Extraction Resistance: Solidarity with Tar Sands Blockade and Unis’tot’en Camp

In response to the Tar Sands Blockade call out for Solidarity on January 7th, radical groups and organizations from across the Colorado Front Range are joining forces on January 5th and 6th to raise donations and material support in the fight against the tar sands and industrial extraction. Deep Green Resistance, Denver Anarchist Black Cross, and other local groups are collaborating to organize Extraction Resistance: Solidarity with the Tar Sands Blockade & Unis’tot’en Camp.

In addition to collecting funds and supplies for both the Tar Sands Blockade and the Unis’tot’en Camp, the two-day event will include workshops and teach-ins at the 27 Social Center (2727 W 27th Ave Denver, CO) on radical resistance to extraction across Colorado & North America.

With the aim of providing a space for education and discussion around a wide range of topics, the organizers hope to foster further discussion and facilitate new relationships that will cultivate resistance against industrial extraction in Colorado and solidarity with those fighting it elsewhere.

Workshops–which will cover a variety of topics including radical environmentalism, social justice, anti-extraction and direct action–will be hosted by Deep Green Resistance, Denver Anarchist Black Cross, the Beehive Design Collective, indigenous organizer & NVDA trainer Robert Chanate, Glenn Morris of the American Indian Movement of Colorado, and more. An updated schedule is posted below.

Besides building local capacity and networks, the event also aims to directly support those who are on the front lines in the fight against the tar sands and industrial extraction. The event will serve as a fundraiser, with a requested donation at the door of $5-20, with all proceeds going to the Tar Sands Blockade and the Unis’tot’en Camp. However, no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Lunch will be provided for those attending, including vegan and gluten-free options.

We will also be collecting donations of materials for these groups, so please bring any camping gear (tents, sleeping bags, etc.), bicycles (working or not), warm winter clothes, climbing gear, rain gear, non-perishable food, rope, medical supplies, and tools (shovels, saws, drills, etc.). For a complete list, see the Tar Sands Blockade’s ‘Wish List’:http://tarsandsblockade.org/donate-3/wishlist/

The Facebook event can be found here.

Workshop Descriptions:

The Beehive Collective presents:
The True Cost of Fossil Fuels: Climate Justice and the Fight for our Future!(10:15am, Saturday, January 5th)

Join us for an interactive, graphics-based workshop about the growing
movement for climate justice on this continent.

This summer North America saw an inspiring amount of grass-roots
organizing against fossil fuel extraction.  From growing resistance to
hydro-fracking for natural gas, to the derailing of the Keystone XL
pipeline project,  to the continued disruption of mountaintop removal
sites in Appalachia, folks are waking up to the threat posed by dirty,
dangerous fossil fuel extraction and working to build alternatives.

At this crucial moment, we would like to invite your community to be part
of this dialogue. The Beehive will share the stories of different fossil
fuel struggles around the continent using the acclaimed “True Cost of
Coal” graphic. We will engage participants by mixing together antidotes
from the coalfields of Appalachia, statistics about different forms of
fossil fuel extraction, and a variety of activities to learn more about
the struggles against fossil fuels in this region and weave them into this
growing tapestry of resistance!

Hidden Impacts of Fracking In Colorado (1:15pm, Saturday, January 5th)

Presented by Shane Davis,  local fracking activist
The state of Colorado has failed to prevent adverse impacts to the environment and to human health.  Uncovering official State documents reveals the shocking truth of the harmful threats we face from mining that uses hydraulic fracturing. (Data mining workshop 101: Industry language, acronyms, departments, official docx, website architecture and acquisition methods to compile meaningful, useful data)

Time Is Short: The Case for Underground Resistance (3:30 pm, Saturday, January 5th)

Every living system on the planet is in decline, and industrial capitalism is killing Earth. While countless communities around the world are fighting back, we must be honest: overall, we are losing. Deep Green Resistance advocates for organized, strategic underground action to collapse the global industrial economy before it is too late. This presentation will explore the history of underground action and the it’s potential as a strategy to save a dying world.

Liberals and Radicals: Critical Theory for Effective Action (4:15 and 5:15 pm, Saturday, January 5th)

Members of Deep Green Resistance will present and facilitate a discussion about liberalism and radicalism, two political doctrines often talked about but not understood.The historic and contemporary dominance of liberalism has handed us a framework that misunderstands the nature of power and social change, and that truncates actions that would otherwise be effective. By re-examining liberalism and radicalism in the context of the environmental movement, we can make better decisions and take more effective action.

For more information, contact DGR Colorado at deepgreenresistancecolorado@riseup.net

END:CIV Screening & Discussion June 14th

Join Deep Green Resistance and Occupy Denver Environmental Defense on Thursday, June 14th for a screening and discussion of Frank Lopez’s groundbreaking film, END:CIV at the Gypsy Cafe (1279 Marion St) at 6:00pm. The film, which is based on Derrick Jensen’s two voume book Endgame, examines the destruction and violence that defines civilization, and poses serious questions about why, and how, we must resist.

END:CIV examines our culture’s addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations. END:CIV asks: “If your homeland was invaded by aliens who cut down the forests, poisoned the water and air, and contaminated the food supply, would you resist?”

The causes underlying the collapse of civilizations are usually traced to overuse of resources. As we write this, the world is reeling from economic chaos, peak oil, climate change, environmental degradation, and political turmoil. Every day, the headlines re-hash stories of scandal and betrayal of the public trust. We don’t have to make outraged demands for the end of the current global system — it seems to be coming apart already.

But acts of courage, compassion and altruism abound, even in the most damaged places. By documenting the resilience of the people hit hardest by war and repression, and the heroism of those coming forward to confront the crisis head-on, END:CIV illuminates a way out of this all-consuming madness and into a saner future.

For more information, contact deepgreenresistancecolorado@riseup.net, or call 720-425-4955.

Sweet Crude Film Screening & Discussion – May 15

“Before the coming of oil, we had good fishing, rich estuaries, good costal land, good harvest, unpolluted…and then this thing called oil came.”

Deep Green Resistance Colorado will be hosting a screening and discussion of the film Sweet Crude, which documents the grassroots community resistance to oil extraction in the Niger Delta on Tuesday, May 15^th in the basement of the George Reynolds Library (3595 Table Mesa) at 6:00pm.

The Niger Delta is often considered the most polluted place on Earth. For half a century, oil extraction by transnational corporations has gone unregulated. Here, citizens of an oil-rich nation struggle to eat in a land that can no longer support them. The Delta’s water and soil have been fouled by the same oil production that accounts for more than 80 percent of the country’s revenue. Traditional fishing and farming livelihoods are all but gone. Potable drinking water is rare.. Families are broken up, as men die young or take off for the cities to find jobs.

An Open Letter to Fellow Environmentalists

This open letter was written by a member of Deep Green Resistance Colorado, and was influenced and informed by Deep Green Resistance and the work of Paul Kingsnorth, Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith, Aric McBay, and Jack Forbes, among many other sources and experiences.

The earth isn’t dying; it is being killed. And “clean energy” will only make things worse.

I should probably begin by introducing myself; my name is Alex, and I’m a recovering renewable energy advocate. For years, I was a victim of desperation and hope; I petitioned and parlayed, chanted and canvassed; I brimmed with excitement at the prospect of “green jobs” and a “renewable energy economy.” I still see much of myself in many of you.

I know what it’s like. I know exactly how it feels to look around and see a world not just dying but being suffocated, being tortured and maimed, sacrificed on the twin altars of profit and production. As a young person today, I know what it’s like to fear the future, to fear for my future. I—like many of you—have read all the studies and reports I need to see to know what’s coming, what disaster is now screaming, all but unchallenged, down the track upon us.

Derrick Jensen: A New Declaration

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

That the real, physical world is the source of our own lives, and the lives of others. A weakened planet is less capable of supporting life, human or otherwise.

Thus the health of the real world is primary, more important than any social or economic system, because all social or economic systems are dependent upon a living planet. It is self-evident that to value a social system that harms the planet’s capacity to support life over life itself is to be out of touch with physical reality.

That any way of life based on the use of nonrenewable resources is by definition not sustainable.

See the rest of Derrick’s “New Declaration” at the Occupy Wall Street Journal.

No Justice – Or Future – In An Industrial Economy

A letter to the Occupy Wall Street movement, written by a member of Deep Green Resistance Austin, reminding us of a fundamental premise of any movement seeking a brighter future. From http://deepgreenresistancewisconsin.org

an open letter to the national Occupy Wall Street movement

Dearest Occupy ::

I write y’all with the greatest admiration, excitement, hope, and humility.

I write with the intention to contribute to the conversations that people are having nationally – and internationally – about what the building of a just and sustainable world would look like.