Rolling Thunder Preview: “Green Scared?”

February 22, 2008 at 10:24 pm · Filed under Read All About It, posted by b. traven

To our great pleasure and relief, the long-delayed fifth issue of Rolling Thunder will be arriving from the printer this coming week. In conjunction with this new issue, we present a new feature, a painstakingly researched analysis of the recent wave of federal repression against anarchists and environmentalists: “Green Scared? Preliminary Lessons of the Green Scare.”

The past three years have seen an unprecedented mobilization by the FBI against environmental activists, collectively known as the Green Scare, just as the severity of the ecological crisis brought about by industrial capitalism finally enters public consciousness. Who are the FBI targeting with this campaign? To what end, and with what results? What lessons can anarchists, environmentalists, and other freedom fighters derive from this phase of repression and resistance as it draws to a close?

An expanded version of this text appears in the new Rolling Thunder. We also direct readers to Briana Waters’ trial, at which a new chapter of the Green Scare is unfolding right now. Briana deserves all the support our community can muster.

xdx said,

February 23, 2008 @ 5:29 pm

‘The Warrior Wind’ #3 came out right about the time of the main green scare sentencings and offers another analysis on this wave of repression:

http://www.impassionedinsurrection.info/pamphlets/warriorwind3.pdf

Another should hopefully come out at the end of Briana’s trial.

b. traven said,

March 5, 2008 @ 1:34 am

Speaking of the disadvantages of snitching, here’s a comment and news article someone sent in:

It seems like the snitches (like Billy Cottrell
http://www.lacitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/?IssueNum=79&id=1451) get worse treatment in prison than those who don’t snitch. I don’t want to complain about that, but I am a little concerned about the precedent being set when eco-saboteurs are treated worse than murders.

Vail arsonist in high-security Texas lockup

The former Earth Liberation Front member convicted of setting fire to eight buildings atop Vail Mountain is serving time in a maximum security prison in Texas, where her family says she has not been allowed to leave her cell.

Chelsea Gerlach, 30, was sentenced last year to nine years in prison. She is not expected to be released until 2013. Gerlach’s family said she was placed in a high-security section of the prison because government prosecutors considered the ELF members “eco-terrorists.”

Gerlach was one of 11 members of an ELF cell known as “The Family” who were indicted in 2005. The group was accused of 20 arsons across a five-state area, primarily in the Northwest.

Gerlach, an Oregon native, admitted she helped fellow ELF member William Rodgers set the fires at Vail to protest expansion of the ski area.

Authorities say Rodgers killed himself in prison after he was arrested.

Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News

In Colorado

Earth Liberation Front related actitities in Colorado:

* 1998: Arsonists ignite seven fires atop Vail Mountain, causing $12 million in damages. ELF claims responsibility in an e-mail, saying the fires were a protest over the resort’s expansion into lynx habitat.

* 2000: Boulder Earth Liberation Front claims responsibility for setting fire to a 8,500-square-foot, $2.4 million luxury house under construction near Niwot.

* 2002: A group claiming to be ELF threatens to destroy the town of Winter Park’s two $1.25 million underground water storage tanks.

* 2007: Firebombs are placed under seven SUVs in the Cherry Creek and Lowry neighborhoods. The devices are replicas of bombs shown on ELF’s Web site and the letters ELF were written on a Hummer H2.

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