The Ecology of a Police State

Or, why hating cops may be the most environmentally sustainable decision you can make in your life

by Panagioti / Earth First! Newswire

The police state in effect at 2013 RNC in Tampa.

Imagine being an environmental activist in a world where police can get away with killing young people for vandalizing a fast food joint; where a government’s local law enforcers are collaborating with giant energy corporations to stifle opposition; where a sheriff demands funding for a program urging neighbors to snitch on anyone who says they hate said government.

Sadly it doesn’t take much imagination, does it? In case you weren’t inspired to click the embedded links above, they reference recent stories of these things occurring in the US.

In light of this reality, it’s crystal clear that global ecology will never be stabilized as long as the police have anything to do with it.

That’s right. Stopping the tar sands’ atmospheric climate bomb, keeping GMOs out of our food, and defending wolves’ ability to restore biodiversity depends on getting rid of the fuzz. Perhaps this is the beginning of a new movement initiative that aims to reduce the CO2 parts per million (ppm) by simultaneously slashing the cpms (cops per million). Cops are not only the industrial empire’s first line of defense against, well, us. They are also massive usurpers of the public financial resources that might otherwise be put towards restoring the Earth.

Where the Earth First! movement was once known for its epic wilderness corridor proposals in the ‘80s which became a basic foundation for the future of conservation biology, I think this plan too will shape the face of the ecology to come. 

Hey Earth First!, Time to Get Busy!

More Full Time Direct Action campaigns about to kick off this Summer…

from Earth First! Newswire

At the 2012 Earth First! Rendezvous, during the 4th in a series of workshops intending to “Give EF! a Kick in the Ass,” facilitators proposed what was initially called the “FTDA Pledge” [FTDA = Full Time Direct Action]. The result was a list of people who expressed the desire to be contacted when crucial campaigns were in need of support at critical times.

The workshop discussed what sort of criteria would be used in making these “call-outs” for support.

What was decided together was that they should be: (1) Strategic and well thought-out campaigns, (2) Community-led with strong local organizing looking for support, (3) Against mega-infrastructure

With goals being strong participation in actions that can strengthen the EF! network; renew the culture and spirit of ecological resistance; and radicalize other movements, groups and individuals.

According to EF!ers on the ground last year in East Texas, the Tar Sands Blockades fit very squarely in these criteria, so we called for support from EF! activists around the US, and they came.

There has since been a suggestion to call the FTDA pledge “the Crunch” (a nod to the Movement for a New Society), highlighting the limited window of space that is often present for a rapid escalation of direct action tactics and strategy. 

The following text is modified from an email sent out to EF! activists nationwide regarding organizing efforts which have been discussed and found to also fit the above criteria. If you can plug in to these campaigns over the next few weeks with skills, supplies, time, energy, funds, etc, it could be pivotal moments for the growth of the movement.

Check out the details below. Send it out over local EF! lists. Hope to see you out there. 

Manual for Sabotaging Wolf Hunts Released

“And in that case, we choose to be saboteurs for the wild.”

The following text is from a press release of the Earth First! Media office, which provides correspondence to news outlets around the world.

Download the Earth First! Wolf Hunt Sabotage Manual Here

by Earth First! News

Earth First! Media has released a manual which provides detailed information for disrupting wolf hunting in those states that allow it. Titled The Earth First! Wolf Hunting Sabotage Manual, the text, complete with step-by-step graphics, explains how to find and destroy wolf traps, handle live trapped wolves in order to release them, and various methods, including the use of air-compressed horns and smoke-bombs, for stopping wolf hunts.

The authors of the manual describe themselves as,  “hunters and proud of it,” adding, “But we aren’t proud of what passes for hunting these days and especially for what passes as ‘sportsman’ hunting. Somehow, the National Rifle Association, yuppie trophy hunters, cattle barons, and the Obama Administration are in cahoots in an effort that promises to wipe wolves clean off the planet. And in that case, we choose to be saboteurs for the wild.”   

No Compromise: A Compilation in Defense of the Wild

Earth First! Has Released a Punk Compilation Benefit Album

Celebrating 34 years in print and direct action, the Earth First! Journal is the voice of the radical direct action environmental movement. Punk is an artistic movement founded in the same era on the principles of resistance and, as a culture, continues to boldly challenge a destructive system. The EF!J collective presents this compilation of punk bands that share a no-compromise attitude towards defense of the living world, in order to draw these two powerful forms of communication together. All profits from the  album’s sales go to Earth First! Media projects, organizing expenses, and legal funds.

The compilation comes with a book featuring exclusive interviews between band members, heads of punk labels like Will Butler from To Live a Lie, and a former Earth First! Journal co-editor and contributor, MJ. This album was released through All We Know Records, an independent DIY label out of Miami, FL.

This limited-edition press of only 1,000 copies are each hand-numbered, and they’re going fast!

Track Listing

1. Masakari – XVI. Rapid Dominance
2. Autarkeia – Saving Seeds
3. Baker Acted – Hours That Never Add Up to Comfort
4. Oiltanker – Ends Meet
5. Recreant – Burn
6. Gattaca – Sešli Jsme z Cesty
7. ACXDC – Crux
8. Autarch – Shepherds
9. Landbridge – Manufacturing Greed
10. Closet Burner – Apathy
11. Torch Runner – Feeding
12. Deathrats – Crutch
13. Breag Naofa – II.
14. Black Hole of Calcutta – Cirrhosis
15. Cloud Rat – 6 Mile
16. Iskra – Machine Infernale
17. Sin Orden – Tierra Indigena
18. Oi Polloi – Doigh Eile
19. Adelit@s – Contra el Olvido
20. Rat Storm – Refuse to Be Silenced
21. Beartrap – Human Factory Farm
22. Cizaña – Bosque
23. Agathocles – It Is What It Is
24. Shadow Of The Destroyer-Dark Days
25. Appalachian Terror Unit – We Will Continue to Break the Law and Destroy Property Until We Win

To Order
http://earthfirstjournal.org/store
http://allweknowrecs.blogspot.com
Earth First! Journal
PO Box 964, Lake Worth, FL 33460

For more information, contact
Ashley: allweknowrecs@gmail.com
Molly Jane: mollyjane@earthfirstjournal.org

 

Early reviews and sample interviews after the jump…

Comic Book Analysis and Review: Liberator #2

Matt Miner’s Animal Liberation Comic Gives Hero Themes a Reality Check

by Rabb!t / Earth First! Newswire

The second installment of the ALF-inspired comic series, Liberator, comes out this Wednesday [Update: street date changed to 7/31], and I have to say this issue is even better than the first. The story, characters, and political issues are complex, the art is sharp, clean and vibrant, and the moments of ecologically-motivated property destruction and animal rescue are even more satisfying this time around. If you haven’t read the first issue or our first review, you may want to do so before you read on, in order to get some context for the following analysis. Be warned, there are a few minor spoilers ahead (but nothing you probably couldn’t guess from looking at the cover).

As an activist who enjoys reading comic books, I knew the Liberator series would resonate with me, but I was concerned that it wouldn’t be accessible to non-activist comic book fans, or non-comic book-reading activists. While portraying underground animal rights activists as superheroes sounded like a great idea, it had the potential to be forced into place, and consequently come across as either too hokey for the political issues or too serious for the medium. As it turns out, my concerns were unfounded. In fact, rather than alienating either set of potential fans, the unique combination of underground activism with classic comic book structure offers something for everyone, and adds a refreshing dose of realism and depth to traditional superhero themes.

Comic Book Review: Liberator #1

from Earth First! Newswire

The first issue of the Animal Liberation Front-inspired comic book, Liberator, hits shelves today. Check it out for pages of awesome animal fury against cruel anthropocentrists.

Liberator #1 [Black Mask Studios, 2013] is about two activists—one who puts her freedom on the line by committing civil disobedience, and one who works underground, running an autonomous campaign of liberation and sabotage against dog fighting rings and fur farmers. Security culture, tactical diversity, shitty coworkers, asshole cops, explosions—Liberator seems to have it all. It’s refreshing to see a comic hero fighting for something I care about, rather than protecting the financial security of the rich and middle class. The comic world hasn’t had anything approaching this since Grant Morrison’s Animal Man chickened out during a laboratory arson.

The art, with illustrations by Javier Sanchez Aranda and coloring by Joaquin Pereyra, is lively and engaging, if a little more technophilic than I would have expected from such a niche publication. But where Liberator really sets itself apart is with its writing. In a medium dense with mutations and magic, Matt Miner presents us with a new kind of hero. Damon, the protagonist, is a barista by day and an almost Travis Bickle-like ski mask-donning animal rescuer by night.

Could Golden Dawn Bring a New Wave of Eco-Fascism from Greece to the US?

The “Green Wing” logo of Golden Dawn, a fascist political party of Greeks and apparently now Greek-Americans

by Panagioti / Earth First! Newswire

In times of social upheaval, it seems a given that the far-right elements of an industrial empire will present themselves as a counter force in an attempt to allure some of the righteously indignant and, often painfully ignorant, folks who perceive themselves as a “middle class” in need of protection and salvation.

That is undoubtably the case with Greece today, where  members of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn have begun firmly establishing themselves in political office, in the ranks of law enforcement, and now, with a larger street presence than ever before.  

Together, We Can Get Free: A Review of Towards Collective Liberation, by Chris Crass

by Sasha

Towards Collective Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building Strategy, by Chris Crass (PM Press 2013), is a challenging collection of essays and interviews. The concept of collective liberation, gleaned initially from radical scholar bell hooks, connotes a struggle lodged deep in the tradition of liberation movements—black liberation, GLBQTTI liberation, women’s liberation, and so on. CC insists, “we need liberation movements of millions of people, from all backgrounds, from all walks of life, with a wide range of experience, playing many different roles… everyone reading this book is needed in the process of building the powerful and successful movements we need to make the changes crucial for our future.” For liberation movements to connect at crucial strategic and ideological intersections, activists must overcome the problem by which “processes of inclusions and exclusions are reproduced in our organizing.” For collective movement organization to succeed, we need “a commitment to use different strategies and approaches.” The message of Towards Collective Liberation is that love, openness, and patient determination will prevail. It is an imperative lesson for everyone.

Riots Over Baroness Thatcher’s Dead Body

An old rally flyer from 1989 calling for protests against Thatcher for her support of the apartheid South African regime, support of ant-gay and anti-abortion policies and for her continued policies of colonialism in Ireland.

Anarchists and Police Warn of Full Scale Street Battles Tomorrow and at Margaret Thatchers Funeral Procession

by Russ McSpadden / Earth First! News

[The text of this work is free to share and distribute under the following Creative Commons License CC-BY-ND 3.0]

Back in March of 1990, during the poll tax riots in London, more than 200,000 people engaged in protest, direct action and  full scale rioting over the hugely unpopular new tax system introduced by then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the conservative government. Amidst the wild chaos of the night  an anarchist collective by the name Class War proposed a grand celebration in Trafalgar Square for the first Saturday after the future event of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s death.

It was a farsighted call-to-party over the passing of a right-wing  politician who was a full 23 years from her death bed.

Tomorrow, April 13th happens to be that first Saturday.

Military Robo-Cheetahs, Obamacare for Microchips and Other Techno-Dystopian Shit You Couldn’t Make Up

by Russ McSpadden / Carbon-based humanoid correspondent for the King Ludd & John Connor Institute of Anti-Technology

[The text of this work is free to share and distribute under the following Creative Commons License CC-BY-ND 3.0]

Genetically Modified Catnip Won’t Save You

The Pentagon has announced that it is currently investigating new mobility technologies that include a robo-cheetah that has already surpassed the fastest recorded speed of any human on Earth.  According to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) the Cheetah-droid is fast enough to run down Usain Bolt who set the world speed record for a human in 2009 when he reached 27.78 mph. The Cheetah was recently clocked at 28.3 mph and is expected, following a series of upgrades, to run much faster. In fact, it is now the fastest four-legged machine in history and it’s a predator.

But don’t worry, as the saying will soon go, “You don’t need to run faster than the fastest blood-thirsty military grade nano-titanium hell beast, you just need to run faster than the slowest flesh bag next to you.”