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Beltane

Croatan Turns Up The Heat
EF! Fights Logging in Globe Forest
-Mike C. and Rowan

Remembering Judi Bari
20 Years Ago an Explosion Filled the Sky and Changed Earth First!
-kp

Militant Feminism
An Explosive Interview with and Urban Guerilla
-Comrade Black

The Skunk Ape Proxy
A Proposal to Move the Earth First! Journal
-Everglades EF!

We Cannot Techno-Fix Our Way to a Sustainable Future
-Rachel Smolker

The Specter of Sludge
Fighting For Justice in the Wake of the Tennessee Valley Authority Disaster
-Mike Ludwig

Renewable Conflicts
Green Capitalism and the Next World Order
-Sasha

Pieing 101
-Any Creams Necessary

Recent Comments

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The Earth First! Journal is the voice of the radical environmental movement.


EF! Newswire Launched!

We have recently launched the Earth First! Newswire, an online source for news and information about the global biocrisis and creative responses to it, particularly involving direct action. Check it out, leave comments, let us know what you think! If you'd like to post something on there or become a regular contributor, please email collective@earthfirstjournal.org.

30 Year Anniversary!

The Earth First! Journal will be celebrating 30 years in print during our November-December 2010 edition. We are producing a bound publication to commemorate the milestone and are looking for content and graphics to include. Please send e-mails, suggestions, articles, graphics, songs and poems to the collective e-mail address!
Thanks for your contributions and readership!

Support is also needed financially... as always! We are currently fund-raising for the 30 year anniversary issue, a new EF! music compilation, and the proposed move of the EF! J office to the Florida Everglades! Check out the Everglades EF! site to donate directly to the move. You can donate directly to these projects through our website, through the post or by giving us a call at the office.
(All contact info is at the bottom of the screen).

Thanks for your support!
For the Wild,
-the Earth First! Journal Collective

Beltane - Volume 30, Issue 4

Old Enemies, New Battles

False solutions are lumbering toward us from above. The Obama administration and its industry allies are implementing their vision of environmental reform, and it stinks of development, infrastructure and resource extraction.

The Obama age presents the latest serving of false hope and solutions. It’s been a tough time for anarchists and radicals in the US. Our critiques of power and capital are often overshadowed by the specter of some new America.

They say, “Hope!” We say, “Same shit, different day.”

Floating on the inflated promise of change and progress, a palpable eco-awareness has taken form in the public fervor surrounding climate change, energy and sustainability. People make minor lifestyle changes, and wait eagerly for the State to provide a techno-panacea of development to somehow save the planet, without threatening the comfort and convenience of life under capitalism. It is in this consciousness that we find a new front in the battle for all things wild. It is here that the behemoth of global capital fights to keep both nature and technology under its cloak. It is here that we will expose the liar-leviathan and declare that Mother Earth will never be safe under global capitalism. A society based on the destruction of the Earth will never be sustainable!

Government, industry and corporations are all piggybacking this “green” cultural inertia to slip their profit margins out of the impending noose of carbon dioxide restriction and the realities of peak everything. As radical environmentalists, we are faced with the same challenge originally presented by the Obama campaign: debunking false solutions that fill an eco-minded public full of hope.
Why would we stop the construction of a power plant that “sequesters” carbon dioxide? Why would we interfere with genetically modified trees that could trap greenhouse gases? Why are we protesting a dam that could provide “clean” energy? Why will we never be appeased by new reform?

Our answer is simple: “Same bullshit, different technology.”

The blatant contrast between EF!ers and the average environmentalist has always been apparent in these questions, but the frame has shifted. Progress is no longer just an end in itself; it’s now progress that can save the world. Policy-makers have capitalized on this insidious mentality to ensure future decades of environmental tyranny. For this, we too must make adjustments to our strategies, further diversify our tools and tactics, and clearly locate our movement on the map of resistance. We cannot let these false solutions rob us of potential allies—people living in the communities that are trashed by the industries we oppose, in the factories of poisoned workers, in the law offices of paper-pushers, and in anyone ready to take action. We must meet them with answers that demand the importance of Deep Ecology and direct action.

We are given here an opportunity. False solutions give us the inroad to show that environmentalism is a struggle of the people, or rather that a people’s struggle must be environmentalist;  the same capitalist system that alienates, separates and exploits people also destroys the very land that supports our inherent human and animal needs for food, water and freedom.  Even “green” capitalism exists only to reproduce and tighten its exploitative stranglehold over everything, people and nature alike.

Through educating ourselves and others, building relationships across all lines and borders, and standing in solidarity with everyone in the struggle against capitalism and ecocide, our collective voice will thunder through the canyons and the forests, echo in the oceans and skies when they ask of our solution and we bellow, “No compromise! Keep it wild!”
­
—Kenton & Ludwig

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Re: Old Enimies, New Battles • posted by chris irwin <christopherscottirwin@yahoo.com> at May 8, 2010 6:05pm

hey here is something i just scribbled.

The Coming Storm in the Gulf
by one angry monkey

The Gulf disaster is almost like a Star Trek episode where the Enterprise discovers an alien species has accidentally blown a hole in the floor of their oceans and ends up wiping out much of an entire oceanic ecosystem creating massive economic turmoil and ecological destruction.

There has even been the argument that the only thing which might work is the detonation of a tactical nuke, a bunker buster--where the oil is discharging. The theory is this is how you put out oil fires above surface, and it might work at the oceans floor.

The crew of the Enterprise would call the alien species mad which got itself in such a predicament where detonation of bunker buster nukes is being discussed as an option.

I am coming to believe that those who have read a great deal of science fiction may be best equipped to grasp how bad the situation in the gulf may get with the oil volcano created by the engineers at BP.

It almost helps if you see it in the setting of a science fiction novel by Asimov or Heinlein.

You almost need to use this frame of reference to understand the scope of ecological devastation our species may of wrought.

But lets get back to planet Earth--cause it was the humans that did this to their own planet and ocean.

In a few weeks the oil disaster in the Gulf may be so bad that any environmentalist would of gladly elected George Bush Jr. as King if it would of meant that it never happened. No one wants even the mid-case scenario if this goes as bad as it might--certainly not the environmentalist.

But no one else is really addressing the worse case so we might as well be the first.

Some estimate it could take 7-9 months to successfully drill another hole down--and then sideways--and then up--to plug the oil volcano BP has created.

Few are discussing the worse case scenarios to balance out all the best ones which the media, BP and the government are promoting.

I am terrible at math but 7-9 months of 200,000 gallons a day seems like allot of oil.

Combine this with the coming hurricanes, hurricane season will be upon us in June. How are those pretty orange booms going to stand up to the ocean during a full hurricane? It appears the booms do not stay together well in just rough seas.

I am not reading about hurricanes, oil and worse case consequences in the mass media. This reality of a worse case scenario no one wants to see.

Its like the government, media and BP are using my Chiwawas theory of social interaction. A Chiwawa will break eye contact under the theory that if they can’t see you, you may not be able to see them.

Its like the government, media, BP and yes the American people are trying to not look--to not make eye contact--which the consequences if this disaster goes long term--which if very well might.

Unfortunately this tactic doesn’t actually work for the dogs, and it won’t in this case either. Our species will not be able to deal with the long term consequences of an even mid case scenario by not looking at it.

We need to focus attention on the long problem--and sooner is better.

Few seem to be projecting the consequences if the worse case scenario plays out in the gulf and our species can’t plug the hole in the ocean floor. And it does not appear a benevolent alien species is going to show up and do it for us.

The mass media focuses everyone’s attention of the short term projects while ignoring the possible long term consequences if it ends. Its like a shell game where they keep directing our eyes to different cups--but not at the overall game.

Here is a ball-- “look at the huge dome.” Oh look at this one-- “here is what the drill will look like!” Few seem to be seeing the whole game--no one is preparing for worse case scenarios.

Both the government, BP and the media to a degree seem to be only talking about best case scenarios like if the giant cap (an admitted long shot) actually works.

It wasn’t like the Gulf was a pristine ecosystem to start with. There was a huge hypoxic zone (no oxygen) coming out of Americas industrial drainage ditch--the Mississippi river.

Its not as if humans have been good stewards of the worlds oceans or this planet. An already challenged gulf ecosystem just had a huge burden of pollution dumped on it.

Thousand of chemical companies, oil refineries and paper mills dump chemicals and pollution into the gulf every day.

Coral reefs are dying, fisheries are collapsing world wide--the increasing PH from the Co2 are beginning to effect the shell industry on the West Coast.

Worse case we could end up killing most of the marine life in the gulf of Mexico.

This bigger picture of worse case internationally and nationally is barely being reported or discussed.

We have to force the eyes of the nation and world on what we are going to do if these short term experiments by the engineers who created this disaster do not work.

Mexico, Belize, Cuba and all the residents of the gulf could see the fisheries completely collapse and become inedible.

And of course Louisiana, Florida, Texas all see their tourism industry completely take a dirt nap.

If this worse case scenario plays out and we actually can’t deal with the problem long term it won’t be some reporters gazing off from some wetlands talking about “sheen”. We could entire dead pods of dolphins, dead whales, mass die off of fish rotting on the oil soaked beaches.

Right now by acting we can help spark the coming storm of resistance to the filthy 18th century fossil fool industries that kills miners, mountains and may of killed the Gulf of Mexico.

The sooner we mobilize--the better. The sooner we will force the government, media and BP to address and plan on a long term worse case situation.

And you reader have several tools in your hand to do this immediately with barely inconveniencing yourself.

Boycott BP--don’t buy their stupid gas. it’s a simple easy way to show that you are unhappy with what may play out in the gulf. Its really easy and only mildly inconvenient to go to one of the other polluting gas companies and use their filthy fuel instead. There are BP stations everywhere and this should happen internationally.

Protest BP--everyone has a BP in their neighborhood. Its an easy quick way for people to show they want action-and resources and this company to be held accountable. Go get a sign and make a you tube video of your protesting BP.

This is a start.

You can help organize a resistance which hopefully be the force for changes how humans interact with this planet in North America.

The boycotts and protest are coming anyway--you will just be a few weeks ahead of the curve. If we can mobilize now--set up the groups, make the signs, create the petitions, create info to hand out now--we can be that much more ahead in a few weeks if the worse case plays out.


There will be political consequences of a long term disaster.

The Democrats are going to destroy every single republican that has any video of them going “drill baby drill” if this oil volcano is still erupting into the gulf when the elections go down.

The national republican party may find suddenly the south no longer belongs to them--and a bunch of coastal red states become blue in a few weeks.

Despite the rights best efforts to call this Obamas Katrina it wasn’t the Democrats chanting “Drill baby drill!” the last two years. Its going to be cake for the democrats to tag the republican party with the pictures of dead marine life and oil covered beaches.

All it will take is a Daily Show montage and a few youtube videos and the republicans are faced with a problem of epic proportions.

Every single night Americans may be treated to seeing marine mammals dying in the thousands on the beaches they visit every summer.

The ranks of the environmentalist will swell with trench conversions of both working class and wealthy powerful members of society with beach front property.

But none of the politics really matter. But it does.

This ecological disaster may destroy an entire part of the ocean--but it could also change how humans interact with this planet if enough of us mobilize to make it so to quote Picard from Star Trek.

After a few weeks of the oil volcano everyone is going to be horrified and sickened by the consequences regardless of political affiliation and stripe. There won’t be a tree hugger who wouldn’t vote for Bush junior as King if it would of prevented this disaster.

If the experimental efforts of the engineers who created this problem in the first place do not play out in a few weeks we will see protest at BP’s across the world in protest of the fossil fools industry.

In a few weeks if this goes worse case there will be direct actions, civil rights type actions of outraged people walking across lines and getting arrested, banners--an entire new movement of outrage and resistance to these fossil fools in going to erupt in our country if this disaster continues.

A few people are seeing the long term consequences of this and are calling for people to start organizing now! Join our ranks which will quickly swell.

If the worse case scenario plays out this is going to be taken out of the hands of BP. The military and government will mobilize--and every day this gets put off is another 200,000 gallons.

The sad truth is we may not be able to shut this off at all. The latest theory as I type is the the methane crystals on the ocean floor got sucked up a pipe only rated for about 60,000 PSI or so. At a certain temperature and pressure the methane on the ocean becomes a crystal. When it got sucked up the pipe it went to gas and expanded with predictable results.

And what about this methane being released from these rigs?

“Atmospheric methane is at least 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide and is the most abundant organic compound in the atmosphere, according to the study's authors, all from UC Santa Barbara.”

http://hypography.com/forums/science-news/7734-gas-ocean-floor-may-drive-global.html

What this theory does is beg the question--what if it happens again? What if after 8 months a new line is put in--and the methane blows it out again for the same reasons?

But few of the worse case consequences are being discussed today. We need to force that conversation and have our government and media to begin discussing long term worse case scenarios--and how to address those.

This is a terrible situation that has our government, BP, agencies and media all living on the river in Africa called de Nile. We have to snap them the hell out of it and get really serious fast.

Again.

Boycott BP--don’t buy their stupid gas. it’s a simple easy way to show that you are unhappy with what may play out in the gulf. Its really easy and only mildly inconvenient to go to one of the other polluting gas companies and use their filthy fuel instead.

Protest BP--everyone has a BP in their neighborhood. Its an easy quick way for people to show they want action-and resources and this company to be held accountable. Go get a sign and make a you tube video of your protesting BP.

The boycotts and protest are coming anyway--you will just be a few weeks ahead of the curve. If we can mobilize now--set up the groups, make the signs, create the petitions, create info to hand out now--we can be that much more ahead in a few weeks if the worse case plays out and everyone is doing.

Maybe they seal off the leak next week--or even in the morning. Its still a terrible disaster with consequences which will go into the future --but if so I will breath a sigh of relief.

As a tree hugger I think I can say with full assurance that environmentalist and those who love nature do not want this worse case scenario. We may just be stuck with it.

There is a political and grassroots storm coming. The sooner we can force our government and people to start discussing openly worse case scenarios then the quicker we can get prepare to deal with them.

And we can use this coming pressure to get our country off the addiction of fossil fools and on track to a more sustainable future.

Right now by acting you can help spark that coming future quicker.

Finally:

June 12th we are calling for a national day of action against BP stations across the country. Boycott them now! Protest before that date! But also plan on joining a national day of action on that Saturday to protest the destruction of the Gulf of Mexico.

If they have turned off the oil volcano by then great--we will push them to clean up the mess they have made up to that point.

But if the worse--or even mid case occurs tens of thousands will want to participate and you can help promote and kick off what could become one of the most important environmental movements and periods in our species history.

For the Earth!

One angry monkey.
Chris Irwin
christopherscottirwin@yahoo.com

Re: Old Enemies, New Battles • posted by chris irwin <christopherscottirwin@yahoo.com> at May 19, 2010 3:45pm

I would like to welcome to Earth First! all the pissed off residents of the Gulf who suddenly are really pissed at BP and the Government for the destruction of your ecosystem.

You are one of the ones surfing the web looking for ways to make a corporations life living hell.

Welcome to Earth First! Our movement specializes in making corporations lives a living hell and you have come to the right place.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, CORPORATE STYLE • posted by Ted Rall <> at May 20, 2010 7:02pm

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, CORPORATE STYLE

By Ted Rall

NEW YORK--The Supreme Court says that corporations have the same rights as individuals. When they misbehave, shouldn't they face consequences as serious as those imposed upon an individual?

It goes without saying that a person who commits a crime ought to face punishment proportional to the offense. Large and midsize corporations, which employ thousands of employees, have far vaster reach and power than even the wealthiest ordinary citizens. So their crimes can be breathtaking in scope. The 1984 industrial catastrophe at a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India killed 15,000 people. An additional 200,000 have since suffered serious injuries. Compared to the boards of directors of Union Carbide and Dow Chemical, which bought the company in 2001, Ted Bundy was small potatoes.

Unlike small-time serial killers, however, corporations get away with murder. For at least a year, management of the Toyota auto company knew that brakes in millions of its cars might fail. A 2009 ABC News investigation found that at least 16 people had died. "Safety analysts found an estimated 2000 cases in which owners of Toyota cars including Camry, Prius and Lexus, reported that their cars surged without warning up to speeds of 100 miles per hour," reported the network. Yet Toyota did nothing. Instead they blamed their customers, saying they were resting their floormats on the gas pedals.

On May 18th, Toyota finally faced the wrath of the federal government. Its "punishment": a paltry $16.5 million fine, not one cent of which went to the victims or their families. The fine, which amounted to a ridiculous 5.5 percent of its 2009 profit, went into the U.S. Treasury's general fund--in other words, to kill Afghans and Iraqis.

Available to Congress and the President is a far more appropriate punishment: nationalization without compensation. Toyota's American operations ought to be seized and operated by the federal government. The top officials of the parent company in Japan, whose willful negligence murdered at least 16 American citizens, ought to be extradited and face trial in U.S. federal court.

Extreme? Expropriating private property is commonplace--when the target is Joe and Jane Sixpack. Just ask hundreds of homeowners of New London, Connecticut. When the city destroyed an entire neighborhood to build a luxury office development, the U.S. Supreme Court backed them up, radically expanding the concept of eminent domain. Unlike a lot of evil corporations, those homeowners didn't do anything wrong.

The U.S. government has not only the right but the duty to take over criminal corporations.

A 5.5 percent fine is a slap on the wrist. Nationalizing a company, on the other hand, protects the public interest. Hitting corporations in the balance sheet is a genuine deterrent to the managers of other companies contemplating lawless behavior. It brings in significant cash assets that can be used to compensate the victims of the company's criminal activities.

Nationalization can also serve the interest of public safety. The mine explosion that left at least 25 coal miners dead in West Virginia earlier this year left members of the public feeling helpless and frustrated at the slow and inept rescue attempt by Massey Energy, the site's owner and operator. Setting aside the obvious argument that natural resources ought to be exploited for the benefit of the American people rather than private businesspeople, the rescue operation would have benefited from the involvement of top experts at such government agencies as the Army Corps of Engineers.

In 2009 the Upper Big Branch mine received 450 safety violations. Massey Energy paid the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration less than $1 million total. That's less than one percent of its annual profits. That's roughly $2,000 per violation.

If you get caught speeding in Virginia, you'll pay more than what Massey Energy pays for deliberately risking the lives of its employees.

British Petroleum is spending $6 million a day on its response to the explosion at its Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. But that's a drop in the bucket next to the cost that will be borne by the people of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. The disaster is spilling the equivalent of one Exxon Valdez wreck into the Gulf every four days--and it's been three weeks. Thousands of fishermen will be ruined. The tourism industry, already in trouble due to the economic collapse, will be devastated. The full extent of the ecological damage--dead animals and aquatic plants, huge dead zones devoid of oxygen--won't be understood for years.

BP failed to ensure that a "blowout preventer" at the Deepwater Horizon would work in the event of an emergency. But their real crime was drilling for oil 5,000 feet down in the first place.

Here again, it's easy to see how nationalization might help. Rather than wait for the clueless execs at BP to come up with a solution, a BP seized by the federal government (its American operations, anyway) would come under the jurisdiction of an organization that could assign experts from NOAA and the U.S. Navy, among other agencies, to stop the leak. After the leak is plugged, the publicly-owned former BP's profits would help defray the costs of the cleanup and extend benefits to fisherman and other victims.

Imagine the possibilities. What if Too Big to Fail had been turned into Too Big to Resist?

As a nationalized asset Citibank, which received $306 billion in bailouts, would be worth $152 trillion to taxpayers. Goldman Sachs got $15 billion; they're worth $70 trillion. Sell them off and no one would ever pay college tuition again. Or to see a doctor. Or we could give everyone a 50 percent tax cut. We're a rich country--the problem is that out-of-control corporations are hogging the wealth.

Businessmen charter corporations for the express purpose of avoiding individual legal liability. Isn't it high time we started holding criminal businessmen accountable?

Re: Old Enemies, New Battles • posted by Clayton Hallmark <clhallmark01@yahoo.com> at May 25, 2010 4:23pm

Actually, there are people of national influence -- even oil insiders -- who are warning that the oil leak might be unstoppable. Mathew Simmons of Houston probably is the ultimate insider, and he was Dubya Bush's principle oil adviser. Simmons says the leak may be unstoppable. That spill might continue until the entire reservoir is depleted -- which could take years. You do not need to do a back-of-the-envelope calculation: Just look up the amount of oil in that pool, or Google Matthew Simmons and "oil spill." http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05/100513-science-environment-gulf-oil-spill-cap-leak/ (Strange you mentioned making Bush the king. We might indeed have fared better, at least as far as his knowledge of the problem is concerned.

Here is what ocean explorer Phillipe Cousteau, grandson of Jacques Cousteau, said after taking a dive in the Gunk of Mexico: Remnants of the slick could ultimately reach Europe by traveling in the Gulf Stream, he believes. “So BP, your oil is coming home,” said Mr Cousteau, who visited Louisiana last week.

Dismissing remarks from BP executives that the scale of the spill was tiny compared with the size of the sea and that the Gulf of Mexico would be cleaned up and “fully recover”, Mr Cousteau said: “To make such a statement is totally unacceptable. We have to see behind the dying bird, we have to understand the consequences of this that we can’t see. Nature is more complex than we can imagine. I know the ocean well enough to know that I don’t know it at all.” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7135421.ece

Re: Old Enemies, New Battles • posted by Adam Janulis <adamjanulis@comcast.net> at May 28, 2010 8:42am

HAYDUKE LIVES.... THIS IS A CALL TO ARMS. THE TIME FOR ACTION IS NOW. Pick up a brick, a rock, a gun and fight back. BP is too big to boycott, it's time to make a difference. LIGHT A MATCH, THROW A BRICK, KIDNAP AND TORTURE those lying EXECUTIVES!!

Re: Old Enemies, New Battles • posted by rob <roblosricos@riseup.net> at May 29, 2010 2:17pm

free has a lot to say about the state of activism in this video of a talk he gave at the Law and Disorder conference, at portland state last month;

http://www.blinkx.com/watch-video/law-and-disorder-psu-jeff-free-luers/TzCRIW8zG9ujm70tjoVoiQ

Oil spill • posted by Victoria Harris <vbharris@npgcable.com> at Jun 5, 2010 4:39pm

What action can be taken to help wildlife endangered by the oil spill?

Re: Old Enemies, New Battles • posted by chris irwin <christopherscottirwin@yahoo.com> at Jun 6, 2010 6:31am

Reading what you wrote above got me scribbling this. Earth First! does seem better and keeping action orientation and fighting the drift. Below is what I wrote.

Voices of complacency, or you can’t do that!

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke)


Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

“You can’t do that!”

Congress did not need to make laws abridging the freedom of speech or the right of the people to peaceably assemble. Usually the abridging of speech is done internally. We don’t exercise our rights to peaceably assemble not because of the voices without, but the ones within. The voices who with sympathy and often the best of intentions tell Americans--not now.

“Silence is an attribute of the dead; he who is alive speaks.” Proverbs

Not now, not here, not today, the “people” will not understand--it will do more harm than good, we are not ready--now is not the time--and the ever insidious “your not from around here“ in all of its subtle and deadly manifestations…the rationales are endless but always seem to boil down to inaction is preferable to action. Silence to speech and passivity to activity. And its at its most deadly when its inside our organizations.

The government does not need to silence Americans--we do it to ourselves.

Years ago I was working on campaigns against chip mills. A chip mill is a highly mechanized form of logging that can grind up hundreds of acres of forests at a time. This was before mountain top removal mining and at the time was sometimes called a “final solution” for our forest.

We got told the time to protest was not nigh--and “activist” fought and worked to create inactivity. When asked why not now, why can’t be Americans here?--the argument basically boiled down to stupid rednecks won’t get it. The irony was the people who lived their telling us these things often had just moved into the area.

Before that I organized against the heart of the nuclear weapons production complex in Oak Ridge Tennessee where when we organized the first civil disobedience in its history we were told the same. We were told it could be violent, that people in East Tennessee would not get it--that it would set the existing campaigns back.

When I helped drop a banner off the worlds fair globe against nuclear weapons created outrage--a liberal activist told me to my face that the town I was born in and my family had been in for generations was to “conservative” for such actions.

Organizing against the nuclear power plants I live downwind from I was told I did not live within a few miles of the plant and as such had no right to organize anything.

And in the current struggle for the mountains of Appalachia this exact same tone--same voices have haunted and fought almost every single meaningful protest and action I have participated in during this campaign. You can’t organize protest here! Americans will not understand! Its not the right time! It will destroy all of our work and organizing if you do anything. These are the voices which have haunted me for decades drifting from cause to cause, campaign to campaign, protest to protest.

And these people behind these voices always disappear and the campaigns fail where they get their way and silence people.

My experiences are not unique. MLK wrote of this in Letters from a Birmingham Jail where he wrote:

“I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.”

What I have experienced and what MLK was writing about is that we have supporters of issues and causes that in the end often do more damage to efforts towards action and protest than government or industry.

“You can’t do that!” is essentially their cry. They always are the first to speak up for inactivity, inaction, indecision, delay, yet never offer or organize alternatives.

What makes their voices so insidious is often its buried in a sympathetic tone. It’s when these voices come from within our organizations that they are most damaging. Its not from without we silence ourselves in the face of injustice, its from within.

“Silence is the voice of complicity.” Proverbs

An movements and groups actions, direction and mission are always limited by the members who feel strongly enough to show up to an occasional meeting or join a list--but will use every effort to fight against protest, sign making, theatre--action. The bottom common denominator for any groups is its most conservative member.

Everyone who has organized over time has heard these voices in a variety of campaigns.

One defensive measure of mixed success I have tried is to make the information I recruit with as radical as possible to hopefully drive out those who care enough to care--but always seem to shoot down movement with the best of intentions.

That seems to work right up to the point where we began winning or gaining success--then those voices find us and wreck everything. They are neck and neck with large non-profits who get involved when campaigns gain steam for running campaigns into the dirt.

Sometimes its large non profits who destroy movement efforts, sometimes its the voices of silence and inactivity. Both seem drawn to the success of grassroots efforts.

Oppressive and destructive institutions like Jim Crow in the South or Extractive industries have always used this trend. “your not from around here boy!” is almost a caricature. it’s a tactic which was used against MLK.

“Don’t protest BP stations they are locally owned and it does no good” is a current version of this

or

“Don’t come to Birmingham Mr. King your not from around here and your just stirring up trouble.”

or

“Women need to wait until the war is over before demanding the right to vote!”

Inaction, inactivity, do nothing.

What's so hard about this trap organizationally is that it would be easier if it were just a corporation, the mass media and the government trying to squash our efforts at self organization and action. But often these are people who look like allies and even talk like them for the most part.

We have all heard these voices in our heads--its just some people are captured by those voices of paranoia, fear and the lulling comfort of not doing anything. Its so comforting to be assured that inaction, the easiest out of all--the politically correct as well.

Its just that when it comes to action, protest--anything that looks like Americans exercising their rights they began shaking in fear and those voices take over. They are like some giant prehistoric bird which cries “you can’t do that” whenever real movement is occurring.

And as campaigns gain success--more people join, more of this sort--then things come apart as they are a brake on movement. If a movement has enough momentum before these people join it can break through this insidious glass ceiling--but its hard.

This is a description of the bars on trap we find ourselves in as Americans trying to fight corporations destroying our land and people. How to break the trap is the question.

I do not know how, if I did it would be done. I have learned with smaller groups its easier--especially if you keep your information radical and action oriented.

What we need is an organizational firewall which blocks this…mental virus from infecting the entire body. This dehabilitating mindset can be viewed as a virus--one which spreads among organizations and movements. Some have resistance as having encountered it before--others get swept up in it having never experienced it before.

Inactivity and passivity is a like a virus or disease which infects and destroys effective movements from growing in America.

Perhaps inoculation? Preparing and educating ourselves and new activist as to the nature and existence of this trend?

Therapy for humans whose have been so malprogrammed that they cripple the very things they claim to support?

Or maybe education on past movements--past actions and real history, some sort of education.

Until we figure out how to deal with them our efforts at exercising our basic human rights like speech and protest will continue to be crippled.

And you can't do that! and create real change.













Re: Old Enemies, New Battles • posted by anarchist39 <woodrowtthompson@yahoo.com> at Jun 8, 2010 1:10pm

LIVE WILD OR DIE!

Re: Old Enemies, New Battles • posted by Maddoc <blauribrad@aol.com> at Jun 21, 2010 2:56pm

Awesome article!! So many seem so passive. What will it take to bring REAL CAHANGE? when will people have had enough? I know I have.

Re: Old Enemies, New Battles • posted by G Rutten <glrutten@yahoo.com> at Jun 24, 2010 7:08am

Please confirm a news item today on CHCH regarding the blocking of the 403 , my wife must travel to Hamilton for a necessary doctor's appointment coming from Woodstock, Thanks

Re: Old Enemies, New Battles • posted by Ann Orange <anna_0range@yahoo.com> at Jun 25, 2010 4:43pm

I would like to take this opportunity to let anyone who checks this sight know that there will be a public awareness demonstration about the oil spill on Sunday 6-27 on Clearwater beach at 1:00 pm.

If your in the area, please come out.

This is a demonstration to educate our community to mobilize and to take action now. To show the media that we are angered and demand long term plans. To expose BP for the lies they have kept un exposed.

Please e-mail if you have any questions. Thank you.

-Anna.Orange.
anna_0range@yahoo.com

Re: Old Enemies, New Battles • posted by Ed <readoutsidethebox@sbcglobal.neet> at Jun 29, 2010 10:48am

For all the other destruction, abuse and dysfunction going on, does anyone beg to differ with the United States of Truckers? This truckanization of the USA does rather reek of a scheme to artificially generate more tax revenue and artificially generate lots of jobs (that keep working people distracted on a horrible treadmill).
Could you refer me (links, whatever) to websites, etc. of other people who see the United States of Trucking as a corrupt, rotten, stinking scheme?
For all the evil of the rail, ya have to admit it is a refreshing, shining star compared to ....over the road freight trucking. Ever gallon of deisel is a chu-ching to tax revenue coffers. Then there's the taxes from truck tires, truck sales, truck repair shop sales tax... And on and on. Just a big fat disgusting fossil fuel scheme that even destroys families. How many truckers can be home on a daily basis?
Restore The Rails
Ed

Re: Old Enemies, New Battles • posted by Dogbreath <> at Jun 30, 2010 6:13am

Yeah, and you can ride the rails, but truckers generally don't pick up hitchikers anymore. The only two truckers that have ever given me rides, ironically enough, were driving fully-loaded log trucks out of the woods. The same woods in which my car either broke down or got stuck when I was . . . well, doing things that loggers don't like. Those log truck drivers were pretty nice guys, though. They might not have been so nice if they'd known what I had been doing.