By Nell Gagnon – Originally posted at http://www.dontfrackwithus.org/

At about 11:00 AM Saturday morning, over one hundred and fifty people arrived at the gates of the Schlumberger industrial facility in Horseheads, NY. Most were from New York’s Southern Tier, some from as nearby as the town where the facility is located, and some from as far away as Pennsylvania. Among their numbers were children, grandparents, college students, and working people of all kinds. Some hailed from villages and countryside across the Southern Tier, others small Upstate cities and towns. That day, they all had a common purpose: to defend their communities, land, and water from hydro-fracking. And they did so in a way New York State has not yet seen – direct action, at the gates of the gas industry.

Organized by the Shaleshock Direct Action Working Group, Saturday’s action had a goal to shut down the Horseheads facility. Direct action involves people using their bodies in a literal rather than symbolic act of resistance. For Shaleshock organizers, this meant direct confrontation with industry, obstructing fracking-related processes from taking place at the  Schlumberger facility. Continue reading Schlumberger Shutdown Joins Summer of Solidarity