Earth First! Journal: “They’re Trying to Stop the Next Standing Rock”

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In this episode, we talk with someone from the long running Earth First! Journal, a magazine that chronicles the radical environmental movement in the US and abroad. In August of this year, the Earth First! movement, which has no official membership or leaders, was sued after a lawsuit was mailed to the Earth First! Journal along with Greenpeace and several other entities by a law firm favorited by the Trump administration and representing Energy Transfer Partners, one of the major players within the Dakota Access Pipeline. This lawsuit is only the latest in a series of lawsuits against environmental groups that seeks to tie organizers up in court for months and cost them thousands of dollars in legal fees, despite ever leading to anyone being prosecuted.

In this new and even more outlandish lawsuit, it claims that various environmental groups were involved in a vast “underground conspiracy” named “the Enterprise” and are accused of everything from misleading the public about climate change to carrying out “eco-terrorism.” It even went so far as to state that Earth First! gave $500,000 to “violent, eco-terrorist infiltrators,” and moreover, that Earth First! started an illegal drug ring to bring funds.

While many expect this lawsuit to be thrown out like similar ones, along with the recent J20 case, it does point towards a drive by the State and corporations to launch conspiracy charges against grassroots, horizontally organized, and autonomous social networks and movements. As our guest explains, these tactics are designed to attack “the next Standing Rock,” as pipeline battles across the US are kicked into high gear.

More Info: Earth First! Newswire and background article.

Music: Klee Benally “Fire to the Cages“