Monthly Archives: March 2012

Derrick Jensen speaking event in Madison, WI (4/17)

Poster: distribute!

Our planet is under serious threat from industrial civilization. Yet activists are not considering strategies that might actually prevent the looming biotic collapse the Earth is facing. We need to deprive the rich of their ability to steal from the poor and the powerful of their ability to destroy the planet. We need a serious resistance movement that includes all levels of direct action–action that can match the scale of the problem.

Writer and activist Derrick Jensen has been discussing the inherent destructiveness of industrial civilization and urgently calling for resistance against it for decades. Derrick is the acclaimed author of fifteen books, including A Language Older Than Words, The Culture of Make Believe, Endgame, and Deep Green Resistance, a book, co-authored with Lierre Keith and Aric McBay, which inspired the formation of a movement by the same name. Author, teacher, activist, small farmer and leading voice of uncompromising dissent, he has been hailed as the philosopher poet of the environmental movement.

We are pleased to host Derrick Jensen for a public speaking event on “Civilization and Resistance,” with a Q&A session after the talk. Please join us for this exciting opportunity at the University of Wisconsin’s Varsity Hall (inside Union South), located at 1308 W. Dayton Street in Madison, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, April 17th starting at 6:00 p.m.  This is a free event and is sponsored by Deep Green Resistance Wisconsin, UW Society & Politics, Distinguished Lecture Series, and The Madison Infoshop.

Derrick will speak to the following questions during his talk:

  • How do I know civilization is not redeemable? Why does industrial civilization need to be dismantled?
  • Do you think our advanced society has the capability to find technological solutions to the energy and resource problems facing us?
  • If Industrial Civilization is dismantled, what about people who live in cities or rely on it for their subsistence or medical needs? What makes you think that a small group of people have the right to bring down an entire system that will result in countless deaths?
  • The dismantling of civilization would be a violent act, and violence is never the answer. Ghandi was a pacifist that led a successful revolution, so couldn’t a nonviolent movement of the masses put enough pressure on those in power to transform our society?
  • I am skeptical that any actions I take will be useful towards bringing down civilization.  Why should I take large-scale direct action against the system when almost nobody else, especially in the first world, is?

Late March Report

By Ben Cutbank, Coordinator of Deep Green Resistance Wisconsin

Now at the end of March 2012, Deep Green Resistance (DGR) Wisconsin is looking forward to a lot of major happenings in our area and involving our Action Group.

Over the horizon are many events that we have helped to plan, including: two Occupy the Machine events with a member of the OTM Coalition, the weekend-long International DGR Members’ Conference, a music show with Big Dudee Roo and Thistle in the middle of the aforementioned conference, and a speaking event with Derrick Jensen.

In addition, members of DGR Wisconsin are working within the Occupy the Machine Coalition, as it plans it’s first action, which involves blockading an oil refinery in Houston, TX, happening in mid-to-late April of this year.

Our group does have much to look forward to, but also are not without reasons to celebrate.

T-shirts with our logo have now been printed and distributed among members. It took the effort of multiple people involved in Deep Green Resistance to make this happen: An International Volunteer drew the logo, I designed what would be printed, a member bought t-shirts, and the Co-Coordinator found a sympathetic friend to print them for us. The end product looks great and gives us a way to identify our involvement in the group at events and other gatherings.

Members of DGR Wisconsin had the opportunity to do just that at a fundraiser event that happened on Sunday, March 25th at the High Noon Saloon, in Madison, WI. The Co-Coordinator of the group, with the help of other members, set up the event which included well-known jazz bands, raffle prizes from local business, and time for us to speak about our group and provide literature to at least forty people. The photos included here were taken at the event.

With all of the activity here in Wisconsin, we’d love to recruit more members to join our DGR Action Group and take part. For all who are interested, you are invited to contact our Recruitment Officer via e-mail, here.

In love and resistance, the time to act is now.

Music Show Fundraiser for DGR Conference (3/31)

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In March of this year, members of the new radical environmental movement, Deep Green Resistance, will be coming from around the world for a weekend gathering. Throughout this weekend, the group will participate in exercises, listen to talks, and share ideas, for the purpose of strengthening the community within DGR and the movement itself. The goal of Deep Green Resistance is to deprive the powerful of their ability to steal from the poor and destroy the planet. This conference will be a major step in helping the movement continue to grow towards that goal.

To help fund this conference, musicians Big Dudee Roo and Thistle will be playing a benefit music show on Saturday, March 31st at 8:00pm. The event is happening at Candlelight Collective, located at 258 N. Main St. (Lower) West Bend, WI.

Both music groups play music that is aligned with the core values of the Deep Green Resistance movement, encompassing themes of resisting the dominant culture’s ideologies and structures, deeper connection with other humans and the natural world, feminism,  and social justice.

This event is sponsored by Deep Green Resistance Wisconsin.

Fundraiser Event at High Noon Saloon in Madison (3/25)

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Join us for a Deep Green Resistance fundraiser event on March 25th, 2012, beginning at 7:00pm, at the High Noon Salon in Madison, WI, located at 701 A E. Washington Avenue.

The event will include musical acts by: Harmonious Wail, Lovely Socialite Mrs. Thomas W. Phipps, and Arp of the Covenant.

In addition, there will be prizes raffled off including: Two tickets to Gypsy Swing Fest, a one-on-one acupuncture session, and dinner for two at the Weary Traveler.

There is an $8 cover charge for this event. All funds go towards the Deep Green Resistance movement and its Wisconsin chapter.

Deep Green Resistance (DGR) is an analysis, a strategy, and a movement being born—the only movement of its kind. The goal of DGR is to deprive the rich of their ability to steal from the poor and the powerful of their ability to destroy the planet. This will require defending and rebuilding just and sustainable human communities nestled inside repaired and restored landbases. This is a vast undertaking but it needs to be said: it can be done. Industrial civilization can be stopped. With around 20 chapters internationally and a one-of-a-kind campaign over the horizon, the Deep Green Resistance movement is growing and needs your support in funding the resistance.

Coalition Intends to Sue EPA for Failure to Enforce Clean Water Act at Power Plant

 

from Milwaukee Riverkeeper

Yesterday, the Cleaner Valley Coalition, of which Milwaukee Riverkeeper is a member, called on the EPA to take stronger steps to clean up pollution at the We Energies Menomonee Valley coal-fired power plant.

Two members of the Coalition – the Sierra Club and its attorneys, Midwest Environmental Advocates (MEA), filed a Notice of Intent to Sue the EPA for failing to comply with its duty to ensure that a new water pollution permit is issued for the plant.

The Valley power plant has been operating with an expired water permit since 1987; the expired permit fails to include standards necessary to protect fish and aquatic life and recreation in the Menomonee River. As detailed in a report from the Sierra Club, it is estimated that billions of fish and other aquatic organisms are killed each year by water-intake systems on outdated power plants, including coal-fired power plants like the one in the Valley. Water-intake systems suck in water to cool the power plant, then spew hot water back out into local waterways.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) has been working to revise the permit for years (the Valley’s permit is the longest expired water permit in the country). Milwaukee Riverkeeper and the Cleaner Valley Coalition believe the delay has been way too long.

If the WDNR does not issue a permit in the next few months to address the threat to our waters, then EPA should take immediate action. The EPA has 60 days to respond to the NOI. If it does not respond, or fails to take necessary action during this period, Sierra Club and MEA can proceed to file a lawsuit in United States District Court.

To read the full press release and article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel click here.

Dow and Monsanto Set to Team Up to Reintroduce Agent Orange Pesticide in the MidWest

from http://earthfirstnews.wordpress.com/

Cross Posted from Op Ed News

In a match that some would say was made in hell, the nation’s two leading producers of agro-chemicals have joined forces in a partnership to reintroduce the use of the herbicide 2, 4-D, one half of the infamous defoliant Agent Orange, which was used by American forces to clear jungle during the Vietnam War. These two biotech giants have developed a weed management program that, if successful, would go a long way toward a predicted doubling of harmful herbicide use in America’s corn belt during the next decade.

The problem for corn farmers is that “superweeds” have been developing resistance to America’s best-selling herbicide Roundup, which is being sprayed on millions of acres in the Midwest and elsewhere. Dow Agrosciences has developed a strain of corn that it says will solve the problem. The new genetically modified variety can tolerate 2, 4-D, which will kill off the Roundup resistant weeds, but leave the corn standing. Farmers who opt into this system will be required to double-dose their fields with a deadly cocktail of Roundup plus 2, 4-D, both of which are manufactured by Monsanto. Continue reading