Resistance Watch: 2 years for DeChristopher.

This guy is a hero and didn't hurt a soul, and they're sending him off to prison - exiling him from his community - to make a lesson of him for the rest of us...so pay attention and learn. Don't think they won't do it to you or I for something similarly creative and non-violent, as well...



These are our beloved ObamaFeds who prosecuted him, too, by the way - not even the self-righteous extremists and political machinery we have to contend with in Arizona.


I guess our lesson is that if you're going to commit seemingly "harmless" acts of non-violent resistance, make sure you know what the possible consequences are and are prepared to face them, because it's the same people that we protest who have the power to police, prosecute, and cage us...and that's not going to change any time soon.



That said, ROCK ON Resisters -


and bring on that felony warrant already.


Thanks for your inspiration and perseverance, Tim. You are widely loved and in federal custody, so at least you won't be dying in an Arizona state prison any time soon...
still, you have a hard road ahead, so blessings to you, my friend, for your courage.

In Solidarity,

Peggy Plews

----------------from Green is the New Red----------------

Tim DeChristopher Sentenced ­ What’s Next for the Environmental Movement?

by Will Potter on July 27, 2011

in Activism & Activists' Response, Terrorism Court Cases


Environmentalist Tim DeChristopher was sentenced to two years in prison for using non-violent civil disobedience to disrupt a sham oil and gas auction. He had been found guilty on two felony counts for making fake bids in the auction, costing corporations hundreds of thousands of dollars, and faced up to ten years.

He increased the bids on 22,000 acres of land in Utah national parks. A federal judge later ruled the auction was illegal.

DeChristopher’s case has attracted international attention, and he has become a spokesperson for the environmental movement. This case is much bigger than DeChristopher, though (as he has often said himself). We all need to be thinking: what’s next? How do we move forward?

Even if you do not consider yourself an environmentalist, or don’t agree with DeChristopher’s tactics, this case should raise serious questions about the misplaced priorities of our government and our entire culture. DeChristopher’s two-year sentence is comparable to what members of underground groups have received for property destruction. The court has sent the message that public, aboveground activists, who use non-violent civil disobedience, will be treated on par with underground activists who use economic sabotage.
More importantly, though, the government has sent the message that the people who step forward to stop ecological destruction will be met with harsh punishments, while those who responsible for this destruction, such as the oil and gas corporations bidding for public lands, will go about business as usual.

As the judge said during sentencing: “Civil disobedience can’t be the order of the day,” or it will lead to “chaos.”
But chaos for who? For the people? For the planet? Or for corporations?

This case, and the larger crackdown on the environmental movement, makes strikingly clear that the government is more concerned about the latter. As defense attorney Ron Yengich said: “We never impose the rule of law on people who steal from poor people, destroy the banking systems or destroy the earth.”

Moving forward, we need to remember one thing above all else: this is happening because DeChristopher was effective.

DeChristopher’s actions exposed what goes on inside sham corporate auctions, it cost corporations hundreds of thousands of dollars, and it galvanized the movement.

At sentencing, U.S. District Judge Dee Benson said that DeChristopher’s leadership in the environmental movement, his “continuing trail of statements” for civil disobedience, and his speech outside the courthouse were the reasons he faced prison time.

The judge went so far as to take the unusual step of having DeChristopher taken into custody of the U.S. Marshalls until his prison sentence begins. In many other cases I have covered, including those of convicted arsonists, the prisoners were allowed to self-surrender. People are generally only taken directly into custody if they are a violent threat or a flight risk. Why was this different?
Because DeChristopher is inspirational, and he would clearly use his time before prison to organize.

“You have authority over my life, but not my principles. Those are mine,” DeChristopher said to the judge. “I’ll continue to confront the system that threatens our future.”

Others have vowed to do the same. Thousands will be in Washington, D.C. in August to protest the Keystone XL pipeline to the Tar Sands. They are planning mass non-violent civil disobedience.




get on this list-serve:

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415 863-9977

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GREEN is the NEW RED: Support Marie Mason!

• http://supportmariemason.org/
• http://freemarie.org/
• http://june11.org/

From Peg:

Please go like Marie's supporters' Spacebook group (though keep in mind the FBI no doubt likes her page a lot, so stay away if you'll just bring or find trouble there...they WILL follow you home - but if you're reading this with any interest, they or Homeland Security probably have you on their radar already - don't let that scare you into silence, though. I think we need as many people to join as possible).

Funds to support Marie should go to her network, not the prison. The Phoenix Anarchists also pass a hat with an update on political prisoner support every Thursday evening at Conspire (901 n 5th st, Phoenix, AZ 85004 · Get Directions). Just keep in mind that the FBI probably already likes us, too, of course.

Below is more info about Marie and the Green Scare. The bit about Marie was lifted from the first website linked to above. If you write to her, please visit the site for additional information so you don't cause her problems. I learned a little about that at another prisoner's expense - take it very seriously.

---------------------------

Get on the Listserv!

Join the support marie mason list!

Donate

Click here to donate.

Write to Marie Mason

We encourage everyone to write to Marie Mason in prison:

Marie Mason #04672-061

FMC Carswell

Federal Medical Center

P.O. Box 27137

Fort Worth, TX 76127

Under no circumstances mention any illegal acts. Letters that mention other Green Scare prisoners may be rejected. Mason has a list of 100 pre-approved people she can write to; if you are not on that list, she will be able to receive your letter but not write back.

Everyone must use their first and last name when writing. All letters must be entirely in English. Be sure to include your return address on the envelope. You should also write her name and prisoner number on each piece of correspondence, as the prison tends to discard the envelope and then may "lose" track of who the letter is going to.

About Marie Mason

Marie Mason is a loving mother of two and a long-time activist in the environmental and labor movements. In March 2008, she was arrested by federal authorities for charges related to two acts of property destruction that occurred in 1999 and 2000; no one was injured in either of them. She accepted a plea bargain and was sentenced on February 5, 2009 to just under 22 years. She is now serving the longest sentence of any "Green Scare" prisoner.

The “Green Scare” is the name given to the recent arrests of animal rights and environmental activists who have been charged with acts of economic sabotage. Federal authorities have sought outrageous sentences (often Life in prison) and have publicly and legally labeled the activists as “terrorists” – despite the fact that no one has been killed or injured in any of the acts.

Supporting Marie Mason does not mean agreeing with the actions that she took -- but it does mean opposing the fear-mongering tactics of the federal government and the outrageous sentences they have imposed.

Background on the Green Scare

For more information on the Green Scare see here

Contact

supportmariemason@gmail.com

Radical Abolitionism and Liberation Movements

Found this fairly new blog this weekend - Negotiation is Over!. It looks a lot more edgy than I am - definitely is - but has some good reading to challenge one's commitment to liberation movements, and this article in particular (which you'll have to follow back to the site) has some interesting propositions about the intersections of our respective movements, which shouldn't be so fragmented as they are. 

The editor (not Steven Best) refers to herself as a radical abolitionist, which I can't claim to be myself because I'm not a vegan, I still smoke, and I'm a heavy pharmaceutical user...those are my big confessions for the week. But that doesn't mean those aren't things I'm willing to change...I've just been complacent and lazy and feeding my own system of denial while wandering along that slippery slope that begins with justifying placing just one creature in chains (not to mention ignoring my own)...and we know where that eventually leads.


I may not live entirely in accordance with my principles, and I'm not engaged in armed resistance, but for what it's worth this post and link are my articulation of support and solidarity with Earth Liberation prisoners around the world. Explore "Negotiation is Over!" if you're serious about the cause of liberation - these folks are about as serious as you'll find. These readings will make most of us rather uncomfortable, if we really soak them in.  

They're probably risking a lot to put it all up for us, so use the resources while they're there: as is often said in 12-step programs, "take what you need, and leave the rest." That's kind of what Frederick Douglass did when confronted with the passion, madness, and vision of John Brown. He could have been executed, too - and Harriet Tubman along with them - but we needed them all to do their respective things.


On that note, I will close with a message to Huntingdon Labs: you and everyone who still does business with you can shove the AETA. I'm doing nothing criminal here, and I wasn't even talking to you, so get your bloody, beagle-bashing vivisecting hands off my websites. 


Good night, all.

------------

13 Ways to Promote Alliance Politics and Total Liberation

November 28, 2009 — Negotiation Is Over By Dr. Steven Best

We are thankful to all those who have shown keen interest in our recently published “Manifesto for Radical Abolitionism,”[1] and the corresponding Facebook group, Radical Abolition: Total Liberation By Any Means Necessary.[2]

We launched this group in the hope of revitalizing a vegan abolition movement mired in complacency, timidity, and dogmatic slumbers — a small but hegemonic approach paralyzed by pacifism and a cult-like following of an authoritarian leader.

We accurately identified this moribund manifestation as a bourgeois, elitist, single-issue, consumerist, apolitical, pseudo-abolitionism going nowhere fast.

We established that this insular, complacent, and pretentious lifestyle narcissism exacerbates the isolation of veganism and animal rights from other movements.  It reinforces the dominant image of a movement of privileged white liberals indifferent to the social, political, and economic realities that devastate and destroy billions of people throughout the world.

We dispelled the disabling illusions of pathological pacifism and exposed the arrogance, aggression, and verbal violence hiding behind the mask of ahimsa and Jainism.

We redefined veganism and abolitionism as social in outlook, pluralist and contextualist in method, and radical in politics.

We said what had to be said.

We framed our approach not just as a critique and negation of lifestyle veganism, “culinary activism,” and bedroom bloggers blathering in cyberspace vacuums, but also as a positive alternative to its blasé bourgeois values and utter sterility. It is incumbent upon us, therefore, to suggest new, creative, constructive, and concrete courses of action, such as can thrive only in alliance with a diversity of social movements and progressive political voices. Indeed since our debut on November 13, 2009, people from all over the world  ─ clearly yearning for new visions, politics, and possibilities – have expressed gratitude for our critiques and enthusiasm for our project, while eagerly requesting suggestions for promoting total liberation.

What follows then are thirteen initial suggestions for building the diversified and unified global  movement that alone can dismantle the systems of oppression that have devastated biodiversity, triggered ecological collapse, and thwarted human potential for over ten thousand years ─ which is quite long enough. We enjoin those interested in enlivening possibilities for change through a markedly different theory and politics to read, learn, think, grow, and expand their frames of reference until problems and potential solutions come into focus. In this evolutionary process, we mediate theory and practice, such that we learn not only by reading but also by doing; not in solitary confinement, but in dialogue with others.

As we exit the insular comfort zone of single-issue advocacy, and venture into the vast and complex global battlefield of power politics and resistance movements, it is necessary to cultivate the virtues of strength, fortitude, courage, and patience.  Building a radical coalition ─ one that is unprecedented in depth, scope, and inclusiveness ─ is a formidable challenge. One runs into the same wall of dogmatic speciesism among the peace, justice, and ecology crowd of left-wing humanists and sundry ”progressives” that surrounds social consciousness in general and repels subversive ideas and anti-hierarchical politics.

We must approach others with respect and humility, keenly aware that while we have much to teach, we also have much to learn, and to unlearn. For as we engage others about the monumental significance of the rise and potential fall of speciesism, people will also be challenged  to recognize any latent racism, sexism, heterosexism, ablism, elitism, and classism. The project of radical alliance politics, moreover, will not be any easier with the backlash of corporate power and fascist police states, such as is already underway.

Yet with past publications, conferences, and alliance building projects in numerous countries, and with the current Manifesto and Radical Abolition Facebook group, we have initiated the process of dialogue and bridge-building indispensible for a mass, multidimensional movement with the potential for revolutionary change.[3] Our modest goal is to help break new ground and plant the seeds for global resistance and social reconstruction.

The politics of total liberation have yet to be invented, and we hardly pretend to understand all the questions, let alone have all the answers. But we know the animal rights “movement” is at a standstill and impasse, and that we need a new way. We know that the hegemonic model of vegan abolitionism was co-opted in conception; emerged dead-on-arrival; and was doomed to fail. It was, is, and always will be fatally flawed in its hermetic state of isolation; its religious conviction in the possession of Truth; its dogmatic censure of dissent; its mind-numbing denial of social and ecological crisis; and its collective hallucination of peaceful change.

This is the first of many drafts, and we seek your suggestions for further actions and your input on the politics of total liberation overall. We hope you will join us in the exciting, experimental process of building new communities and broader alliances by utilizing strategies such as we suggest below. Please share your experiences and ideas in our discussion forum and elsewhere. A global crisis and challenge such as humanity has never before faced is upon us. We have no time to waste. Apathy and complacency are more dangerous enemies than capitalism itself.

*********************************************

1)  Begin with a thorough and ambitious reading project that provides grounding in history, social theory, political movements, and political economy (i.e., the critical analysis of the capitalist economy and the decisive influence it has on aspects of reality, society, experience, and thought). Such a project would involve immersion in Marxist, anarchist, feminist, anti-racist, anti-colonialist, anti-imperialist, and anti/alter-globalization literature, along with general history. Difficult? Yes. But who said revolution is easy?...

(finish at Negotiationisover.com)