It's time to stop hoping lobbying will ever convince those in power to stop burning fossil fuels, polluting our air and water, and destroying nature. For decades, even "lesser of two evils" political leaders have permitted accelerated attacks on our environment. A few have put band-aids in place; none have acted to reverse our course. With Trump and other reactionaries gaining power around the world, policies will only get worse.
It's time to stop hoping for a mass shift in consciousness, a voluntary cultural adoption of a sane and sustainable way of living. Despite widespread understanding of looming environmental crises, voluntary simplicity and conservation have never gained mainstream traction. Nearly sixty million Americans just voted for Trump, who promised to gut even the tiny bits of environmental protection the US does have in place. Collectively, no matter the true costs, we are unwilling to sacrifice our comforts and luxuries. No amount of education will overcome this.
When we can't rely on others to make necessary change, we're left with direct action. Those of us serious about protecting present and future life on the planet must leverage our small numbers to shut down fossil fuels, polluting industries, and nature-destroying machines. This may sound radical, and that's because it is. We need to go to the root of the problem and win the war there, rather than fight (and mostly lose) battle after battle against endless manifestations of ecocide.
Deep Green Resistance has realistically assessed the resources of the environmental movement, the opposition we face, and the time we have left before runaway climate change and ecological collapse have gone too far to stop. Our response, Decisive Ecological Warfare, is a plausible strategy to stop the rich from exploiting the poor and the powerful from destroying the planet. Industrial infrastructure is surprisingly vulnerable: sprawling and impossible to protect everywhere. Though we'll never have large numbers of people fighting on the front lines, they can be disproportionately effective by attacking carefully chosen critical bottlenecks.
Don't let despair drive you to retreat; there's too much at stake. This is a call-out for people to join the fight on the side of the living. Read our strategy. Read our book. If you're in a position to carry out direct action to stop the destruction, know that there is an aboveground movement building in support of your work. If you can't be on the front lines, for any of a hundred perfectly valid reasons, join us in the aboveground as a volunteer, as a member, or as a financial supporter. Help us support the militant resistance the planet desperately needs.
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This can't be random. There has to be coordination.
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right. The DGR book devotes a chapter to organizational structures. The decentralized, autonomous, consensus based group models appropriate for aboveground activism probably can't achieve the level of coordination needed to trigger cascading systems failure. Some degree of hierarchy is necessary for effectively coordinated attacks.
DeleteOf course, it will be very difficult for people living in a surveillance state to form the kind of large paramilitary organization which would be most effective. The book discusses firewalls and security, but even following best practices, building a coordinated group will be a risk. The question is whether it's more risky to organize for effective action, or to let civilization make our entire planet uninhabitable by humans...