On Saturday, June 3, a package of Northwest bands are bringing a message of environmental awareness to the WOW Hall. The tour, named Pipeline to Cameroon, is a traveling benefit for Amnesty International’s Just Earth campaign, which addresses the issue of police arrests of environmental activists internationally. The tour is visiting concert venues in Seattle, Portland, Eugene and Bellingham.
Four acts — Nine Volt Mile, Carmina Piranha, The Whole Bolivian Army and Honey Tongue — will be supporting a compilation CD also titled “Pipeline to Cameroon.”
The name of the tour and the CD originates from the concern with construction of pipelines around the world, according to Matthew Campbell, a coordinator for Amnesty International in Washington.
“In Chad, Cameroon, and especially in Burma, the government (a military dictatorship in the case of Burma) makes big money from oil. So often, oil companies go into the areas, make deals with the government and begin contructing these pipelines. When environmentalists speak up about the destruction to their ecosystem, the government cracks down,” Campbell said.
He said that, in Burma, the pipeline runs through some very fragile and ancient forests and through communities.
“Anyone who protests the contruction is usually either imprisoned and tortured or murdered. Others are then used as forced labor to build the pipeline that they were protesting,” Cambell said. “So we are really pushing for the governments to protect their citizens and environments and for the oil companies to use their influence with the governments, which is pretty much exactly the opposite of what the status quo is right now.”
Campbell said that guitarist Matt Kite was the brainchild behind the tour.
“He had noticed the work we were doing last year when we helped pass legislation that made it a crime for prison employees to have sexual contact with inmates,” Campbell said.
Kite contacted Campbell about doing some sort of benefit for Amnesty. Campbell suggested relating it to their new program that ties human rights and the environment, and Kite loved the idea.
Kite is the guitarist for Seattle’s The Whole Bolivian Army. They played the Wilma Fest at the WOW Hall in 1997 and are excited to return to Eugene.
“There really isn’t any venue quite like the WOW Hall in Portland or Seattle,” Kite said.
The 1997 show was their only Eugene appearance to date, but now they’re returning in support of the Just Earth campaign.
“We were burnt out on doing the Wilma Fest and decided to do this benefit tour,” Kite said.
Anyone interested in helping out with Amnesty International can call 1-800-AMNESTY or visit their website at www.amnestyusa.org.
“More specifically, if they wanted to get involved in the Human Rights and the Environment Program (and get lots more information) they can visit http://www.amnestyusa.org/justearth,” Campbell said.