Radical Action for Mountain People's Survival (RAMPS)

RAMPS is a non-violent direct action campaign based in the southern coal fields of West Virginia. We are dedicated to ending all forms of strip mining in Appalachia and believe our greatest contribution to reaching this goal is to undertake locally supported direct action.We are here to fight for the survival of the land and people of Appalachia, the right to a healthy and sustainable future with clean air and clean water, and the right to a livelihood that nurtures that future. To achieve these goals, we are up against much more than an unjust mining process. We are fighting decades of repression by the coal industry and its agents. We are fighting the inept, if not corrupt, regulation agencies and government. We are fighting out-of-state land companies who hold this land and therefore its people’s lives as a commodity to be auctioned off. We are fighting national ignorance and indifference to the oppression of the Appalachian people.Our direct action tactics are part of the larger movement to end mountaintop removal that includes many organizations using a wide variety of strategies. Only by working with and complementing the other aspects of this movement can we dismantle the system of oppression and destruction that enables mountaintop removal.As predominately outsiders in these communities, we are in a position of privilege. Our work here is guided by local residents whom themselves may not walk onto a mine site, but do support direct action in the coalfields. In solidarity, we offer our resources, our networks, our time, our bodies, and our personal freedom to this struggle.