I had the pleasure of returning to Democracy Now this morning to talk about my new book, and how environmental activists have been branded as “domestic terrorists.”

We discussed the case of Daniel McGowan, a former Earth Liberation Front member, who is currently in a secretive prison called a Communications Management Unit. Also on the program were Andy Stepanian, who is the first prisoner to be released from a CMU, and Marshall Curry, director of If a Tree Falls.

Because so much of the discussion was focused on Daniel McGowan, arson, and the Earth Liberation Front, it raises a lot of questions about tactics. These are important discussions that need to take place within the environmental movement, and I agree with Marshall Curry’s concluding thought that activists must “think carefully” about what tactics they choose.

However, if we are to move forward, we need to focus even more attention on the truly radical tactics of corporations and the politicians who represent them. They have manufactured this “eco-terrorism” threat, and they are widening their net, eroding checks and balances on government power, in order to demonize and silence their opposition.

Corporations have made quite clear that it is not solely the tactics that matter– it is whether those tactics are effective. That’s why environmentalist Tim DeChristopher is facing 10 years in prison not for arson, but for non-violent civil disobedience. That’s why legislation has been introduced in multiple states not targeting death threats and violent posturing, but targeting undercover videos.

The case of Daniel McGowan and others should prompt a critical examination of the tactics employed by animal rights and environmental activists, but that introspection is absolutely worthless unless it is accompanied by a parallel critique of the tactics used by corporations to push their extremist agenda.

Mother Jones has a new article by Jim Ridgeway about my book, and the corporate and government campaigns to label animal rights and environmental activists as eco-terrorists.

It’s a great big-picture look at the FBI’s targeting of political activists, and the chilling implications for free speech. Ridgeway also discusses secretive political prisons called Communications Management Units, and investigates some of the confidential counter-terrorism unit reports that have briefed law enforcement on my lectures and website. He concludes:

When I phoned the Bureau of Prisons media relations office to ask about this report, a spokeswoman said I would have to request the documents under the Freedom of Information Act.  “I know what you mean,” she said, “but I can’t comment on it.”

Read the full article in Mother Jones.

I was on Pacifica radio’s Flashpoints last night talking about Earth Day, my new book, and corporate campaigns to silence dissent by labeling activists as “eco-terrorists.” I think it was a great discussion, and an introduction to how, as everyone is “going green,” the environmental movement is increasingly under attack. Listen below (my section starts at 42:50).

This project has consumed so much of my life, for so long, that writing this “official announcement” is ridiculously hard. So I’ll leave it at this: Next month, City Lights Books will release Green Is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege…

Special thanks to Casey, Denis, Hal, and Matthew at Open Road Films for their incredible work creating this trailer.

And thank you to everyone who has been reading and supporting this site over the years. I feel strongly that this book will contribute something to the national discussion of these issues that hasn’t been possible in blog posts or magazine articles. I hope you’ll feel the same way.

The book is available for pre-order through City Lights Books or Amazon.

You want to know who is voting today? Here’s an example: these Tea Partiers think that Missouri’s Proposition B, which would regulate the state’s puppy mills, is part of the Humane Society’s “radical agenda.”

This Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act includes “radical” proposals such as requiring breeders to feed their animals daily and regularly.

A pro-breeder group called the Alliance For Truth is leading the fight against the legislation. Anita Andrews told TPM that the Humane Society is extremist because they think “humans and animals are on the same level, ownership of an animal is slavery,” and that “animals should have attorney representation.”

Alliance for Truth has the backing of local Tea Partiers and Joe the Plumber (apparently he’s still around?).

If you read this site regularly, you probably know I’m about the last person to put much faith in elected officials. I’ve written frequently on this site about how Obama has advocated national security policies that are in some ways worse than Bush, and how politicians lied about the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.

Here’s the thing:

We have far too much work to do in fighting the Green Scare, and too few people doing it. If the people who believe this kind of nonsense are elected, it will lead to more legislation, more arrests, more media campaigns.

These folks, the ones who think that groups like the Humane Society are “radical” and “extremist,” they’re voting.

Regardless of how you vote today, or whether you vote at all, please think about that.

UPDATE: Prop B narrowly passed.

I will be speaking at Yale with Andy Stepanian (of the SHAC 7, and a former CMU prisoner) about corporate campaigns to silence non-violent animal rights activists as “terrorists.”

The event is June 13th (see the flier for details). If you’re in the area, please come! Andy is a fantastic speaker. PS: RSVP on Facebook and help spread the word.

“Am I on a terrorist watchlist? Will I be labeled a terrorist?” Activists ask me questions like this all the time. Now you can find out if you are a terrorist using this convenient flow chart!

Click on the image for the full-sized version. And scroll down for information on why the chart flows the way it does…

For more information on each segment of the chart:

• When are Militias and Tea Party Members “Terrorists”?

• Arizona’s “Show Me Your Papers” Law is About More than Immigration

• They Start With “Eco-terrorists,” then There’s a “Blurring of the Lines”
  
• An overview of how animal rights and environmental activists are being labeled the top domestic terrorism threat: “What is the Green Scare?”

The terrorism rhetoric of corporations is absurd and can be funny at times, but it has dangerous consequences if we allow it to go unchecked. For example, there are secretive political prisons on U.S. soil for “domestic terrorists.” Daniel McGowan, an environmental activist, is housed there. Please follow this link and submit a comment against the government’s proposal to make them permanent.

Americard, by Ian Geldard

On this website I have exclusively documented the crackdown on the first group: attempts to label people as “terrorists” because of their political beliefs. The new immigration law in Arizona makes clear, though, that this “Green Scare” does not exist in a vacuum.

Arizona’s law, SB 1070, makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally and requires immigrants to carry paperwork proving their immigration status. It allows Arizona police to stop and question people who they think are “reasonably suspect.”

So what’s the problem? As supporters of the law have repeatedly said, “If you are here legally, you have nothing to worry about.” Right?

The phrase “Show me your papers” has no place in a democracy.

It puts unchecked power in the hands of government officials and law enforcement to stop people at their whim. In terms of immigration, the most immediate concern is racial profiling and harassment of those who look like an “illegal” [read: brown people].

Supporters of this legislation have justified it in a few ways. They point to terrorism concerns due to lax border security, and say illegal immigrants unfairly benefit from living in the United States without contributing through taxes (actually, illegal immigrants are vital to economic growth).

However, this law (and a similar one proposed in Michigan) is not about national security, and it is not about the economy. It is about using a vulnerable class of people as a political scapegoat in order to push a larger political agenda.

For example, the demonization of immigrants in Arizona has moved from the border to the classrooms. Legislation has been proposed to outlaw ethnic studies programs:

The new bill would make it illegal for a school district to teach any courses that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment of a particular race or class of people, are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group or “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”

[Update: This bill has become law.]

Much like animal industries have moved from targeting the Animal Liberation Front to targeting mainstream groups, anti-immigrant groups are moving from targeting so-called “illegals” to targeting anyone who ideologically supports them.

Both of these crackdowns, on dissidents and on immigrants, are about the vilification of the “other.” [For a great, accessible discussion of this, check out the Pinky Show, "How to Solve Illegal Immigration."] As Naomi Wolf has documented in The End of America, one of the defining characteristics of increasingly totalitarian societies is the creation of both internal and external threats as scapegoats, and then slowly widening the net.

Activists of all social movements should reject Arizona’s law, and all others guided more by fear than compassion. It promotes racial profiling, it is intended to terrify communities, and it will destroy families. Those reasons alone are enough to oppose this legislation. But this is not not solely about immigration; it is about whether we continue advancing towards a society where the “illegals” are not just individuals, but entire belief systems.

The new issue of Resistance magazine is out, taking a look at the environmental movement on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. It has great articles by Eliza M. Adam, Steve Best, Davey Curnow-Garland, Michael Donnelly, Jim Flynn, Leslie James Pickering, Kim Marks, and Stu Sugarman.

I have an article in there as well, about how environmentalism has become mainstream, while environmentalists have become “eco-terrorists.” [Expanding on the ideas in my recent post here, "From Earth Day to “Eco-Terrorism.'"]

You can pick up a copy at your local independent bookstore, and also at Borders, Hastings, and Books a Million. It’s a hard time for independent publications and indie bookstores, please support them!

It’s always a challenge to explain the “Green Scare” and this website quickly and succinctly. I was playing around with YouTube’s new “SearchStories” channel, and gave it a shot by focusing on misplaced government priorities. And it’s 35 seconds! Let me know what you think.

Oh, and there are plenty of links on the YouTube page, explaining each line of the video.