At a time when everyone is going green, most people are unaware that the
FBI is using anti-terrorism resources to target environmentalists and
animal rights activists. The courts are being used to push conventional
boundaries of what constitutes terrorism and to hit nonviolent activists
with disproportionate sentences. Some have faced terrorism charges for
simply chalking slogans on the sidewalk.
Like the Red Scare, this Green Scare is about fear and intimidation,
using a word--eco-terrorist--to push a political agenda, instill fear
and silence dissent. The animal rights and environmental movements
directly threaten corporate profits every time activists encourage
people to go vegan, to stop driving, to consume fewer resources and live
simply. Their boycotts are damaging, and corporations and the
politicians who represent them know it. In many ways, the Green Scare,
like the Red Scare, can be seen as a culture war, a war of values.
Will Potter outlines the political, legal, extra-legal and public
relations strategies that are being used to threaten even acts of
nonviolent civil disobedience with the label of terrorism. Here is a
guided tour into the world of radical activism that introduces the real
people behind the headlines and tells the story of how everyday people
are being prevented from speaking up for what they believe in.
Will Potter unveils this complex movement with its virtues and its
flaws, the courage of a few and the false bravado of others. I see this
book as the definitive overview of the genesis of what is emerging as
the most important social movement in human history - the war to save
ourselves from ourselves.--Captain Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society
If we are to survive capitalism's death grip on our discourse and on our
lives, it will be in great measure due to the work of people like Will
Potter. His courage and integrity, which set him apart from most
journalists, are evident throughout this important book, and throughout
all of his other crucial work. Thank you, Will Potter.--Derrick Jensen,
author of Endgame
Part history, part action thriller and courtroom drama, part memoir,
Green is the New Red plunges us into the wild, unruly, and entirely
inspirational world of extreme environmental activism. Will Potter,
participant-observer and partisan-reporter, is the perfect guide,
unpacking with wit and skill the most elusive concepts . . .--Bill Ayers
Potter (a contributor to The Next Eco-Warriors) warns that the U.S.
government is using post-9/11 anti-terrorism resources to target
environmentalists and animal right activists (in some cases for doing
nothing but speaking up) . . . Potter warns of the crumbling of the
legal wall separating 'terrorist' from 'dissident' or 'undesirable, '
and concludes his account with a call to action and a decry of the
injustice that results in the terrorist label being put on those who
threaten American corporate interests. Alarming.--Publishers Weekly
In this hard-hitting debut, journalist Potter likens the Justice
Department targeting of environmentalists today to McCarthyism in the
1950s . . . A shocking exposé of judicial overreach.--Kirkus Reviews
(Starred review)
Will Potter is an award-winning reporter who has written for
publications including the Chicago Tribune, the Dallas Morning News and
Legal Affairs, and has testified before the U.S. Congress about his
reporting. He is the creator of www.GreenIsTheNewRed.com, where he blogs
about the Green Scare.
