by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Oct 12, 2017 | Protests & Symbolic Acts
by Deep Green Resistance Southwest Coalition
The Rights of Nature movement has arrived in the United States! On September 25, Deep Green Resistance, with noted civil rights attorney Jason Flores-Williams, filed a first-in-the-nation lawsuit – Colorado River v. Colorado – seeking personhood for the Colorado River and recognition of the river’s rights to exist, flourish, regenerate, and naturally evolve in the United States District Court, District of Denver. While courts in India, New Zealand, and Ecuador have granted rights to ecosytems, this lawsuit represents the first Rights of Nature action ever brought before a federal court. If the case succeeds, the natural world will gain a powerful new tool in the struggle to stop corporate exploitation.
We invite everyone who loves the Colorado River and the natural world who gives us life to pack the courthouse with us. We want to send a strong message to the judge, the State of Colorado, and the nation that it’s time the American legal system honor the Rights of Nature. The first hearing in the case has been scheduled for Tuesday, November 14 at 10 AM (mountain):
Magistrate Judge Nina Y. Wang
Byron G. Rogers Courthouse C253
1929 Stout Street
Denver, CO 80294
This moment presents an opportunity to change the future of American environmental law while securing a foothold for the Rights of Nature movement in this country. Please join us in Denver to defend the Colorado River.
Find the Facebook event here.
by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Sep 21, 2017 | Lobbying
Featured image: The 2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill in the Animas River, in southwest Colorado. The Animas is a tributary to the Colorado River.
Editor’s note: The first Rights of Nature lawsuit in the US was filed on September 25, 2017, in Denver, Colorado. The full text of the complaint can be found here.
“Contemporary public concern for protecting nature’s ecological equilibrium should lead to the conferral of standing upon environmental objects to sue for their own preservation.” Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, Sierra Club v. Morton (1972)
Denver, Colorado–In a first-in-the-nation lawsuit filed in federal court, the Colorado River is asking for judicial recognition of itself as a “person,” with rights of its own to exist and flourish. The lawsuit, filed against the Governor of Colorado, seeks a recognition that the State of Colorado can be held liable for violating those rights held by the River.
The Plaintiff in the lawsuit is the Colorado River itself, with the organization Deep Green Resistance – an international organization committed to protecting the planet through direct action – filing as a “next friend” on behalf of the River. The River and the organization are represented in the lawsuit by Jason Flores Williams, a noted civil rights lawyer and lead attorney in a recent class-action case filed on behalf of Denver’s homeless population.
While this is the first action brought in the United States which seeks such recognition for an ecosystem, such actions and laws are becoming more common in other countries. In 2008, the country of Ecuador adopted the world’s first national constitution which recognized rights for ecosystems and nature; over three dozen U.S. municipalities, including the City of Pittsburgh, have adopted similar laws; and courts in India and Colombia have recently recognized that rivers, glaciers, and other ecosystems may be treated as “persons” under those legal systems.
Serving as an advisor to the lawsuit is the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), a nonprofit public interest law firm which has previously assisted U.S. municipalities and the Ecuadorian government to codify legally enforceable rights for ecosystems and nature into law.
Attorney Flores-Williams explained that “current environmental law is simply incapable of stopping the widescale environmental destruction that we’re experiencing. We’re bringing this lawsuit to even the odds – corporations today claim rights and powers that routinely overwhelm the efforts of people to protect the environment. Our judicial system recognizes corporations as “persons,” so why shouldn’t it recognize the natural systems upon which we all depend as having rights as well? I believe that future generations will look back at this lawsuit as the first wave of a series of efforts to free nature and our communities from a system of law which currently guarantees their destruction.”
Deanna Meyer, a member of Deep Green Resistance and one of the “next friends” in the lawsuit, affirmed Flores-Williams’ sentiments, declaring that “without the recognition that the Colorado River possesses certain rights of its own, it will always be subject to widescale exploitation without any real consequences. I’m proud to stand with the other “next friends” in this lawsuit to enforce and defend the rights of the Colorado, and we’re calling on groups across the country to do the same to protect the last remaining wild places in this country and beyond.”
The lawsuit seeks recognition by the Court that the Colorado River Ecosystem possesses the rights to exist, flourish, regenerate, and restoration, and to recognize that the State of Colorado may be held liable for violating those rights in a future action. The complaint will be filed in the US District Court of Colorado on Tuesday.
Media inquiries:
Law Office of Jason Flores-Williams
303-514-4524
Thomas Linzey, Executive Director, CELDF
717-977-6823
by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Jul 3, 2017 | Lobbying, Protests & Symbolic Acts
by Michael Bucci / Deep Green Resistance New York
Honorable Daniel F. McCarthy, Town Justice
Town of Cortlandt Justice Court
One Heady Street, Cortlandt Manor, New York 10567
Re: Order to Appear at Violation of Conditional Discharge Hearing-June 29, 2017, Docket # 15110186
Dear Judge McCarthy,
Thank you for the opportunity to present our necessity defense during our trial and to explain why we were, on that chilly morning in November, 2015, blockading the construction of Spectra Energy’s Algonquin Incremental Market Project pipeline that runs 400 feet from elementary schools and homes, and 105 feet from critical safety infrastructure at the failed Indian Point nuclear power plant on the Hudson River in Westchester County, NY.
I accept full responsibility for my action. We were all prepared for jail-time. I do realize that the sentence you imposed on us is an attempt to keep us out of jail. And I appreciate that.
I cannot, however, comply with certain provisions of your sentence which includes a 12-month conditional discharge, community service requirements, and fines/fees of $350.00. I cannot comply because the sentence imposed on us Montrose 9 resisters, who oppose the construction of this 42 inch, high-pressure, fracked methane-gas pipeline in our community, is actually a form of punishment meant to keep activists like us fearful, quiet and acquiescent. The sentence seems very harsh to me, especially as an alternative to incarceration, and for just a violation: a non-criminal infraction virtually equivalent to a traffic ticket! The sentence imposed is an attempt to break our will and bully us into submission.
In all honesty, I cannot abide by your conditional discharge requirement not to be arrested over the next year fighting this pipeline. This is a form of judicial repression meant to keep us from freely exercising our first amendment, constitutional rights to protest and resist, in this case, the much greater harm that fossil fuels and greenhouse gasses are wreaking on communities. Our necessity defense at trial, in a very real way, coupled with the dire environmental crises we face and injustices worldwide, require us to continue our resistance efforts in an even more concerted way — disrupting the fossil fuel industry, and perhaps breaking the law whenever necessary, to prevent or diminish the much greater harms of global heating, climate catastrophe and eventual systemic environmental collapse.
I cannot agree to not fighting for justice, alongside my friends, for fear of being arrested when so many injustices must be made right, especially these days, when we need to act powerfully and intelligently to dismantle entrenched systems of oppression. We will even need to directly break some unjust laws, like the unconstitutional and mean Muslim ban, for example. Given the enormous environmental harm being done to our living planet, and the efforts to divide us from one another, we will need to be smarter and even more militant, not less so, in keeping the powerful from harming humans and the living planet, while we build diverse and strong communities of love, support and resistance, like we are doing.
Moreover, we did no harm to the community. In fact, we alerted the community to impending crises. Requiring us to perform community service for fighting on behalf of our neighbors, for trying to protect our community, the water and the land base, from devastation and degradation, I consider wrong-headed and almost insulting, given the way I have tried to live my life in service to the betterment of our communities. (Please see details of my work and “community service” activities, attached.) *
You know that I also disagree with your verdict of guilty both on the merits of the case and with respect to our necessity defense. Regarding who was responsible for the traffic blockage on Route 9A, I do not think that the prosecution actually proved their case, that we were the cause of the traffic jam. There was sufficient doubt given the obvious failure of the State Police to control traffic, which would have taken minimal effort on their part. I also believe we proved the elements of our necessity defense. The harm of burning fossil fuels, especially methane, 80 times more harmful than CO2, is overwhelming and imminent, locally and globally. Threatening our community and destroying the environment for profit with impunity is what is wrong. I doubt that a jury would have found us guilty.
Admittedly, the Montrose 9 was not successful in our efforts to stop this segment of Spectra’s pipeline. We now need to stop the next segment, Atlantic Bridge Project, and all pipelines, and end the entire fossil fuel industry (and ultimately industrial capitalism, male domination and institutionalized racism) from destroying lives. I realize that from now on we will need to organize better and become more effective in our resistance to the extraction, storage and burning of fossil fuels, the massive infrastructure build out, as well as climate injustice against the poor, people of color and front-line indigenous peoples around the world.
As you know from our individual testimonies, we tried just about every avenue to stop the pipeline construction. In fact, many of our elected officials even agreed with us, but they were virtually powerless and/or chose not to effectively help us. Moreover, regulators continually ignored the calls of citizens and elected officials for independent health and safety assessments of this massive pipeline expansion project. Clearly, government and laws are on the side of the corporations, the rich and powerful, all of whom prioritize profits over the well-being of citizens. The law and the courts should be protecting communities from the abuses of corporations and government. The completed segment of pipeline we unsuccessfully resisted is a symptom of the failed political & economic system, a failed democracy & collapsing institutions that do not represent the interests of people or life on our planet. Indeed, we all must go way beyond our comfort zones and do everything necessary to make our world safer, to the degree that each of us can.
These days, we need the help of an independent judiciary, and judicial heroes like Constance Baker Motley and Thurgood Marshall, jurists remembered for their understanding of how citizens and communities need special legal protections from longstanding oppressive institutions, and how important it is to safeguard the civil rights of groups who are systematically targeted by oppression, especially when existing law and precedent are not on their side. They took bold, extraordinary steps, and were successful on behalf of the civil and human rights of communities of color, and all communities, against enormous odds.
I am hopeful that we both love this beautiful community on the Hudson River and want to see it thrive, and be a safe and healthy place to live. Yes, we were hoping that you would side with us against Spectra (now Enbridge) Energy and agree that their harm to this community, and destruction of the living environment for profit, would be what is considered unlawful and should be stopped. I am still hopeful that on a deeply human level, we both want the very best for our community.
Therefore, Judge McCarthy, I am asking you for your help in our efforts to stop this pipeline. If I may be so audacious, we really could use your help in this long, hard fight on behalf of our communities. We need your help and assistance from the judicial branch of government for relief, protection and support, especially since some laws may need to be challenged for the greater good to prevent greater harm. Yes, I invite you to consider joining our efforts. Together, we could definitely keep our community safer.
If you cannot yet support us and our efforts, I ask you simply to consider, at least – to think about – what we and the science and the experts have been saying about the dangers of this pipeline, methane gas leakage in our already vulnerable community, the harm of greenhouse gas emissions, and our responsibility to protect our homes and the earth. Please consider this an invitation and an opportunity to continue our year-and-a-half-long conversation about community health and safety and protection from the harms of the fossil fuel industry. While we continue our efforts to stop the construction of this pipeline with our neighbors, and fight to make our community safer, I hope we will continue this important conversation.
I appreciate your respecting my constitutional right to defend myself, & speak on my own behalf, pro se.
Sincerely,
Michael G. Bucci
Deep Green Resistance
Montrose 9 Defendant
* “Community Service” Activities
Catholic Interracial Council, Pittsburgh, PA 1964-66 – volunteer member.
Little Sisters of the Poor (homes for the elderly), Balt., MD & Wash., D.C. 1966-68 – volunteer.
Co-Founder, Storefront Soup Kitchen/Peace Center, Bronx, NY 1970-73, – volunteer.
Resistance activities/organizing to stop the Vietnam war 1969-74.
So Others Might Eat – SOME Soup Kitchen, Wash., DC 1974-75, – volunteer director.
American Red Cross in Greater New York Disaster Relief Services 1975-1977.
Clinton Housing Development Company – community organizer 1978-1981.
Co-Founded Union of City Tenants 1979-83, – volunteer.
Volunteer – New York Women Against Pornography 1984-85.
Co-founder, Men Against Pornography 1985? – volunteer.
Co-founder, New York Men Against Sexism 1989 – volunteer.
Resistance to South African apartheid 1989-1994.
Co-founder, Whites Against Racism Network (WARN) 1990-1993 – volunteer
Bowery Residents Committee – Director of Housing and Development 1981-1997.
ANHD – Affordable Housing Training to 95 under-resourced NYC community groups 2010-17.
American Red Cross in Greater New York Disaster Relief Services 9/11 volunteer.
We Are Seneca Lake – Fossil Fuel Storage Resistance – volunteer 2014-17.
Compressor Free Franklin – volunteer 2014-Present.
Deep Green Resistance – volunteer 2014-Present.
Resist Spectra – volunteer 2015-Present.
by DGR Editor | May 2, 2017 | Education
by Deep Green Resistance Eugene
Over Earth Day weekend, Deep Green Resistance members in Oregon hosted an advanced direct action training in rural western Oregon.
About 45 people attended from several surrounding states.
This workshop broke down critical factors and possible improvements for various recent and historical resistance actions and campaigns.
The training began with several anti-oppression sessions to help foster an equitable and safe environment for facilitators and participants, especially for people of color, women, indigenous people, and members of other oppressed and marginalized groups. These sessions, which included an introduction to radical feminism and a group activity around understanding privilege, aimed to inform the interpersonal dynamic and content of the training. This is also to help facilitate a more inclusive and comfortable organizing experience in our communities.
Other training sessions included:
• Campaign strategy
• Target selection
• Case studies in two recent direct actions from people involved in them
• Analysis of critical factors in other recent and historical resistance campaigns / actions
• Scouting for action
• Know your rights and legal briefing
• Art and resistance
• Media
• Various hard skills for blockades and direct action
• Communications and digital security
• Affinity groups
Experimentation with building materials for blockades.
Trainings like this play an important role in developing two critical elements in effective resistance: community and skills.
This sort of event would be impossible without financial support. To everyone who donates to Deep Green Resistance, is a monthly sustainer, or purchases gear from our website—thank you!
A few comments from attendees:
“Thank you… for such a comprehensive training in just a few days!”
“I considered not coming when I saw some militant photos on the DGR website, but I’m so glad I did. This training really debunked the myth of resistance activists being casually militant and violent people.”
Artistic workshop after a long day sitting down inside.
“My daughter has been telling me for years about radical feminism and I never understood what she was talking about. I do now, somewhat, and I am aware of all I don’t know and hadn’t considered in terms of the climate crisis and potential steps I can take. I’m so glad I came.”
“I could spend weeks hearing and discussing the topics brought up on Saturday morning, and I learned a lot. The Privilege Walk was powerful and a great way to start the weekend. Thank you for the RadFem reading list and the matter-of-fact presentations on intersectional oppressions!”
“Awesome group of people at the training.”
“I’m home and full of inspiration… You have my deepest appreciation for the hours of hard work it took to make this weekend happen. The whole crew of you are simply wonderful, thank you for being dedicated enough to take bold actions and wise enough to do them prudently.”
Tripod and rope ascending workshop.
“The DA training offered an invaluable opportunity for DGR members and allies to meet in person, share ideas and skills, and build real community. Each new relationship felt like a door opening to our greater collective potential and previously unconsidered ideas. There is something magical in spending time together that cannot be quantified or explained. I can’t wait for the next get together and to see the inspiring ideas and actions that will surely come out of this training.”
by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Apr 29, 2017 | Education
by Max Wilbert / Deep Green Resistance Great Basin
As a kid, I pictured Nevada as a wasteland of sand and cacti. Today, I know better.
For the past five years, I’ve been packing up my truck every spring and taking a long day to drive to eastern Nevada to bask in the glory of one of the least densely-populated areas of the United States.
The broad valleys never fail to stun me, but most amazing are the mountains, limestone peaks arcing into the sky. Springs and creeks flowing from the hills support rich riparian zones and bring in birds and other wildlife from miles around. Antelope, deer, elk, and wild horses cross the valleys or stick to forested patches. This region is lush, biodiverse, and beautiful.
It’s also under threat. Across eastern Nevada, the Southern Nevada Water Authority seeks to build dozens of massive groundwater wells and pump almost every drop of water south to feed Las Vegas developments. The project has been a battle between locals and developers from Vegas for decades, and still drags on.
Another major threat is felling pinyon pine and juniper forests across not just this region, but the entire intermountain west. Ranchers have been doing this for decades to remove pesky trees getting in the way of their grass—and more importantly, their profit. As overgrazing continues to desertify Nevada—it’ll look like Iraq in another 100 years—removing trees allows ranchers to maintain the illusion that overstocking can continue indefinitely.
Countless people, including myself, are mobilizing to fight like hell for this land, this water, and these forests. We aim to stop these destructive projects by exposing their true nature and—if necessary—standing in their way.
There is a lot more to these stories, but I don’t have time to share it all here. Instead, I’d like to invite you to join myself and other community members, indigenous people, activists, ecologists, photographers, and families for the fifth annual Sacred Water, Sacred Forests Camp.
The camp takes place over Memorial Day weekend, May 27 to 29, near the town of Ely and Great Basin National Park. If you’re interested in attending, you can RSVP on the Facebook event page or by emailing greatbasin@deepgreenresistance.org.
I hope to be able to introduce you to this important, imperiled area in a few weeks.
—
Max Wilbert is a community organizer based in western Oregon who considers Nevada a second home.
