Posted on 07/15/2002 4:41:20 PM PDT by Grampa Dave
PORTLAND, Ore. – If you are looking for a way to while away those hot summer days, you might be interested in Green Anarchy Tour, 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."
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 that anarchists and ecoterrorists 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 that 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 ecoterrorists: "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.
'Strike a Match'
"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 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 [of] 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.
Will They Travel by Solar-Powered Vehicles?
"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 ecoterrorist who eschews the sort of fun and good times that 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 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.
Analysis by Bridget Barton, editor of "BrainstormNW," a monthly magazine of ideas, entertainment, culture and politics, for Oregon and the Northwest.
I'm sure many of you wonder why his movement hasn't already destroyed industrial society and blown up half the life on earth. After all, let's face it: Blowing things up isn't exactly rocket science.
The answer, I think, lies here:
Hopefully this doesn’t make you pat yourself on the back if you do more, hopefully it makes you realize how much harder those of us who are doing something need to attack.Who does he hate? Sure, he hates the businesspeople who run the businesses that spew pollutants in the air, and the government officials who let him get away with it.
But he hates his own followers just as much! Those folks who go out into the country and try to form their own ideal environmentally sensitive society? Cowards. Those people who only spike trees on weekends? Wimps.
Nobody can work for long in such an environment. Leftist gurus Michael Albert of Z Magazine pointed this out in an essay(1) I've always found interesting. He says that people get attracted to the left by the high principles, but few stick, because it winds up being absolutely no fun at all, a total downer, and - just as bad - a whole ton of problems with no solutions in sight.
Because of this, he has developed a complex economic system where brain surgeons will be required to spend part of their day cleaning toilets. He says that's a powerful inspiring vision that people can sign up on, but I have to admit that I'm not looking forward to toilet cleaning duty any time soon.
On the other hand, I have to give him credit for at least trying. Most people on the left don't go any further than indicting this horrible system we have, without suggesting their ideas would create anything better. Critter's writings are very much a part of this school, and very revealing in terms of their utter bankruptcy of ideas.
Okay, our society is lousy; tell us what's better and how it would work. The left can't, and that's why they're not a great deal more effective than they are.
D
(1) Why protest the conventions?. For the specific reference, go about 1/3 of the way down to the section labelled "What form and focus for protest?".
Hmmmmm...
I wonder who, and where, the opening act will be.
The spawn of the radicals from the '60's and'70's could make this an interesting summer.
Time to get a concealed carry permit.
Thanks for the ping, Gramps.
BTW, Brainstorm NW is a wonderful magazine. I think you would really enjoy their online mag. This is the only hard copy magazine we receive. Bridget Barton and Jim Pasero are not only wonderful writers, but also great people. Also, Lars Larsen has a column every month. If you want to understand the business climate in Portland, check out Jim Pasero's article "Vera's Portland" in their library. It was in the March, 2002 issue. It's a fantastic read. You can also find Bridget's original article at their website...it's up now.
Try to find essays and ruminations much less proposals about how events, projects, and demos should be funded; much less how the funds that do come in should be redistributed among efforts. Mostly, you can’t. There is a gigantic silence. Here’s but one current example: There is endless talk on the left about using the internet constructively, which is good, but there is almost no talk about how to have left internet operations generate revenues...
They don't like to talk about how to make money because to engage in that discussion would point out the glaringly obvious- capitalism/profit motive is necessary, leftist economic schemes don't work. They can't use their own methods to make any money because it doesn't work. They'll sit about and complain that their system of justice can't exist side by side with a system of exploitation and that's why the current system needs to be destroyed first- they'll "seize the assets available to them and create a just system with it" yadda yadda yadda. Snake oil salesmen.
Also, that bit you mentioned about the brain surgeon having to spend a certain amount of time cleaning toilets everyday- is that referred to as "participatory economics"? I heard that one mentioned at DemUnderground but the other lefties shot it down pretty effectively before many specifics were posted. If the leftist extremists can't even get other lefties to think a thing is good- I don't see much hope in it.
Do you have a link to more on this economic scheme? I'd like to find out a little more about it. It seemed to hinge around letting the janitor spend a certain amount of time every day in a management slot so he would feel "empowered". If you have a link I would appreciate it.
That should be an essay type question on the driver's liscence exam. The applicant would read about participatory economics and then be asked if he/she thought that sounded like a workable system. If they answer yes they fail and aren't allowed to vote until they're in their thirties.
It's actually kind of humorous to read through that bilge and try to imagine a factory run effectively where every morning the workers sit down and discuss for a few hours what needs to get done and who's going to be doing it.
Personally, I have nothing against punk rock, but a suggestion to any FReeper who comes upon a ecoterror/anarchist event featuring an electric band as entertainment, find a way to cut off their power source and watch the fun as they run around trying to figure out what happened.
I speak from experience. Hehehe!
Not only an oxymoron statement, but they are confused morons.
Out here in Kali we have a pending legislative bill on Fascist Davis's desk, that is anti SUV and Pickup trucks just to raise money for the tax and spend socialists/communists for their dark side voting cults.
I can't believe the confused so called conservatives who are for this Nazi anti SUV bill in the name of the enviroment and their hatred of SUV's.
Some are actually for the Kyota Proposal which would kill American Capitalism.
It is a disease, the enviral infectious virus disease that destroys the CNS capability of moderates and conservatives when infected with the enviral virus.
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