Farmers & Students Deliver a Blow to the American Transmission Company
by Adam Ritscher

Its already rusted, unpainted poles reach up to 140 feet up in the air. Some are placed not more than 20 feet from the living room windows of farmhouses. And in between them is strung a massive 345,000-volt power line which emits a loud buzzing sound, scrambles TV reception, causes baby monitors to malfunction, and many fear, cancer causing radiation.

This is the Arrowhead-Weston power line, a massive bulk transmission line being built by the American Transmission Company to allow it to sell cheap hydro dam generated electricity from Manitoba to the lucrative Chicago and southeastern Wisconsin market. ATC is a for profit corporation that has founded for the sole purpose to build this line, and make as much money as possible from it. Towards that end it has bribed dozens of local and state government boards, used eminent domain to seize the land of over 850 farmers and other landowners, and has spent literally millions in advertising and pressure campaigns to blackmail local residents who have the audacity to question why they should sacrifice their land, quality of life, health and local environment for a for-profit line that wont’ benefit them in the least. Welcome to northwestern Wisconsin – scene of a series of dramatic struggles between a corporate leviathan and a determined group of local farmers, workers and students.

It all began more than 5 years ago when ATC came into existence and announced the plans for the Arrowhead-Weston line. Following the construction of a series of massive hydroelectric dams in Manitoba, which reversed the flow of several rivers there and in the process, totally destroyed the livelihood and social fabric of the Cree who lived there, the corporations involved decided that they needed a market for their newly generated cheap electricity. They looked south, and saw that they could make a killing by underselling existing electricity producers in the Chicagoland area. All they needed was a massive bulk transmission line and the profits would be theirs.

During the next five years the corporate heads of ATC, despite having to deal with some protests put on by a persistent and pesky group of farmers called SOUL (Save Our Unique Lands), were pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to bribe their way through numerous County Boards, school districts, airport authorities, and other government bodies like the Department of Natural Resources. Before long they had “permission” to build on land for practically the entire length of their proposed line – from northeastern Minnesota to Wausau, WI. They even had permission to build in wetlands and string their massive 345,000-volt lines over the scenic, and allegedly government protected, Namekagon River. All that remained was to get permission to build on a stretch of public land in one county in northwestern Wisconsin – Douglas County.

At the beginning of the power line project the American Transmission Company had approached the Douglas County Board for permission and had been rejected, largely because some of SOUL’s activists were members of the Board. But ATC took its rebuff in stride. They proceeded to spend the next few years lining up the other area counties, and successfully defeating SOUL’s efforts to get the DNR, Public Service Commission, Army Corps of Engineers, and other government bodies to stand up to the proposed health, safety and environmental nightmare of a power line.

SOUL activists pointed out the potential cancer risks of the line, the damage construction would pose to wetlands and area roads. They pointed out the safety risks, like how one would be electrocuted by simply raising a hoe above their head within a certain distance of the line, or by driving a tractor under the line unless the farmer had a chain dragging behind it to ground the tractor.

They brought dramatic pictures of how when hundreds of florescent light bulbs were laid under a similar line in Britain they all lit up, even though they weren’t plugged in! And they pointed out again and again how unfair it was this for-profit line whose electricity wouldn’t even be accessible to local residents, was getting a free ticket to destroy so much area farmland and scenic property.

Hundreds of angry farmers turned up at DNR, Army Corps of Engineers, and other government hearings. Farmer after farmer would stand up to give inspiring, often tear inducing, testimony about why this line needed to be stopped. But in the end the government officials would simply wait till the end of the hearings, take the millions in “donations” from ATC, and give the corporation whatever permits it needed.

Defiant Douglas County was beginning to became a very isolated place. Right across the state line south of Duluth, MN ATC was bold enough to begin construction of the line on the belief that soon Douglas County would be forced to fold. They were also, no doubt, hoping to give the impression that the line was going up no matter what – that it was unstoppable.

Adding to the pressure, soon, you couldn’t turn on any radio station in Duluth/Superior and not hear an ATC advertisement every ten minutes berating the Douglas County Board for not taking the “tax relief” that ATC was offering, and even insinuating that unless the line was approved local businesses could face blackouts (never mind the fact that none of the ATC line’s power would even go into the local grid).

Under all of this pressure some of the Douglas County Board began to buckle. Doug Finn, the president of the Board, began hinting that it was time to negotiate. One board member began to make laughable claims about how many residents were writing to him pleading for the power line. And ATC began to run ads saying that if the County Board didn’t give in soon, it would reroute the line around public land and use eminent domain to put the line on the land of over 60 additional landowners.

The stage was set for an epic battle. The determined farmers of SOUL, together with Youth for Socialist Action and other student activists picked up the gauntlet and prepared for a showdown. SOUL and YSA activists called a rally to be held on the day of the County Board meeting that the question would be voted on. Fliers were delivered door to door to hundreds of houses in the County. Hundreds more went up at local bars and taverns, found their way onto car windshields and were plastered all over local campuses. Local radio shows, email lists, word of mouth, and every other means of getting the word out were also employed to their fullest extent.

Then Feb. 2, the day of reckoning came. At 4:30pm 100 protesters, mostly young people, gathered outside the Douglas County Courthouse to greet Board members as they arrived for their 6pm meeting. To honks of passing motorists the protest set the tone for the rest of the evening.

As the time for the Board meeting approached more and more people filed into the Courthouse. Before long the County Board meeting room was filled to capacity, and the Courthouse lobby filled up with opponents of the line – about 250 people in all.

For five hours the meeting raged. Despite the fact that the people in attendance were overwhelmingly opposed to the line, the County Board insisted on alternating between supporters and opponents of the line. Speakers in support of the line were supplied by ATC and the local Chamber of Commerce. They were a marked contrast to the everyday farmers, workers and students who spoke against it.

And all the while the testimony went on a determined band of YSA members marched, for the entire five hours of the meeting, around and around inside the courthouse holding signs calling on the Board to stand firm.

It was a tense five hours. At one point an angry farmer, Rick Davey, stood up and yelled "My life is being put on the line for a couple of bucks! That's bull ----!"before he was dragged out by sheriff's deputies.

In the end though, it all paid off. In a very dramatic and close finish the County Board voted 15 to 11 to say no to the power line and to refuse to allow it to be built on public land. Cheers reverberated throughout the Courthouse as hundreds rose to their feet to clap, embrace one another, and wipe away tears.

“I’ve been fighting this line for five long years” one older woman said as she embraced and thanked a student activist.

Given the enormous amount of power and money at the hands of corporations, and the subservient, spineless nature of most government officials, victories such as this one are unfortunately far too rare. But fighting is not, and never will be hopeless. In the end working people do indeed have the power to literally move mountains. But it takes determination, and a refusal to be deterred by the betrayals and failures of politicians.

The fight against the Arrowhead-Weston power line is not over. ATC is already claiming this decision means little to them, and that they will reroute their line onto more farms instead. But a victory is a victory, and more than that, it has given the farmers, workers and students who defeated ATC on the evening of Feb. 2 that confidence to continue to fight and see this through to the end. Forward ever, backwards never!