break into a locked car to plant a bomb.
Bari had received numerous death threats citing her anti-logging activism in the weeks before the bombing. She had reported them to local police, and after the bombing Bari's attorney turned written threats over to the FBI for investigation. The local police and the FBI never investigated, court evidence later showed.
Just days after the bombing, while Bari was still in hospital, Mike Geniella of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat received a letter claiming responsibility for placing the bomb in Bari's car and at the Cloverdale L-P mill. It was written in a high-flown, biblical style and signed "The Lord's Avenger," who stated further that his or her motivation was Bari's defense of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Ukiah, California, during an anti-abortion protest. The letter also described the construction of the bombs in great detail. Some, including Bari and her friends, suspected at first that The Lord's Avenger was Bill Staley, a mill worker and religiously zealous man who had harassed the director of the Ukiah clinic, allegedly threatening to rape her and to blow up the clinic itself on several occasions. Bari later came to believe, however, that Staley was not responsible for the letter, which she felt was intended to sow confusion and throw people off the track of the true bomber.
Civil Rights Trial
A year after the still unsolved bombing, Bari and Cherney filed a federal civil rights suit claiming that the FBI and police officers falsely arrested the pair and attempted to frame them as terrorists so as to discredit their political organizing in defense of the redwood forests.In 2002, a jury in their federal civil lawsuit
Civil law (common law)
Civil law, as opposed to criminal law, is the branch of law dealing with disputes between individuals or organizations, in which compensation may be awarded to the victim...
exonerated Bari and Cherney by ordering four FBI agents and three Oakland Police officers to pay a total of $4.4 million to Cherney and to Bari's estate for violation of their First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
rights to freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
and freedom of assembly
Freedom of assembly
Freedom of assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common interests...
or to organize and for false arrest and unlawful search and seizure in violation of their Fourth Amendment
Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, along with requiring any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause...
rights. Fully 80% of the damages were for the First Amendment violations. Bari died on March 2, 1997 of breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
, five years before her exoneration.http://articles.sfgate.com/2002-06-11/news/17547153_1_fbi-agents-bari-and-cherney-verdict At trial the FBI and the Oakland Police pointed fingers at each other.
- "Oakland investigators testified that they relied almost exclusively on the F.B.I.'s counterterrorism unit in San Francisco for advice on how to handle the case. But the F.B.I. agents denied misleading the investigators into believing that Ms. Bari and Mr. Cherney were violence-prone radicals who were probably guilty of transporting the bomb."http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/12/us/environmentalists-win-bombing-lawsuit.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm
While neither would admit wrongdoing, the jury found both liable finding "both agencies admitted they had amassed intelligence on the couple before the bombing."http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/16/us/truth-is-still-elusive-in-1990-pipe-bombing.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm This evidence supported the jury's finding that both the FBI and the Oakland police persecuted Bari and Cherney for being bombed instead of trying to find the true perpetrators in order to discredit and sabotage Earth First!
Earth First!
Earth First! is a radical environmental advocacy group that emerged in the Southwestern United States in 1979. It was co-founded on April 4th, 1980 by Dave Foreman, Mike Roselle, Howie Wolke, and less directly, Bart Koehler and Ron Kezar....
and the upcoming Redwood Summer
Redwood Summer
Organized in 1990, Redwood Summer was a movement of environmental activism aimed at protecting old-growth Redwood trees from logging by northern California timber companies...
, thereby violating their First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
rights and justifying the large award. Simply, instead of looking for the actual terrorists, they persecuted the victims of that terror because of their political activism.
- "Investigators were lying so much it was insulting. The FBI and Oakland (police) sat up there and lied about their investigation," said juror Mary Nunn of Oakley.http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/07/03/BA190647.DTL
The story of the case and the trial inspired an award winning documentary movie, The Forest For The Trees. The film, which aired on PBS and the Sundance Channel, follows the case through the lead attorney, civil rights legend Dennis Cunningham, and is told by his daughter, Bernadine Mellis.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygu1-1slcHA Among the awards received was the Grand Prize at the Green Film Festival in Seoul. The late Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...
said, "the film itself is so inspiring I hope it will be seen widely."http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/fftt.html
Judi Bari Day
On May 20, 2003, the Oakland City Council unanimously voted a resolution saying: "Whereas, Judi Bari was a dedicated activist, who worked for many social and environmental causes, the most prominent being the protection and stewardship of California's ancient redwood forests. ... Now therefore be it resolved that the City of Oakland shall designate May 24 as Judi Bari Day and celebrate and honor the work of Judi Bari in advancing the causes of forest protection, eco-feminism, labor organizing, bridge building between environmentalists and timber workers, and civil rights for political activists; and be it further resolved that the City shall encourage its schools, civic institutions and citizens to memorialize Judi Bari's work through art, media, festivals, school assignments and other creative means."Bari wrote many essays and articles and gave speeches, some of which she compiled into her book Timber Warshttp://www.amazon.com/dp/1567510264 (Common Courage Press, 1994).
In early 2005, a critical biography of Bari titled The Secret Wars of Judi Bari, by Kate Coleman, drew fierce condemnation from Cherney, Bari's estate, and their friends and supporters, who claimed hundreds of factual errors and a bias against Bari and Earth First! They also pointed out that the book was published by Encounter Books
Encounter Books
Encounter Books is an American conservative book publisher. It is an activity of Encounter for Culture and Education, Inc. Encounter Books draws its name from Encounter , the now defunct literary magazine founded by Irving Kristol and Stephen Spender....
, a non-profit publishing house founded by neoconservative Peter Collier and funded primarily by arch-conservative foundations not sympathetic to Bari's causes. Coleman presented speculation that Bari's ex-husband had planted the bomb in hopes of killing her and Cherney. A review of the book in the LA Times titled, Too many rumors, too few facts to examine eco-activism case, said, "the reporting is thin and sloppy, and the humdrum prose is marred by dubious speculation."
Bari was the daughter of mathematician Ruth Aaronson Bari
Ruth Aaronson Bari
Ruth Aaronson Bari was an American mathematician known for her work in graph theory and homomorphisms. The daughter of Polish-Jewish immigrants to the U.S., she was a professor at George Washington University beginning in 1966...
and sister of the New York Times science journalist Gina Kolata
Gina Kolata
Gina Bari Kolata is a science journalist for The New York Times. Her sister was environmental activist Judi Bari, and her mother was mathematician Ruth Aaronson Bari....
.
External links
- Official Judi Bari website including her writings, audio recordings and photos
- The Judi Bari Bombing Revisited, by Nicholas Wilson
- The Attempted Murder of Judi Bari, 1994 interview
- Friends of Judi Bari, a defense group
- Timber Wars 1994 book by Judi Bari
- Judi Bari article at Sourcewatch.org
- Activist songs by Darryl Cherney covering the bombing
- Jeff Schantz, Syndicalism, Ecology and Feminism: Judi Bari’s Vision
- IWW Obituary for Judi Bari
- Don't Mourn, Organise! The Judi Bari Story on BBC, December 2004, 30 min. audio (MP3)
- Website debunking Coleman's "Secret Wars" book
- The Feminization of Earth First! by Judi Bari
- One Big Union: Judi Bari’s Vision of Green-Worker Alliances in Redwood Country by Steve Ongerth, 2010.