On Thursday August 2nd, Firestorm Cafe & Books will hold an emergency fundraiser for the 20 activists -- including three local Katuah Earth First members -- arrested on Saturday the 28th while shutting down the largest Mountain Top Removal Site in Appalachia.

Local residents Peter Garcia, Eva Westinghimer and Catherine-Ann MacDougal were arrested on Saturday at Patriot Coal’s Hobet 21 mine after shutting down the 23 sq mi strip mine site as part of the Mountain Mobilization action by Radical Action For Mountain Peoples Survival (RAMPS). The action saw 50 people occupy the mine site, with some locking themselves to mining equipment and another (Asheville local Peter Garcia) perching in a tree. All 20 of those arrested are being held in Western Regional Jail in WV on a $25,000 bond, an unprecedentedly high amount given the two misdemeanor charges each faces.

Firestorm Cafe & Books will be donating 10% of all sales on Thursday, August 2nd to the RAMPS Legal Support Fund and will be collecting other donations throughout the day. Firestorm collective members will be on hand from 11am to facilitate letter writing to the incarcerated and answer question about Mountain Top Removal and the RAMPS action. At 7pm there will be a screening of the Direct Action, Anti-MTR documentary The Last Mountain.