United Press International
July 15, 2002, Monday
Outside View: Eco-thugs wanted
By BRIDGET BARTON, A UPI Outside View commentary
DATELINE: PORTLAND, Ore., July 15
If you are looking for a way to while away those hot summer days, you
might be interested in the Green Anarchy Tour, a really big show -- as
Ed Sullivan might have said -- coming to "urban hells" throughout the
country this summer.
The tour begins in Ashland, Ore., Wednesday and travels through
California and the Southwest before making it to Washington, D.C., in
August.
The purpose of the tour, according to its sponsors, is "to destroy
civilization on this stolen land."
The Green Anarchy Tour is a chance for environmental activists, animal
rights activists, anarchists and urban hell-dwellers of all stripes to
gather together to enjoy the musical stylings of punk rock bands such as
"Bongzilla" and "The Fartz," and to participate in what they call
"Direct Action Workshops." Direct action is the euphemism anarchists and
eco-terrorists use in lieu of "sabotage," "arson," and other words that
might better describe their attacks against government, the business
community, or society at large.
Wildfires raging in the West and plumes of smoke drifting across the
Eastern seaboard from Canadian forest fires are reminders of the
consequences that environmental extremism brings to ordinary citizens.
Decades of mismanagement prompted by extreme preservationist groups have
resulted in the firestorms now erupting in our national forests.
Burned-out buildings, bankrupt businesses, lost jobs, and the
destruction of years of valuable medical research all bear the
imprimatur of anarchists and terrorists of the sort the Green Anarchy
Tour appears to want to attract.
Proceeds from the tour --if there are any -- will, according to the
official Web site, go to help West Coast anarchist and Earth Liberation
Front prisoners such as Jeffrey "Free" Luers and Craig "Critter"
Marshall, both convicted of arson for fire-bombing a car dealership in
Oregon.
Writing from his prison cell Luers had this to say about "direct action"
by eco-terrorists: "For years, decades, we have pleaded and petitioned
those in power, those responsible for injustice, genocide and ecocide.
This pleading has gone unanswered. It is time to use actions that can
not (sic) be ignored.
"In defense of life, these actions are justified. 'Strike a match, light
a fuse. We only have the Earth to lose.'"
Marshall writes from the same philosphical viewpoint, "To tear down this
corporate society we're going to need more than a few 'wrecking balls'
because we can't rebuild an eco-system without tearing down all that
stands in its way. You can't grow a garden in concrete."
"The Green Anarchy Tour," the group posts on its Web site, "is an
attempt to bridge the gap between the punk movement, the revolutionary
anarchist movement, the ecological movement, and prisoners of war who
have been incarcerated for their involvement in the struggles listed
above.
"The majority of the content encompassed on this tour is from Eugene, an
outpost of civilization in one of the most wild bio-regions in 'North
America.' Eugene experienced the spirit of wild chaos during a couple
years of insurrection. In the aftermath, several comrades were
imprisoned, several collectives endured, and what remains today is one
of the most sophisticated propaganda mills in history.
"The tragedy of this historic propaganda mill is the geographic limit of
it's (sic) reach. While many attempts have been made to present the
critique and analysis developed in Eugene, they have not peaked outside
of this locale. The Green Anarchy Tour will be an attempt to take the
tools we have refined, the tools of resistance, to a new scale.
"Through the media of slides, videos, spoken word, and music, we will
share our perspective to comrades across turtle island in what may very
well be one of the last state-permitted summers of 'above-ground
organizing.' We understand that time is running out, for us and for the
earth, and thus we will take our words, ideas, music, and spirit on the
snakes of concrete, the civilized transportation infrastructure to
various movements in America."
But for the more serious eco-terrorist who eschews the sort of fun and
good times that the Green Anarchy Tour is bringing to towns across
turtle island, there is this alternative option proposed by Earth
First!:
"To those feeling suicidal: this may be an answer to your dreams. If you
are determined to end it all, don't slink off to some garage and
intensify acid rain and the greenhouse effect by CO poisoning. Don't
jump off a bridge -- blow up the bridge! Who says you can't take it with
you?"
Unfortunately, as Earth First! and the Green Anarchy Tour remind us, and
as we have been reminded in recent weeks by concerns about a dirty bomb
possibly in the hands of a U.S. citizen, not all terrorism threats come
from outside the country.
Bridget Barton is the editor of "BrainstormNW," a monthly magazine of
ideas, entertainment, culture and politics, for Oregon and the
Northwest.