Joanna Macy Editor’s Note: this post comes from DGR Seattle member Karen Fite, who is a longtime activist and community organizer. Here, she responds to a thoughtful article by our friend Dahr Jamail, a talented journalist who came to prominence for his un-embedded reporting on the Iraq war and now focuses on climate collapse. – I read this article for the first time awhile ago. I just read it again and it speaks to my condition at this time. ...
This past weekend, we hosted a shelter-building workshop to work on outdoor skills, grow our connection to Earth, and build community. It was a small event but we had a great time. The photo here shows what we built at the base of a mother Cedar tree. – Editorial note: this poem by our good friend and fellow DGR member William Falk is about the drought affecting California — but Washington State has just experienced it’s warmed winter on record, and now more than half of the state is experiencing official drought conditions. ...
by Bob Doublin, Deep Green Resistance Seattle Here in Seattle, the lilacs bloomed in March this year. I saw three or four bushes full of flowers this past Wednesday and Thursday. That was April 1 and 2 but it clearly took a few days to look like that. Normally it’s the third or fourth week of April. And then Friday morning as I walked to get breakfast, I noticed that hawthorn trees had tons of flower buds all over them.They were fully formed and ready to burst into bloom; some already had into fully formed flowers. Normally, it’s the second or third week in May before this happens. ...
Editors note: this interview with our dear friend and fellow DGR member Kourtney Mitchell was recently featured in Counterpunch. by VINCENT EMANUELE Kourtney Mitchell is a writer and activist currently living in northeast Georgia, United States. He sits on the steering committee for Deep Green Resistance and the national board of directors for Veterans for Peace. Co-author of The Enemy in Blue: The Renatta Frazier Story, he has been involved in social justice activism for eight years. Kourtney is currently AWOL from the Georgia Army National Guard. ...
Crowdsourcing Repression Let’s Be Honest Despite the seeming popularity of environmental and social justice work in the modern world, we’re not winning. We’re losing. In fact, we’re losing really badly.1 ...
Unist’ot’en Camp, January 2015 Night sky over the Wedzin Kwah, unist’ot’en camp, in love with the land The storm enveloped us. Snow lashed the road. The darkness was total, our headlights casting weak yellow beams into the darkness. Most people had hunkered down in homes and motels, and the roads were near empty. Still, every few minutes a passing truck threw a blinding cloud of dry snow into the air, leaving us blind for seconds at a time as we hurtled onwards at the fastest speeds we could manage. ...
A good friend recently reminded me that there is a big difference between activism and organizing. Activism is to be involved at some level in political struggle; organizing is to make that struggle effective by planning for success. Organizing requires attention to the smallest details and the broadest overview. It takes a great deal of strategic thinking, critical self-evaluation, people skills, and persistence. Organizing is hard. None of us are born with the skills needed for effective organizing; we have to pick them up as we go. All we have is us, and so many of us are tied up with families, jobs, and other responsibilities. But if we’re going to win struggles for social and environmental justice, we need more organizers. ...
Earth at Risk This past weekend in San Francisco, an event called Earth at Risk: The Justice and Sustainability Conference was held. It brought together feminists, indigenous peoples, anti-war activists, anti-racists, and others. The event, headlined by Derrick Jensen, Vandana Shiva, Chris Hedges, and Alice Walker, united a disparate set of movements acting in solidarity with one another. Earth at Risk was a huge success. Deep Green Resistance was there, tabling in the lobby and represented by several people on the stage. This event may be the beginning of something big. Stay tuned. ...
Rural indigenous communities, ranchers, farmers, and environmentalists have all come together in Eastern Nevada to fight a water grab orchestrated by greedy developers in Las Vegas. Deep Green Resistance (including members of the Seattle chapter) are involved in the fight. Learn more about their efforts here: http://dgrnewsservice.org/2014/09/21/report-back-from-the-sacred-water-tour/
The Deep Green Resistance News Service is the informational wing of Deep Green Resistance, and publishes original essays, videos, interviews, radio, and commentary as well as republishing notable news from other resistance and justice-oriented communities. Follow the DGR News Service to stay updated on resistance to oppression around the world. http://dgrnewsservice.org/