Will Potter: "Don't turn your back on the fear"

About 90 people came to Cowles Auditorium on the University of Minnesota's West Bank last Thursday to hear journalist and activist Will Potter speak about the "Green Scare" and the use of terrorism laws to silence political activists. Potter is an independent journalist who authors GreenIsTheNewRed.com and earlier in the day spoke at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul.

Potter was introduced by Dallas Rising of the Animal Rights Coalition, who told of how her organization was targeted in a terrorism investigation last year by the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office. The organization only found out about the investigation after being contacted by a Pioneer Press reporter, she said, and the "investigation" as she knew it mostly consisted of pages from the ARC website, including a nonviolence pledge and articles about animal abuse. The targeting of such groups shows that state and corporate interests "are trying to destroy the entire animal rights and environmental movement," not just underground groups, said Potter.

Related Video: Will Potter on the Green Scare and RNC 8

The event was especially pertinent in light of the recent sentencing of environmental activist Marie Mason to nearly 22 years in prison. The same week as Mason's sentencing, the FBI put out a press release about four men who randomly beat up African Americans in retaliation for the election of Barack Obama. The expected sentence in the case is half of Mason's sentence, even though the case more closely fits common definitions of terrorism (violence against civilians to influence a government) than the Mason case, in which nobody was injured. "I'm not saying we should expand the use of terrorism laws," Potter said, "but if you want to play this game, let's play it."

Despite high profile cases involving illegal direct action's such as Mason's, the "Green Scare" should concern all types of organizations and individuals working for social and environmental justice. Potter's presentation focused less on political prisoners than on other examples of political repression and intimidation. For example, the Humane Society of the United States, which recently gave money to law enforcement in California to assist in finding the perpetrators of an arson there (an arson which has not been claimed by environmentalists), was recently the target of a smear campaign trying to tie them to "terrorists."

Much of the audience also came with an interest in the RNC 8 case - a conspiracy prosecution similar to the charges against Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty in both the United States and more recently in the United Kingdom. Potter discussed how the tactics of the Green Scare, including corporate-pushed legislation like the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, are working their way into other realms of activism as well. He specifically detailed the proposed Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, which passed the U.S. House in 2007 by a vote of 404-6. In the Senate, where it was co-sponsored by Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman, the bill is pending but has a good likelihood of passing, according to Potter.

What are the implications for organizing in a time that is "very much like the red scare"? "All the groups throughout U.S. history that have been targeted in this way have later been hailed as heroes," Potter reminded the audience. To those who would not stand with activists like those in SHAC or the RNC 8, he added, "Everyone is radical in hindsight ... meanwhile, you're demonizing these people as terrorists for running a website."

"The only way to deal with fear is openly and honesty," Potter said. While fear of repression can make people drop away from being activists or worry about who they associate with, corporate/governmental tactics can be overcome with strong community. "People might thumb their nose at potlucks, shows and so on, but these types of things are integral to a strong movement," he said. Such community is essential to, for example, supporting one another after arrest, spreading awareness about FBI harassment and reducing the incentive to snitch.

"The work that's being done now is just as hard as the work that was done then," said Potter. Despite the seeming inevitability of government repression, though, "there's nothing inevitable about how the people in this room respond to it."