Green Is the New Red: An Insider's Account of a Social Movement Under Siege

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Green Is the New Red: An Insider's Account of a Social Movement Under Siege

by Will Potter (Goodreads Author)

4.41 of 5 stars 4.41 · rating details · 210 ratings · 44 reviews

At a time when everyone is going green, most people are unaware that the FBI is using anti-terrorism resources to target environmentalists. Here is a guided tour into an underground world of radical activism and an introduction to the shadowy figures behind the headlines. But here also is the story of how everyday people are prevented from speaking up for what they believe...more

Paperback, 302 pages

Published April 12th 2011 by City Lights Publishers (first published 2011)

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May 24, 2011 Sarahjane rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book makes me wish I had finished my history PhD. Then at least I could make it required reading for a few college students. It should be required for them all. It gives context to our murky times, where taking moral stands is getting confused with terroristic activity, without oversimplifying what are deeply contested understandings of the path to a better tomorrow. Green is the New Red is an essential text for anyone who believes in free speech, or is interested in the future of American...more

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Jul 02, 2012 City Lights rated it 5 of 5 stars

"At times, the reader might mistake this work of nonfiction for a gripping crime novel, only to remember that everything in here is shockingly true. It is in this way that Potter effectively drives his points home and proves his overarching thesis, that the Justice Department’s targeting of environmentalists is near identical to 1950s McCarthyism." --Indie Street

"While the link between separating recyclables and hijacking planes is far from obvious, the labeling of 'eco-terrorism' has been appli...more "At times, the reader might mistake this work of nonfiction for a gripping crime novel, only to remember that everything in here is shockingly true. It is in this way that Potter effectively drives his points home and proves his overarching thesis, that the Justice Department’s targeting of environmentalists is near identical to 1950s McCarthyism." --Indie Street

"While the link between separating recyclables and hijacking planes is far from obvious, the labeling of 'eco-terrorism' has been applied to many aspects of this social movement. Named the 'No. 1 domestic terrorism threat' by FBI deputy assistant director John Lewis six years ago, Potter argues that the fear tactics involved in applying such an evocative term to radical activism is an attempt to intimidate that mirrors the Red Scare of the mid-20th century (which was in fact the second wave of the government's anti-Communist focus)." --Austin Examiner

"An up-to-date crash-course overview of the history of radical environmentalism as well as a study on the scare tactics that the government, the CIA, and several multi-million dollar corporations use against environmental activists, which share certain similarities with tactics used during McCarthyism and the Red Scare. This book is about the Green Scare – this book is at times scary, at times hopeful, and at all times important." --Urchins Movement

"In this hard-hitting debut, journalist Potter likens the Justice Department targeting of environmentalists today to McCarthyism in the 1950s . . . A shocking exposé of judicial overreach." --Kirkus Review

"Part history, part action thriller and courtroom drama, part memoir, 'Green is the New Red' plunges us into the wild, unruly, and entirely inspirational world of extreme environmental activism. Will Potter, participant-observer and partisan-reporter, is the perfect guide, unpacking with wit and skill the most elusive concepts--his discussion of 'terrorism' as myth and symbol is the finest I’ve ever read. He takes us inside the first moments of a movement in the making--idealistic, hopeful, deeply human in its aspirations and its oh-so-human failings--and he reports brilliantly on a ruling power willing to hollow out any sense of authentic democracy in its futile attempt to maintain dominance, privilege, and their arid version of reality. Green is the New Red is an indispensable book that will change the way we think about commitment, the limits of protest, and the possibility of radical change." --Bill Ayers

"If we are to survive capitalism's death grip on our discourse and on our lives, it will be in great measure due to the work of people like Will Potter. His courage and integrity, which set him apart from most journalists, are evident throughout this important book, and throughout all of his other crucial work. Thank you, Will Potter." --Derrick Jensen, author of Endgame and many other books(less)

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May 15, 2011 Joseph Rice rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: activism, politics-and-economics

just about to finish reading for the second time.

this book is an excellent expose on the use of fear tactics by the federal government in the wake of 9/11. not just in the area of political dissent, but economic, as well.

moving from history to current events to psychological thriler, Will Potter weaves an engaging story of the dissolution of legitimate freedom of expression by the powers that be, all to prop up a decaying economic/political system. the lesson here is that no one who believes thi...more

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Feb 15, 2013 Nadia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

A highly insightful and interesting account of the Animal Rights/Environmental Activists Movement under siege in America by a journalist who was part of it. Highly recommended read. You will not be disappointed by the story. For those who know philosophy, Plato's allegory of the cave is mentioned in the book.

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Mar 05, 2013 Kevin Van Meter rated it 4 of 5 stars

Review on Left Eye on Books

* * *

Is Green the New Red? Thinking About Political Repression Today

“While corporations and the state have certainly targeted activists as ‘eco-terrorists,’ too many other populations have also been targeted for repression to sufficiently pair the Red Scares and the Green Scare.”

By Craig Hughes and Kevin Van Meter

“McCarthyism is Americanism with its sleeves rolled,” said Joe McCarthy to a public audience at the height of the second Red Scare that marked the years betw...more

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Feb 04, 2012 Meghan Fidler rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is terrifying. Will Potter does an excellent job tracing historical protests, new laws, and legal precedent to explain how environmental activism has become labeled under 'terrorist' activities. Interviewing key activists who were prosecuted as 'eco-terrorists,' the story is meant to incite people into action--as it should.
I do find the description of the activities that were prosecuted a bit skewed: Potter appears to be trying to attempt an almost neutral presentation. Sometimes no added...more

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Dec 26, 2011 pattrice rated it 5 of 5 stars

Essential information within an always gripping, sometimes humorous, and at times heart-breaking narrative.

Will Potter begins this book by sharing his own experiences with the blood-chilling fear induced by a visit by FBI agents wielding the word "terrorist" after he had been arrested for leafleting in a wealthy neighborhood. He then recounts the investigative journey into "terrorism" that fear prompted him to undertake. Along the way we meet smug judges, altruistic anarchists, power-crazed pro...more

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Apr 23, 2013 Josh rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Recommended to Josh by: A friend

"Although there have been times when activists themselves have made this Green Scare easier, they have not created it: it exists not because of the nature of their words or their actions, but because these movements have grown increasingly effective and accepted. The only way to explain the conflation of mainstream and radical groups as terrorists is to assume that all of it - from ballot initiatives to sabotage - poses a threat."

This paragraph, taken from the last chapater of the book, sums up...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Jason rated it 3 of 5 stars

A good book. I think the value of this book was its humanization and personalization of a step-by-step account (almost like a journal) of the arrest, repression, trial, and imprisonment of some of the higher profile animal rights and environment activists in recent years in the United States. The reader will get to know the people, as people, who could not just sit and watch as enormous injustices and devastation was constantly happening by corporations and the government. They were compelled to...more

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May 09, 2012 Marissa rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm not normally tempted to review books, but I couldn't resist. Potter's analysis of US domestic terrorism laws is fascinating and frightening at the same time. As someone who enjoys exercising her First Amendment rights, I find it horrifying that the government is fabricating more and more excuses to prosecute (harshly) acts once considered legal displays of activism. Not only are activists for the environment and animal-rights being targeted at an alarmingly high rate, they are being labeled...more

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Jul 07, 2012 Scott Rhee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Will Potter's "Green is the New Red" is an excellent reportage of how our government continues to tread on our individual liberties, especially if you happen to have pro-environmentalist leanings, and even more specifically if you are an activist for animal rights. Potter admits early on that while he attempts to be objective, it is difficult for him as someone who considers himself an environmentalist and for an incident in which he was involved that was the impetus for the research for this bo...more Will Potter's "Green is the New Red" is an excellent reportage of how our government continues to tread on our individual liberties, especially if you happen to have pro-environmentalist leanings, and even more specifically if you are an activist for animal rights. Potter admits early on that while he attempts to be objective, it is difficult for him as someone who considers himself an environmentalist and for an incident in which he was involved that was the impetus for the research for this book. In 1998, as a new reporter for the Chicago Tribune, Potter offered to disperse leaflets that criticized a company for its many egregious animal rights violations. FBI agents immediately rounded up and arrested Potter and several others passing out literature. During the course of the interrogation (in which Potter was still kept out of the dark as to why he was being arrested), the FBI agents said that he would be placed on the domestic terrorist list if he didn't cooperate in naming names. All this, for passing out leaflets. Frightened and confused, Potter felt that he needed to dig deeper into what he saw as an insidious trend, since 9/11, of labeling groups of people as "terrorists" for crimes that did not fit into a general concensus and definition of terrorism. He soon found out that therein lied the problem: an adequate and specific definition of "terrorism" had never actually been stipulated by the government. What Potter discovered was multiple definitions across multiple governmental agencies, and this was just the federal government. Most if not all states had their own definitions of "terrorism". He also soon discovered that many of these "eco-terrorists", as they were labelled by government agencies and the media, were often receiving twice or more than twice the sentencing that white supremacists, neo-Nazis, or Muslim terrorists were receiving. Keep in mind, too, that, according to the statistics of various governmental agencies, including Homeland Security, FBI, CIA, and others, the number of human and animal casualties resulting from "eco-terrorist" activities has been, to date, zero. So, Muslim terrorists, whose actions continuously result in human casualties here and overseas, are given lesser sentences than activists who have released animals from laboratories and burned down buildings resulting in no loss of life. Clearly, the value of property is more important than the value of human life to the government. No surprise, since our government is practically run by corporations, many of whom do not like animal rights activists. This book will make you mad. It should make you mad, especially if you value things like First Amendment rights and the basic freedoms upon which our country was founded. Potter has done an excellent job revealing an issue that has perhaps been kept hidden from the eyes and ears of the general public by a ridiculously super-wealthy group of corporations who believe that they can do anything they want, including the needless mass slaughter of animals and the destruction of the environment, simply because they can. (less)

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Jul 03, 2011 Errica rated it 5 of 5 stars

Will Potter has explained the attacks on animal/environmental rights activists in a thorough, thought provoking, enraging and inspiring way. His explanations and accounts of the Animal Enterprise Terrorist Act and its subsequent use in the American judicial system is amazing. To know that there is no official definition of the term "terrorism" in the government is frightening as it is now so freely applied to anyone who leaflets or joins in a protest for the rights of animals or the environment....more

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Jul 18, 2011 Tinea rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: activists.

Shelves: anarchism-and-activism, enviro-justice

[I won a free copy of this book]

First off, hoorah for this book and Will Potter's reporting. This is a critical living history, a first attempt to pull the last decade of eco and animal rights action and repression into one cohesive analysis. Read it for the narrative. Read it for the names and the individual stories, the Green Scare and particularly the Operation Backfire and SHAC7 defendants; for the explanation of US policy and lobbying record; for the breakdown of legal jargon; for the synth...more

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Aug 05, 2011 Nick Mather added it

Potter documents how the government, prompted by corporate interests, and fear of terrorists after 9/11 have used similar tactics to what was used during the "Red Scare" to demonize environmentalism and environmentalists as terrorists. Potter acknowledges that some of the methods used by organizations like ALF (Animal Liberation Front) are misguided, though the sentencing of activists is disproportionate to the crimes, especially since passage of the Animal Enterprise Protection Act. This is a b...more

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Sep 01, 2011 Travisalbert rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book covers the increasing persecution faced by environmental activists at the hands of a government with the protection of property and profits prioritized over constitutional rights and collective well-being. Primarily the focus of the book is legal. Since 9/11, the nature of the word "terrorism" has drastically changed to incorporate crimes against property and using your 1st amendment right to vocalize support (or even to not condem in some cases) crimes against property in the name of...more

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Mar 04, 2012 George rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book describes very well the extent to which individual rights and free speech are being curbed in the U.S. legal system in order to protect the financial interests of big corporations. It also shows how the old method of vilifying your enemies is still in vogue when you lack reasonable arguments to condemn them, as when social activists are labeled terrorists. Sometimes, however, it can get too verbose for a book intended to disclose facts. Overall, it's an important wake-up call to anyone...more

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Aug 15, 2012 Daniel Burton-Rose rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: american-history-x, anarchism, guerrillas, prisons, the-right, whiteness

I tried to follow the Green Scare case as it was unfolding in the mid-2000s, but didn’t do so as closely as I would have liked. I’m glad to get a fuller picture now, however belatedly. I hadn’t previously heard of the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, some of whose members were sent to prison on terrorism charges for organizing an above-ground campaign that encouraged a, uh, spectrum of tactics.
Potter does an admirable job integrating his personal experience as a journalist and activist, but ther...more I tried to follow the Green Scare case as it was unfolding in the mid-2000s, but didn’t do so as closely as I would have liked. I’m glad to get a fuller picture now, however belatedly. I hadn’t previously heard of the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, some of whose members were sent to prison on terrorism charges for organizing an above-ground campaign that encouraged a, uh, spectrum of tactics.
Potter does an admirable job integrating his personal experience as a journalist and activist, but there’s still more to work out. One flaw is that Potter himself doesn’t make consistent use of the term “eco-terrorism”: sometimes he distances himself from the worldview it implies with quotation marks, while elsewhere he describes himself “a journalist writing a book on eco-terrorism.” (38) Even if this term has gone mainstream, its employment by a staunch opponent of the repression of the environmental and animal rights movements is an enormous concession.
Potter demonstrates convincingly that the repression of the animal rights and radical environmental movement is in portion to their effectiveness and the threat they pose to an array of destructive industries. Yet I’m disinclined to take the next step, as Potter does in his last chapter, of asserting that these two movements pose a challenge unique in scope to industrial civilization. Certainly challenging “man’s” dominion over the entirety of creation goes deep, but so do other forms of anti-capitalist, anti-patriarchy, and criminal justice work. The ELF, much more so than the animal rights movement, connected the dots in their communiques. Animal rights radicals have escalated boycotts into practical sieges, including demonstrations at the houses of company presidents and, in the case of University of California labs, those of scientists. But the repression this has elicited isn’t necessarily because of some fundamental threat animal rights as such poses; it’s because they’re pushing people with power up against a wall, and those people have in turn fought back with the ferocity of the cornered. Imagine what would happen if anti-prison activists employed the tactics of the animal rights movement: holding protests at the house of a warden or a particularly brutal guard, tying up the fax machines of law enforcement agencies… Activists would certainly be arrested and would be lucky not to get shot. For animal rights in particular, I’d like to see an acknowledgement that some of its potency comes from its single issue focus. I also think there are a number of uncomfortable parallels between the animal rights movement and the anti-abortionists, from their penchant for gory pictures and Christiany conversion narratives, all-consuming monomania, and a disinclination to critically examine white privilege.
Potter raises at several junctures the point that despite its infinitely greater propensity for violence, the far right has not been the object of the same systematic, integrated assault by law enforcement as the animal rights and environmental movements. Potter documents the disparity in violence between the two groups, but I don’t think he comes up with a convincing explanation for why this is so. I’m curious too. We could say the far right doesn’t offer a full-fledged attack against industrial capitalist society, but it does target and kill both civilians and federal employees. How can law enforcement not see that as a systematic threat? In mapping the radical legacies of the ‘60s and ‘70s federal law enforcement has retroactively cast itself as an opponent of white supremacists, as it also re-prosecuted far left radicals such as SLA remnants. The centering of itself as the rational, “non-violent” because-as-the-state-legitimately-violent center is what I would expect to see in relation to contemporary social movements. Potter approaches stops just short of calling for greater repression against the far right, which, however menacing they are, is a flawed rhetorical strategy for a civil libertarian.
(less)

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Oct 04, 2011 Eric rated it 5 of 5 stars

Green is the New Red is an astonishing, frightening book, but you probably knew that already. Will Potter combines his own personal experience with deep investigative journalism to reveal how the U.S. Government, acting largely at the behest of agricultural, logging, biomedical, and pharmaceutical corporations, have turned the War on Terror into a blunt instrument for leveling the heaviest allowable penalties on environmental and animal rights activists. Potter details the statutes involves, and...more Green is the New Red is an astonishing, frightening book, but you probably knew that already. Will Potter combines his own personal experience with deep investigative journalism to reveal how the U.S. Government, acting largely at the behest of agricultural, logging, biomedical, and pharmaceutical corporations, have turned the War on Terror into a blunt instrument for leveling the heaviest allowable penalties on environmental and animal rights activists. Potter details the statutes involves, and charts their parallel evolution with the rising audacity of Green extremists' actions. He convincingly argues that environmental and animal rights activists have no history of violence against persons (except for one case in which the perpetrator was set up by the victim), only against property--unlike right-wing extremists like Eric Rudolph, Randy Weaver, or Timothy McVeigh, who have advocated for and committed many violent acts of homicide. The right-wing groups are rarely classified as "terrorists," whereas the Greens almost always are, which classification merits greater punishment and notoriety, including imprisonment at the notorious Marion Federal Communication Management Unit. (You can read an excellent essay by Daniel McGowan, an activist imprisoned at Marion, about conditions on the Unit here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-....)

Potter also details two specific cases of activists' indictments, court cases and imprisonment: those of the so-called "SHAC 7," against members of a group that did not even commit any actual actions, even against property, but only acts of incitement against and intimidation of employees of an animal-testing corporation; and those indicted under one of seven independent investigations of the Animal and Earth Liberation Fronts (ALF and ELF) that were brought together as "Operation Backfire," which did involve allegations of acts of sabotage and arson (though no deaths or even attempts on life). Potter breathes such life into the stories of these young people as they are ground through the so-called justice system that the reader can't help but be heartbroken, regardless of his or her political sympathies. If Potter's book has one flaw, it's that as he tries to heighten drama by intertwining his multiple lines of story and reportage and moving around in time, he occasionally causes the reader (or at least this reader) to lose the thread and confuse various characters and events. But that's a quibble. Read this book and learn about yet another aspect of the misbegotten War on Terror gone horribly, tragically awry.(less)

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Apr 08, 2012 Erin rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Recommended to Erin by: City Lights

Shelves: environmentalism, politics, 2011, essential-reading

I've been remiss. I finished this book just before I left for Peru and despite managing to write a review I never posted it. In the interest of full disclosure I received this book from the Good Reads' giveaway program. Regardless, it has landed on my essential reading shelf for a number of reasons.

Maybe you were in a neighborhood where Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) put up posters. Even now, I remember them vividly - charges that they killed puppies. As a jaded teenager, I never paid muc...more I've been remiss. I finished this book just before I left for Peru and despite managing to write a review I never posted it. In the interest of full disclosure I received this book from the Good Reads' giveaway program. Regardless, it has landed on my essential reading shelf for a number of reasons.

Maybe you were in a neighborhood where Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) put up posters. Even now, I remember them vividly - charges that they killed puppies. As a jaded teenager, I never paid much attention to them - I figured if they had to use such a sensationalist charge to tug at my emotions the whole deal was probably absurd. Perhaps I was also somewhat offended that they thought they needed such an extreme charge to get me involved.

I like to think that maybe ten years later I'm a little wiser and a little less jaded, but regardless, enter Green is the New Red. I was surprised to find SHAC's story in here, along with a number of other animal rights and environmental activists, specifically those who were a part of ALF and ELF. I also like to think I have a decent awareness of the government's tactics when it comes to social movements - I know they killed Fred Hampton, I know they infiltrate vegan pot lucks with FBI agents, I know they run secret prisons and I know that big money has its tentacles everywhere in politics.

And yet Green is the New Red routinely had me all sorts of shocked, appalled and infuriated. Potter lays out the history of the red scare (I had to stop at this point and let the new information sink in, it just blew my mind.) Another example is something that seems to have currently come on the radar of liberal groups - my inbox is lighting up with emails about ALEC, the group in which corporations pay to be members and then draft legislation that is then presented as legitimate by lawmakers - Potter goes into depth about how ALEC works in the book and I was left feeling infuriated.

There are many, many different threads in this book. Court cases against animal rights activists, a history of the red scare, details about the government infiltration of liberal and leftist groups, corporate influence in government... Despite that, Potter more than manages to make a very convincing argument that Green is indeed the new Red, illustrating that activists that try to change corporate behavior are the new brand of terrorist. Admittedly I probably wouldn't have picked this book up if I felt that it concentrated too heavily on animal rights activists. And despite that being the book's focus, there's a lot to learn here - Potter portrays the larger picture just as successfully as his focus on animal rights and environmental activism. And because of that, EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ THIS BOOK!!!!(less)

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Apr 21, 2011 Dylan rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: All Americans

Shelves: books-i-own

I hope that this book will be very widely read. Like the revelations of the government's illegal spying, harassment, and bogus convictions that hearings on COINTELPRO brought to light (see Agents of Repression), Potter's research into efforts by industry and government to repress radical environmentalism brings together some poorly understood political issues. Most important of them all, is the fact that activists using traditionally legal tactics have now been convicted on terrorism charges.

I w...more I hope that this book will be very widely read. Like the revelations of the government's illegal spying, harassment, and bogus convictions that hearings on COINTELPRO brought to light (see Agents of Repression), Potter's research into efforts by industry and government to repress radical environmentalism brings together some poorly understood political issues. Most important of them all, is the fact that activists using traditionally legal tactics have now been convicted on terrorism charges.

I was only faintly aware that animal liberation-type activity has been going on since well before the 1990s--the first instance, Potter claims, occurred in 1977. Even more significant is the fact that by the late 1980s, as the environmental movement became increasingly popular, cool-headed discussions of direct action tactics were appearing in the mainstream media. Until the end of the 90s "eco-terrorism" was explicitly "not on the radar" of law enforcement (55-6). Potter argues that all this changed when politicians got involved. In 1998, the first hearing on "eco-terrorism" was held. And after 9/11/2001, environmental and animal rights direct action came under increasing persecution, soon being elevated to the "top domestic terrorism threat." However, this sudden concern was not explained by any increase in the incidence of the sorts of crimes being targeted.

Recent efforts to disrupt, discredit, and destroy the movements associated with the ELF and ALF use the new legal framework of terrorism instead of existing criminal law. Potter's shows that no valid argument has been made for this change. Counterproductively, this trend marginalizes environmental and animal rights activists in general, convincing more of the moderates among them of the need to radicalize in order to make any real progress because the system seems irredeemably opposed to their values. Just think if all the effort involved in this anti "eco-terrorism" campaign were directed instead toward supporting legal activism and creating new legislation. (Remember the adage, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em"?) The extreme wing of the movement would probably not be so desperate that they'd feel the need to resort to property destruction, intimidation, etc. Marginalization leads to radicalization. School shootings, always by unpopular or alienated kids. Germany after WWI. Duh.

While reversing this marginalization would be a far more effective strategy toward preventing the illegal acts in question, the reason that will probably not happen is that proponents of "eco-terrorism" legislation and prosecutions aren't the least bit interested in environmental protection or animal rights--because they are (or are funded or influenced by) capitalist interests who profit from unsound environmental practices or animal exploitation. The movement against "eco-terrorism" is driven by corporate profit and is, therefore, opposed to any obstacles--legal protest or illegal--to doing business. (If you're unaware of the extent of this corporate influence, Potter documents it quite well.) Narrow private interest is not--nor is anything else--a basis for criminalizing a political movement, but the disregard for free speech exhibited by those behind this "eco-terrorism" meme is quite evident.

Potter argues, beyond this political critique, that this conflict of interests is essentially cultural (242-7). Like the Red Scares and COINTELPRO last century, this "green scare" is another manifestation of manipulated fears of a segment of the population who are told the "American way of life" is threatened, as alternative lifestyles and values associated with these movements (vegetarianism, etc.) become more widely accepted. The late Michael Crichton even made (absurdly nihilistic) "eco-terrorists" the subject of a novel. Their fear is ultimately not of "eco-terrorism" but of the shifting of values it represents within modern society. I would add, these shifts are not always perceived to be in the interests of capital, in which cases the new movements become political targets. As this tragic conflict unfolds, let's remember who it's between: people who value capital first and people who value the life of the planet first.(less)

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Apr 18, 2013 Sharlyn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: anarchism, law-things

It's a little embarrassing to admit it took me this long to finally read Green is the New Red, but it didn't disappoint! I can't really recommend this book enough, even if you think you're pretty familiar with the arguments it is going to make. It's just a really thorough, brilliant, and enjoyable read. (PS: Please double the fervor of this if you're a law student who does civil liberties stuff but isn't familiar with the repression directed at environmental or animal rights movements.)

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Dec 02, 2012 Megan rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book is well-researched and written and an essential read if you're interested in this topic. But I feel like it's more of a plea to liberals to pay attention to the Green Scare rather than a radical critique of what the government is doing and why.

I've thought for a long time that Potter does a disservice to activism because I think he tries to downplay it. He basically argues that it can be ignored because it isn't effective. Chalk slogans, email campaigns, flyering: these are the tactic...more

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Jun 25, 2011 Easter rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: animal-rights, history, non-fiction, political

Excellent look at the corporate interests that have conspired to define environmental and animal rights activists as terrorists.
It is sobering to realize that the FBI's focus on animal/environment activists has taken away resources from investigations of white supremacists, anti-abortionists and even the white collar fraud that caused the mortgage collapse.

The beginning of the book struggles to establish itself. However, once it finds its groove, the book flows and sucks you in.
This is a must...more

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Jul 18, 2011 Broadsnark rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a really easy read, very conversational style. It gave a good overview of how environmentalist, animal rights... activists have been targeted by the government. I have some quibbles with the book, the biggest one being that I can't believe when anyone is surprised by the lengths powerful people will go to protect their position. I mean duh. Worth a read though.

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Oct 02, 2012 Gregory rated it 5 of 5 stars

In this book, Will Potter convincingly makes the case that, by mislabeling environmental activists as "terrorists," the government is creating an anti-green hysteria that is in many ways parallel to McCarthyism. This is an important book for anyone interested in environmentalism, animal rights, and civil rights.

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Feb 16, 2013 Joni Newman rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is a must read for anyone who cares about animals, the environment, or each other. It is an eye opening read that really drives home the fact that our laws are here to protect the money, not the people, not the animals, and certainly not the earth. Read this book, and wake up.

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Feb 26, 2012 Lorien rated it 5 of 5 stars

Having read Dara Lovitz's _Muzzling a Movement_, I was somewhat familiar with the AETA and its precursor, the AEPA. But Will Potter's book reads more like a story than an examination of the laws, and made me even more aware of the frightening aspects of these laws. A must read.

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Feb 26, 2012 Mark rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

How the author can write about "eco-terrorism" and show so little knowledge of other terrorism issues he quotes, such as: Al Qaeda being responsible for 9/11 and Timothy McVeigh being responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. Come on, read a little Will Potter.

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Dec 24, 2012 Holly rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: cultural, cultural-issues, nonfiction, animal-rights, activism, politics

Very enlightening read. Not very uplifting of course, because the truth isn't always rainbows and sunshine. But I think this is a conversation that really REALLY needed to be started. Thank you Will Potter.

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Apr 16, 2012 Justin Van Kleeck added it

This book left me furious and inspired, hopeless that we can pull corporate claws out of legislative halls and committed to resisting their influence. I learned a great deal through Potter's engrossing writing, and the individual stories and overarching narrative shifted my thinking on some key things.

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Will Potter is an award-winning reporter who has written for publications including the Chicago Tribune, the Dallas Morning News and Legal Affairs, and has testified before the U.S. Congress about his reporting. He is the creator of www.GreenIsTheNewRed.com, where he blogs about the Green Scare.

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title link	preview: Green Is the New Red: An Insider's Account of a Social Movement Under Siege
avg rating	preview: Green Is the New Red: An Insider's Account of a Social Movement Under Siege Goodreads rating: 4.41 (210 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9759438-green-is-the-new-red?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1298059857l/9759438.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9759438-green-is-the-new-red?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Green Is the New Red: An Insider's Account of a Social Movement Under Siege by Will Potter[/url]

Green Is the New Red: An Insider's Account of a Social Movement Under Siege

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