Movie Review: Who Bombed Judi Bari?

Infoshop News

Producers: Darryl Cherney and Mary Liz Thompson. Who Bombed Judi Bari?
Produced by Hokey Pokey Productions, 2011. 93 minutes.

By Fellow Worker X344543
Industrial Worker
May 2012

“I knew it was a bomb the second it exploded. I felt it rip through me
with a force more powerful and terrible than anything I could imagine.
It blew right through my car seat, shattering my pelvis, crushing my
lower backbone, and leaving me instantly paralyzed. Slumped over in my
seat, unable to move, I couldn’t feel my legs, but desperate pain
filled my body. I didn’t know such pain existed. I could feel the life
force draining from me, and I knew I was dying. I tried to think of my
children’s faces to find a reason to stay alive, but the pain was too
great, and I couldn’t picture them. I wanted to die. I begged the
paramedics to put me out.” — Judi Bari, 1994

Darryl Cherney’s and Mary Liz Thompson’s new documentary, “Who Bombed Judi
Bari?” takes a thorough look at the deposition of the late Judi Bari as
she testified, under oath, about the car bomb that nearly killed her and
fellow organizer Darryl Cherney on May 24, 1990.

Bari was both a radical environmentalist (having been a major figure in
the Earth First! movement from 1988 until her death from cancer in 1997)
and a class-struggle unionist, having been a rank-and-file dissident in
the Retail Clerks and Postal Workers Union in the 1970s. She was also a
delegate and organizer in the IWW, having joined the One Big Union just
after becoming active in Earth First!

Bari introduced the concept of class analysis and class struggle to the
Earth First! movement in a whole new way, making it a point to focus
efforts to preserve old-growth redwood forests in northwestern California
at the point of production. Her reasoning—rightfully so—was that the
capitalist system that exploits the earth is the very same which threatens
the livelihoods of timber workers. (It is also the same system that
perpetuates racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression, a point that
Bari made frequently.)

Thanks to Bari’s efforts, Earth First! (and the IWW) in Humboldt and
Mendocino Counties were able to somewhat effectively counteract the
efforts by timber corporations like Georgia-Pacific, Louisiana-Pacific,
and Maxxam to drive wedges between timber workers and environmentalists.

At one point, Bari and fellow IWW organizer Anna Marie Stenberg even
represented G-P Mill workers in an Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) case against the company when their business union,
International Woodworkers of America (IWA) Local #3-469, collaborated with
management against the workers. She also represented the widow of an L-P
mill worker, Fortunado Reyes, who was killed in an accident in the
nonunion L-P mill in Ukiah.

Judi Bari worked with dissident Pacific-Lumber workers in raising
awareness about Maxxam's takeover of that company and why the new regime
was bad for both the forest and the workers. Due to her relations with
timber workers, she convinced Earth First! in northern California and
southern Oregon to renounce the tactic of tree spiking, which was of
dubious effectiveness at saving forests and certainly hazardous to mill
workers. She even convinced contract logger Ernie Pardini to conduct the
very first tree sit by a logger in 1993.

As fellow IWW and Earth First! member Darryl Cherney states in the film,
“If there was one thing that corporate timber feared more than anything
else, it was that radical environmentalists would unite with rank-and-file
timber workers, and because of her effectiveness in doing that, Judi Bari
was targeted. She did something nobody else [in Earth First!] did, and
that was organize rank-and-file mill workers into the IWW.”

The bombing took place in Oakland on May 24, 1990. The Oakland Police
Department (OPD) and the FBI named Bari and Cherney as the only suspects
in the bombing that nearly took their own lives, arguing instead that the
two knew they were carrying the bomb and were planning to use it in an act
of “eco-terrorism.” The evidence for such a plot is nonexistent, however,
and in fact suggests that the FBI not only knew that these charges were
false, but in fact deliberately lied about them to frame Bari and Cherney
in order to discredit them. Further evidence suggests that the FBI and the
timber industry may have collaborated in a COINTELPRO-style operation to
manufacture the whole incident from the beginning.

The film follows the final deposition of Bari against the FBI and OPD,
taken one month before her death on March 3, 1997, by one of her lawyers,
Dennis Cunningham. It clearly and concisely lays out Bari’s and Cherney’s
case against the powers that be (including the employing class), using
archival footage of the deposition intermixed with footage taken by Earth
First! activists of various rallies, concerts, and direct actions during
the period from 1988 to 1996. It provides a good overview of all of the
issues with useful background on the subject. At roughly 93 minutes, the
pace is quick and the archival footage draws the viewer in most
effectively.

The soundtrack includes music provided by Earth First! activists relevant
to the scenes being shown, including a generous portion of songs by Darryl
Cherney (who is a prolific songwriter and songsmith) and Judi Bari. Earth
First! took much inspiration from the IWW. One of the most notable
inspirations is the fact that as much as the IWW was (and is) “the singing
union,” Earth First! should be known as “the singing environmental
movement.” Earth First! even has a “Little Green Songbook.”

My only criticism of the film is that it leaves out one piece of very
important background information: One year before the bombing of Bari and
Cherney, the FBI completed a two-plus-year sting operation against two
other Earth First!ers and three fellow travelers in Arizona, including
cofounder Dave Foreman. This was known as "Operation THERM CON” (short for
“Thermite Conspiracy”), as described by Judi Bari:

“The FBI claimed that the Arizona EF! case had nothing to do with us.
We claim that the case is key to ours, because it shows that, at the
time of the bombing, Earth First! was an active target of an FBI
COINTELPRO operation designed [in the classic words of J. Edgar
Hoover] to misdirect, discredit, and neutralize us.

“Even more important, the FBI’s plan in Arizona was to misdirect and
discredit EF! by associating us with explosives. The FBI’s code name
for the Arizona EF! case was ‘THERMCON,’ an acronym for Thermite
Conspiracy. This name is very revealing of the FBI’s motives, since
there was no thermite, or any other explosive, used in any EF! action,
ever. But, as shown in the file, the two provocateurs spent years
telling the EF!ers they could get them thermite, and trying to
convince them to use thermite.

“Eventually the FBI had to settle for getting the activists to cut
down the power pole with an acetylene torch, as they were unable to
convince them to use explosives. But it is important to note that
Operation THERMCON did not consist of the FBI infiltrating EF! to
break up a thermite conspiracy. It consisted of the FBI using
provocateurs to infiltrate EF! and try to create a thermite conspiracy
for them to bust. It is in the context of this ongoing COINTELPRO
operation against EF!— this attempt to discredit us by linking us with
explosives—that the FBI terrorist squad moved in after I was bombed in
Oakland and declared Darryl and me to be the bombers.”

I assume the reason for leaving this out had to do with the fact that the
film is packed with information and the case is complex. The producers may
have felt that any additional information might have confused or
overwhelmed the viewers or slowed the pacing too much. Perhaps. Still,
there is a brief shot of me in the film, and although it is not spoken
footage and very short (no more than about 15 seconds), I would gladly
trade my 15 seconds of fame for the background information on this case to
be included instead. Still, it’s a small quibble. Bravo to the filmmakers,
and I do hope the IWW will support and promote this film.

The producers have indicated that they would welcome the IWW organizing
showings of it—and we should, as it promotes the IWW and one of our
members and tackles many important issues that are indeed class-struggle
oriented.

Details on the film can be found here: http://www.whobombedjudibari.com.
Viva Judi Bari!

Film Summary http://www.whobombedjudibari.com/

A news anchor reports while graphic news coverage of a terrorist car bomb
attack in 1990 in Oakland, CA is shown. Two Earth First! activists are
immediately blamed by the FBI for bombing themselves. We learn that the
victim/suspects Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney have later sued the FBI and
Oakland Police and that Judi Bari is now dying of cancer before her case
goes to trial. Weak though defiant, she gives her deposition, on camera,
just a month before she dies.

This action-packed journey unfolds in the order Judi testified, questioned
by civil rights attorney Dennis Cunningham. The archival footage brings
the story to life, driven by music from the Earth First! movement. Judi
Bari, an eloquent, brash orator with a union background, grows into a
powerful environmental leader. Story threads and character arcs
intertwine: the lawsuit against the FBI, the complex history of Earth
First!, the loggers, the controversy of tree spiking, the
political/romantic partnership of Judi and Darryl, and the fate of the
ancient redwoods.

Early 1980's Earth First! footage conveys the thinking of the founders,
such as Dave Foreman and writer Edward Abbey. Deep ecology and civil
disobedience are depicted in action. As Judi scores victories, tensions
grow into violence. As Judi and Darryl successfully organize for the Cahto
Wilderness, Headwaters Forest, and Redwood Summer which bring thousands to
the area, they experience the chilling fear of death threats and
ultimately the government's convoluted reasoning to accuse them of the
crimes committed against them.

When a letter describing the bomb components takes credit for the attack,
the FBI accuses Judi's relatives of typing the letter, searching her
house, pulling nails from the window trim to see if they matched nails
strapped to the bomb. Judi describes this invasion emotionally and how it
affected her children. The evidence clearly proved that the bomb was
hidden beneath her seat, while the FBI claimed that it should have been
visible.

Judi's testimony that she had to give up her forest activism due to cancer
segues into her greatest speech before 5,000 people, including Bonnie
Raitt (who sings). It culminates with the largest civil disobedience in
U.S. history --1033 people arrested in support of Headwaters Forest.

The deposition ends with the stunning revelation that neither the FBI nor
the Oakland attorney has a single question. Her touching reaction is that
she "gets to go home," rather than face more days of questioning.

The film transitions to the news on the day that Judi's deposition was
given to the jury in 2002. Lawyers at the courthouse, a radio interview
with a jury member, and the exuberance of the day the $4.4 million verdict
comes in builds to a powerful conclusion

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RsQrdsCtZ-Y

LIFE IS NOT CLEAR-CUT

An Oscar-nominated documentary tied to Eugene explores ‘eco-terrorism’ without easy heroes or villains

Feb 27, 2012 By Mark Baker The Register-Guard

Before “The Artist” or “Hugo” or “The Descendents” or whatever wins best picture at the 84th Academy Awards tonight in Hollywood, before Brad Pitt or George Clooney or the “French George Clooney” (Jean Dujardin) takes home the best-actor prize, and Meryl Streep finally — maybe? — gets her second best-actress nod, watch for Eugene’s Oscar clip.

It may or may not come; instead of tree-climbing activists being pepper-sprayed downtown, or images of burned-out SUVs at a former Franklin Boulevard Chevrolet dealership, the blip of footage shown might be from New York City or Vail, Colo., or maybe even Glendale, Ore.

But rest assured, our town will have some rare representation during the film industry’s biggest night of the year.

That’s because one of the five nominees for best documentary feature is “If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front,” an 85-minute film with an epicenter that is largely Eugene.

The extraordinary work of co-directors Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman began one day in 2005 when Elizabeth Martin, Curry’s wife, came home from work with a tale that neither she nor her husband could believe: Four federal agents had entered her Brooklyn office that afternoon and arrested Daniel McGowan, one of her employees, on eco-terrorism charges.

Curry, who at the time was working on his second documentary film — his first, 2005’s “Street Fight,” was also nominated for an Oscar — was astonished. He had met the mild-mannered McGowan, a business major in college who grew up in Queens the son of a New York City police officer, and “terrorist” was not the first thing that came to mind.

Curry had to know more. But he would have to wait more than a month to meet with McGowan in person, because McGowan was immediately flown across the country and placed in the Lane County Jail to await an appearance in front of U.S. Magistrate Thomas Coffin on federal charges of conspiracy arson, using a firebomb and 13 arsons in connection with the 2001 fires set at Superior Lumber Co. in Glendale and Jefferson Poplar Farm in Clatskanie.

“If a Tree Falls,” which won the documentary editing award at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, is the story of a Eugene-based cell of the Earth Liberation Front — a radical eco-defense coalition born in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom and hell-bent on taking the profit motive out of environmental destruction by causing economic damage to business through the use of property damage — as told through McGowan’s personal story.

Defining terrorism

McGowan moved to Eugene in 2000, where he briefly worked at the Earth First! Journal, shortly after taking part in the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle. He had gotten a job at a Manhattan public relations firm after college but, as he says in the film, his life began to change after he joined an environmental center and saw films of oil spills and mountain tops left bald by old-growth logging.

It was in Eugene that McGowan forged relationships with the co-conspirators who would parade through the Wayne L. Morse United States Courthouse in the spring and summer of 2007, on their way to federal prison terms.

Their arrests came four years after the local cell had disbanded in 2001 and were part of a nationwide sweep, called “Operation Backfire,” of suspects in what local federal prosecutor Kirk Engdahl, now retired, describes in the film as “the largest domestic terrorism case in the history of the United States.”

The arrests of 14 members of the cell were made possible after one member, Jake Ferguson of Eugene, agreed to wear a hidden tape recorder and capture incriminating words made by the others, including McGowan.

Before McGowan’s arrival here, the group had already burned down the Oakridge Ranger Station in 1996 and set fire to a Vail, Colo., ski resort in 1998 that caused $24 million in damage, among other arsons across five states. And the year after he moved to town, ELF members set fire to 35 vehicles at the former Joe Romania Chevrolet Truck Center on Franklin Boulevard, causing $1 million in damage.

But much of the film looks at what constitutes terrorism in a post-Sept. 11 world; whether arson and other property crimes in which no one is killed deserve the terrorist label.

“There was a personal element that was very interesting to me,” the 42-year-old Curry said during a phone interview last week from his Brooklyn home, referring to his fascination with McGowan’s plight. “But I also thought the larger issue of how we define terrorism was interesting and would elevate the film beyond just a human interest story.”

Some — film reviewers, bloggers and others — have questioned whether the documentary maybe leans on the side of being too sympathetic toward McGowan. New York Times film critic Stephen Holden, in reviewing the film upon its release last June, said it was “cautiously sympathetic” toward him.

Writing in The Daily Telegragh of London earlier this month, environmental reporter Louise Gray asks: “Is it right to brand this man a terrorist? This documentary did not answer the question, what it did do is raise a whole lot more and in the best way, to make you have a long, hard think.”

Writing on his New York Times blog, “Dot Earth,” before the film had made the final cut and been nominated for an Oscar, former Times’ environmental reporter Andrew Revkin said a nomination would be “a vote for fearless exploration of complexity in a world drawn to oversimplified depictions of events and problems, heroes and villains. It would be much simpler to make a film that was either deeply sympathetic or scathing considering the subject.”

A messy world

For anyone who thinks it’s too sympathetic toward McGowan or other so-called eco-terrorists, Curry says the film spends a lot of time “exploring the mistakes these people made,” and he hopes the message that comes across is that of a “cautionary tale” for both activists and government.

The film’s aim, Curry says on its website, www.ifatreefalls.com, was not to answer questions, but “to start conversations and debates ... There are some audiences (that) have been uncomfortable with the ambiguity. They want movies to have good guys and bad guys, but I think the world is messier.”

In a follow-up e-mail, after his phone interview with The Register-Guard, Curry wrote: “Almost everyone who has seen it — wherever they stand politically — has said they see it as accurate, fair and complex. The movie tries to understand the human element behind the ELF arsons — to examine ELF members, the victims of the arsons, and the members of law enforcement as three dimensional people rather than cartoonish caricatures. There may be some people who don’t want to understand their opponents — who would like to keep things tidy, with Hollywood villains and Hollywood heroes — and this probably isn’t the movie for them. I think this is a film for people who like to chew their own food. It tries to explain and understand people without excusing their actions or hiding their flaws.”

People on both sides of the story have praised the film.

“The film remained fair and faithful to all the subjects of the film and clearly demonstrated the complexity of the issues,” Engdall, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted McGowan, says on the film’s website. “I believe viewing the film would prompt law enforcement personnel and those who exercise civil disobedience to think beyond moments of confrontation and that the film will engender a greater awareness and a better understanding between police and protesters.”

At his June 4, 2007, sentencing in Eugene in front of U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken, McGowan said that as a New Yorker, he was “deeply offended” by having the terrorism label applied to him.

Labels aside, Aiken had no sympathy for McGowan that day: “You are not a poster child for environmental or other causes,” the judge told him, according to The Register-Guard’s coverage. “You are an arsonist. You are not a political prisoner, getting prosecuted for true activism. You committed arson. You created danger for other people and intended to intimidate and frighten others.”

McGowan was sentenced to seven years in federal prison and was initially housed at a special unit for terrorists in Marion, Ill. He has since been moved to another prison in Terre Haute, Ind., and is eligible for release next year.

‘Once-in-a-lifetime gig’

There are plenty of local faces in the film, including activist video­grapher Tim Lewis, who gets plenty of screen time in interviews and who says he provided six minutes of footage used in the film, from the logging protests at Warner Creek east of Oakridge in 1996, to the disturbing June 1, 1997, footage of Eugene police pepper spraying tree-sitters in downtown Eugene; Eugene police detective Greg Harvey and former Eugene police Capt. Chuck Tilby, who worked the case; and Eugene civil rights attorney Lauren Regan who helped represent McGowan in court.

Lewis — who is in Los Angeles today hoping to meet up with Curry and Cullman after the ceremony — argues in the film that the tactics of law enforcement had a lot to do with radicalizing ELF members.

“I figure this is a once-in-a-lifetime gig,” Lewis said of staying in the same hotel as Curry and Cullman, who will attend tonight’s ceremony with their wives and some other editors and producers of the film. Lewis does not have a seat at the awards, but he does have his telescope with him, he said, in the hopes of looking out the seventh floor window of the Hotel Sofitel on Beverly Boulevard, to catch a glimpse of stars walking the red carpet. Lewis also believes the film was genuinely balanced. “I think that Marshall really sort of hit it fairly.”

Harvey and Tilby also give the film high praise.

“I thought they did a marvelous job. I thought they came away with a terrific product,” said Tilby, who recently left the Eugene Police Department to help the University of Oregon’s Department of Public Safety convert to a police force. “I think what showed is a human element we often don’t see,” Tilby said of the film. “I really thought they were objective and showed the realities of both camps.”

Getting both sides to open up was perhaps the biggest challenge in making the film, Curry said. The filmmakers were able to win McGowan’s trust early on, filming him during his house arrest at his sister’s apartment in New York, but they had to wait until McGowan and the others were sentenced in 2007 before anyone on the law enforcement side would speak with them.

Harvey said he initially feared the story would be one-sided, but once he saw the film, “I thought it was a really well-done job. I was really glad that somebody was out there trying to get the story done. It’s a big story in America.”

‘I’ll think of something’

Curry knows the odds of winning tonight are certainly better than six years ago when “Street Fight,” the story of Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker’s 2002 campaign against Sharpe James, was up against one of the best-known and highest-grossing documentaries in recent years, “March of the Penguins.” But the competition this year, as always, is stiff.

“It’s a tough one to pick this year,” he said. “It’s a great year for documentaries, so anytime you’re in that five, it’s a surprise.”

This is certainly not the first film largely shot or set in Oregon to be nominated for an Oscar. After all, 1975 best-picture winner “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” filmed at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, is one of the few films to ever sweep the four major Oscars — picture, director, actor, actress, as well as winning best adapted screenplay.

And the famous “chicken salad sandwich” scene with Jack Nicholson in 1970 best-picture nominee “Five Easy Pieces” was filmed at the Interstate 5 Denny’s on Glenwood Drive in Eugene.

Although he’s an East Coaster, Curry said he plans to represent Eugene and Oregon proudly tonight — win or lose.

As of last week, however, he had not prepared a speech. “I’ll think of something (to say), yes,” he said. “But I don’t want to jinx it.”

“This is a film for people who like to chew their own food.”

— MARSHALL CURRY, DIRECTOR OF “IF A TREE FALLS”

Punishment: A Failed Social Experiment

Featuring:

PROFESSOR JOE SIM, Criminologist - Liverpool John Moores University
DR. BOB JOHNSON, Prison Psychiatrist - Special Unit in HMP Parkhurst
JOE BLACK, Prison Campaigner - Campaign Against Prison Slavery
DR. DAVID SCOTT, Criminologist - University of Central Lancashire

Synopsis:

PUNISHMENT: A FAILED SOCIAL EXPERIMENT provides a detailed, critical analysis of the
current legal and justice system generally in operation across the planet whilst also
providing potential solutions which work on preventing crime and creating a much more
socially sustainable society.

The documentary film consists of interviews with various individuals; all of whom
provide information on where we are going wrong when we treat offenders, and what we
could head towards in regards to the solutions available.

It must be recognised that in order for change to occur in the system of punishment and 'justice', wider societal and cultural issues need to be addressed, as this documentary film recognises that there are inherent flaws in our current social system.

Although most sources of information originate from the United Kingdom, it is
reasonable to state that the topics examined will apply to many other nations.

Punishment: A Failed Social Experiment is an independent film production and that has
just been released online for free download and distribution.

View at: http://newfuturemedia.net/

Daniel McGowan film extended!

Daniel McGowan documentary IF A TREE FALLS showing for another week in NYC

Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2011 12:25:17 -0700 From: Jenny Malone

IF A TREE FALLS showing for another week in NYC!

In case you missed If a Tree Falls last week, don't worry! The IFC
Center has extended its run for another week, and you still have time
to see it. Check out some of last week's fantastic reviews, in which
the film was hailed as "an exemplary piece of reporting" in the NY
Times, "fascinating and remarkably fair" at Salon.com, and then
praised by the folks at  Entertainment Weekly who really seemed to
enjoy the ride: "the film sweeps us up like a thriller!" In case you
don't trust reviewers either, you should know that Michael Moore saw
it at the IFC last week, and he really liked it, too. Just sayin! SO GO SEE IT!

Get tickets here:
http://www.ifccenter.com/films/if-a-tree-falls-a-story-of-the-earth-liberation-front/

Nationwide dates and locations:   Most of these are one week runs,
but check with the theater for details. New theaters will be added,
but if you don't see your local indie cinema on the list, go ahead
and give them a call to request they show the film!

Dates updated here: http://www.ifatreefallsfilm.com/screenings.html

"Juvies" Film Showing, 5/13 Oakland

Location:
Eastside Arts Alliance2277 International BlvdOakland, CA
Come out next Friday the 13th to witness and collaborate. Join with local
activists, youth organizers, and formerly incarcerated community members
in a moderated post-film discussion and strategizing session.

California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) is hosting this event which will
focus on the criminalization of youth. "Juvies" is a 66 minute
documentary about youth tried as adults and sentenced to life in prison
without the possibility of parole. The film forces us to ask questions
about the failures of the juvenile "justice" system and questions
justice itself.

The event is free, will have Spanish translation,is wheelchair accessible, and
open to the public. Please join us next Friday the 13th from 7-9 at East Side
Arts Alliance in Oakland!

Here's the film's website, so you can get a sneak preview on the powerful stories
the film shares with us:
http://www.juvies.net/index.php