This month, for Book Club, we’re reading Green is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege by Will Potter. It is about how environmental and animal rights activists have been now labeled terrorists by the US (and also the Canadian) governments. If you are labeled a terrorist, your First Amendment rights may no longer apply. This is reminiscent of the Red Scare in the US, first from 1919–1921 and then again 1947–1954.
Potter fills the book with chilling statistics and facts, interspersed with the story of the Operation Backfire defendants.
The Green is the New Red left me both sad and angry. It’s hard to express how worrying it is that government bodies side with corporations instead of protecting the land, animals and people. THINGS (buildings, bulldozers, trucks etc.) are more important and even expressing that you don’t agree with that can mean being labeled a terrorist and put in jail.
I also watched the documentary If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front. The doc follows Daniel McGowan, one of the Operation Backfire defendants while he is on house arrest. It tells the story of how he came to be a member of an ELF cell and the events that happened that lead to their arrest. After watching it and reading the book, I’ve made the decision to show more support for eco and AR political prisoners and will start writing letters to some of them. I’d also like to send a book or two because it must be so utterly boring in there.
Have you read Green is the New Red? Have you see the doc? Any thoughts you’d like to share?
