Dgr-Writing-&Amp;-Analysis

The Castle Rock Prairie Dogs are Gone: Open Letter from an Exile By Jennifer Murnan, DGR Colorado I wore this shirt, long-sleeved, multi-patterned, funky, well tailored hand-me-down for almost every day I worked on the prairie dog relocation at the “Promenade” site in Castle Rock Colorado. The “Promenade” site was only that in the avaricious life-sucking minds of the capitalist pig developers. The “site” was really a scrap of prairie community, a last survivor already lacerated by monstrous earth movers, surrounded by apartments, highway, box stores, a mall, parking lots—anti-life. ...

Railroad ties are leeching contaminants and toxins into the environment: Link: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/bnsf-railway-fined-for-treated-railroad-ties-in-water/ – Lierre Keith, Deep Green Resistance co-founder, recently wrote one of the most powerful articles that we have read in a long, long time. Her piece, titled The Girls and the Grasses, is like poetry. We invite you to read it here: Link: http://dgrnewsservice.org/2015/08/25/lierre-keith-the-girls-and-the-grasses/ – Stephen Corry, the director of Survival International writes about the colonial and racist origins of the “conservation” movement. His organization helps push an alternate perspective. ...

Will Falk is a Deep Green Resistance member who has spent much of the past year assisting indigenous resistance movements at the Unist’ot’en Camp and, more recently, on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. In this article, he speaks to the dangerous powers that come from the science of the dominant culture (civilization). Many view the debate surrounding the Thirty Meter Telescope’s proposed construction on Mauna Kea and Kanaka Maolis’ opposition to it as fundamentally a question of science versus culture. On the benign end, the word “science” has come to connote something close to cool and objective rationality – nothing more nor less than a collection of knowledge to be used in man’s (isn’t it always “man’s”?) noble aim to transcend nature. More malevolently, however, pitting science against indigenous culture is nothing more than insidious racism. This racism operates on the often unchallenged claim that science is an inherently western way of knowing and therefore superior to indigenous ways of knowing. ...

This article, by Deep Green Resistance member Mary Lou Singleton, was recently published on Counterpunch. It deals with the topic of gender: a controversial subject that has led to DGR members being deplatformed, blacklisted, and threatened. But the hype is just that. As this post demonstrates, gender-critical positions are compassionate and have roots in a material analysis of feminism and patriarchy.

The great musician Lauren Hill once said, “Fantasy is what people want but reality is what they need.” And the reality is that the climate movement is failing. See this graph? That’s a measure of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere from 2005 to mid-2015. The trend is up. That means we’re losing. Until that trend is heading steeply in the other direction, we’re in trouble. ...

Defending Wildlife in Colorado The DGR Southwest Coalition recently held their annual Southwest Gathering, sharing skills & good food, and engaging in many discussions & strategy sessions. As part of the gathering, Deanna Meyer of Deep Green Resistance Colorado joined Brian Ertz of Wildlands Defense to discuss their recent campaign against a Castle Rock mega-mall development. We’ve reported here a little bit on the struggle, and are excited to share this video of Meyer and Ertz describing the campaign in more detail. ...

Today we’re excited to bring you part 3 of a lengthy interview with Michael Carter, a Utah resident and longtime DGR member who was convicted for acts of eco-sabotage in the 1990’s. You can read the first installments: part I, and part II on the DGR News Service website. But first, a few photos from our recent outdoor skills workshop (and yes, that is a bear footprint). I n 1993 Michael Carter was arrested and indicted for underground environmental activism. Since then he’s worked aboveground, fighting timber sales and oil and gas leasing, protecting endangered species, and more. Today, he’s a member of Deep Green Resistance Colorado Plateau, and author of the memoir Kingfishers’ Song: Memories Against Civilization. Time is Short spoke with him about his actions, underground resistance, and the prospects and problems facing the environmental movement. Time is Short: You mentioned some problems of radical groups—lack of respect for women and lack of a strategy. Could you expand on that? ...

what do we do when mass movements fail? Here in Seattle, we’ve been participating in and supporting the #sHellNO actions against the Arctic Drilling rig, Polar Pioneer, that has been parked at the Port of Seattle for weeks. As of yesterday morning, the rig is finally on the move, heading north on it’s way to the Arctic. Two dozen kayakers were detained and cited yesterday for attempting to interdict the rig, adding to the tally of arrests and fines incurred in the direct action. ...

This article by our friend Dominique Christina speaks powerfully to the issues of racism and police violence against black people and other people of color in the United States. – It is difficult to be radical in Denver. We are so privileged here. There’s a Starbucks and a Whole Foods on every corner; and dog parks and community gardens and it’s all so…seductive. It has an almost soporific effect. One can be lulled right to sleep by the idyllic snow-capped mountains and trendy cafes that suggest there is no crisis here. Our hoods aren’t like hoods in Chicago, Detroit, Jersey, parts of New York, New Orleans, St. Louis…Baltimore. No gritty crime drama about the drug trade and the alarmingly high homicide rates in the inner city could ever be filmed here. We are a little too deft with our trash pickups and our gentrification. Let me start near the beginning. ...

Editor’s Note: An early version of this interview first appeared on the Deep Green Resistance News Service, June 20, 2013. In 1993 Michael Carter was arrested and indicted for underground environmental activism. Since then he’s worked aboveground, fighting timber sales and oil and gas leasing, protecting endangered species, and more. Today, he’s a member of Deep Green Resistance Colorado Plateau, and author of the memoir Kingfishers’ Song: Memories Against Civilization. Time is Short spoke with him about his actions, underground resistance, and the prospects and problems facing the environmental movement. The first part of this interview is available here, and Part III here. ...