Our Long Memories
From Environmentalist to “Domestic Terrorist” with former Earth Liberation member Daniel McGowan
In the past ten years, we’ve also seen state repression of movements coming out of Occupy Wall Street, the Ferguson uprising, Standing Rock, Line 3 and various anti-Trump movements. Green and Red has had numerous episodes on radical movements and state repression of political movements from antifascists in Portland and Austin to water protectors at Line 3 to DAPL saboteur Jessica Reznicek.
Listen to our latest episode: apple.co/3nvkrqk
But, before that, we had the era known as the “Green Scare,” where radical environmental and animal rights activists were targeted by the “state” (corporations, politicians, law enforcement) for its anti-capitalist politics and escalating tactics that included sabotage, animal liberation, property destruction and arson. The FBI called their operation to stop these radical movements “Operation Backfire.” After 911, they labeled people taking action “domestic terrorists.” Congress passed corporate lobbyist written legislation, such as the Animal Enterprise Terror Act and the Patriot Act, to stop them.
Resisting Raytheon (and all the other War Pigs)
March 4th in Oakland: “From Activist to Terrorist” Ft. Jake Conroy
Policing the Line 3 Pipeline feat. Alleen Brown w/ the Intercept
Last year, Indigenous women led movements waged a fierce campaign to stop Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline. Police escalated in a multitude of ways (felony charges, high bails, rubber bullets, tear gas, etc) against water protecting pipeline opponents.
Listen in: https://apple.co/3sEjWfh
Thanks to the bold reporting of outlets such as The Intercept and Unicorn Riot, we’re still finding out the strategies that the Canadian oil giant and the Minnesota police state colluded on to neutralize water protectors.
Labor, Direct Action and the Battle in Seattle
We talked with Nancy Haque with the Shutdown WTO Organizers’ History Project about simultaneously organizing the labor march and the mass direct action in 1999.
The Battle in Seattle, 22 Years Later w/ the Shutdown WTO Organizers History Project
It’s the 22nd anniversary of the direct action shutdown of the World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings in Seattle. The WTO is a transnational economic institution created to regulate and facilitate global (corporate) trade.
Listen in: https://bit.ly/ShutdownWTOGandR
Organized by a scrappy group of organizers, the shutdown kicked off an anti-corporate globalization moment in North America which challenged austerity and the capitalist political economy. Globally, those movements had already been fighting austerity and corporate power for decades.
We talk with Nancy Haque, Stephanie Guilloud and David Solnit – three organizers that were all part of Direct Action Network to Stop Corporate Globalization (DAN), the body that organized the shutdown.
COP26: Why the Climate Movement Needs Even More Direct Action w/ Rising Tide North America
In our final interview from COP 26 in Glasgow, Scott welcomes Lisa Winter and (welcomes back) Alex Cohen with Rising Tide North America (@risingtideNA) to Green and Red. The three of them have a lively discussion about direct action and mass disruption to meet the scale and urgency of the climate crisis from COP to frontline battles around the world.
Listen in: https://bit.ly/GlasgowFinGandR
They reflect on mass actions in Seattle in 1999 and Quebec in 2001 in the era of anti-corporate globalization, and more recent mass disruptions and uprisings around Standing Rock, Line 3 and after the police murder of George Floyd.
Climate protests go hard in Glasgow at COP26 with Matt Leonard from Oil and Gas Action
This week, the United Nations climate talks (or COP26) commenced in Glasgow, Scotland.
We’re going to be talking to a variety of folks who are there. We get an update with Matt Leonard (@MattOakland) from the Oil and Gas Action Network (@oil_action). Matt’s been in Scotland for a couple of weeks supporting street actions targeting world leaders like Joe Biden and Boris Johnson, and Wall Street bankers wining and dining their way through the climate talks.