Militant Action Against Extraction
Informational event at the Santa Barbara Eastside Library.
Featuring a live video appearance by the author and activist Derrick Jensen.

Schedule:
1PM-4PM — Presentations by local members of Deep Green Resistance, with Q&A
4PM-6PM — Derrick Jensen: Live video Q&A

Derrick Jensen is an award-winning author and has been described as “the
poet-philosopher of the ecological movement.” Derrick has written for
Orion, Audubon, and The Sun Magazine, among many others. His most recent
book, The Myth of Human Supremacy, debunks the near-universal belief in
a hierarchy of nature and the superiority of humans. Derrick’s radio
program, Resistance Radio, features some of the most visionary
activists, authors, and others such as Chris Hedges, Ann Jones,
Jeannette Armstrong, Tom Butler, Kathleen Dean Moore, Mike Mease, and
more. He has also written 20 books about stopping this culture from
killing the planet.

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Mainstream environmentalism has not been effective in stopping fossil
fuels or any other extractive industries. Despite over 50 years of
environmental activism in this country, we are experiencing the sixth
mass extinction, global climate change, widespread pollution, total
ocean acidification, and more–all directly caused by human activity. In
a situation of life and death, shouldn’t we do everything we can to
survive? Come learn about our analysis, strategy, and tactics for
stopping the destruction and exploitation of life on Earth.

This event is free and open to the public.

From safeenergynow.org:

“Dear Santa Barbara County Supervisors,

I urge Santa Barbara County to deny the three oil projects, totaling 750 new wells, proposed by ERG, AERA, and Petro Rock. These projects would drill through Santa Maria Groundwater Basin, the largest aquifer in the county, and use cyclic steam injection, which causes 4x as much air pollution as traditional drilling, and has a very high well casing failure and spill rate. These projects will turn water into toxic waste, which can contaminate local water and is difficult to dispose of safely, threaten endangered species, and would involve clear-cutting 500 mature oak trees. To read more about the projects, click here.”

Sign the petition here: http://www.safeenergynow.org/help_stop_750_new_extreme_oil_wells.

The fifth meeting of the DGR Santa Barbara book club was held on Sunday, September 10th at the Santa Barbara Eastside Library. We discussed chapters 7 through 11 of Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet.

The discussion began by investigating approaches to unite environmentalists in effective action. The corporate PR campaign for “green” energy has co-opted the environmental movement; instead of fighting to save the planet and its inhabitants, many environmentalists with good intentions have been seduced into lobbying for industrial technologies that perpetuate a global system of extraction and exploitation. One person presented the idea that we might be more efficient in forming coalitions if we focus on organizing around anti-fossil fuel efforts because most people can agree on that. In the long run, anti-fossil fuel actions will be anti-industry (i.e. wind energy, solar energy, etc.) as industry depends on fossil fuels for extraction, global shipping, manufacturing, and construction.

We also talked about increasing the effectiveness of local movements. A long-time Santa Barbara activist explained that although Santa Barbara might appear progressive to outsiders, the city is actually governed by powerful real-estate and oil production corporate interests. Although these institutions have way more money and influence than any grassroots organization, locals have been able to make an impact through several tactics:
1) Crowds of people in the streets scares those in power.
2) Hounding politicians at City Council meetings and other settings where working-class interests are not properly represented disrupts business as usual in favor of our community.
3) Bad publicity for and spotlighting questionable behavior of local politicians influences them to act like decent human beings.

Contemporary media outlets have transformed the public’s view of “radical” politics to be extremist, but this simply isn’t the case. The true definition of the word radical is simply getting to the root of the issue. In practice, this means it is not enough to treat the symptoms; we need to identify and target the source of power for oppressive systems. As we discussed at the meeting, this almost always means that dismantling systems of exploitation will be uphill battles because the disparity in social power between intersecting social classes of people is enormous, and it is only growing. Therefore, we must use a variety of tactics that best suit our situation. The dogmatic belief that actions in and of themselves are good or bad is crippling to political movements.

The meeting concluded with sharing stories about horizontal hostility (when those within the same social class waste energy fighting each other instead of their common oppressor class). This is a widespread problem in the Santa Barbara area. A few attendees shared their firsthand experiences with backbiting during their years in Santa Barbara. Whatever the exact cause for such hostilities, whether it be competing egos, defensive posturing, or quick tempers, the effects are detrimental to activists who work to create material change in their communities.

The fourth meeting of the DGR Santa Barbara book club was held on Saturday, August 19th at the Santa Barbara Eastside Library.  We discussed chapters 5 & 6 of Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet.  The following questions were posed before the meeting to inspire discussion:

1) Do you agree with the 4 points preceding the sections entitled “Tilters, Descenders, Lifers”? Why or why not?
2) In your opinion, what are the important takeaways from the “Tilters, Descenders, Lifers” section?
3) How did the “Taxonomy of Action” chart affect how you think about political action and strategy, if at all?
4) What was your favorite part of the reading?

Everyone at the meeting agreed with the four points at the beginning of Chapter 5: in order to avoid ecological catastrophe, the burning of fossil fuels has to stop, all activities that destroy living communities must forever cease, human consumption must be scaled back, and the human population must be reduced. The discussion reflected on how the last two points might be hard to digest for many people given the dominant paradigm, especially considering how efforts to thwart overpopulation are so closely associated with violent totalitarian regimes.

The discussion continued with people sharing their conclusions about Tilters, Descenders, and Lifers. All three groups focus on preserving privilege rather than human rights and a liveable planet, and any solution produced by the three groups actually only makes things worse mostly through propagating extraction, hoarding resources, and obstructing efforts to directly confront systems of power. We shouldn’t protect systems of power that destroy the planet; we should dismantle them.

The Taxonomy of Action chart displays a list of actions according to the inverse relationship between how risky an action is and how many people are required to complete it. It is completely factual and absent of assigned values. For this reason, the chart acts as a great preliminary guide to planning political actions. The discussion at this point focused on the participants’ perspectives of violent and nonviolent actions, and how these are defined. Acts of sabotage against pipelines sparked discussion on the effectiveness of one action versus a series of actions, and what an effective reaction by authority figures might look like.

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