David Pellow, social scientist and environmental justice researcher, gave a talk entitled "Radical Politics, State Repression, and the Problem of Eco-terrorism". After his opening remarks Pellow clearly spelled out what the focus of this talk was, “To what extent are radical environmental liberation movements also a struggle over social inequality?... What are the social implications of the eco-terrorist label?” In simplest terms, I perceived his answer for the first question to be that environmental liberation movements are strongly linked to social inequality movements both because they grew out of these movements and because they still work side by side with these movements to achieve “total liberation”. In his response to the second question Pellow made it very clear that, in his eyes, the government's push to brand radical environmentalists as terrorist takes away their rights and stifles the voices of American citizens.
You cannot talk about the ties between environmental justice as relating to social inequality without talking about total liberation. Total liberation is a belief in justice and anti-oppression for all beings, it sees an interconnectedness between all forms of oppression. This total liberation belief was held by nearly every organization Pellow explored and he laid out defining similarities between them. The first was that they are influenced by other movements. These current radical movements may never have come together if it were not for the endeavors of previous organizations like the Black Panthers. Direct action (whether criminal or otherwise) was another shared characteristic and one that come directly from movements before them. The last similarity he noted was varying degrees of anarchism and anti-capitalism all stemming from their opposition to all forms of hierarchy. Both environmental and social movements seek to tear down hierarchy in an effort to destroy the oppression created by our society.
Pellow’s speech was filled with examples of those who faced scrutiny and punishment from the government because of their actions on environmental justice. The Green Scare refers to the explosion of government laws targeting environmental activists. In this case the environmentalists are not like those of the civil right movement who had their citizenship suspended but like Muslims in this country today that would lose their human rights. The US government uses the term terrorist to give them the leeway to suspend whatever rights they want, as most Americans simply turn their heads when they hear someone called a terrorist. Pellow brought this idea close to home when he spoke about his college advisee, Scott DeMuth, who spent 5 months in prison. This seems a small number but when you consider the only transgressions they had on him here his ideas and affiliation with a radical environmental organization. He also. He also noted Daniel McGowan who was convicted of arson, but otherwise had no previous charges, was sentenced to 7 years in a maximum security prison alongside former Guantanamo detainees. This “eco-terrorist” label provides the government with the power to further oppress these environmental groups, who themselves are fighting against oppression.
Most people in the audience gave a relieved laugh when Pellow made light of one of the more extreme radical quotes that he read. He is not a radical himself and like most agrees they can be a bit overzealous. During the question and answer section he was asked whither the overly radical nature of these group actually hurts the movement as many people are uncomfortable with their actions. Pellow gave a bit of a mixed answer to this question, he agreed that such radical groups do keep people away and will never gain a large following but notes that this movement was never intended for the main stream. They saw the ineffectiveness of moderate groups and it was their anger over this that gave rise to these radical organizations. In the end, both the moderates and radicals are just seeking recognition for their cause. Pellow’s research works to understand radical environmentalist organisations and this work is significant because deep down the sentiments of these groups are ones that all of society should take heed of.
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