[Ppnews] Protection of Wealth or Protection of People?

[Political Prisoner News]

Protection of Wealth or Protection of People?: Biodiversity Ain't 
Even on the Radar Screen
by Karen Pickett
from the Earth First! Journal May-June 2006

When the FBI announced in 2004 that the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) 
was its number one priority for domestic terrorism, it was clear the 
government would ultimately produce warm bodies to shore up this 
illogical prioritization. A difference between the current 
criminalization of dissent and past COINTELPRO operations is revealed 
in the drive to put property damage on par with injury to life.

Galloping in to help the FBI is the business lobby, represented by 
groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a 
conservative public policy lobbying organization funded by more than 
300 corporations. ALEC, in collaboration with the US Sportsman's 
Alliance, has written model legislation upping the ante for action 
taken against corporations in the business of development, logging, 
mining and vivisection. Thanks to ALEC, legislation has been 
introduced in nine states in the last couple of years seeking to 
brand politically motivated property destruction, trespass or arson 
as acts of domestic terrorism.

Of course, arson, trespass and vandalism are already illegal, but 
ALEC wants to add codified layers so that those who support those 
activities-financially or otherwise-could also be prosecuted. The 
terrorist label, addition of conspiracy charges and aggressive public 
relations surrounding the grand jury indictments (like the 
Washington, DC press conference with Attorney General Alberto 
Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller on January 20) are meant to 
marginalize and vilify people already facing criminal charges and to 
enhance sentencing options. This effectively denies the accused their 
right to a presumption of innocence until a trial, thanks to the 
Bush-crafted culture of fear.

Branding property destruction as terrorism rather than sabotage 
heightens the sensationalism surrounding this politically charged 
situation, and it is designed to send potential support running in 
the opposite direction. The authorities even call those arrested "The 
Family" in an undisguised attempt to evoke images of the notorious 
Manson Family. But the Manson Family were cold-blooded murderers.

There's no body count or bloodletting connected with the alleged ELF 
actions. Yet those actions are called "terrorism" even as violent 
attacks by right-wing militants have gone unprosecuted-7,400 hate 
crimes motivated by race, ethnic, religious or sexual orientation, 
according to the FBI's own 2003 statistics. The National Abortion 
Rights Organization cites seven murders, 17 attempted murders, 41 
bombings, 100 acid attacks and 655 anthrax threats, in addition to 
literally thousands of incidents of kidnapping, burglary and stalking 
over the last 25 years. And burning SUV tires and a horse corral is 
terrorism? "You betcha," say ALEC and the FBI because it's corporate 
property-sacrosanct in the capitalist US.

Criminalization of dissent has long been within the purview of the 
FBI, but the agenda flying under the radar screen is the protection 
of wealth and private property. ALEC would put damage to property on 
par with threat or actual harm to life. Nowhere in the FBI's 
demonization of these acts it calls "terrorism" is a body count or 
even a litany of injuries. The "injury" is defined in millions of 
dollars lost by corporations that are in the business of building 
multi-million-dollar developments on endangered species habitat.

If property destruction is put on par with threat to life, the 
question must be asked whether the next step will be increased 
prosecution for the revered tradition of nonviolent civil 
disobedience or vilification of the successful market campaigns 
carried out by the likes of Rainforest Action Network and 
ForestEthics. After all, those activities, as well as boycotts and 
strikes, put a dent in the bottom line of profit margins. In fact, 
attacks disguised as Internal Revenue Service investigations and 
other back-door strategies are already on the rise against 
organizations that carry out civil disobedience and market campaigns.

A bill before the governor of Pennsylvania right now makes terrorists 
out of those arrested for civil disobedience and increases penalties 
for actions that interfere with resource extraction, agricultural 
research or animal experimentation. A similar bill is under 
consideration in Maine's state legislature.

"Ecoterrorism," a term trumpeted in the media, was invented in the 
early 1990s by the public relations firm Hill and Knowlton, while 
employed by corporations in the extractive industries. It was then 
put into popular use by right-wing ideologues like Ron Arnold, long 
known as a vehement anti-environmentalist whose self-professed goal 
is to destroy the environmental movement. Property destruction is 
sabotage, not terrorism. Dump "ecoterrorism" from the vernacular. 
Ecological terrorism is perpetrated by the likes of ExxonMobil, 
Monsanto, Louisiana-Pacific and Union Carbide. Seize the moment. 
Seize the language.

Karen Pickett is the director of the Bay Area Coalition for 
Headwaters. She has been an EF! activist since the early 1980s.

The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
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