Statement of Purpose

Please read this to the bottom.

We are profoundly grieved and enraged at the
destruction of our planet and at all systems of human
oppression. We are passionate about creating a world
based on mutual aid, love, justice, and connection to
the living world. We want to understand the roots of
the dominant culture in order to most effectively end
it.

We draw on environmentalism, feminism, deep ecology,
spirituality, anarchy, indigenous lifeways,
anti-oppression politics, peak oil and collapse
theories, and past struggles for justice for our
analysis and our inspiration. We are open to
challenging our thinking and ourselves. We recognize
that though the dominant culture threatens us all, it
also gives privileges to some at the expense of others,
and whether industrial culture continues or is
stopped, the impact on people will differ.

We also embrace the full experience of beauty, magic,
and love in our lives and the world in our efforts to
make serious change. And we are committed to making
that change.

We believe the institution of civilization, with its
cities, agriculture, and technology, is the basis of
the most destructive cultures. To face the full impact
of civilization requires acknowledging that it is
inherently oppressive and destructive. Cities demand
the importation of resources, which are ultimately
obtained through violence. Agriculture takes more than
it gives to the land, turning diverse ecosystems
into monocultures and living soil to desert.
Technology requires exploitation of the natural world
and condenses power into fewer and fewer hands.
Industrial civilization in particular, with its
machinery, engines, and oil-based production, has
further accelerated the speed of the devastation.

Despite all our efforts, the rate of environmental
destruction is increasing, and inequality and poverty
along with it. Those of us fighting for justice may be
winning battles, but we are losing the war. When
children are in slavery to make chocolate and a
hundred species leave the earth forever every day, we
are losing. If industrial civilization continues on
this course, it will continue to destroy people and
the planet until it collapses. Given the scale of the
situation, much of our planet will be dead in the next
few decades.

There are many, many committed efforts to change the
dominant culture, to help people and other living
beings, and to create justice and sustainability.
Reforming this culture, alleviating suffering, and
celebrating life are meaningful and amazing: that’s
what we spend our time doing. But we also do not want
to settle. We need to honestly evaluate how
effectively our efforts are ending ecocide and
oppression.

Industrial culture is not just a way of thinking, an
intellectual habit or an emotional experience. It's an
interlocking set of institutional power arrangements
based on exploitation, violence, and the
objectification of living beings. Changes in our
individual and collective consciousness are essential,
but they are not enough to bring this system down. We
need organized, political resistance.

This culture cannot be reformed to one of justice and
sanity: it is defined by destructive and oppressive
systems of power. To create a liberated world, it must
go. The hard truth is that all our efforts to
encourage the dominant culture to voluntarily adopt
sustainable ways of living have not made a significant
impact.

At DGR our driving question will be: how will we make
that change happen?

Please understand the nature of this event. DGR is
not a festival. It is not a gathering to create a groovy
subculture, to simply change a destructive paradigm,
to try and escape "the system," or to build a support
system solely for personal growth. It is a serious
meeting to address the destruction of our planet and
potential  effective resistance. It will include
theoretical discussions of serious and confrontational
strategies and tactics. It is expected that
 participants follow security culture
(see http://security.resist.ca/personal/culture.shtml).

We also intend to have a good time.  Join us.