RESISTANCEunited TO states/ THE I-69 “NAFTAn.a.f.t.a. SUPERHIGHWAY” superhighway by Indiana Eco-Anarchists and dor highway associated with Plan Puebla been dubbed the “biggest engineering Collectivo Incendio Panama (PPP), an even more notorious and construction project in the history of ‘development project’ in Central Ameri- the U.S.”[1] It’s planned to be 1,200 feet A New Road ca. Throughout its route, I-69 will wide and consume 146 acres (almost 1/4 mean the destruction of thou- of a square mile) per mile. Because the The U.S. government sands of acres of vitally important corridors will contain high-speed passenger is currently poised to roll out forests and wetlands, the eviction and freight rails and underground water, a new strip of asphalt all the of thousands of farmers from their gas, and petroleum pipelines, as well as way from Laredo, up to family farms and the elimination of multiple high-speed truck and passenger Port Huron, Michigan. Currently, hundreds of rural communities. vehicle lanes, they will be constructed at the I-69 exists as a stretch of highway Resistance to the highway has grade level and permanently divide the connecting Port Huron, Michigan (where existed since NAFTA’s passage. I-69 has areas through which they pass. To make nearly half of all the North American Free been on the drawing boards for more matters worse, the extensive grading and Trade Agreement (NAFTA) traffic crosses than 15 years. While its Michigan segment construction of barriers to protect the the U.S.- border) to Indianapolis, has long been completed, construction in high-speed traffic will alter air currents Indiana. Interstate-69, if completed, will Indiana and Texas has been obstructed by and watersheds and prevent the movement stretch over 2000 miles, through the massive grassroots opposition. Farmers, of wildlife. states of , , Mississippi, residents and environmentalists continue Various environmental protection , Louisiana and Texas. to band together for one simple reason: I- groups are campaigning against the project, The main purpose of this 69 is a disaster for everyone and everything and the powerful Texas Farm Bureau, interstate is to provide a channel for in its way. citing the concerns listed above among trading goods between , the U.S. In Indiana alone, some 5,000 others, has asked the Texas legislature to and Canada. It would act as a piece of the acres of farmland and 1,500 acres of “scrap” the whole corridor project. Many life-support system for the NAFTA and, forests and 300 wetlands are to be paved local communities, including 35 counties if enacted, the Free Trade Area of the over by I-69. If the Indiana Department of in Texas, have passed resolutions against Americas (FTAA). Some are calling it the Transportation and the private companies having the NAFTA corridors in their “NAFTA Superhighway.” involved in assessing and developing backyards. Ranchers in Grimes County, From Indiana, it is scheduled to the highway are successful, I-69 will be Texas, which will be divided by the I-69 end at Matamoros, Mexico, on the border similarly destructive within each of the corridor, have organized what they call a with Texas. It is in Matamoros that I-69 states that it passes through. “direct action” network against the project. would connect with the Atlantic corri- The NAFTA Superhighway, has When one rancher was asked what “direct

Roadless Summer 2005 and Prehistory, rally, organized by Buffalo Trace Earth First!, the Indiana Forest Action Chronology Alliance, and Education for a Sustainable Future, a modified I- 69 sign is burned. The crowd chants “Burn the WTO” and “One struggle, one fight: ecology and workers’ rights”. Here is a chronology of actions, some of which Roadblock Earth First! (rbef!) organized or facilitated, some of September 9, 2000 - Communique sent by the Earth Liberation which were done by other folks doing organizing locally, and Front and received by the North American Earth Liberation some of which rbef! had nothing to do with (i.e. illegal actions). Front Press Office - This is far from being a comprehensive list in a lot of ways; there “Greetings, were several meeting disruptions, office/home demonstrations, Late Friday night, the Earth Liberation Front paid a visit to the office invasions and other actions that occurred but weren’t GOP headquarters in Bloomington, Indiana leaving it in flames reported or kept track of. as we left. The fire was set as a reminder to politicians such as John Hostettler that we are watching and that we will not sit Some Pre-history idly by as they push for plans like I-69. The construction would fill the coffers of Multinational Corporations at the expense of Novermber 4, 1999 - Police disperse a Bloomington rally the environment and of working people everywhere. I-69 is just held in solidarity with the anti-WTO protests in Seattle. At the one example of the willingness of the rich to bleed the Earth and the working class to fulfill their money lust. We have no faith in

United States  action” means, he nodded towards the scoped rifle in the gun rack in his pick-up I-69, THE MID-CONTINENT HIGHWAY truck and said, “We’re ready for when they come to take our land.” WORLDS LARGEST FREE TRADE ZONE WITH 360 MILLION When the PPP was announced by “CONSUMERS” AND 6 TRILLION GNP Mexico’s President Vicente Fox in 2001, (partially as a means to excuse heightened Seamless Link Connecting: military action against the Zapatistas), the Canadian Manufacturing/Agricultural Center PPP was a development project consisting U.S. Manufacturing/Agricultural Center largely of highway construction and Major U.S. Southern Seaports electrical grid updates (to allow electricity Major U.S. Air Freight Terminals produced in Central America to be sold Mexico Manufacturing Center more directly to the US). Other aspects of Route Connects 75% Of U.S. Manufacturing Area the PPP, such as the proposed construction Producing 70%Of GNP. of huge hydroelectric dams on indigenous lands and the creation of a Mesoamerican Biological Corridor (to be administered Battle Against Capitalist Infrastructure! by Mexico’s largest biotechnology firm, Grupo Pulsar), have either been down- affinity groups in late 2004, in order to re- for companies involved in the project. played or canceled in response to the focus radical and anarchist resistance to Much of the campaign was massive indigenous resistance inspired by I-69 and its related projects. A number of structured around confrontational, though all aspects of PPP planning. different people departed on speaking tours legal, office and home demonstrations, I-69 and the PPP also share across Indiana and the U.S., in order to reflecting the fact that many people a common planner (Wilbur Smith spread the word about I-69 and argue that, involved had been inspired by recent anti- Associates) and a common impetus: that as the U.S. anti-globalization movement corporate campaigns, such as the struggle to best further the interests of capital, it continued to decline, it made more sense to to shut down the notorious vivisection firm is most efficient to embrace a project that target the infrastructure projects necessary Huntingdon Life Sciences. While these accomplishes two tasks at once: creating the for capitalist globalization, rather than tactics were successful at disrupting offices infrastructure that is absolutely essential continue to hold ever-smaller protests and reducing the efficiency of the planning to the success of the FTAA and destroying against symbolic meetings. The goal of this process, these tactics did fail to cause any existing communities that remain outside initiative was to bring to bear energy from companies to abandon the project, and also of the domination of the global economy. wider anarchist circles against the highway helped widen a divide between anarchists The PPP and I-69 will merge, literally, project during the summer of 2005. involved in the resistance and local people in Matamoros, the expected site of more Local organizers hoped that this would defending their land. The failure to force than 45 percent of all FTAA-related traffic reinvigorate resistance in Indiana, lay the companies away from I-69 planning was crossings in and out of the US. groundwork for future collaboration with a result from the secrecy adopted by the With this in mind, Roadless farmers and others resisting eviction, and state and its contractors, a factor which Summer was initiated by a handful of “create an atmosphere of un-plannability” has hindered precise targeting of pressure

the present system of electoral politics where every candidate 2004 both Republican and Democrat is funded with corporate blood money. Because there are no viable options on the ballot, we July 8 - Members of the Indiana Forest Alliance begin to hold must find another means of voting. Our non-participation in a weekly vigil and demonstration at an I-69 office in downtown and active resistance against this system, controlled by the rich, Bloomington. The vigils continue for many months. is our means of voting. We are everywhere and nowhere.” October 22 - 400 people rally in Indianapolis against I-69. August 20, 2002 - 600 people pack an I-69 public meeting Farmers from southern Indiana arrive in tractors, which they at a Bloomington high school. During the meeting, police are had earlier used as a slowly-moving blockade along the roads that reportedly called in, first to extract anti-I-69 residents who will might be upgraded to interstate-status. Local anarchists carry a not remain silent and then to escort to safety pro-I-69 speakers, banner highlighting I-69’s “Imperial Design” and highlighting its who are threatened by the angry crowd. links to the Plan Puebla Panama. While members of the political coalition against I-69 deliver a petition to the Statehouse, April 26, 2003 - Two Bloomington activists are arrested for anarchists and members of the Bloomington Circus Collective trespassing as they attempt to drop a gigantic banner off of a lead a festive breakaway march of 150-200 people, blocking developer’s construction crane. One side of the banner reads “I- 69 benefits who? Them, not you!” traffic throughout Indianapolis’ city-center.

 “One rural resident asked INDOT officials if they’d calculated the towards companies that might withdraw. On the other hand, the divide that possible cost of vandalism to the highway that could result from occurred with other people resisting I-69 building a road so many people are so fiercely opposed to. was not over tactics per se. Most farmers “He noted that electronic sensors [cameras] would record passing and other community members supported cars for tolling purposes, because the plan is not to have toll booths. even the more militant office invasions, and in fact the first office invasion conducted These sensors, he suggested, will make a wonderful target for a .22- against I-69 was by a retirees’ group in caliber rifle.” Indianapolis called the Southwest Perry -Bloomington Herald-Times, Friday June 30, 2006 Civic Association. The bigger issue was the social isolation that these tactics facilitated. Many of these demonstrations could be safely accomplished by just a few people, and there was a wide consensus against publicizing these actions in the media. Given this reluctance to interact with the mass of I-69 opponents on the spectacular

Michigan level of press releases and the media, it was a failure that anarchists associated with Roadless Summer could not develop a Indiana different model that also allowed for work and good discussion with other local people. As the struggle against I-69 is beginning to intensify again, local organizers are seeking to develop a model that will allow Kentucky for both the use of confrontational tactics and continuous discussion with the wider community, without either resorting to the media or collaboration with reformist citizens’ groups (both common traps for radicals seeking to break out of the activist ghetto). Regardless of the difficulties that emerged because of some of the tactics that were used, participants in the Roadless Summer campaign were able to apply significant amounts of pressure to those companies implicated in construction, act in solidarity with others in struggle, and deal a concrete blow to the project. Reeling from both public anger and pressure from activists, and also facing objective problems with funding, planning for I-69 was temporarily derailed at the end of the summer.

2005 at one office demonstration, an electric noisemaker (making a “loud, shrilling fire-alarm sound”) is left hidden in an office, May 21 - A few groups co-sponsor a picnic in Washington, IN, shutting down work until it is found and disabled in water. Later, a small town that will be destroyed by I-69. People involved in one person faces felony charges for one of these actions, having Roadless Summer from Indianapolis bring food and root beer been accused of stealing a confidential notebook while inside an kegs to a park, in order to have fun and facilitate discussions office. between anarchists and local organizers. There is also news coverage of a grafitti campaign that left anti-I-69 slogans on walls and other surfaces across May 26 - Members of Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads, a Bloomington. southern Indiana anti-I-69 group, are ejected from the Oakland City Indiana Department of Transportation public information June 4 - Nearly 100 people march against I-69 and the Plan meeting. Also, a confrontation emerges between public relations Puebla Panama in Indianapolis. After taking the streets, the representatives from Bernardin, Lochmueller, and Associates Inc. (the primary firm backing I-69 in Indiana) and Roadless crowd moves towards the Indiana Statehouse and storms it. Summer participants. Nearly $3,000 of damage is done when its antique limestone There are several office demonstrations and office walls and marble pillars are covered in spray-painted slogans invasions targeted against the two Bloomington I-69 planning such as “I-69 is the enemy”. At least 1 person is un-arrested as offices, one of which is operated by DLZ (a firm involved the crowd moves away from the statehouse, though 24 are later in engineering work for I-69) and the other by Bernardin, arrested as police reinforcements arrive. Link: Lochmueller, and Associates. A local newspaper reports that www.infoshop.org/inews/articlephpstory=20060607153423813

United States  2006-2007 Update On I-69 And Privatization And International Because of this cancellation, The Struggle To Stop It Outsourcing? Indiana’s portion of I-69 faces a growing Last Autumn (2006), the Governor financial crisis. It may be reconceived as a Pressure to stop the project was Mitch Daniels announced his intention to private toll-road, which would again lead intensified in the summer of 2005 due to a sell off the yet-to-be built I-69 to a private to even more resistance and anger across number of factors. Not only did a relatively company and to make it a toll-road. This the state. small number of environmental and anti- led to more generalized opposition to The Indiana Department of capitalist activists embark on the Roadless the construction of I-69. Local activists Transportation has finished the first round Summer campaign of demonstrations and were largely stuck in a waiting game - the of environmental surveying, enough money agitation, but, more importantly, a series of changes that would accompany a sell-off is in the state’s coffers to begin (but legally-mandated public meetings provided would probably change the entire terrain not finish) construction. Plans a forum for community anger around of resistance to I-69. call for starting construction Secret negotiations began to sell in 2008, beginning at the Indiana and the Indiana Department of off other highways in Indiana, involving southern end of the Transportation was forced to admit that Cintra-Macquarie, a Spanish-Australian project near it faced a two billion dollar shortfall for conglomerate partially owned by Ferrovial, Evansville. I-69 and other proposed roads. This a multinational infrastructure development Thus, unless nearly-perfect public storm led Indiana corporation. It seemed as though this there are significant officials to briefly consider cancelling the conglomerate was poised to buy and build disruptions to the project, and then later for the governor to I-69, and Cintra (in collaboration with planning process, propose delaying the project for decades. another company) is already committed This ambiguity regarding I-69 and it’s to build and own I-69 in Texas. Then, in future, which emerged in late July 2005, November of 2006, the Governor proposed was one of the major obstacles to the that I-69 through southwestern Indiana Roadless Summer campaign (should we wouldn’t be a toll road due to widespread declare victory or is this just a ruse?), opposition. Instead there would be other especially since much of the planning and Indiana roads made into toll-roads and the construction slated for the summer was revenue from these toll-roads would provide delayed early on due to funding problems. the capital for further road construction, including the I-69 development. On March 24, 2007 Mitch Dan- iels announced the cancellation of two major toll roads connected to I-69, just a few months after he had announced their con- struction. Daniels was forced to admit that it was over- whelming public resistance that forced him to withdraw these proposals. June 16 - More than 200 people attend the Indiana July 16 - About 150 people join a night march in Bloomington. Department of Transportation public information meeting Minor confrontations with the police occur near the downtown outside of Bloomington. Indiana Department of Transportation I-69 planning office, where other activists also drop a large representatives are ridiculed and shouted down by the vast banner. Later, demonstrators drag newspaper boxes into the majority of the crowd and Earth First!ers drop banners street to slow the police pursuit of the march. Local liberal punks simultaneously around the meeting hall. It is later revealed that respond by removing the barricades and protecting corporate the Bloomington Police Department had nearly 100 riot police property! No arrests are made after the march disperses, though on alert at a nearby staging point because of previous serious many people are pursued and some are detained. disturbances at public information meetings. July 17 - More than a dozen people have a Sunday-night June 24-30 - Roadless Summer participants take a bike tour demonstration at the house of Tom Sharp, Indiana Department along the proposed route of I-69, between Bloomington and of Transportation’s commissioner, in Indianapolis’ suburbs. Evansville. Along the way, they talk with people in affected Demonstrators go door to door informing his neighbors of his communities and distribute information about the highway and activities in planning a very unpopular highway, while others its connections to capitalist globalization. chalk his driveway.

July 10 - A number of people have a night-time demonstration July 18 - A series of office invasions occur in Indianapolis, against at the rural home of a Bernardin, Lochmueller, and Associates DLZ and Hetrick (public relations firm), which is contracted by manager. Bernardin, Lochmueller, and Associates to do public relations

 United States evictions will begin the Summer of 2007 received attention from both police and the Roadblock Earth First! if you have any and asphalt will start being laid a few media. questions, would like to get involved, have months later! As construction approaches, similar struggles occuring in your area, or At this point, Road-block Earth resistance is re-intensifying. We know that would like to receive updates in the future. First! (RBEF!) is continuing to have if they try to build this road, more blows will For the defense of wilderness and human an antagonistic presence at Indiana be struck against it, with greater strength community, Roadblock Earth First! - Department of Transportation sponsored and reflecting a growing generalized anger, [email protected] public meetings. RBEF! members are and that these blows will also be against creating forums for discussion between every related megaproject, from the Trans- For ongoing information about the people in effected communities and Texas Corridor to the PPP, and against campaign against I-69 see: eco-radicals, thereby allowing stories Capital and the State globally. www.stopi69.wordpress.com of resistance to be shared with a wider Please get in touch with audience. EF!ers are also organizing camp- outs and bike rides along the proposed route so that as many people as possible can get to know and love the bioregion that is at risk. Other recent projects have included: restarting Bloomington’s critical mass bike ride to highlight the connections between road building, car culture and global warming; creating the Roadblock Report, a newsletter that will help coordinate different elements of the struggle and improve communication among different elements of the struggle; and setting up speaking and performance tours across Indiana and the proposed national I-69 route. More autonomous initiatives against the road have begun as more and more people are getting involved. Office and home demonstrations against road planners have continued and spread all along the planned I-69 route. Following this years 2007 Earth First! Organizers’ Conference, the Austin, Texas office for Cintra-Zachary was disrupted. There has been an ongoing “No I-69” graffiti campaign in Little Rock, Arkansas that has

work for I-69. It is later revealed that the Hetrick office went on to invade the headquarters of Bernardin, Lochmueller, and permanent lock-down following this action. Associates, and are met by company officials who are prepared for them. Confrontations occur as BLA management staff July 19 - The Bloomington westside I-69 planning office is attempt to break through the activists’ banner and photograph attacked. The incident included a failed attempt at arson using them. Later that night, home demos occur against the homes of multiple improvised Molotov cocktails. Approximately $5,000 a number of BLA high-level management. in damage is done. Link: (www.i69info.com/) August 25 - There is a joint day of action against Huntington July 30 - Two Earth First!ers interrupt politicians at an an Life Sciences [multinational vivisection corporation] and I-69 in Indiana Department of Transportation meeting in Greenfield, Cincinnati, OH. There are a number of office demos, including Indiana, by shouting and unfurling a banner. Greenfield is one against the local DLZ office. not on I-69’s route, but residents are fighting two other road projects, and local residents join a picket formed outside of the 2006 meeting. May 25 - The last person facing charges for anti-I-69 activities August 16 - There are a series of office invasions and home is acquitted. Link: demos in Evansville, Indiana. More than 20 people attempt infoshop.org/inews/article.phpstory=20060607153423813

United States  Companies Involved In The Construction Of Interstate-69:

Indiana Section Texas Section

Michael Baker, Inc. - www.mbakercorp.com - is planning Cintra and Zachary are the main companies involved in the Section 5 (from Bloomington to Indianapolis) of I-69. Section 5 Trans-Texas Corridor. is vital and its construction will have a serious impact on both the local environment (it runs through Morgan-Monroe State Cintra - www.cintra.es (Madrid, Spain) Forest) and local residents. This company has a global reach, and are in a similar Zachry Construction Corporation field and category as Halliburton. They have offices across the 527 Logwood U.S. and are based in Pittsburgh. San Antonio, Texas 78221 - www.zachry.com

Michael Baker Corporation Other companies: Airside Business Park Ferrovial-Agroman - www.ferrovial.es (Madrid, Spain - 100 Airside Drive parent company of Cintra) Moon Township, PA 15108 Earth Tech, Inc. - www.earthtech.com (offices all over the world - find one) Help will also be provided on Section 5 by: Bracewell & Patterson, LLP (Houston and Austin, Texas)

Rodriguez Transportation Group (Texas) Ozark Underground Laboratories Aguirre & Fields, LP - www.aguirre-fields.com (Stafford, (www.ozarkundergroundlab.com) Texas) 1572 Aley Lane OTHON, Inc. - www.othon.com (Texas and Florida offices) Protem, 65733 Pate Engineers - www.pateeng.com/home.htm (Texas) HRM Consultants, Inc. - www.hrmrow.com (San Marcos, USI Consultants, Inc. - www.usiconsultants.com Texas) P1 Resources - www.ncnjobs.com/index.php (Irving, Texas) Other Companies involved in I-69: Southwestern Capital Markets Inc. - www.scminc.info/ index.asp (San Antonio, Texas) Cintra - www.cintra.es (Madrid, Spain) Railroad Industries Incorporated - www.railroadindustries. com (Nevada) Macquarie Infrastructure Group (Sydney, Australia) Amey, PLC - www.amey.co.uk (UK) www.macquarie.com.au/au/mig/index.html Mercator Advisors, LLC - www.mercatoradvisors.com (Pennsylvania, New York and Washington D.C) BAA Indianapolis LLC Public Resources Advisory Group - www.pragadvisors.com 2500 S. High School Road - Suite 100 (New York) Indianapolis, IN 46241-4941 PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP - www.pwcglobal.com www.indianapolisairport.com/pages/baa.html (offices all over) JP Morgan Securities, Inc. - www.jpmorgan.com (New DLZ - while this is not a national or multinational company they York) have a pretty wide presence in the Midwest. They’ve had a lot of pickets, demonstrations, etc. at office locations in several states. The following link gives a good overview of these companies involved in the Texas section: www.keeptexasmoving.org/pdfs/projectsttc35fact%20sheet%2 They have offices in: Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, West 0-%20Cintra-Zachry%20-%20031105%20FINAL.pdf Virginia, Kentucky, and Massachusetts. See their website for office locations: www.dlzcorp.com. Look through the careers Bibliography: section for addresses or search the internet. [1] “NAFTA Corridors: Dividing the Nation to Multiply Wilbur Smith Associates - is a multinational transportation Profits” by Richard D. Vogel, (mrzine.monthlyreview.org/ development firm involved in dozens of projects around the vogel040206.html) world. They are planners on both sides of the border for Plan Puebla Panama. This company does project coordination. They “NAFTA Superhighway: Defending our Lands and have wrapped up in Indiana for now as far as we know. Monkeywrenching Globalization” by Sprout, Earth First! Visit: www.wilbursmith.com Journal, Volume 25, Issue 3.

They have offices in at least 49 US cities. There’s also one office “Earth First! in the Heartland: Roadblock EF! and the in London, one office in Ontario, Canada, and several others Campaign Against I-69” by Roadblock EF!, Earth First! throughout Asia and the Mid-East. Journal, Volume 27, Issue 4.

 United States