Vincent Emanuele is a writer and organizer born and raised in America’s Rust-Belt. A former US marine and Iraq War veteran, Vince refused orders for a third deployment in 2005 and immediately began working with the anti-war movement during the Bush years.
In the following excerpt from “Resistance Radio” with Derrick Jensen, Vince shares his thoughts regarding how discipline plays out an important role in activism and how to become disciplined by starting to make small but constant changes in our day-to-day activities.
Revolutionary Discipline
Vince Emanuele, with Derrick Jensen
[Starts: 1:08]
Vince Emanuele: [My friends] and I will often say things about simple day-to-day interactions. For instance when we are at a dinner, and a server walks up and, you know, to make eye contact and not to just keep eating if they drop something off at the table without acknowledging their presence, making sure that you hold doors for people, making sure that you are courteous with people. Those things for me on a smaller level operate as form of discipline that should carry over to other forms.
So let’s bring this back to military training (…) let’s put it this way: you don’t go into boot camp on day one or week one and start patrolling with a weapon in your hand.
Discipline in Small Actions
In fact, as an infantry soldier or Marine, and I’ll speak from my personal experience, you don’t really do that until sixteen weeks of training. You actually sit in a formation with a group of people with weapons, let alone live ammunition which might only happen once over the course of twenty-four weeks of training. So what do they start you with first? Can you stand up straight? And I don’t mean to sound ableist when I say some of these things, I just wanna throw that out there, but, you know, can you stand there on the line? Can you keep a straight face? Can you keep your hands and your knuckles at the seam of your pants? Can you make your bed or what we call a rack? Can you fold your socks? Can you have everything in line? Can you have your footlocker organized? Can you follow simple commands like “yes, sir” after certain commands, or kill after other commands? Will you move to the right or to the left when you are given a command to do so?
Now, that is an extreme example and it is obviously in a very destructive institution particularly here in the Unites States, but I think that you could take a lot of those lessons and the fundamentals which for me mean starting off very small with people. So, if you can’t be disciplined enough to get up and at least make your bed, at least maybe get something healthy to eat if you can afford it, if you have access to it. Making little schedules for yourself, making sure that you are living up to your commitments, and just doing the smaller things then I think after weeks and weeks of training, finally, as I was explaining to my neighbor who didn’t know this the other day, in Marine Corps Boot Camp you don’t shoot a weapon until, I think, week eleven of a thirteen-week boot camp. So, you’re doing your training and learning discipline for eleven weeks before the United States Marine Corps even gives you a weapon to fire.
So, when I think of resistance movements, when I think of even say non-violent direct actions groups who are performing very illegal actions but, say, in a non-violent action, but who still face serious repercussions, I think to myself we need activists and organizations who are disciplined on the same level, and maybe not in the same manner, obviously, but I do think some of those techniques and some of the long view that, you know, we are not just gonna discipline people in the course of a weekend workshop or we’re not gonna just discipline people, even if you could spend a week with someone, I mean, we’re talking about having people for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 16 weeks before you can trust them enough ,and that’s under great duress and stress for those 16 weeks just to get people to the point where they can walk down a street together, and know what to do when someone fires on them.
I don’t want to overly stress that, I don’t want to like people who are thinking out there: “Gee, I just want my group to be a little more disciplined “or “I just wanna find some discipline for myself to do that.” That’s the ideal I would say, and I would say that’s a model, but in any small way and I think that extends to day to day courtesies looking at someone when they’re talking to you – listening someone who’s talking to you, to be there in the moment, to pay attention to what you’re doing, and what you’re saying, you know, the way you’re coming across to people. I think that’s a very important thing, and I think that just starting with those smalls things like, hell, can I do half an hour of working out today? I don’t really like to read, but I now that reading is very good for me, I know my brain is a muscle; I need to work it, can I at least read half hour or 45 minutes a day? Just those little things I think if you stay with them long enough, and if you do them, I think they’ll have a profound impact on your life I think there’s no question about that.
Derrick Jensen : I think this is extremely important; the importance of this cannot be…
Discipline and Burnout
Vince: Oh, I was going to say… the other day I saw this clip from Oliver Stone, and it was a really good clip about his movies and I don’t even know him as a person, so if he’s an asshole person I apologize. I’m just with what he said the other day, it was the National Writers Guild Awards and the gist of what he said towards the end, and I’m paraphrasing, but he was like “look, I’ve been fighting this people who make war my entire life, and most of the time you’re going to get your ass kicked, you’re gonna get insulted, there’s people who are gonna make threats against you, and there’s gonna be even people who flatter you but, at the end of the day, if you can stay in course, and if you believe in what you’re saying then you can make a difference.”
There’s been a lot of people there over the years, Sergio and I talk about this very regularly, I would say 90 to 95 percent of people that I started doing activist work with no longer do the kind of activist work that Sergio and I are still engaged with. They might be involved in smaller level which is still good, they might be doing artistic work, which is all good, all that stuff is good, but in terms on being of the same level we were at 22, thinking we can radically change society, and we are not going to deviate from these principles, there’s very few of us who’ve remained.
Now, some of that is the toxicity of the left, some of that is life can beat you down, some of that is we’re living in one of the most fucked up economic periods on US history, and all this other stuff, I mean, all that’s true, but another large part of that is, and this from seeing people at least anecdotally, and I’d like to see a study on this, but just how many people sort of fell away because they couldn’t maintain certain level of discipline, like I have it in my head that this is what I’m doing for the rest of my life.
I’m not just blowing smoke up your ass. I’m not just saying that at the pub because we’re having a few beers. I’m not just saying that to make you happy. I’m not just saying that because that’s what I think I wanna hear. But I have seriously sat back and meditated and thought to myself… Okay, maybe meditation is the wrong word because I’m not really into some of those things, that’s another story, nonetheless sat there and reflected and thought to yourself “Is this what I’m seriously all about and why?” ‘cause it better not be for, you know, a career or book deals or to get your name in the newspaper or to appear in radio programs.
If it’s for those reasons you’re in the wrong fucking line of business, and I don’t wanna be around you and, number two, you’re gonna fall away anyway because this work, as most people who do it know, it is very difficult, it is time-consuming and it is extremely stressful, and it can beat you down. It is very, on the flip-side, very rewarding, you meet amazing people, you get to participate in very meaningful activities, you don’t have to look back as many of my friends are doing in their early 30s and asking: “God! What the hell did I do with my 20s?” or “God, what the hell did I do in the last decade?” I haven’t asked that question.
Discipline and Self-Critique
I mean are there things I would have done better? Of course, I’m not crazy, there’s plenty of things. For me part of being disciplined is not that you’re going to be always this perfect person, it’s that you’re gonna notice when you start screwing up. I know I need to get back into shape right now, I know that’s the case, I’m not in the kind of shape I need to be in. So what’s that gonna require? That’s gonna require me clamping down sort of on myself. So, you know, I just think little things like that, even showing up to stuff that sometimes you don’t want to. You know, for the activists who are out there and so on, you know, and I have to be reminded of this when I watch those old video clips, and I see someone -I need to find her name- like the woman from the Mississippi Freedom Party who was telling people, just regular rally folks dressed like they’re going to church: “you’re gonna have to put your lives on the line.” That kind of stuff reminds me, that kind of stuff inspires me, you know.
The other day when I saw clips of disabled people, people who are terminally ill being dragged out of Senator’s offices just because they need their Medicaid and their health care, that stuff not only enrages me, those images and those kinds of actions inspire me, and how can you not be the least bit inspired? How can I look to someone who is terminally ill in a god damned wheel chair and I’m sitting at home going “Man! I really don’t know if I want to go to this meeting tonight” or “I really don’t know if I want to go to this action next week” or whatever.
Now, sometimes you have to take a break so you don’t burn out, but a lot of times I think we make a lot of excuses for people, and I actually think it’s insulting. It’s not like we understand these are systemic issues, but I have had people tell me: “well, you know, they’re poor immigrants, like we can’t expect them to stand up” and I’m like “Do you understand how patronizing that is? Do you understand how offensive that is? You think there aren’t tons of immigrant families who are already standing up? How about we highlight their work, how about we use them as an example and not, you know, sit back with this goofy mentality go ‘Oh, well, you know, we can’t expect them to stand up, they’re in a position.’” It’s like no, I don’t think we should ever do that, I don’t think that’s what good organizers are, I don’t think that’s what good leaders, intellectual, cultural, political leaders do.
I think they say “hey, I understand your situation, maybe I’m even in your situation, but regardless I’m here to walk with, to work with you hand in hand and this is what we are going to do.” I’m never going to say “oh, well, you know, it’s a bad systemic problem and I don’t really expect you to do much about it because you’re in this terrible state.” I think of other situations, I think if you can resist slavery, I mean abolitionists, I mean, I just think those things fire me up. Because I think, “Man! If this people could do what they did under those circumstances, then, dammit, I can’t make excuses for myself, and I can’t run away and I can’t makes excuses for other people.” People need to take breaks, I understand that, but at the end of the day we need to be holding up these people as examples, we don’t need to be sitting back.
You know, “Derrick, he has health problems so you know I don’t expect him to write that much, I don’t expect him to do anything.” I mean, yeah, I mean a lot of us have health problems in to varying degrees we can all put in what we could put in, but I don’t think all of us including myself need people other than just ourselves to push us, and that’s why I love people like Sergio or my dad or my mom like, “hey, Vince, you know, you could be doing a little more. Hey, you could help this out more.” That to me is real friendship, it’s not just sitting there going, “Oh, Derrick, you’re the greatest person in the world and you don’t do anything wrong.” It’s like, hey, if we spend enough time around each other where we’re comfortable enough to have those conversations, that’s what good activism is, that’s what good organizing is. I mean, building trust, I think, also includes critiques and as long as they’re done with solidarity in mind and with you know good intentions, I think that’s what it’s all about I mean to me should always be critiquing and proving as much as we can ‘cause obviously we are not winning with what we’re doing now.
Discipline and Commitment
Derrick: Well we have about, we have about, oh Gosh, five or six minutes left and there’s, I wanted, we’ll save self-defense for another time.
Vince: Okay * laughs.* I’m sorry, I’ve been rambling…
Derrick: No, no, no, this is perfect, this is great, this is wonderful and another thing that you brought up that I also just want to say, but I want to save for another time because I know you’re gonna have a lot of great things to say about it is something else that’s very clear in the military, at least from reading military history which is all I’ve ever done, if there’s a war that you want to win. And I’m reading a book right now. I’m going back up and I’m going to ramble for a minute
Vince: Yeah!
Derrick: One thing having to do with the discipline: one reason I have so many books out is, surprisingly enough, because I write, you know. That’s it. It’s a cliché, but my mother’s grandmother used to say all the time “inch by inch life’s a cinch.” And so, I don’t write whole books. Like today, I have typed in edits I made, today it was 40-some pages. And I did edits over the previous three or four days of about 90 pages, and now I’m gonna print those out, I’m gonna read it again tonight, and then tomorrow I will type in those changes, and then I’m done with that 90 pages. I mean, obviously I’d written them in the first place, but the point is I do work every day.
Another thing I want to say about that, and it has to do with the whole reading thing, is one of the smartest things I did when I was a teenager is that I decided that every night, before I went to bed, I would read 10 pages of a book that was good for me, that I would never get through otherwise, and it’s pretty extraordinary that if you do 10 pages every night, which is a piece of cake, then in a year you got 3,600 pages, and that’s a bunch of books.
So I’ve read Oswald Spengler that way, the first one I ever read was Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and then I was like 20, I read all of Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and it’s not a big deal it was just 10 pages a night, slow but sure, and why am I bringing all this up? Oh, the reason I’m bringing all this up is because right now I’m reading a book called “Thunder on Dnepr” (16:16) which is about the Russian defense against Operation Barbarossa when the Germans Invaded in World War II. There was a question asked early on and I will say this once, but I want to ask you this question for an entire interview sometime in the future, early on the book they’re saying a military maxim is “don’t do what you enemy expects” and I read that and I don’t really 100 percent agree with that, because if you have a very defensible position and your enemy expects you defend it you might as well if it’s defensible, if it’s the best place, instead the question I’m interested in is what does your enemy most fear? And then do that, and I asked this on Facebook I asked just people in general and it was so interesting because the responses by many of the people where things like building an alternative currency, not spending money, and there was one person who said ‘destroy the transportation infrastructure that allows the movement of resources’ and I clicked on the guy and he was ex –military.
Vince: *laughs* Yeah, that’s not surprising!
Discipline and Tenacity
Derrick: So, at some point, and I realize this the total crap thing to do in this interview when we have like one minute left, I would like for you, if you don’t mind, to think about that question, if you were in power, what you would most fear? And I would love to interview you again in the future on that question
Vince: Right on, I would love to do it
Derrick: So far as settling down today, we can’t really talk about self-defense ‘cause we only have like two minutes.
Vince: Well, there’s a quote I can give that I think encompass everything that we’re doing and it’s a good old ju-jitsu quote that it’s attributable to no one, nobody knows where it came from and the quote is very simple or the saying is very simple, it’s simply: “a black belt is a white belt that never stopped coming to practice” and all that’s all the black belt is in jujitsu. Every single day or as many times as you can go. There’s people who get it in 8 years, there’s people who get it in 25 years, but the point is just to get up and do it and do it as most as you can, and show up when you can.
As we write this, the world is in a precarious position. She needs more protectors, warriors, and healers—more care and compassion—than ever before. At no time in history has the systematic abuse of this beautiful planet and it’s inhabitants (human and nonhuman) been more obvious.
This Is An Offering To You
If you have wondered how to help. If you have wanted to do something to ease the suffering. This is your chance to step up, to speak out. You must be prepared to work with nothing, be adaptable and creative with whatever resources you have. This work is centered around Deep Green Resistance analysis but the methods can be used to generate general community resilience and resistance for any campaign.
How to Get Started
Look for opportunities to plant seeds of information. Use any platform available to you, chatting with your neighbours, discussions in your work place, the bloke walking his dog who always says hello. Building trust; developing human relationships is fundamental to creating a community. We have more in common with most people than we have differences; find those common grounds. Avoid rising to divisions so the seeds you offer are met with space for the growth of more radical thought.
Most people long for community and a sense of belonging, take responsibility for making them welcome if they have trusted you with their time and support. Most activists are seeking a direct path to action and tangible results. Always illustrate the big picture in concrete steps: why we are doing this, what the issues are, where they come from, how they directly relate to us, and what we are doing to address them. Offer training and express trust by delegating tasks. Create platforms to support them in sharing relevant knowledge and skills.
Group Dynamics
Mostly unconsciously, people bring their emotion history with them into groups, often generating strong dynamics. Even one disruptive individual can create substantial damage in a group. Holding a zero tolerance approach to in-fighting, gossiping and power struggles will help create a healthier group. Lead by example and refuse to allow toxic behaviour permeate your group. There will be disagreements, but never allow anyone be “called out” in front of the group, this is unfair and likely to cause defensiveness and further polarisation. If problems arise address them one to one or with a mediator. It can be healing and help others grow if you model forgiveness and understanding for those who have chosen to work alongside you. This can provide balance, and help to smooth interpersonal relationships.
Look After Yourself
Personal boundaries are vital so you do not burn out. It is okay to say no. Avoid over committing by honouring your limitations but never shy away from stretching your comfort zone to allow yourself to develop your skills. This is a long haul, so make it fun, enjoy the people you work with and show appreciation.
When building a local campaign or mutual aid group, you can build a social media presence with little effort, invite other local activists onto your page once it has a respectable following rather than a small number. Do not let someone who is unclear of your purpose moderate. Offer them a different task.
If any local journalists are connected to specific community or environmental issues do keep in touch. Keep abreast of local campaigns and issues, and support on the ground as much as possible. This will show others that you are committed.
We Are Stronger Together
If you are in contact with other organisations, work out the similarities and potential divisive issues. Plan how you are going to address them in advance. Work out group dynamics and gain the respect of leaders. This will automatically give credence amongst the others. Identify those who are more radical and work towards potential allies rather than wasting time in circular conversations with those of a fixed mindset. If you are joining local campaigns, always be respectful of the work done before you became involved. Be supportive of that work and other organisers.
If you are contributing to public events such as talks, training, film nights, or fundraisers, it will help to find current topics that hold local relevance and build your messaging around this. People have more interest if there is even a vague local connection. If possible offer webinars/trainings tailored to your audience (e.g. increasing council tax, destruction/development of a local area).
Be Visible in Your Community
For instance create or join mutual aid groups. Your positive work will draw interest. It is okay to use your work as a reference point in general conversation with positive examples. It may be that people have not thought about or been exposed to radical ideas. Some may have limited education and experience rather than a genuine unwillingness to broaden their horizons. If you have the opportunity, join working groups to have input into policy and/or foundational documents.
If presenting/speaking, incorporate as much helpful material as possible: slides, pamphlets, quote’s etc. The DGR analysis is not palatable for a broad audience. The majority of people have not thought about radical ideas. Often because there is a lack of education and experience rather than genuine unwillingness to think outside the box.
There are 3 main contentious issues in DGR analysis. You do not have to tackle these issues head-on if it risks alienating your audience. Using specific examples can help others connect to your view. Asking others questions is also helpful; it shows an interest in their views and illustrates aspects they may need to think through.
1. We Are Anti-Civilization
We deeply support resilient communities, mutual aid, health and wellbeing of the planet, for human and non-human life. We do not support industrial technology, the creation of which is destructive. We are fundamentally opposed to the toxic culture of patriarchy and capitalism. How can we have infinite growth on a finite planet? Do you believe that there will be a voluntary shift to a sane and sustainable way of life?
We are deeply supportive of systems that generate health and well-being to all life. The creation, maintenance and life cycle of so-called “green technology” is harmful to our planet and perpetuates the capitalist/destructive system in place. Ask about the life cycle of products, supply chains, ask how they can ethically endorse it without educating themselves of the true impact, especially in the Global South.
Society is fundamentally patriarchal. Men as a class dominate and oppress women. Ask questions around the prevalence of violence towards women and girls. As hard as it is, offering concrete examples demonstrates the pandemic of violence against women. Offer a real life example of women’s sex-based protections being eroded. Talk about inequality, poor legal and social remedies for women in all contexts.
Familiarise yourself with specific examples so you can offer clarity on your position. Do resist being drawn into an argument, ask carefully considered questions so their answer (or inability to do so) will affirm your point, or at least force them to think about it. Dealing with others righteousness, apathy and/or cognitive dissonance can be disheartening. Keep going, keep building relationships within your community. Many people are still in a comfortable enough position that they can pretend the systematic destruction of our planet is not happening. As things deteriorate, when they are personally impacted, they will no longer have that option. We need to be ready for this, trained in necessary skills with strong grassroots networks. This is what we are working towards.
If you find yourself with no audience or one that is inhospitable, think about the hurdles, the jarring point between your audience and our analysis. Introduce questions, illuminate the gaps in their perception of the issue. Keep gradually reinforcing your points. Direct people towards writing, leave books in workplace libraries, share links to DGR articles on social media.
DGR are not aiming for a mass movement, it is not about branding, if people sign up great, but by consistently sharing grains of our analysis whenever, possible we are sowing the seeds for a culture of resistance.
Keep Focused, Stay Grounded
The revolution can be boring. Interpersonal issues, paperwork, screen-time, phone calls . . . the resistance hinges on some seriously laborious and dreary tasks. Find what grounds you—something that always brings home the gravity of what we are facing. It could be an image, a story, a sound e.g. the soundscape of extinct birdcalls or sprawling development clearing feeding grounds and habitat for our non-human kin.
When you feel frustrated or lose focus, stay grounded, centre yourself. Remember what we are doing could not be more important. Make the most of the people around you. Draw support from our community, never be afraid to ask for help or advice, to reach out for support, when you do it gives others permission to do the same.
These are strange days – we all need support to stay strong so we can keep fighting the good fight.
Susan Breen is a political campaigner, feminist and cadre for DGR Ireland.
Today is the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day celebration. In this piece, Paul Feather describes how hope and optimism live alongside knowledge of the destruction of Mother Earth. He brings it home with the need for direct action, ceremony, and love of the self, family and the wild, natural world.
Today I saw the first blossom on the pea vines. It is a rite of spring. I’ve retreated to the warmth of my woodstove to weather a blackberry winter, but I believe this is the last fire my stove will hold this season.
It’s a time of accelerating change, days lengthen, T-shirt weather followed by surprise frosts that wilt the leaves on the potatoes. Every day new green leaves to eat after the boredom of turnips and turnips and turnips. It’s no wonder that we celebrate this time. The small community where I live has held Earth Day celebrations at this time of year for longer than I’ve been here, twenty years at least.
This year marks the fiftieth national celebration of the holiday. There will be no gathering here this year. We’ll spend this Earth Day quarantined in our homes—hopefully very pleasantly—some of us with our most immediate family, and some of us alone. What does it mean to miss our little celebration? It means songs not sung, meals not shared; recipes not exchanged, games not played; community connections not maintained, created, or reborn. It also means other things undone: cars not driven, drinks not drunk, cans not crushed; tinfoil not thrown away, fancy foods from faraway lands not cooked and eaten. Our place as part of the “solution” un-confirmed. I do not know what to do with this.
Earth Day Gatherings
For several years, I was well fed by our yearly gathering. I do not wish to cheapen it by wallowing in hypocrisy, self-righteousness, or the unavoidable imperfections of an impure world. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but cringe last year at the food still on plates in the trash cans. I do not mean to be this way. I’m preoccupied with the meaning of what we’re doing. Why are we here? What does this mean?
The Earth Day Network aims to “flood the world with hope, optimism, and action” on April 22nd, and I presume these are all good things, indispensable to any progressive movement. With good reason the Network celebrates their many successes. From organizing what’s become the largest secular observance in the world to their contributions toward very real and practical actions such as getting lead out of gasoline and planting hundreds of millions of trees. Their narrative is contagious. It is full of young people refusing to accept platitudes; global outpourings of energy, enthusiasm, and commitment; action at all levels; we are transformational, galvanized, unparalleled, and bold. Are we though?
For all the work put into building a successful narrative—the need for which I don’t doubt—where has fifty years of Earth Day got us? There are almost four times as many cars in the world as there were in 1970. There are twice as many people. Atmospheric CO2 is up nearly 100ppm (doesn’t sound like much, but it’s rather a lot). I’ll spare you the litany. Things aren’t getting better. There’s food on the plates in the trash cans at Earth Day.
Hope and Optimism
I wonder what we’re trading for this optimism and hope. Do we exchange honesty for enthusiasm? Truth for positivity? How much hope do we really need? Author and activist Janisse Ray, in The Seed Underground questions this preoccupation with hope and optimism:
“The assumption is that hope is a prerequisite for action. Without hope one becomes depressed and then unable to act. I want to stress that I do not act because I have hope. I act whether I have hope or not. It is useless to rely on hope as motivation to do what’s necessary and just and right. Why doesn’t anybody ever talk about love as motivation to act? I may not have a lot of hope but I have plenty of love, which gives me fight. We are going to have to fall in love with place again and learn to stay put.”
Earth Day is a Rite
Many of us are staying put now whether we are in love with place or not. Perhaps this is a call to find that love we have been missing. Perhaps we don’t need these optimistic narratives with long lists of “successes” that somehow end in failure. Perhaps we need to fall in love.
I think a lot about these rites of spring. The first pea blossom. The last fire in the woodstove at blackberry winter. These passages from one thing into another. We often say that, “every day is Earth Day,” but the truth is, it’s not. Earth Day is a rite. A ritual. A symbolic event. When we gather in community to observe a special day, there is meaning in what we do and how we do it. Our celebration of Earth Day conveys our beliefs about the Earth and our place in it, both in the content and form of that event.
The Need for Ceremony
There are different kinds of ritual, but we don’t do them very well. This essential part of what it means to be human has been long scattered to the wind, and we must do the best we can with scraps and pieces. Malidoma Somé, in his book Ritual draws from a knowledge base within tribal communities of West Africa and insists on the need for ceremony at all levels of the social structure: individual, family, and community. Without careful attention to ritual at each of these levels, the community and each individual will suffer.
Perhaps our celebrations and rituals, such as they are, need to come home.
Long before the quarantines, I found that I had inadvertently isolated myself within this community that I respect and love so dearly. My efforts to push our community toward greater integrity in various ways have moved others very little but left me on the edge. (Perhaps I am clumsy in my efforts.) But, as I have become increasingly unable to shake this empty feeling about our collective celebrations and community rites, I have become occasionally more attentive to my own rituals and observances. I wonder if that is our next step.
We cannot separate the individual from the community, the personal from the structural; the self is embedded in the system.
If our community rituals are failing, if Earth Day feels empty, if half a century of “success” by the largest environmental organization in the world leaves us worse than we’ve ever been, perhaps there is something missing from our community space.
Perhaps it is time for something different
This year, the Earth Day Network is going digital. We are unable to gather during quarantine, so we will gather in the virtual world … on Earth Day… Seriously?
I am reminded of something from the book Becoming Animal, in which David Abrams pushes back against the conventional symbolism of environmentalism embodied in the image of the whole Earth from space. Supposedly, this symbol conveys the isolation of our fragile and finite planet in an otherwise inhospitable space. Since Stewart Brand and the Whole Earth movement succeeded in introducing this image to the environmental movement in 1970, it has become one of the most familiar and widely distributed images in history—inseparable from Earth Day. Abrams suggests that there are ways in which this image is unhelpful. When we are asked to imagine the Earth, we imagine this view from space—from outside. As a phenomenologist, Abrams suggests that our perception and imagery of the Earth should remain rooted in our physical and bodily experience. The Earth is what you see before you in this moment, right now.
Finding a wild place
Is it good then that we respond to this quarantine by moving our environmentalism online into the virtuality of screens and digital interactions with far-away humans? Or is this a call to usher that movement through the front door, to invite it in, or listen as it calls us out through that door and into the yard and the streets? What would happen if we turned the screens off? What would happen if we went outside and felt the snap of blackberry winter? What would happen if we dusted out the backwoods of our DNA for remnants of remembering of being alone in a wild place, or found one and went there? Would we be braver? Would we become more galvanized and bold?
Earth Defenders
Indigenous people make up less than 5% of the world’s population, but they protect 80% of the remaining biodiversity. In Odisha India, a group of women have protected forests from timber smugglers for the past 20 years, keeping vigil in groups of ten and carrying sticks. Activists in the Philippines continue to blockade mines in spite of targeted killings that make this country the deadliest place to defend the planet. Unfortunately, in spite of these efforts, land defenders aren’t winning either: deforestation in the Amazon is up 80% since Jair Bolsonaro took office. Twenty defenders in the Amazon were killed last year, but this number fails to capture the physical attacks, threats, and criminalization that these people endure to protect us all.
Every day.
Perhaps I do us all a disservice, but it’s hard for me to imagine many people I know, people whom I love, respect, and cherish, voluntarily taking this level of personal risk to defend anything. I wonder if this galvanization can take place in a community space, at least here in this culture. I wonder what it will take for individuals to summon the strength that protection of the remnants of our future will absolutely require of us.
Think about that on Earth Day. Think about it with your family, and then go outside and think about it alone or with the blackberries and the budding trees and the orioles who have just turned up in the yard.
Make it a rite of spring.
Paul Feather is a an animist farmer and writer living in Georgia, USA. He advocates for direct, community-scale, production of basic needs. To find out more: www.paulandterra.com
This conversation between Max Wilbert and Vince Emanuele covers mutual aid, organizing strategies, revolution versus reform, coronavirus, survival, the Iraq war, the crumbling of the United States, and more.
Vince Emanuele was born and raised in America’s Rust-Belt and lives in Michigan City, Indiana. In 2002, he joined the United States Marine Corps. In 2005, Vince refused orders for a third deployment and immediately began working with the antiwar movement. Today he works in Michigan City and is co-founder of a community space called PARC—Politics, Arts, Roots, Culture.
The Green Flame is a Deep Green Resistance podcast offering revolutionary analysis, skill sharing, and inspiration for the movement to save the planet by any means necessary. Our hosts are Max Wilbert and Jennifer Murnan.
In this short excerpt from the last episode of The Green Flame podcast, Derrick Jensen and Lierre Keith offer a poetic reading from a piece by C.S. Lewis, originally written in 1948, in which the author speaks of the threat of nuclear war and how to live in an age of existential threats.
“In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. How are we to live in an atomic age? I am tempted to reply, ‘why as you would have lived in the 16th century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might have landed and cut your throat every night, or indeed as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented, and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors: anesthetics. We have that still.
It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things: working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a a game of darts, not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies, a microbe can do that, but they need not dominate our minds.”
The Green Flame is a Deep Green Resistance podcast offering revolutionary analysis, skill sharing, and inspiration for the movement to save the planet by any means necessary. Our hosts are Max Wilbert and Jennifer Murnan.
This piece is excerpted from internal Deep Green Resistance training materials. It was not originally written for the public, but we believe it will be useful for our readers.
Introduction
In the formation of the cadre we need, there is a lot to be learned, mostly technical and knowledge-based. For some reason, in our country, there seems to have been little focus on “formation,” or the development of revolutionary character.
What should our cadres embody and aspire to, in addition to the technical and political knowledge required? How do we bring our best selves to this struggle? “The personal is the political,” while grounded in feminism, can also shed light on other aspects of human relations.
Characteristics of a Good Cadre
Honesty and integrity
Work ethic (focus, follow-through, and dependability)
Determination in the face of difficulty
Cheerfulness and humor (essential in hard times)
Bravery
Willingness to do one’s fair share and to sacrifice
Willingness and ability to learn
Caring and respectful toward others
Ability to acknowledge mistakes and self-critique
An understanding of what ‘community’ is and means
Dignity, humility, and honor
Discernment and wisdom
A sense of duty and responsibility
A commitment to equality and justice
Generosity
Intellectual and political engagement
Capacity for love and tenderness
Loyalty
Militancy
Sobriety
A sense and understanding of what ‘Solidarity’ is and means
Aspirational Components
Self-awareness and self-reflection.
Recognize and regulate your needs (self-care).
Ability to understand how one’s childhood development has influenced one’s adult life experiences.
Ability to look back and analyze your relationships as an insight to your character.
Mindfulness and awareness practice.
Ability to process grief appropriately and thoroughly.
Practicing forgiveness.
Exercise regularly for mind/body health.
Practice decolonizing your mind through a variety of means, not just intellectually. Listen to Dr. Michael Yellowbird – and John Trudell.
Emotional Fitness in the Group / Community
The personal interactions within small groups such as affinity groups are easily affected by:
People with un-addressed personal or mental health issues
People currently in therapy (transference, projection)
People in personal crisis or under severe stress
Be prepared to address and resolve the toxic components of relationships, or failing that, understand that one cannot enter into this work bringing serious unresolved personal issues.
People dealing with these issues should be prepared to step back until they are able to engage with others from a place of health.
It is mentioned in literature on the subject that small non-hierarchical groups are subject to being hijacked by a narcissistic personality type, or for that matter by others for other reasons of aggrandizement or other personal agendas.
To that end a good cadre ought to have a minimal understanding of psychology and sociology, sufficient to understand people and how they interact both in pairs and in groups. This is actually an aspect of security culture, as well as helping to insure that the group does not break up due to interpersonal dynamics.
Motivational tools in cadre development
Revolutionary songs (pick a few and learn to sing them or play them). Some suggestions:
Cadres are responsible for moving an organization forward, and are expected to be dedicated to their respective organization. For this reason, it is important that cadres demonstrate certain characteristics to benefit the moveement.
