Anti-I-69 Office Demo at Indiana Department Of Natural Resources

On the afternoon of June 23, an crowd of people enraged over the eviction of the anti-I-69 treesit stormed the office of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources in Bloomington, Indiana. The IDNR was complicit in the eviction of the treesit and the endangerment of the treesitters' lives by providing climbers to pull the sitters out of their lofty perch. The IDNR keeps climbers on staff specifically to evict treesits, even though they haven't used them in years.

The crowd charged through the doors of the office, pushing papers off desks, smashing a potted plant, and generally yelling, chanting, whistling and causing a disruption. The workers seemed annoyed and confused and claimed they had nothing to do with the eviction. One person tried to speak reason to them and explain their role in the eviction. People left fairly quickly, as it seemed likely that the cops had been called. One woman across the street cheered on the crowd, holding her fist in the air.

Just as the tree sit was only one action in an ongoing campaign against the NAFTA superhighway, so too was this office demo. We must confront the authorities on our own terms, and we must keep them on their toes. We are not waiting for the time to strike, but plotting and preparing. As one chant heard in Bloomington says, "You can put our friends in jail, but we will drive the final nail!"