Judi Bari

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Judi Bari, March 3, 1995, by Xiang Xing Zhou, San Francisco Daily Journal.

Judi Bari (November 7, 1949 – March 2, 1997) was an American environmentalist and labor leader, a feminist, and the principal organizer of Earth First! campaigns against logging in the ancient redwood forests of Northern California as well as efforts through Industrial Workers of the World Local 1 to bring timber workers and environmentalists together in common cause.

On May 24, 1990, Bari was severely injured by a motion-triggered pipe bomb which exploded on the floor directly under the driver's seat of her car as she and fellow Earth First! member Darryl Cherney traveled through Oakland, California, on an organizing tour for Redwood Summer, a campaign of nonviolent protests focused on saving redwood forests in Northern California. When the Oakland police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) immediately accused Bari and Cherney of knowingly carrying a bomb for use in an act of terrorism, the story made headlines nationwide. After nearly two months, the district attorney declined to file any formal charges against Bari and Cherney, citing lack of evidence.

Bari had received numerous death threats from timber industry supporters in the weeks before the bombing. She had reported them to local police, and after the bombing Bari's attorney turned written threats over to the FBI for investigation. A year later, Bari and Cherney filed a federal civil rights suit claiming that the FBI and police officers attempted to frame them and to falsely paint them as violent terrorists.

In 2002, a jury in their federal civil lawsuit exonerated Bari and Cherney by ordering four FBI agents and three Oakland Police officers to pay a total of $4.4 million to Cherney and to Bari's estate for violation of their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and for false arrest and unlawful search and seizure. Unfortunately, Judi died in 1997 of breast cancer, before her exoneration.

On May 20, 2003, the Oakland City Council unanimously voted a resolution saying: "Whereas, Judi Bari was a dedicated activist, who worked for many social and environmental causes, the most prominent being the protection and stewardship of California's ancient redwood forests. ... Now therefore be it resolved that the City of Oakland shall designate May 24 as Judi Bari Day and celebrate and honor the work of Judi Bari in advancing the causes of forest protection, eco-feminism, labor organizing, bridge building between environmentalists and timber workers, and civil rights for political activists; and be it further resolved that the City shall encourage its schools, civic institutions and citizens to memorialize Judi Bari's work through art, media, festivals, school assignments and other creative means."

In 2005, a biography of Bari, titled The Secret Wars of Judi Bari: A Car Bomb, the Fight for the Redwoods, and the End of Earth First!, by Kate Coleman, drew fierce criticism from Cherney and other friends of Bari. [1]

Bari was the daughter of mathematician Ruth Aaronson Bari.