New McCarthyists Proclaim “Mission Accomplished”: Activists Lay Groundwork to Fight AETA
Dec 11th, 2006 by Will Potter
I just ran across an announcement from the Fur Commission on the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, where the industry group proclaims “Mission Accomplished!” The New McCarthyists have been eager to appropriate much of the War on Terrorism rhetoric, but this one was an interesting choice. Bush stood on the USS Abraham Lincoln in front of a banner proclaiming “Mission Accomplished” in 2003, only to be dogged by that hubris months, and now years, later.
If the purpose of AETA is to go after underground activists, that mission is far from accomplished. And if the purpose of AETA is to go after “the above ground,” activists are organizing to challenge that mission as well.
Just a few weeks ago, student activists in Massachusetts got a promise from U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern that he would work to repeal the law.
And this week, activists in Colorado are doing the same. According to the Colorado Indymedia website:
There will be a demonstration against the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act at the office of US Representative Diana DeGette @ 600 Grant St on December 12, at 12:00 PM. This demo is not against Representative DeGette, as she has represented her constituents fairly well on other animal issues. We want her to understand our frustration at the passing of this bill.
Oh, and then there were dozens of community events around the world to raise awareness about labeling activists as “eco-terrorists.” Ahem.
And on top of the grassroots and student organizing, animal welfare organizations and civil liberties advocates are coming together at the national level. They had formed the Equal Justice Alliance leading up to the passage of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, and aren’t backing down. The coalition has resolved to proactively fight this legislative wing of the Green Scare. Here’s an excerpt from the statement recently put out by the alliance about their plans.
We plan to pursue three ways of neutralizing AETA:
* By convincing federal district attorneys not to prosecute under AETA because the law is too broad and vague to make it through the courts;
* By convincing federal courts to dismiss a test case because the law is too broad and vague;
* By convincing Congress that the law is unworkable, unconstitutional, and should be repealed.
Activists around the country are proving that the mission of corporations and industry groups to label activists as “terrorists” is far from accomplished. Frankly, though, I’m a little disappointed that the New McCarthyists didn’t put more into this PR stunt. I know, I know, aircraft carriers are expensive. But considering animal rights activists and environmentalists are labeled the “number one domestic terrorist threat” by the FBI, you’d think they’d at least rent a tug boat.
start here with our fight to repeal AETA:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/12/12/kucinich.presidency.ap/index.html
Ohio’s Kucinich announces Oval Office bid
or a Gore/Kucinich ticket.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061211/
gore_oscar_061211/20061211?hub=Entertainment&s_name=
Getting involved in electoral politics is indirect action, the opposite of direct action. Al Gore wrote “Earth in the Balance,” which was a very good book, but as soon as he became Vice President he sold out. Furthermore, he sold out IMMEDIATELY. He didn’t even WAIT.
The Democrats and the Republicans are the twin parties of capitalism. As Gore Vidal said, American has one political party with two right wings.
We shouldn’t allow our energy to be siphoned off by the politicans for their egoistic agendas. That’s the first step towards compromising and selling out. Why do you think that now, when public revulsion against the Iraq war is at an all-time high, there are no massive anti-war demonstrations? It’s because the biggest anti-war groups threw their support to the Democratic Party, preferring to rely on their so-called “representatives” (who represent only themselves) instead of continuing to act directly through demonstrations, thereby disempowering their millions of supporters supposedly “represented” by a bunch of cynical, ambitious, power-hungry politicans riding on the back of the anti-war movement.
We have only so much energy. Instead of wasting it in electioneering for supposedly “progressive” candidates, we should focus on opposing regressive laws like the AETA and continuing to oppose factory farming, vivisection, hunting, and other forms of animal exploitation, and also the hideous destruction of the natural environment humans and other animals need to survive.
Electoralism is the death of activism. We should act ourselves instead of letting “representatives” act for us while we are inactive.
“Political freedom to vote for generally indistinguishable representatives of the same system is but a delusive ratification of a non-democratic political system.”–Douglas Kellner, Introduction to Herbert Marcuse’s One Dimensional Man.