Dave Cooper, Presentation on the Mountain Justice Movement.

As the northernmost county officially included in Appalachia, Tompkins County has an affinity toward our friends who struggle in the coal fields of West Virginia and Kentucky. Dave Cooper is a Kentucky resident and renowned leader of the Mountain Justice Movement. MJ is modeled on the Civil Rights movement, working to bring long-term change and improvement to the human and natural communities of Appalachia by ending the 100-year dominion of the coal companies and their cronies. Dave will share the MJ story as a way of bridging to the needs of the activists across the Finger Lakes who are organizing to prevent similar wholesale environmental and community destruction by the energy companies eager to exploit natural gas in the Marcellus Shale via hydrofracking.