Who We Are

We are residents of Athens and Meigs Counties who have come together to oppose fracking, injection wells, and the barging of frack waste on the Ohio River.

We come from a range of backgrounds. What we have in common is a vision of our community and of Appalachia more generally: we believe in streams you can drink out of, sweet air, and a place where our kids can play outside.

The fracking industry poses a direct and immediate threat to this vision.

While we work with other groups, ours is focused on direct action; we interfere directly and nonviolently with the environmental destruction we oppose.

Appalachia Resist! is an environmental justice group.  We are not the kind of group that circulates pictures of polar bears stranded on an ice floe in the melting arctic.  We believe that the climate change crisis will affect us all, albeit at different times and in different ways.  The polar bears may be early losers in the oncoming climate change, but eventually it will affect us all, though the way the system is set up, it will first affect the global poor and communities of color first and most.  We also believe in the interconnectedness of all oppression, and thus the necessity of interconnected struggles.  We believe that the same underlying principles of the system that necessitate the exploitation and destruction of the land, air, and water, also consider the oppression of the poor, people of color, trans, queer, and others through  brutalization, imprisonment, and terrorization, to be simply the cost of doing business.  A society that cannot achieve true equality for all people, surely will not show any respect for the earth which sustains us.  Though we primarily spend our efforts fighting the fracking industry in the region where we all live, in SE Ohio, we strive to participate in the social justice movements organized around the inalienable rights of all people.  We try to support all efforts to fight against a system that is using people and land as the raw material to create wealth for the few.

Appalachia Resist! was born in June 2012, when Madeline ffitch blocked access to the frack waste injection well on Ladd Ridge Road in Athens County. Madeline acted to draw attention to the false choice the energy industry and the state agencies present: we can be poor, or we can accept poison in our air, soil, and water.

Appalachia Resist! does not accept that these are our only options. We work to build vibrant, resilient communities that are economically and ecologically sustainable and that can and do advocate for their right to breathable air and drinkable water.

If you would like to join in our efforts “Like” us on Facebook: Appalachia Resist; email us and ask to be added to our email list: appalachiaresist@gmail.com; or subscribe to our blog: appalachiaresist.wordpress.com to get action updates.

<!–We are a group of residents of Athens and Meigs Counties who have come together to oppose fracking, injection wells, and the barging of frack waste on the Ohio River. While we work with other citizens’ action groups, ours is focused on direct action; we interfere directly and non-violently with the environmental destruction we oppose.
We are parents, students, landowners, and renters. We work in a variety of trades and come from a range of backgrounds. What we have in common is a vision of our community, and of Appalachia more generally:
We believe in American iconography.
The fracking industry poses a direct and immediate threat to this vision. By bringing toxic waste into our state, the industry is actively working to poison our air and water, while state-level legislation is working to disenfranchise citizens.

History of Appalachia Resist

Appalachia Resist was born in June 2012, when Madeline ffitch blocked access to the frack waste injection well on Ladd Ridge Road in Athens County. Community members rallied around her, and the initial felony charges of inciting panic and [something] were reduced to [thing].
Madeline acted to draw attention to the false choice the energy industry and the state agencies who nominally monitor them present: we can be poor, or we can accept poison in our air, soil, and water.
Appalachia Resist does not accept that these are our only options. We work to build vibrant, resilient communities that are economically and ecologically sustainable and that can and do advocate for their right to clean air and water.–>