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Do or Die: Voices from the
ecological resistance

Justice Dept. accused of
nuclear plant cover-up

‘Occupation Must
End Yesterday’
Jerusalem Women Speak

When reality is just an illusion

 

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Do or Die:
Voices from the ecological resistance

By Skyler Simmons

Mar. 29 (AGR)— After 10 years of publishing what started out as a zine, Do or Die (DoD) presents us with its final issue chock full (397 pages) of incendiary analysis, in-depth news reports, and exciting accounts from direct actions around the world.

For those not familiar with DoD, it is a publication born out of the radical environmental movement in Britain that came to rise in the early 90’s. It has a strong anti-authoritarian tone, with an emphasis on ecology and direct action. Issue #10 does not fail the reader in delivering yet another round of enticing reading.

It starts out with a 100 page (don’t worry, there’s lots of pictures too) farewell manifesto of sorts that offers an insightful (as well as inciting) vision of where the radical environmental and anti-globalization movement should go from here. This begins with a brief movement history of the last ten years, mostly focused on Britain. While some of this may seem irrelevant to folks in the US it provides a good parallel to compare our own activism to. It moves on to emphasize the need to grow countercultures. “We need to catalyse living, loving, fighting countercultures that can sustain rebellion across generations. In both collective struggle and our everyday lives we must try to live our ecological and libertarian principles.” The author of the essay sees alternative infrastructure such as community gardens, social centers, and squats as essential for sustaining a radical resistance movement, because they create autonomous zones where we can truly practice what we preach.

The essay moves on to emphasize the need to escalate our tactics due to the ever-more imminent threat of ecological meltdown and how we should prepare for the likely backlash from the state due to any militant resistance. “We must have the ability to defend ourselves, survive, and exploit crises in society, including capitalist attempts to destroy us. The divided and industrial nature of today’s society has already determined the instability of tomorrow.” It’s not a pretty picture that is painted, but it’s an important concept that radicals must examine if we are serious about achieving our goals.

One thing that is unique about this journal is its attention to “majority world” struggles. Abandoning the Euro-centric action reports that fill so many radical periodicals, there is a wealth of information on struggles from Papua New Guinea, to recent insurrections in Algeria, to tree-sits in Ecuador. This includes an interesting interview with Native American activist and former political prisoner Rod Coronado that covers everything from sabotage to spirituality. Another interview highlights an anarchist feminist group in Bolivia and the political work they do in their country.

The Do or Die collective puts a lot of emphasis on creating active solidarity with majority world struggles as they are often fighting on the frontlines of a battle that is largely created by industrialized nations consumption of raw materials and cheap labor.

“The counter-culture must act in real solidarity with our struggling sisters and brothers on other islands. Aid them in whatever we can and bring the ‘majority world’ battlefronts to the boardrooms, bedrooms, and barracks of the bourgeosie.” In other words, we, as activists in the belly of the beast, are in a unique position, and in fact are obligated, to lend a hand to those who are most affected by modern day colonialism.

Another strong point for DoD is its willingness to critically examine everything it reports on. There is very little of the unquestioning praise for different movements that is often found in radical journals. At the same time the criticism that it does offer is generally constructive and shies away from the cheap shots and character assassinations that sometimes pass for critical journalism.

If you are looking for inspiring stories of resistance to the current world order, or you want to explore a fresh perspective of how we might go about creating radical change in our society and for the Earth, I recommend picking up a copy of DoD #10.

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Justice Dept. accused of nuclear
plant cover-up

Denver, Colorado, Mar. 27— Secret midnight burning of radioactive waste. An FBI spy flight with infrared cameras. An employee who contends she was contaminated by fellow workers for reporting safety violations.

It sounds like something out of a paperback thriller. But the allegations are contained in a new book that says the Justice Department covered up environmental misconduct at the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver more than a decade ago.

Federal and state health officials say they are looking into the claims raised by the book, The Ambushed Grand Jury: How the Justice Department Covered Up Government Nuclear Crimes and How We Caught Them Red Handed. The book was written by Wes McKinley, the foreman of a grand jury that investigated activity at Rocky Flats, and attorney Caron Balkany. They said the book is worth the risk of jail for violating grand jury secrecy rules.

“I am doing my patriotic duty,” McKinley said. “These people are criminals.”

In addition to interviews with former plant workers and investigators, the authors relied on a journal McKinley kept during the grand jury sessions. They said they were able to independently confirm all of the evidence discussed in the book.

A former federal prosecutor denied the allegations, and the plant’s former operator, Rockwell International, said all the claims have been investigated and found to be groundless.

Rocky Flats, situated on the edge of the foothills outside Denver, made plutonium triggers from the 1950s until 1989. The Energy Department complex is being cleaned up and officials hope to turn it into a wildlife refuge by 2006.

Tipped about potential safety violations, the FBI in 1988 used infrared cameras during flights over Rocky Flats and detected what agents said was a burning incinerator in Building 771, the plutonium-reprocessing facility. At that time, the building was supposed to be shut down after an employee was exposed to radiation. FBI and Environmental Protection Agency officials raided the plant in 1989 as part of an investigation called Operation Desert Glow.

Investigators subsequently looked at whether Rockwell knowingly discharged chemicals into creeks that flowed into municipal water supplies, burned toxic waste, and failed to adequately monitor groundwater.

From 1989 to 1992, a federal grand jury heard testimony and reviewed evidence against Rockwell. The panel wanted to indict eight people and two corporations involved with Rocky Flats, and recommended closing the plant.

But then-US Attorney Michael Norton refused to sign the indictments and worked out a plea bargain.

Rockwell pleaded guilty to 10 hazardous waste and clean water violations in 1992 and was fined $18.5 million. The company admitted it stored hazardous waste without a permit, in containers that leaked, and that its actions caused hazardous waste to wind up in reservoirs that supplied drinking water to nearby cities.

A Justice Department review of the plea bargain supported the prosecutors. The review said a charge of illegal burning had to be withdrawn because Allen Divers, a former military analyst who was working for Lockheed and who reviewed the infrared photos, had changed his mind and could not be sure. However, the book’s authors contacted Divers, who said he had never changed his opinion. Divers confirmed this in a telephone interview with the Associated Press.

The grand jury’s report remains sealed, and as recently as this month, US District Judge Richard Matsch refused to allow grand jurors to break their oath and speak publicly about the case.

Matsch did not respond to a request seeking comment.

Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the US attorney’s office in Denver, would not comment on whether McKinley would be prosecuted for violating grand jury secrecy.

The book includes material from interviews with FBI agent Jon Lipsky, who led a raid on the plant in 1989, and Jacque Brever, a Rockwell employee who worked in a building where processed plutonium was stored.

“My superiors have ordered me to lie about a criminal investigation I headed in 1989. We were investigating the Department of Energy, but the US Justice Department covered up the truth,” Lipsky said in the book. He confirmed his statement in a brief telephone interview with the AP.

Brever’s account is more chilling. She said she is suffering from thyroid cancer she believes is the result of her fellow union workers deliberately damaging her protective gear because they feared her testimony would force the shutdown of the plant and cost them their jobs.

Officials at the Energy Department did not return calls or an e-mail seeking comment.

Source: Boston Globe

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‘Occupation Must End Yesterday’
Jerusalem Women Speak

By Susan Pepper

Mar. 30 (AGR)— Michal Sagi, a Jewish Israeli, gives up her Saturdays to monitor checkpoints around Jerusalem.  If you are a Palestinian living in the surrounding areas of the city, you must cross various checkpoints to perform any of the mundane tasks of daily living such as shopping, a visit with the doctor, or if you are so bold, a visit with friends.  You must show a different kind of pass depending on the nature of your excursion.  

Sagi explained that ninety percent of the barriers separate not Israelis from Palestinians but rather Palestinians from Palestinians.

One beautiful morning, Sagi was walking when she saw Israeli police point their guns at a young Palestinian female student and asked her to lift her shirt.  Their presumption was to ensure she was not hiding any bombs.  

Sagi knew it was an outrageous request, since the girl was wearing a thin shirt that could not hide anything anyway.

Sagi shouted something at the police, where upon, they turned their guns at her and asked her to mind her own business.  Sagi just stood there and tried to give them the most piercing stare she could muster.

Upon witnessing the mistreatment of this young Palestinian woman by the Israeli police, Sagi decided that attending protests and signing petitions once in awhile was not adequate.  

She became actively involved with Checkpoint Watch, a women’s human rights group which reports on its observations of Israeli military at police checkpoints in the occupied Palestinian Territories.  

Sagi said, “I am going out to the checkpoint to protest and to show both Palestinians and Israelis that there is a different voice calling to keep human rights and remove checkpoints.”

In addition, the presence of the women from Checkpoint Watch performs various functional roles.  It helps reduce the rudeness of the soldiers.

The women relay information about the daily conditions at the checkpoints to Palestinians waiting at the back of the line.  On certain days, only people of a certain category -- whether it be their age or the nature of their outing -- are permitted to get through.  

The women from Checkpoint are a resource that that enables Palestinians to anticipate and to improve their chances of getting through.  On occasion, the women act as mediators and can encourage the guards to be more flexible with the Palestinians than they otherwise are.

Sagi talked about how difficult it is for her to leave the Checkpoint at the end of her shift.  “Its very hard to go away…once you go, things will be harder for the people.”  When she returns to her home, the cleanliness, quiet, and comfort are a stark contrast from the dusty, dirty checkpoints where the temperatures are either too hot or bitter cold.  She no longer takes for granted the security she feels at her home.

 Unlike her Palestinian friends, she can trust that no one will enter her house without her permission.  No one will tell her what to do in her apartment.  She knows she can plan to have a meal with friends at a certain hour and that they will have food and will be able to congregate.  Sagi said, “These trivial things should be trivial for everyone.”

Sagi wonders what is happening to her society.  Speaking about the Israeli soldiers, on average eighteen or nineteen years old, she said, “The gun is part of the hand now and they are waving it all around the place.

“If not to restore the humanity of the Palestinians than for Israelis, occupation must end yesterday.”

Michal Sagi spoke last Sunday at churches in Asheville and Black Mountain.  She, along with Nahla Assali and Nuha Khoury, both Palestinian women from Jerusalem, are currently on a 17-day tour in the USA sponsored by Partners for Peace, a non-profit and UN registered non-governmental organization based in Washington, DC.

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When reality is just an illusion

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