David Pellow

David Pellow’s talk, entitled “Radical Politics, State Repression, and the Problem of Eco-terrorism,” was focused on two questions: “To what extent are radical environmental and animal liberation movements also struggles over social inequality?” and “What are the implications of the ‘eco-terrorist’ label?” He explains that he isn’t just trying to support radical environmental and animal liberation movements; he is trying to fix the social inequality problem. Pellow and these activists and supporters are tired of the hierarchical system and how one man is greater than the other, and that all people are better than the environment. And what has the American government called these activists and supporters of these movements? Eco-terrorists. Pellow explains that the connotation eco-terrorist takes away these people’s rights and goes against the first amendment, freedom of speech.  It also makes them look like bad people, even though they are trying to make the world a better place. Terrorist is a very strong word and labeling these activists as eco-terrorists is not right.

These activists do not like how the American “system” works. They don’t like capitalism and the hierarchy it creates and do not like the idea of survival of the fittest and want to change the system so it is fair for the environment and the people. Yes, these activists are going against the hierarchical system, but for change to happen, they need to speak out, which they are allowed to do thanks to the first amendment. The government is mislabeling these activists as “eco-terrorists and shouldn’t be giving them this negative connotation. To prove that I think the government is mislabeling these activists, I wanted to know the definition of a terrorist. According to Dictionary.com, it says that a terrorist is a person who uses violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims. Yes these activists are trying to intimidate the government to change the system, but they are not being violent about it and therefore should not be labeled a terrorist according to this definition.  

Even though that I agree that there needs to be a change in the hierarchical system, I believe that these activists won’t get the change they want and achieve their goal. There are too many people in America who really don’t care about the environment and the hierarchical system in place and just go with the flow as long as nothing is affecting them directly. Pellow made some very good points about making this change, but working within the system is much more effective than going against it. And it isn’t right that the government is labeling these activists as “eco-terrorists” just because they want change.