Will Potter's Blog, page 31

Our Hen House Interview: Will Potter on Grassroots Activism and Occupy Wall Street

I had the pleasure of speaking with Jasmin Singer and Mariann Sullivan on their podcast, Our Hen House. It was a great discussion! We talked about why animal activists should join Occupy Wall Street, the possible resurgence of ag-gag bills, and the importance of vibrant, grassroots activism.

Here's an excerpt:

Jasmin: "…what kinds of activists should AR activists focus on?"

Will: "I do my best to refrain from trying to answer that, because I don't think I am any more of an expert that anyone listening to this program. I don't intend that as the total cop out it sounds like, but — I don't know what the right way to social change is. Through my work I try to raise the point that I don't think any of us do. I think we all should do what we find most appropriate, given our skills, given our resources, and give our passions. The reason I pursue my work as a form of activism, journalism as activism, is quite simply because I didn't know what else to do. And I think a lot of people are feeling that way… We all have to find our niches."

You can listen to the entire show at Our Hen House. My segment of the radio show starts at about 32:34. I hope you'll listen, and also check out the other Our Hen House podcasts. Jasmin and Mariann offer a wonderful self-reflective voice in the animal rights movement.

I'll turn one of the questions over to you all: What do you think are the greatest challenges facing the animal rights and environmental movements?

Demon Fish, Sea Slime, and… Terrorism

Miami! I'll be in town for the Miami Book Fair International the weekend of November 19-20. I'll be speaking on an environmental panel with Juliet Eilperin and Ellen Prager on Sunday at 11am. Ok, so may perspective on this panel might be a tad bit, um, different. But it should be fun.

I hope to also have time to hear Leslie Marmon Silko and Chuck Palahniuk, among the many great authors who will be there.

Hope to see you there!

Pacific University "In Your Face" Lecture Series

I'll be speaking at Pacific University on November 10th, as part of the university's In Your Face lecture series. It's quite an honor: previous speakers in the series have included Christian Parenti, Robin Hahnel, Dave Zirin, Judy Giles, and Heather Rogers. If you're in the Portland, Oregon area, I hope to see you there!

Nov 10, 2011, 7:00 PM

Marsh Hall (Taylor Auditorium [216] ) – Forest Grove

Nationally acclaimed speaker Will Potter to give the sixth annual In Your Face lecture, "Green Is the New Red: How Corporations Turned Environmentalists into Eco-terrorists." Free and open to the public.

Free admission

A light reception with food and drinks will follow.

Will Potter is an award-winning independent journalist and author based in Washington, D.C.

His latest book, Green is the New Red: An Insider's Account of a Social Movement Under Siege, looks at the use of anti-terrorism resources to target environmentalists and animal rights activists. He examines how the word 'eco-terrorist' is used to push a political agenda, instill fear, intimidate and silence dissent, creating a "Green Scare" not unlike the "Red Scare" against Communists that preceded it.

Potter is an expert on at the nexus between environmentalism and terrorism. His work has appeared in publications like the Chicago Tribune, the Huffington Post, and the Vermont Law Review. He has also testified before the U.S. Congress about his environmental reporting.

 

Interview with The Rumpus, Including the Only Surefire Way to Spot a Fed

The Rumpus is one of my favorite websites on all of the Internetz. It's a smart, sharp, literary site, and it was a treat to speak with Caroline Paul about my new book.

Here's an intro from Caroline:

In 2007, I was put on Homeland Security's Watch List. True, my brother had just been arrested. He had been a member of the underground Animal Liberation Front, freeing wild mustangs, mink, and lab animals for nigh on twenty years. But the Watch List? Me? Isn't that for terrorists? It didn't fully make sense until I picked up Will Potter's book.

I was eager to speak to Potter, whose Green is the New Red: An Insider's Account of a Social Movement Under Siege shows how the US government is colluding with corporate America to suppress animal and environmental activism of all stripes.

Please head over to The Rumpus and check out the full interview, then pass it on if you like it. Thanks!

2 Texans Face Increased Charges in Iowa Fur Farm Case

Kellie Marshall and Victor Vandoren, both from Austin, Texas, are accused of attempting to release mink from a fur farm in Sioux City, Iowa. At a court date last week, their charges were increased to include two class D felonies in addition to two misdemeanors.

Police allege that Marshall and Vanorden used bolt cutters to cut several holes in a fence at the mink farm, and that a vehicle near the property had hiking maps and a police scanner.

As former Animal Liberation Front prisoner Peter Young noted, the same fur farm was raided by underground animal rights activists in 1997, and approximately 5,000 mink and more than 100 silver foxes were freed.

It's not clear yet if the two will face Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act charges. However, with recent raids in Jewell, Iowa (freeing 1,500 mink), Washington State (freeing 1,000 mink) and Oregon (freeing 300 mink), industry groups like the Fur Commission have been making the media rounds calling this crimes "terrorism."

Kellie Masrhall and Victor Vandoren are facing about 10 years in prison and are being held in county jail on bond. You can write them a letter or make a donation to their legal support at http://supportkellieandvictor.blogspot.com.

5 Reasons Why Environmentalists and Animal Activists Should Occupy Wall Street

City by city, it's growing. If you have been watching the rise of Occupy Wall Street from the sidelines, maybe it's because you're not sure if you're part of the "99 percent" or maybe it's because you just have other things to do. Here's the thing: This is bigger than one person, one issue, or one movement.

Here are five reasons why environmental activists and animal rights activists should Occupy Wall Street:

1) Corporations are destroying the planet. And, as Bill McKibben wrote, "For too long, Wall Street has been occupying the offices of our government, and the cloakrooms of our legislatures." The first official Declaration of the Occupation of New York City articulated some of the many facets of this movement, including environmental and animal rights concerns. Here are a few highlights:

"As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies..

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices…

They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil…

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit…"

2) Corporations are attacking you. Since the 1980s, corporations have campaigned to label activists as "eco-terrorists." They have pushed for outrageous prison sentences of activists like Tim DeChristopher. They have lobbied for federal legislation like the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act and state legislation to label civil disobedience as "eco-terrorism." They are doing everything in their power to marginalize and disrupt the environmental and animal rights movements. (In other words, as this clever Greenpeace video depicts, they're afraid of you.) Rather than protesting bill by bill, arrest by arrest, this is an opportunity to challenge the true problem: unchecked corporate power.

3) You have experiences to share about tactics. Occupy Wall Street has locked arms to blockade the banks, and marched to the mansions of millionaires. Sound familiar? More than 800 environmentalists were arrested in a massive civil disobedience against the XL Pipeline. And the SHAC campaign brought a multinational corporation near bankruptcy through a diversity of tactics including home demonstrations. This obviously isn't to say that environmentalists and animal rights activists created tactics like civil disobedience or home demonstrations, but they have, more than any other contemporary social movement, put them to unique and effective use targeting corporations. There are lessons to be shared– good, bad, and ugly– that will benefit everyone.

4) You have experiences to share about dealing with corporate and government repression. Occupy Wall Street has already seen some of the overt tactics used to target social movements, such as the police beating and pepper-spraying activists. As this movement grows, however, so will the proportionate backlash. You have experiences with informants, infiltrators, and corporate espionage. You have resisted grand jury witch hunts and fought back against restraining orders and injunctions. You have defeated draconian state legislation and organized effective prisoner support campaigns. To be clear, ya'll aren't alone! Other social movements have dealt with, are dealing with, this as well. But the backlash against the animal rights and environmental movements, the "Green Scare," is a case study in all the post 9/11 tools available to corporations and those who represent them. I've sounded like a broken record on this website, but I'll say it again. There's nothing inevitable about any of this. By coming together and sharing experiences, we can coordinate and fight back.

5) This is bigger than all of us. By "this" I don't mean Occupy Wall Street (although that's part of it). I mean the task at hand. We all, out of necessity, focus on the issues that are most dear to us. We have limited time, limited money, limited resources. That's why, for instance, I have carved out the field of work that I have. But listen: there are times for carving out our niches, and times for doing the hard work, the messy and uncomfortable and frustrating work, of trying to connect all of the pieces. Animal rights activists and environmentalists are often pegged by the broader, capital-L "Left" as "single issue," but I have never found that to be true. This is an opportunity for all of us to share, as the Zapatista saying goes, "One no, many yeses."

Slavoj Zizek captured this sentiment beautifully in an address to Occupy Wall Street:

In an old joke from the defunct German Democratic Republic, a German worker gets a job in Siberia; aware of how all mail will be read by censors, he tells his friends: "Let's establish a code: if a letter you will get from me is written in ordinary blue ink, it is true; if it is written in red ink, it is false." After a month, his friends get the first letter written in blue ink: "Everything is wonderful here: stores are full, food is abundant, apartments are large and properly heated, movie theatres show films from the West, there are many beautiful girls ready for an affair—the only thing unavailable is red ink." And is this not our situation till now? We have all the freedoms one wants—the only thing missing is the red ink: we feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom. What this lack of red ink means is that, today, all the main terms we use to designate the present conflict—'war on terror,' "democracy and freedom,' 'human rights,' etc—are FALSE terms, mystifying our perception of the situation instead of allowing us to think it.

You, here, you are giving to all of us red ink.

Want to take action? Start at the Occupy Wall Street main website. What are you planning in your city?

Peaceful Animal Rights Protesters in France Face Violent Bullfighting Supporters

‎About 100 protesters in France occupied a bullring to non-violently stop the barbaric bullfight.

In response, bullfight supporters punched, kicked and beat them as they were locked-down and immobilized.

Which ones are the "violent extremists"?

Source: Animal Equality

Activist Secretly Videotapes FBI Visit in Des Moines, Iowa

It's not often that we get to see the FBI in action as agents harass activists. This video is of two FBI agents visiting the owner of Best Place Ever, a video store, and questioning him about last night's release of mink from a fur farm in Jewel, Iowa. The agents suspect the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) was behind the raid, and question the man about any communication he may have with former ALF prisoner Peter Young.

The video is pretty funny and worth a watch (and kudos to the gentleman at the store for taping it!). But I think it's really important to point out that, if you are ever visited by the FBI, for any reason, the best thing to do is to say absolutely nothing. Not a little bit, not a sentence or two — nothing.

I'm not saying this because of what the person in the video says (I actually can't make out anything he says, because it has been dubbed over) but because it is always, without a doubt, the best way to protect your rights and the rights of those in your community. As a lawyer friend of mine noted, anything you say could be twisted against you: "If, for instance, this gentleman said he knew nothing but actually did, they could get him on lying to a federal officer. So, like the overdubbing says, just say you're not interested in talking to them." 

Truthout: The "Eco-al-Qaeda"?

[image error]I wrote an article for Truthout about how, before the dust had even settled at ground zero, corporations and politicians were trying to use the tragedy of September 11th to label environmentalists as "eco-terrorists." Here's an excerpt:

On September 12, 2001, as emergency crews searched for survivors, Rep. Greg Walden warned Congress that "eco-terrorists" posed a threat "no less heinous than what we saw occur yesterday here in Washington and in New York." He was not alone: Rep. Don Young publicly speculated that the attack might have actually been the work of environmentalists. A month later, The Washington Times called for war against the "eco-al-Qaeda."

Comments like this were not gaffes. They were part of a carefully coordinated campaign that had been in the works long before 9/11. When planes hit the Twin Towers nearly ten years ago, most Americans saw an unprecedented tragedy. For some corporations and politicians, it was an unprecedented opportunity.

Read the full article: The "Eco-al-Qaeda"? September 11 Ushered in War on "Eco-Terrorism" and Civil Liberties

ArteTv: 'Qui sont les éco-terroristes?'

A journalist with ArteTv's Global Mag, a television program that airs in France and Germany, visited the U.S. to report on the labeling of environmentalists as "eco-terrorists." She came to the book release event in Washington, DC, and I was also able to put her in touch with Andy Stepanian of the SHAC 7, Daniel McGowan's wife, Jenny, and Alexis Agathocleous of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Much of the program is about secretive prisons for domestic terrorists called Communications Management Units. You can view the video below (sorry, I don't have subtitles!). It's a shame that U.S. journalists haven't been covering this issue as well as international outlets.