Unis'tot'en Camp, January 2015 - Will Falk

A group of Deep Green Resistance members from across the US and Canada delivered cash donations, supplies, and their labor to the Unis'tot'en Camp in early January. A support network for a strategic, indigenous-led front-line blockade is a crucial part of building a culture of resistance. DGR is proud to provide some of that support, and grateful to the camp hosts for allowing us to be involved.

Will Falk wrote about his experience on this recent trip, reflecting on his personal journey that has brought him through despair to activism, and the mingling of his new activist focus with personal and professional relationships and locations of his despair-filled past. He relates this to the larger culture of civilization, and the need for meaningful action to counteract the dangerous self-numbing in which we're all encouraged to engage:

One way to understand the environmental catastrophe confronting us is to view the dominant culture as suffering from a profound case of despair. Despair permeates many religious traditions that say humans are fundamentally flawed, Earth is a scary place, and suffering is inevitable so we may as well embrace it to gain peace in another world. Despair permeates science cutting us off from other beings, telling us other beings are objects incapable of existing with humans in mutual relationship, and encouraging us to use (read: kill) other beings for the benefit of humans. Despair permeates our governments who view raw power and physical force as the only way to control this wildly unpredictable process we call “life.”

Many doctors have told me to reach out to old friends to help me remember who I was and what I was like before despair settled over me. In my worst moments, all I can see is darkness behind me, darkness upon me, and darkness ahead of me. Life is bad. Life was bad. Life will always be bad.

Part of spending so much time in Canada is being far from those who remember who I was. Lately, my desire for connection to a happier personal past has taken strange and pathetic forms. I wear an obnoxious green Notre Dame football flatbrim everywhere I go. I talk about my favorite band, Phish, with anyone who will listen. I find myself in bars just looking for company.

So, one of the benefits of the speaking tour I went on for the Unist’ot’en Camp involved spending time remembering myself with those who love me. But, the temporary feelings this time spent remembering released are dangerous. It would be easy to settle back down into a life based around salving the pain of depression. It would be easy to surround myself in good memories and turn my back on the problems of the world. If I did this, though, the world would still be burning. And, if the world burns for long enough, those I love will burn, too.

Read the entire essay: Reflections on Despair: Walking the Trapline at Unist’ot’en Camp, by Will Falk. And stay tuned for report-backs from other DGR members who attended the camp!

Vulnerability of infrastructure to cyber attacks

In November, Admiral Michael Rogers spoke to the House Select Intelligence Committee on Cybersecurity. Rogers, the National Security Agency (NSA) Director & U.S. Cyber Command Commander, spoke on the vulnerability of U.S. infrastructure to cyberattacks due to the proliferation of network technologies which are relied upon for that infrastructure's functioning. Sectors of the economy vulnerable to cyber attacks run the gamut, from energy to oil and gas to government to aviation. In his assessment, no major part of the interconnected global economic system is not vulnerable to cyber attacks.

While this hearing focused mainly on the threat that foreign nation states pose to the U.S., the topic of non-government groups committing catastrophic attacks on infrastructure was brought up as well. In comparing the cyber threat to the nuclear threat of the Cold War era, it has been determined that the cyber threat is a much greater risk because of the ease with which groups with few resources can gain the tools necessary to commit potent attacks, whereas obtaining nuclear weapons is much more difficult.

Main points:

• Foreign powers (China, Iran, and Russia) have the capability to inflict damage on critical U.S. infrastructure through cyber attacks
• Primary concern is this nation state threat
• Secondary threat is gangs/ groups (nation states have been using these groups to execute probing as well as attacks, in order to obscure their own fingerprints)
• Types of attacks used:
  • Distributed denial of service (DDoS); not a sophisticated attack, but can do a lot of damage in large scale/ high velocity attacks
  • Sophisticated viruses (Iran)
  • Trojan horse malware (Russia)
• Main targets to worry about:
  • Energy sector (foreign powers have been probing for weaknesses and have gained access to control systems, which could allow nation states / groups to shut down those systems)
  • Financial systems / institutions (major threat)
  • Oil and gas infrastructure
  • Water distribution and filtration systems
  • Government
  • Aviation
• Attacks can be segmented to perform different kinds of things (cut off power transmissions to specific sectors, turn off specific generators and turbines, etc.)

Watch the full hearing to learn more about cyber vulnerabilities of infrastructure.

"142 Years" by Drew Wadden and the filthy politicians

This collaboration between the filthy politicians and Drew Wadden provides a concise summary of the trajectory of civilization, then challenges the listener with a fundamental moral question: what are you going to do about it?

Listen to "142 Years" from the album Modern Man and read the lyrics below, and hear more songs at the filthy politicians on bandcamp and at the filthy politicians on soundcloud.

do you believe that you will die at the end of your life?
what do you think that you will do when nobody can find you?

shit- if we leave here just like this
the way it is now right now
it's a crime scene past time we quit
we've filled paradise full of maggots and shit
which when left to their own are a part of the cycle
but that's blown sky high by a psycho
cancer of a culture that conquered the world with agriculture
we ain't been right with the world for awhile now
rocks, rivers, plants, and animals in exile
we killed the tribes in due course
and turned relationships into resource
extractors - manufacturers
turn the living world into plastic we're
drownin in a sea of loneliness
flailin about for a long lost home it gets
hard to listen to the screams
when you wake up and take in the scene
people take up the meaningless memes
to disconnect is how we cope it seems
if he who dies with the most toys wins
mother earth cries but it's lost in the din
does that man get to join the elders?
or does he wander the depths of hell?
if you sold your soul every time you
took a bite of the torture behind you
hid the light from the torch inside you
do you really think in the end we could find you?
if you sold your soul every time you
took a bite of the torture behind you
hid the light from the torch inside you
do you really think in the end we could find you?
you gotta wake up
you gotta wake up
we tear apart the world for what?
we're still not happy - time to give it up
there's always other ways - old ways - waitin
fight back why are we hesitatin?
we got zombie hearts with the brain rot
take a look inside - what do you got?

Ocean Apocalypse: video lecture by Jeremy Jackson

In January 2013, Dr. Jeremy Jackson spoke at the U.S. Naval War College on the multitude of negative impacts of industrial civilization on the oceans of the world. Jackson is a Senior Scientist Emeritus at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and a marine ecologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, with decades of experience studying oceans around the world. He knows and cares about oceans and presents his depressing information in a succinct and engaging manner.

Jackson asks three crucial questions:

• What are the most important human impacts on the oceans and their consequences today?
• What are the projected consequences of these changes for the environment (and thus for human well being)?
• What can we do to prevent these things from happening?

Jackson does an excellent job answering the first two questions. This video is important viewing for anyone who wants to learn about the desperate state of the oceans and their certain collapse if business as usual is allowed to continue.

Unfortunately, though he identifies the major threats as pollution, overfishing, and climate change, he doesn't tie these together into a necessary broader critique of civilization. His proposed solutions, with a focus on green technology hopium and voting in the "right" leaders, are almost entirely useless.

Watch Ocean Apocalypse now, learn from Jackson's summary of the problems, then consider the Deep Green Resistance Decisive Ecological Warfare strategy as an actual plan to save the oceans.

Earth At Risk 2014 report-back

Will Falk attended the 2014 Earth At Risk conference as a representative of the Vancouver Island Community Forest Action Network and of Deep Green Resistance. So many great speakers and panels were involved that Falk can only give summaries, but his report back captures the excitement and energy of seeing how the various social justice and environmental topics are all linked together, with huge potential for building alliances.

If you weren't able to attend the event, read Will Falk's Earth at Risk 2014: The Proper Diagnosis to get some idea of what you missed. Hopefully videos of much or all of the conference will become available at some point!

Anti-Racist Rednecks With Guns

One of the ironies of contemporary politics is the identification of poor whites with the Republican party, even more opposed to working class interests than the Democrat party. Taken to the extreme by the Tea Party, this cooptation takes energy which might challenge the capitalist class structure and redirects it against other poor and working class people who have different skin color.

Dave Strano has worked for years against this counter-productive racism, in Kansas and Missouri as part of the John Brown Gun Club distributing anti-racist literature at gun shows, and more recently in Colorado as Redneck Revolt. In an excellent interview, Strano points out how the left, even the radical community, often practices classism subtle and overt, leaving a large segment of potential allies as easy recruits for racist elements of the conservative movement. He describes organizing within this culture to restore traditional values of opposition to exploitation:

Today, the term redneck has taken on a demeaning connotation, primarily among upper class urban liberals who have gone out of their way to dehumanize white working class and poor people. Terms like “white trash” have come to signify the view among these same upper class liberals of poor and rural whites.

To us, the term redneck is a term that signifies a pride in our class as well as a pride in resistance to bosses, politicians, and all those that protect domination and tyranny.

We're very upfront about our position of being not only opposed to white supremacy, but to the shared culture of whiteness being one that has only been defined by being an oppressor race. What unites white skinned people currently is a shared history of being the footsoldiers of oppression. We want to ensure that as many whites as possible reject this commonly understood idea of whiteness and instead join in a common struggle with workers of all skin colors in a struggle for total and real liberation.

The whole interview is an important privilege check for middle- and upper-class liberals and radicals alike, as we work to build as broad-based a culture of resistance as possible. Read the whole article: Rednecks With Guns and Other Anti-Racist Stories and Strategies

Gorilla Radio interviews: Will Falk and Vanessa Gray on the Unis'tot'en Camp

Liz McArthur of Victoria BC is creating a radio documentary on the Unis'tot'en Camp pipeline blockade. She interviewed two fellow volunteers who participated in the summer caravan to the Camp, and a third activist involved with defense of the Sacred Headwaters. The interviews aired on the August 4, 2014 episode of Gorilla Radio.

McArthur interviews:

• Will Falk of Deep Green Resistance and Victoria Forest Action Network, on his environmental activism with the Camp and other efforts. He discusses the importance of supporting indigenous struggles, and what members of settler culture need to understand and how they should approach such solidarity work.
• Vanessa Gray, a member of the Amjiwnaang nation in the Chemical Valley of Southern Ontario, describing the horrific conditions of living in close proximity to 63 oil and gas facilities, including pipelines, refineries, and loading docks. Gray describes the incredibly high rates of health problems brought on by this policy of environmental racism towards the indigenous. Gray brought youth to the Camp to show them that places still exist with clean water and air, and to inspire them to fight against the dominant culture of monetary profit at the sacrifice of people and land.
• John Mowat Stephen briefly talks about activism with the Tahltan First Nation around the Sacred Headwaters in northern BC.

Listen to the interview to learn more about the front line struggles in BC against the fossil fuel industry, and how you can help:

Browse all DGR member appearances.

On the Side of the Living: DGR documentary in progress

Deep Green Resistance just completed a $10,000 fundraising campaign to create a feature length documentary on the need for organized resistance to the dominant system of industrial civilization: On the Side of the Living. Thank you to all who contributed money or helped spread the word!

Two videos that give an idea of what the documentary will address:

The Deep Green Resistance Strategy gives a good introduction to our general approach to strategic activism.

Exclusive interview with Doug Zachary of Veterans for Peace.

"Concrete" by the filthy politicians

A call to dig underneath the distractions and lies imposed on us by civilization, "Concrete" urges us to decolonize and join the side of the living. As always, the filthy politicians, joined on this Modern Man track by Drew Wadden, blend engaging rythm and melody with meaningful lyrics to draw listeners into a culture of resistance.

Listen to this track and read the lyrics below, and hear more songs at the filthy politicians on bandcamp and at the filthy politicians on soundcloud.

won't tell you to put your hands up in the air
won't tell you to put em anywhere
cuz you can put em up or down
all that really matters is you listen to the sound
and let it sink in get to thinkin
look reality in the eye without blinkin

don't think that i don't realize
that today if you want to reach the hearts and the minds
of these people that you need a beat to sweep them right off their feet
to reach deep underneath these sheets of concrete
that they been layin since you were playin in plastic sheets
and runnin through creeks now filled with chemical leaks
now tears are runnin down our chemical cheeks
cuz we don't wanna go outside without makeup on
we can't have fun without jager bombs
and this ain't the way it's supposed to be
ain't supposed to lose somebody so close to me
in a car accident we shouldn't have cars
but we're all so used to all these scars
we build our own prison but we don't see the bars
it shouldn't be so hard at night to see the stars

won't tell you to put your hands up in the air
won't tell you to put em anywhere
cuz you can put em up or down
all that really matters is you listen to the sound
and let it sink in get to thinkin
look reality in the eye without blinkin

these days we're taught conscious thought ain't hot
your brain might be sayin tpain i am not
so i'm already workin against the fence
you might be sittin on but if you're not then just pretend
we can take a thought and follow it to its end
just take a look around, what the fuck is happenin?
we shop til we drop for things that got made
half way around the motherfuckin world by slaves
if you got eyes to see take a look around
if you got ears to hear listen to the sound
of isolation, domestication
to the natural world we're an alienation
and we sold the soul for the sweet sedation
of lonely sex robots on tv stations
it shouldn't take flobots to show these bourgeois
the new boss is just like the old boss

won't tell you to put your hands up in the air
won't tell you to put em anywhere
cuz you can put em up or down
all that really matters is you listen to the sound
and let it sink in get to thinkin
look reality in the eye without blinkin

so if you got a breath of life left
and somethin inside you that's more human than machine to guide you
then you just gotta dig it up listen to it an we'll do it
you just gotta set it free then we can get to it
cuz the real enemy is all around
everyday they're the ones that are holdin us down
cuz they know as long as we don't know anything else
that we won't know what it's like to think for ourselves
and that's half the problem is every debate
is framed to accept the existence of the state
with this history they write, the lies they tell
so we identify and we don't rebel
we just eat the food and we watch the shows and
we consume exactly what they want us to know
but before we were consumin we were human at birth
gotta find our way back cuz we're killin this earth

won't tell you to put your hands up in the air
won't tell you to put em anywhere
cuz you can put em up or down
all that really matters is you listen to the sound
and let it sink in get to thinkin
look reality in the eye without blinkin

Chris Matera on biofuels and other excuses for clearcuts

Chris Matera founded and works in his spare time for Massachusetts Forest Watch, fighting against destruction of New England forests. Derrick Jensen interviewed him for the November 30 episode of Resistance Radio, discussing the many forces pushing for logging.

As expected, the timber industry puts out carefully crafted propaganda designed to confuse well meaning but ignorant people. Companies claim clearcutting will counteract stressors, correct forest imbalances, and otherwise improve forest health. They claim clearcutting will improve habitat for cute animals (already overabundant because of past logging), not mentioning the threatened species who will suffer further harm. They claim they need to clearcut trees now to prevent future hurricanes from knocking them down.

Less immediately transparent is the propaganda around biofuels, billed as clean and green, but really just another excuse to clearcut forests. Matera says that burning green trees is 50% more carbon polluting than burning coal, and has a similar impact on air quality. He warns people to critically examine claims of energy sustainability, usually heavily based on this habitat destruction and pollution even worse than coal.

Perhaps most surprisingly for many listeners, Jensen and Matera reveal big green NGOs such as The Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, and The Nature Conservancy as more of a problem than a help. Time and time again, grassroots activists have clashed with such NGOs backing environmentally destructive practices like biofuels via deforesting. Jensen and Matera discuss the dynamics and details of this serious obstacle to environmentalism.

Listen to this free ranging discussion below, play the interview at the Deep Green Resistance Youtube Channel, or visit Massachusetts Forest Watch. And please share this interview with friends and family to promote a better understanding of what the hype around biofuels really means for the earth.

Browse all of Derrick Jensen's Resistance Radio episodes.