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| Judi Bari | |
|---|---|
 Judi Bari, March 3, 1995, by Xiang Xing Zhou, San Francisco Daily Journal |
|
| Born | November 7, 1949 |
| Died | March 2, 1997 near Willits, CA |
| Cause of death | metastatic breast cancer |
| Resting place | cremated, ashes in multiple sites |
| Residence | rural home near Willits, CA |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Judith Beatrice Bari |
| Education | attended university |
| Alma mater | U. of Maryland |
| Occupation | Earth First! organizer |
| Home town | Silver Spring, Maryland |
| Known for | radical environmental, labor and social justice leadership |
| Children | Lisa Bari, Jessica Bari |
| Parents | Arthur Bari, Ruth Aaronson Bari |
| Website www.judibari.org |
|
Judi Bari (November 7, 1949 – March 2, 1997) 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 Industrial Workers of the World Local 1 to bring timber workers and environmentalists together in common cause.
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 Cherney 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 only explode 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.
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 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 speak and 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.
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 Wars, 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.[1]
Bari was the daughter of mathematician Ruth Aaronson Bari and sister of the New York Times science journalist Gina Kolata.
References
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
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