What Can You Do?
Feb 17th, 2007 by Will Potter
*Organize a speaking event
Speaking engagements have included Yale Law School, the L.A. Bar Association and the University of Washington School of Law, among many others. At least one month notice is preferred, and reimbursement for travel expenses is requested. Please email me if you are interested in hosting an event.
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*What next?
In public forums and via email, people regularly ask me what they can do to combat the “eco-terrorism” rhetoric, legal actions and legislation. I never quite know how to respond. I created GreenIsTheNewRed.com as a clearinghouse for news and analysis of the Green Scare: what to do with this information is up to you. So, I’ll turn the tables here. What needs to be done to successfully fight the Green Scare? What’s the appropriate response to legislation labeling activists as “terrorists”? How should activists deal with the chilling effect of this “eco-terrorist” scare-mongering? Post your ideas, big and small, using the form below.
I always like to remind people whenever they use the word “terrorist” that I am included in that category. Now, most people who know me know that I mean no harm to absolutely any living thing, so I then explain to them about the AETA and how in the eyes of the government I am no different than, well you know who, I don’t even feel safe typing his name these days. People almost always think that the law is messed up, but feel that I am safe from the application of this law. Then I inform them that people have already been prosecuted with this law.
Even the most conservative people will see the error in this law, so all we really have to do is inform people about it. Use songs, poetry, speaking events, marches, whatever.
The powers that be would have us beleive they have cornered the market on the use of the word “terrorist” defined as: ‘The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.’ However it is ever increasingly obvious that our own government is the greatest perpetrator of terrorism at home and abroad. We the people, as citizens of this country, are not clean of the blood that has been spilled. Any inaction on our part, whether done in fear or self-preservation, will only perpetuate violence.
I venture to say that this empire will come crashing down, as did all it’s predecessors and we must hasten this collapse. We must all take our own roles in this, as individuals and as collective communities of resistance. If our actions are defined as “terrorism” then so be it. At this point we are terrorists either way.
I’m going the old-fashioned, decidedly un-exciting route: letter writing. I am trying - friends, I am trying- to get a monthly letter writing party going to write both to political prisoners, and to local and state legislators to let them know what their friends/constituents think. If you’re interested in joining in, it’s the last Sunday of every month at my place. You can contact me via my website: web.mac.com/liviafiercely
Also, there’s some sweet kid at the Union Square subway station (that’s in New York City, for all you foreigners) who stands there with one of those mini dvd players strapped to his chest showing films like “Farenheit 9/11″ and “An Inconvenient Truth.” It’s not exactly greenscare stuff, but it’s pretty effective in getting people who don’t even know what environmental activism is to take a look and ask some questions.
host tons of benefits for people that are indicted.
here is an example of a page with past and future benefits:
http://www.supportdaniel.org/fundraising/
Conspiracy theorists appear to be right when they postulate that an ‘unseen force’ (the entities secretly running this country and the world) is progressively implementing money as a controlling force. I think it just ties into the whole world domination plans of this force. Look at the motivation behind most of the environmental destruction today - it is the lust for money, and how many people out there would ‘like to get involved’ but hey ‘gotta pay the bills’? Why all the SUVs when Europeans get away with driving tiny Fiats (and have a higher quality of life than the US). I could go on and on. But at some point we need to wake up and smell the coffee. I think we need a ‘unified theory’ of who is behind all this. Fabricating the term ‘eco-terrorists’ is but a small fraction of their evil work.
Hi Will!
I am French and discovered your blog a month ago! I am working on terrorism for my PhD and as I am an ecologist, I am wondering about the sense of what you call the “green scare” (I understand the meaning, but just in term of concept!): is this the way people in the US consider the ones acting to defend the planet? Is this the way responsibles at the government qualify the same kind of people we are speaking of (as you and me also then!)? And finally, I am very interested by the law on this topic, and what I can seize is that they are trying to adapt the “terrorist” label for eco-activists? Am I write? And if it is the case, I would really worry then!!
PS: sorry for my ackward American English!… But would be very happy to exchange with you on that topic and follow the events through your blog!:-)
AETA is what happens when indefensible ideas like factory farming, vivisection, the fur trade, and other exploitations of animals come up against the glare of public scrutiny.
Leave it to the Bu**sh** regime (the real eco-terrorists) to come up with something like this under the pretext of “national security”.
Being labeled a terrorist is just stupid. And you are correct in saying that the current people in office are so corrupt, unkind and strike us down because what we believe in. The way animals are treated in a Factory Farm is unspeakable. What can they do to you when you stand up for what is moral? I can’t stand to even think about any animal being hurt and tortured.
Rita