Are you now or were you ever
an enviromentalist?
By Janie Goodwin
Red Pepper Magazine
In the wake of the US war on terror,
nonviolent campaigners are increasingly being caught
up in a Green Scare that defines them as terrorists
In the US today, terrorism has replaced
communism as the catchphrase for all that is evil
in the world. Where the Red Scare once saw all left-wingers
stigmatised as communists, it is environmentalists
and animal rights activists who are now being targeted
as eco-terrorists by the media, business interests
and politicians including the attorney general, Alberto
Gonzales. Building on post-9/11 fears and legislation,
a new Green Scare has escalated in recent months with
a sudden rise in the number of environmentalists arrested
and a dramatic lengthening of the potential sentences
they face. Activists who have never physically harmed
anyone now risk being arrested and charged with crimes
that carry life sentences or, as in one case, a charge
sheet that could result in a 300-year prison sentence.
Read
full article here
Agents of Repression Wage
War on the Radical Environmental Movement
www.earthfirstjournal.org
By Josh
For many of us, the arrests of December
7, began in confusion (see EF!J January-February 2006).
A friend, acquaintance or ally was taken by the feds
with no warning or explanation. Only when we heard
that similar raids had occurred on the other side
of the country, did we suspect that something truly
sinister was afoot.
The next day, the Department of Justice
(DOJ) issued a press release revealing the full extent
of its raids, dubbed ?Operation Backfire.? Those arrested
were: Daniel McGowan in New York City; Stanislas Meyerhoff
in Charlottesville, Virginia; William Rodgers in Prescott,
Arizona; Sarah Harvey in Flagstaff, Arizona; Kevin
Tubbs in Springfield, Oregon; and Chelsea Gerlach
and Darren Thurston in Portland, Oregon.
Except for Thurston, all were charged
with crimes related to numerous ecotage actions, most
claimed by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) or Earth
Liberation Front (ELF). Thurston, a Canadian citizen,
was charged with possession of false social security
and green cards. Indicted, but not arrested, was Josephine
Overaker, whose whereabouts are unknown. Seven individuals,
including Thurston, Jonathan Paul and Suzanne Savoie,
were subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury in Eugene,
Oregon.
Read
full article here
Clearcutting Green Activists:
The FBI Escalates the War on Dissent
by Dr. Steven Best and Anthony J. Nocella II
As corporations escalate their bloody
and destructive assault on animals, biodiversity,
and the Earth, so too is the FBI ratcheting up its
attack on activists who defend the rights of nature.
This is not a coincidence, but a strategic attempt
to silence voices that speak truth to power, with
the state doing the bidding of petroleum, gas, timber,
dairy, cattle, and vivisection industries.
Read
full article here
Lessons from COINTELPRO:
Building a Movement in the Face of Repression
By Claude Marks and Kelah Bott
Recent crackdowns on the animal rights and environmental
justice movements have left many activists feeling
that their communities are under siege. From the prosecution
of the SHAC 7 to the arrests of thirteen individuals
for arsons committed over a ten-year span, a war is
being waged against these movements by the U.S. government.
While all of this may seem terrifying
in its unfamiliarity to younger activists, the tactics
being employed by the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task
Force are anything but new. Whisperings of ‘COINTELPRO’
have appeared in various articles about the backlash
against eco-activism, but what does this generation
really know about the Counter-Intelligence Program
aimed at groups such as the Black Panther Party (BPP)
and the American Indian Movement (AIM)? Today’s
activists are heirs to a history of social and political
battles from wars that are not yet over. Without seeing
today’s struggles for animal rights and environmental
justice in a broader historical and social context,
we run the risk not only of repeating painful lessons
of the past, but of isolating ourselves and weakening
our movements.
Read
full article here
The Green Scare
By Karen Pickett
On January 20th, eleven people were
indicted in Oregon by a grand jury investigating acts
of sabotage linked to the underground Earth Liberation
Front (ELF). The actions, going back nearly a decade,
include a number of arsons - with such targets as
a ski resort expansion into endangered lynx habitat
and a facility for rounding up wild horses for dog
food. There were no injuries in any of the actions,
but the FBI claims over $25 million in damage to property.
Some of those indicted had been
arrested in December, including one person who died
in custody in Arizona. Shock waves have been reverberating
through the environmental activist community, and
the situation is still unfolding. Two more people
were arrested in Olympia, Washington, on February
23, and the day before, outspoken Native American
and animal rights activist Rod Coronado was arrested
in Tucson, Arizona, on charges sent down by a grand
jury in San Diego. In addition, there is a grand jury
investigating Animal Liberation Front (ALF) activities
in San Francisco.
Read
full article here
Green is the New Red
How the Government Landed a Terrorism Conviction for
Nonviolent Animal Activists
By Will Potter
In the 1940s and '50s, labeling
people "Communist" could drag them before
Senate hearings, place them on blacklists and ruin
their lives. During the Red Scare, proof of spying
for a foreign power rarely mattered. Instead, Senator
Joseph McCarthy and others paralyzed an entire political
movement by demonizing anyone who had any connection
to the Communist Party, either ideologically or personally.
The Red Scare was less about evidence than public
relations.
Now, Green is the new Red.
Read
full article here
Green Scare 2006: Who's Scaring
Who?
In the Works Press
By Melissa Roberts
It should come as no shock that the U.S. government
has perfected the art of deception while simultaneously
criminalizing dissent. The agenda is clear: it intends
to protect those with wealth and power, and will do
so by any means necessary. The past year alone has
revealed a campaign which includes: warrantless wiretapping;
Presidential “signing statements” contradicting
laws passed by Congress; and secretive “declassification”
of information with intent to harm high-level dissenters.
In short, those in power whose interests revolve around
short-term profits at the expense of the long-term
health of the planet and the majority of its inhabitants,
are not to be hindered.
Read full
article here
The Green Scare
New York Rat #6
On December 7th, 2005, the arrest of Daniel McGowan,
an environmental and social justice activist from
New York, and six others from around the country signaled
the beginning of a concerted government campaign to
destroy the radical earth and animal liberation movements.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a press release
shortly after, that silenced any doubt that the raids
were anything but a well-coordinated campaign against
activists. The DOJ dubbed the campaign, "Operation
Backfire," and explicitly stated that their investigation
was far from over and more arrests were to come. True
enough, Operation Backfire has claimed new arrests
and indictments every month since the campaign was
first announced last December, with a total of 16
people now under indictment, six of whom are in prison
awaiting trial. Many of these individuals are facing
more than a minimum of life in prison if they are
convicted on all the charges heaped upon them.
Read
full article here
Operation Backfire: The Feds
Make a Monstrous Move
www.greenanarchy.org
As we go to print (February '06), eleven people have
been accused of carrying out a years-long spree of
arsons throughout five Western states. The 65- count
indictment, returned by a Federal Grand Jury in Eugene,
OR, charges the eleven people of seventeen arsons
in Oregon, Wyoming, Washington, California and Colorado
from 1996 through 2001 with improvised incendiary
devices fashioned from milk jugs, petroleum products
and homemade timers, causing damage in the millions
of dollars. Director Robert S. Mueller III of the
FBI said one of the bureau's "highest domestic
terrorism priorities" is catching and prosecuting
"those who commit crime and terrorism in the
name of animal rights or environmental issues."
The nation-wide sweep of arrests, dubbed "Operation
Backfire", has been declared by the FBI as a
major hit to environmentalists and animal rights activists
who engage in destruction of property as a means to
defend wilderness and lives of animals. Ongoing grand
juries in San Diego and San Francisco are also targeting
environmentalists and animal rights defenders.
Read
full article here
The second issue of “The
Warrior Wind” is out now w/ extensive coverage
of the Green Scare
It is available as a .pdf file, to print out and distribute
locally, from either of the following two locations:
http://www.socialwar.net/main/subversion/warriorwind2.pdf
http://www.impassionedinsurrection.info/pamphlets/warriorwind2.pdf
The mid-April newsletter contents include: a lengthy
article on the January arrests in Auburn, California,
including an update on how those on the outside can
help; a statement from Sacramento Prisoner Support
concerning Ryan Lewis; an update on the Northwest
“eco-crimes” prosecution, which continues
to expand into other areas; news shorts on Rod Coronado
and Peter Young; an analysis of the SHAC 7 conviction;
eco-prisoner Jeff Luers’ call for a weekend
of resistance against the so-called “green scare;”
and finally information about “The Warrior Wind”
newsletter project itself.
We continue to encourage participation in this publishing
project, not only through making copies and circulating
the newsletter, but also by offering us your feedback
and writing for future issues.
As repression increases, we believe that it has become
more, not less, important for radicals to raise their
voices. “The Warrior Wind” newsletter
is one small gesture towards broader efforts of resistance,
solidarity, and refusal against a shoddy world system.
Our second issue is dedicated to the memory of Beth
O’Brien (AKA “Horehound”) who died
at the Eagle Creek tree-sit in Oregon four years ago.
For a better world,
TWW Editors
New zine with Extensive Coverage
of the Eco-Eleven case, dedicated to the Memory of
Bill Rodgers
From TWW Editors:
The Warrior Wind” Newsletter: First Issue Available
Now!
The first issue of “The Warrior
Wind,” a newsletter against our society of confinement,
is out now. It is available as a .pdf file, to print
out and distribute locally, from either of the following
two locations:
http://www.impassionedinsurrection.info/pamphlets/warriorwind1.pdf
http://www.socialwar.net/main/subversion/warriorwind1.pdf
The February newsletter contents
include: “On the Recent Wave of Repression,”
a look at the Northwest “eco-crime” cases;
dispatches from eco-defense prisoner Jeff “Free”
Luers; other repression and resistance news (grand
juries, Auburn arrests, SHAC 7 trial, Chuk’shon
Earth First! activists face sentencing, and “Belgium:
Solidarity Against All Borders!”); information
about the newsletter project itself; and finally a
reprint of Ralph Chaplin’s poem “The Warrior
Wind.”
We encourage you to make this project
your own, not only through making copies and circulating
the information within, but also by offering us your
feedback and writing for future issues.
As repression increases, we believe
that it has become more, not less, important for radicals
to raise their voices. “The Warrior Wind”
newsletter is one small gesture towards the sort of
fight-back we desire.
Our first issue is dedicated to the
memory of Bill Rodgers.
For a better world—
TWW editors.
