Deep Green Resistance Blog

New Book Featuring Deep Green Resistance Authors: The (Un)OccupyMovement

A new book, compiled and edited by Mankh (Walter E. Harris III), features contributions from Deep Green Resistance authors Aric McBay, Lierre Keith, and Derrick Jensen. The book is called The (Un)Occupy Movement: Anatomy of Conscousness, Practical Solutions, Human Equality. Prose and Poetry, and you can order copies here.

Excerpt from the book’s introduction:

As the title suggests, there is an “Occupy Movement” (begun with Occupy Wall Street) that has stirred the so-called American melting pot from its backburner state. Suddenly, things are cooking and more and more People are getting a whiff of the spirited air. Yet, from the perspective of the First Nations or Natives, the land has been unjustly occupied since 1492. Indigenous Peoples around the globe are dealing with similar issues. Hence, “Unoccupy Movement.”

Read a review of the book here.

New Study: Current Climate Change Models Underestimate Rate and Severity of Species Extinction

Mark Urban, lead author of a new study about the effects of climate change on plants and animals, under one of many ice sheets threatened by a warming environment

Excerpt:

Plenty of experimental studies have shown that species are already moving in response to climate change, says [Mark] Urban, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut. For example, as temperatures rise over time, animals and plants that can’t take the heat are moving to higher altitudes where temperatures are cooler.

But not all species can disperse fast enough to get to these more suitable places before they die off, Urban says. And if they do make it to these better habitats, they may be out-competed by the species that are already there — or the ones that got there first.

Read whole article here.

You Don’t Have to Reinvent the Wheel- What Occupy Can Learn from the Populists

Introspection, retrospection, and learning from past movements like the Populists of the late 19th century could propel the Occupy Movement to new heights. Some strategic framework based on the lessons of history could open a world of possibilities, but the movement must first begin to challenge some of the patterns and assumptions that have defined it thus far.

Occupy Albany protesters moving their info tent
as they’re evicted on December 22, 2011

Reposted from Truthout

Excerpt from article by Ashley Sanders:

…[T]he Populists came within an inch of changing the entire corporate-capitalist system. They wanted a totally new world, and they had a plan to get it. But as you may have noticed, they didn’t. And now here we are, one hundred years later, occupying parks where fields once stood. We’re at a crucial phase in our movement, standing just now with the great Everything around us—everything to win or everything to lose. It’s our choice. And that’s good, because the choices we make next will echo, not just for scholars and bored kids in history class, but in the lives we do or don’t get to have. The good news is this: the Populists traveled in wagons and left us their wheels. We don’t have to reinvent them. We’re going in a new direction, but I have a feeling they can help us get there.

Occupy has done a lot of things right, and even more things beautifully. But strategy has not been our forte. That was okay at first, even good. We didn’t have one demand, because we wanted it all. So we let our anger grow, and our imagination with it. We were not partisan or monogamous to one creed. That ranging anger got 35,000 people on the Brooklyn Bridge after the Wall Street eviction, and hell if I’m not saying hallelujah. But winter is settling now, and cops are on the march. Each week we face new eviction orders, and wonder how to occupy limbo.

It’s time for a plan, then, some idea for going forward. This plan should in no way replace the rhizomatic-glorious, joyful-rip-roarious verve of the movement so far. It can occur in tandem. But we need a blueprint for the future, because strategy is the road resistance walks to freedom.

Read whole article here.

Occupy the Machine – Stop the 1% Has Begun

Our Bodies Will Be Our Demand

Photo Credit: Not a DGR Action. Earth First and Rising Tide blockaded a gas-fired

power plant construction site in Palm Beach County, Florida in 2008.

Occupy the Machine is an ad hoc umbrella group using serious, sustained direct action campaigns to shut down major targets that destroy the land and exploit humans, permanently.

Sign up here to be notified when the target is announced.

Occupy the Machine has begun.

We are pleased to announce the Occupy the Machine US Speaking Tour! Learn more

Pass it on!

###

The Occupy Movement is beautiful. We support it and though we are small, we are participating all over the country. We invite all occupiers to read, give feedback, and if you feel moved to do so to present this at a General Assembly or committee meeting near you.

We invite you to imagine, as many of you already probably have, if thousands of people occupied local refineries, roads, ports, oil and mining extraction sites, etc. – in other words, imagine if people occupied the locations where the 1% destroy the land and exploit humans, all for profit.

Imagine their stock prices falling, their cash flow being interrupted, their ability to get loans and/or expand “production” – a euphemism for converting living beings into dead products – finished.

Imagine if we were able to stop them, stop the 1%. Literally. Not symbolically. We think it can be done if we all do it together. We think it can be done if we all figure out how to do it and if we are willing to make the necessary sacrifices, together.

Here’s one way we could start:

Though we are all part of the 99%, not all of us are impacted the same way.

First and foremost we recognize that nonindigenous people in the US are occupying stolen land in an ongoing genocide that has lasted for centuries.

We affirm our responsibility to stand with indigenous communities who want support, to risk our lives, and give everything we can to protect the land without which none of us have anything.

We also recognize and stand in solidarity with communities of people of color who are also disproportionately impacted by environmental racism, capitalism, and a system of white supremacy.

We recognize that women combat a system of sexism and patriarchy, and we commit to supporting the struggle for gender equality, which is the basis of equality for all.

Our focus will be to stand in solidarity with local indigenous communities, people of color communities, and women in struggle—ask if they would like support and what that support would look like, and share some version of this overall strategy.

Then, based on this information and in collaboration with local communities if all agree, each Occupy General Assembly would decide what they want to target. Or they would call on people to form local affinity groups and those groups would decide the local targets on which they would focus.

Many local affinity groups could conceivably attempt to occupy multiple targets. Strategically, however, it will likely be more successful if occupiers focus on one or two major targets – such as Tar Sands refineries, fracking, coal plants etc. The idea is that if we can successfully shut down a few major targets all over the country, one or two targets per region, people more broadly will see the power they all have and then more targets can be taken on.

To be clear, what we’re envisioning here would mean a massive escalation. It would mean hundreds of thousands of people all over the country leaving behind school, jobs, family, and comfort, to really go for it. To not settle for less than victory. To leave behind symbolic action for good.
Continue reading Occupy the Machine – Stop the 1% Has Begun

Deep Green Resistance Responds to Stratfor Intelligence Leaked byAnonymous that Reveals Spying on Occupy Movement and DGR

(View DGR press release.)

Internet group Anonymous has leaked information from October and November 2011 suggesting that private intelligence firm STRATFOR has been working with Texas law enforcement to infiltrate the Occupy movement and spy on the Deep Green Resistance movement.

In December 2011, Anonymous attacked the STRATFOR website, allegedly stealing 200 gigabytes of data and shutting the site down for weeks. This isn’t the first time Anonymous has gone after such corporations. In early 2011, Anonymous went after internet security firm HBGary, releasing private documents that included secret plans by HBGary and others to attack and discredit Wikileaks on behalf of big banks.

Photo Credit: Voice of Grey Hat

The information released by Anonymous is a partial “teaser” of the information taken from STRATFOR. It consists of emails in which STRATFOR employees discuss Occupy Austin, Deep Green Resistance Austin, and Deep Green Resistance in general. STRATFOR “Watch Officer” Marc Lanthemann writes about receiving information on Occupy Austin and DGR from a “Texas DPS agent.” The Texas Department of Public Safety is a statewide law enforcement agency that includes the Texas Rangers, Highway Patrol, and an Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division.

“Law enforcement sharing information about local activism with private intelligence firms should be a huge scandal,” writes Rachel Meeropol, staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “Privately funded surveillance and infiltration of activist groups is especially chilling, as time and again we see such corporations operate as if they are above the law and accountable to no one.”

In the emails, the staff discuss how a Texas DPS agent went undercover and tried to gather information from an Occupy Austin General assembly, as well as receiving information from what he calls “my Occupy people” about people they assumed were in Deep Green Resistance. Comments in the email suggest that the agent’s surveillance of Occupy Austin was ongoing and continued past the incidents described. In addition, the Stratfor staff describe doing online research on DGR Austin and Deep Green Resistance more generally. They wrongly described the purpose of a DGR Austin public meeting on what radicalism means for Austin as “indoctrination”; they wrote about the book Deep Green Resistance, and they speculated about the relationship between DGR Austin and other groups.

If there is a silver lining here, it is that the emails we have do not paint a picture of a very competent organization. Between hasty generalizations, the STRATFOR staff get a number of important facts completely wrong. First of all, they confuse members of the DGR action group in Austin (which does exist) with another group they call the “Phoenix commune” (which may or may not exist).

They also allege a conflict between members of the DGR Austin group with Occupy Austin that doesn’t seem to have happened. It’s not clear if this is part of the strategy counterintelligence groups have used in the past to try to provoke conflict between different social movements—the FBI used this very effectively against groups like the Black Panther Party—or whether STRATFOR is simply relying on unreliable or incompetent sources.

Elsewhere STRATFOR displays a perception of radical environmentalism that falls somewhere between muddled and simply wrong. One agent suggests DGR is inspired by Nazism and philosopher Martin Heidegger, while another declares that DGR “is focused on creating a situation where violent confrontation will be the ultimate outcome.” Both of these assertions are just plain false.

There is a long history of clandestine groups releasing secret information about the surveillance of social movements. In 1971, and underground group called the Citizen’s Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into an FBI field office and released thousands of pages of secret information, revealing that the FBI had attacked 1960s social movements with methods ranging from surveillance and infiltration to targeted assassinations. Though we have no contact with Anonymous, their leak of information about government and corporate tactics of repression is part of an important tradition.

For more information about Deep Green Resistance, visit http://deepgreenresistance.org.

The “teaser” can be viewed below and here. More leaked information from STRATFOR is presumably forthcoming.

Below is a photograph of STRATFOR employee Marc Lanthemann (from a social networking profile that is no longer online) so that activists can recognize him; we would suggest that you do not speak with him, allow him in to your home, give him access to meetings, or otherwise provide him or his organization with information.

###

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Episode #…something. Stratfor eats Cocks: lurking emails.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
YEAH!!!MAILS MAILS MAILS MAILS MAILS MAILS MAILS also cocks.

for oncoming #AntiSec Updates on Stratfor mails and other
candiez: @AnonymouSabu @AnonymousIRC

>STRATFOR MAILS TEASER #3.
>LULZ!

/*
awesomeness:
1. An unmeasurable amount of awesomenimity something can produce.

urbandictionary
*/

Well hope you all enjoyed that first teaser —> http://pastebin.com/YwazdGRZ
and second one —> http://pastebin.com/EFVXcq0f
>.<

So here we go…again with more srs shit now cause internets is srs business.

TITLE: STRATFOR TAKES ON OCCUPY WALLSTREET MOVEMENT

———————————————————————-
From: brian.genchur@stratfor.com

To: jacob.shapiro@stratfor.com
To: opcenter@stratfor.com
Subject: Re: Dispatch tomorrow?
Date: 2011-10-17 03:56:39

Content:
10-4

Brian
On Oct 16, 2011, at 8:44 PM, Jacob Shapiro
wrote:

i’m not sure about this — let’s talk in the morning

On 10/16/11 8:13 PM, Brian Genchur wrote:

I like this. Any additional thoughts?

Brian

On Oct 16, 2011, at 6:21 PM, scott stewart wrote:

I guess we could also take a more tactical slant. I’ve seen people talking
about how this “new movement” is a terrible threat to corporations, but in
reality, due to the history of anarchists, animal rights, anti-war and
anti-globalization protesters, companies are well prepared for such hippy
hijinks.

On 10/16/11 7:10 PM, “scott stewart” wrote:

Is it worth talking about how the occupy wallstreet people are really just
retreads from the anarchist movement in the late 1990’s early 2000’s? It
also showed a little bit in the code pink anti war movement in the mid
200s.

So it is not a completely new phenomenon, it is just an older phenomenon
that is once again regaining strength.

On 10/16/11 2:57 PM, “Brian Genchur” wrote:

Are there any ideas for a good Dispatch topic for tomorrow?

Will need a thesis and bullets sent to list before tomorrow. Thank you!

Brian Genchur
Sent from iPhone

—
Jacob Shapiro
STRATFOR
Director, Operations Center
cell: 404.234.9739
office: 512.279.9489
e-mail: jacob.shapiro@stratfor.com

———————————————————————-

> trick or t(h)reat!
> lol

neeeeeeeeeext…..

TITLE: STRATFOR INFILTRATES OCCUPY MOVEMENT
> deep penetration resistance
> LOL
> trollolol
> XD

———————————————————————-

From: stewart@stratfor.com
To: alpha@stratfor.com
List Name: mailto:alpha@stratfor.com
Subject: Re: [alpha] INSIGHT-US-Occupy Austin and Deep Green Resistance-NO CODE

Date: 2011-11-17 14:01:00

Content:

It might sound strange, but some of the most radical deep ecology people
actually believe that there are too many people on the earth and that
radical steps must be taken to reduce the population and save the earth.
This strain of deep ecology is a clear reflection of the way the movement
was heavily influenced by people like Martin Heidegger who were also
committed to Nazism. Yes, Nazis were radical environmentalists…..

From: Marc Lanthemann
Organization: STRATFOR
Reply-To: Alpha List
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:08:31 -0600
To: Alpha List
Subject: Re: [alpha] INSIGHT-US-Occupy Austin and Deep Green Resistance-NO
CODE

Jesus I spent a couple of hours researching these guys – weird is an
understatement. Apparently they met yesterday a couple of blocks away from
my house to consolidate their leadership, go through basic indoctrination
and plan more events. As far as I can tell, the Austin chapter is not
nearly as radical as the central Lierre Keith DGR whose website is a
treasure trove of incitment to passive resistance, blowing up energy
infra, basic counter intel and legal guidance.

Their ideology seems to be a mix of hardcore environmentalism, anarchism,
radical feminism and the general notion that we need to go back living
sustainably like the american indians by blowing up every pipeline and
cell tower on the planet. Unlike the central DGR, Austin DGR doesn’t seem
to have defined targets and goals (their meeting yesterday was a
brainstorming session on what radical environmentalism means in Austin).

just a few nice quotes from their central website:

The task of an activist is not to navigate systems of oppressive power
with as much personal integrity as possible; it is to dismantle those
systems.

What would we do if Nazis had invaded, and they were vacuuming the oceans,
scalping native forests, damming every river, changing the climate, and
putting carcinogens into every mother’s breast milk, and into the flesh of
your children, your lover, your mother, into your own flesh? How much
worse would the damage have to get? Would you resist? If there existed a
resistance movement, would you join it?

On 11/16/11 7:42 PM, Victoria Allen wrote:

WHOA.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

———————————————————————-

From: Korena Zucha
Sender: alpha-bounces@stratfor.com
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:38:01 -0600
To: Alpha List
ReplyTo: Alpha List
Cc: Anya Alfano
Subject: [alpha] INSIGHT-US-Occupy Austin and Deep Green Resistance-NO
CODE

New source so don’t yet have code or rankings. Source is a Texas DPS
agent.

There is a group you may be familiar with called Deep Green Resistance.
They are led by (among a number of people) a eco-radical named Lierre
Keith. She co-wrote the book, Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save
the Planet. Very enlightening if you haven’t read it. The movement
advocates the collapse of industrial civilization to reach their eco
goals. In the book, they advocate the use of guerrilla tactics to defeat
current institutions when it comes to the environment. Whether anyone in
the Fed or elsewhere classifies this group as eco-terror or not, I don’t
know, but they are nothing but and should be watched.

http://deepgreenresistance.org/

The local Austin chapter was part of the Occupy Austin crowd at city
hall, however, things were not “radical” enough for them since they do
not believe in working within the system. When I was working U/C on Nov.
5th, some of my contacts told me that at the General Assembly on Nov.
4th, there was some conflict between regular Occupy people and Deep
Green. Deep Green picked up all their stuff and left during the night.
As best as anyone knows, they left and went to a state park off 71. The
only place I know is McKinney Falls out in that area. They have started
a group called the “Phoenix Commune” and intend to make their base out
there, living off the land, so to speak. My source says they told him
that as long as they move 10′ everyday, the park officials can’t make
them leave. These Deep Green people worry me. When my Occupy people
refer to them as “stupid, crazy motherfuckers”, that bothers me, because
these Occupy people will tolerate just about anything.

I passed the info on to locals and since the park is way outside the
complex, I haven’t done any follow up other than to keep an eye and ear
open for anything they may plan for the complex.

Early on in the Occupy movement, they got the group to support some
document called, “Indigenous Struggle Solidarity Statement” calling
Austin an occupied territory. It includes a picture of armed native
Americans.

http://deepgreenresistanceaustin.org/2011/10/09/occupy-austin%E2%80%99s-indigenous-struggle-solidarity-statement/

So, to make a long story short, I think the eco-terror group is focused
on creating a situation where violent confrontation will be the ultimate
outcome.

—
Marc Lanthemann
Watch Officer
STRATFOR
+1 609-865-5782
www.stratfor.com

————————————————————-

😮

#ROFLMAOAPMP

> eco-terror?
> whats its carbon footprint? its supposedly lower than usual terror, isnt it?
> is that like a low budget paranormal activity movie? :3

Press Release: Anonymous Hacked Documents Reveal Law Enforcement Spiedon Occupy and Shared Information with Private Intelligence Company,STRATFOR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

View documents here.

View Deep Green Resistance response and picture of Stratfor employee.

Computer hackers known as Anonymous leaked information obtained by hacking into private intelligence firm Stratfor’s computer network. The documents – what Anonymous is calling a teaser – suggest that from at least October to November 2011 Stratfor worked with Texas law enforcement to infiltrate the Occupy movement and spy on the Deep Green Resistance movement. The document contains emails in which Stratfor employees discuss Occupy Austin and Deep Green Resistance. Stratfor “Watch Officer” Marc Lanthemann writes about receiving information on Occupy Austin and DGR from a “Texas DPS agent.” The Texas Department of Public Safety is a statewide law enforcement agency that includes an Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division.

Deep Green Resistance condemns the surveillance and infiltration of activist groups by law enforcement and private corporations and calls on activists and their allies to expose and protest this violation of all of our constitutional rights.

Stratfor and law enforcement not only violated activists’ constitutional rights, they also were grossly incompetent. Their report is full of hasty generalizations and inaccuracies. They confuse members of the DGR action group in Austin (which does exist) with another group they call the “Phoenix commune” (which may or may not exist). And they allege a conflict between members of the DGR Austin group and Occupy Austin that doesn’t seem to have happened. It’s not clear if this is part of the strategy counterintelligence groups have used in the past to try to provoke conflict between different social movements—the FBI used this very effectively against groups like the Black Panther Party—or whether Stratfor is simply relying on unreliable or incompetent sources.

In addition, their claim that DGR is inspired by Nazism and philosopher Martin Heidegger is outrageous and obviously wrong. As is their claim that DGR “is focused on creating a situation where violent confrontation will be the ultimate outcome.” It doesn’t require an agent to get simple facts correct. Both of these assertions are just plain false.

In December 2011, Anonymous attacked the Stratfor website, allegedly stealing 200 gigabytes of data and shutting the site down for weeks. Anonymous has gone after such corporations before, such as internet security firm HBGary. They released private documents that included secret plans by HBGary and others to attack and discredit Wikileaks on behalf of big banks.

Are You a 'Good White Person?'

Having been raised in a culture predicated on racism and vilification of the “other”, we have all internalized a racist perspective. Relationships across lines of difference often fall prey to power dynamics reinforced by this perspective. The proliferation of “good white people” has not made the situation any better. In fact, as argued in this blog post, they may have made it worse.

Excerpt:

If you’re a POC [person of color], you probably know at least one of these Good White People! If you’re white and reading my blog, maybe you are one; a well intentioned whitey. You’re ‘on my side’, right? You figured out racism is ‘bad’ so now you’ve joined the fight against racism! Maybe you work in a social enterprise, for a charity, with refugees, or Indigenous people, or in the multi-cultural arts. You’re proud of yourself for your many years of human rights work. You’ve claimed your anti-racist identity, you have friends and maybe even lovers who are people of colour, so how could you possibly be racist?

How could you NOT be racist? We have been raised in a white supremacy and we have all internalised racism. We are all racist.

I don’t have the emotional or political energy for friends and acquaintances who express that they are hurt and offended that I’ve inferred that they are racist by critiquing their behaviour or by simply withdrawing from their company. I know that it hurts to feel admonished or abandoned, but this is not comparable or relevant to the hurt and betrayal I feel by people who have tried to contextualise the racist behaviours I experience in terms of the person who has enacted racism’s ignorance, insecurities, or good intentions (which are factors in their behaviour, but don’t alter my experience of their behaviour as racism). This justification de-validates my experience, and though I remind myself that friends are well intentioned in trying to comfort me by convincing me that I needn’t feel bad because nobody meant any harm, they are silencing me as a person of colour, re-centering the experience around whiteness, and being complicit in white supremacy. In contrast, I emphasise how empowering it has been to share experiences of racism and have my anger and sense of alienation validated by others. This has been infinitely more ‘comforting’ than the friends who have had a ‘Don’t worry about it’ attitude. That’s their privilege not to worry about something that permeates all aspects of my daily, lived experience.

Excerpted from an article at harshbrowns.wordpress.com

Australian Agency Monitors Groups Online that Target Critical Energy Infrastructure

The more serious your actions are, the more they will target you. That is ok. Repression is never a reason to not do what is necessary. Repression is just one more reason to fight. When they increase repression, you escalate. Or regroup and get stronger. But you always come back, harder.

Re-posted from Earth First! Newswire

Excerpt:

A private intelligence company, the National Open Source Intelligence Centre, works under contract for the Australian Federal Police and the federal Attorney-General’s Department to monitor activist websites, blogs, Facebook and Twitter to provide warning and analysis of protest activity.

Details of its work have emerged as internal government documents reveal a push by the Resources Minister, Martin Ferguson, to increase surveillance of protest groups, including by specialist intelligence officers employed by the AFP.

Read whole article here.

The Fight is Heating Up Against Logging Company in British Columbia

Island Timberlands (I.T.), a logging company owned by Wall Street investment firm Brookfield Asset Managaement, has its sights set on Cortes Island in British Columbia. But they’ll have to go through Zoe Blunt and a slew of local activists first. This is shaping up to be another epic battle between concerned activists and greedy corporate capitalists! Show your love!

Tete-a-tete between activists and I.T. representative during walk-through of condemned forest

Saturday morning’s walk and talk was set up as a casual getting-to-know-you thing. We met on a dirt road, an easement into I.T.’s private forests. The temperature was mild, the atmosphere was relaxed, and the residents were chatting and joking. Except poor Wayne, [I.T. representative] who seemed a little tense.

Twenty of us were standing around talking when Wayne freaked out. “You can’t film here!” he barked at a young man with a camera. Everyone turned to look.

“There are people who can’t be here today, seniors and disabled people, and I’m filming it for them,” the young man said. He looked Wayne right in the eye and held the camera steady.

Wayne got louder. “This is private land and I’m telling you, you can’t do that here,” he hollered.

“But you invited the public,” someone piped up. “Yep, public events can be filmed,” agreed another.

The younger man kept the camera’s little red eye aimed at Wayne. “I’m making a record for the people who can’t be here.”…

We all stood there looking at Wayne. He looked around at us, and there was a long awkward silence, which I broke.

“Of course you don’t want to be filmed today, because I.T. doesn’t want to be bound by anything you tell us. Because you guys want to be able change your minds and do something else if you want,” I said.

“Yes, that’s right,” he replied sharply.

So there you have it.

Read whole report at Zoe Blunt’s blog.

Links Between the FBI and Political Prisoner Correspondence

The FBI is keeping a list and possibly investigating people who write eco-prisoners. This article is a must-read for all radical activists. Arm yourself with the knowledge that those in power will stop at nothing to continue business as usual, and then do everything in your power to stop them. We will not allow the FBI to stop us from writing those who have given so much for the Earth. Don’t let them stop you either.

Reposted from North American Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network:

Excerpt

We are not sharing this information to raise alarm or spread fear. We have every intention of continuing to write political prisoners, and we urge others to do the same. That said, we hope to expose the FBI’s politically motivated investigations and, unlike the FBI, we believe people have a right to know when they have been spied on. This kind of government intrusion could cause the “chilling effect” so often thrown about in conversations about 1st amendment activities. But when we give in to those fears, political prisoners are the ones who suffer. And this is exactly what the government wants. The state is constantly trying to expand its reach by gathering information about social movements and those who participate in them. Instead of letting this new information scare us into silence, we should use it to make informed decisions about how we support and prioritize political prisoners. This kind of repression has implications for more than just people involved in “activism.” Millions of people are incarcerated in this country. It is possible that the government uses similar tactics to investigate other communities that they actively repress. Writing our friends, family members and comrades should not be a justified excuse for investigation – no matter who our friends are.

Read whole article here.