We wanted to take the time and tell you about what our friend Miranda Gibson has been up to. For the last 154 days, long time forest defense activist Miranda Gibson has been living in an old growth Eucalyptus tree (named Observer tree) nearly 200 feet up in the heart of Australia’s Tasmania’s southern forests. The
forest that Miranda has been calling home is due to be logged any day now, and she has vowed to stay up in Observer tree until the forest is protected.
With the help of a decent solar panel, Miranda has turned the tree top platform into a fully functional media center. She has an awesome blog; Observer Tree, which allows the world to keep up with her forest defense work in protecting the beautiful Tasmania forest. The Observer Tree blog is frequently updated with video footage of Miranda and all things forest defense. You should really check it out and keep up to date with her campaign. Miranda has already broken the record for the longest tree sit in a Tasmania forest, and from the looks of it, she is only getting started.
Why?
This area of forest is in an area earmarked as one of Tasmania’s future forest reserves. It was promised protection by the State and Federal governments. Yet, if the logging industry has its way, it is going to be logged this summer! What is really going on in Tasmania’s forests?
A brief history of the Tasmanian Forest Negotiations:
2011 could have been a year of celebration for Tasmania’s wild forest. In October 2010, A statement of principles signed by Environmental NGO’s, industry groups and Unions paved the way for comprehensive forest protection and a restructuring of the logging industry. But, more than a year later, not one tree has 
been saved, more cash has been delivered to the timber industry and destructive logging continues in some of our island’s most sensitive and iconic forest areas. So what went wrong?
A series of broken promises, industry pressure and Government backpeddling have jeapordised the progress of this historic agreement.
First, in December 2010, the Tasmanian Government failed to implement a promised moratorium on the logging of 572,000 hectares of high conservation value forest. Forestry Tasmania, the State-owned forest management agency, flaunted this failure of leadership by pushing ahead with roading and logging in some of Tasmania’s most contentious forest areas.
In August 2011, the Tasmanian and Federal Governments signed an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) that promised immediate protection for 430,000 hectares of high conservation forest. The IGA stipulated that the Tasmanian Government would ‘ensure that the 430,000 hectares of State Forest identified … is not accessed [for logging]‘ and that the Commonwealth would compensate any contract holder affected by the protection of these areas.
But the agreement also required that hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of sawlogs and veneer peeler logs must continue to be supplied to the industry. Malaysian logging company Ta Ann Holdings has been promised an ongoing supply of over 265,000 cubic metres of timber per year from Tasmania’s forests. Forestry Tasmania argued that they could not supply this timber without continuing to log within the 430,00 hectares. In another backflip, the Tasmanian and Commonwealth Governments have turned a blind eye to the ongoing logging of pristine forests within an area they earmarked for immediate protection.
As 2011 draws to a close, Tasmanians are suffering the loss of hundreds of hectares of native forest that should have been saved from logging. Activists have occupied forests on the flanks of Mt Mueller to document this destruction. Prime Minister Julia Gillard must keep her word before the trail of broken promises undermines this crucial opportunity to protect Tasmania’s forests. Read the rest of this entry »
This is our first published workshop video from the 2012 Law and Disorder Conference in Portland, OR. We hope you enjoy this video, and the ones to come! For this video, Rose City Copwatch gives the workshop ‘Abolishing The Police’. Watch a wonderful, thought provoking workshop discussion around the reasons why people believe we need the police in our society, and community alternatives to the police and how to put them into practice.
What are your thoughts? What will need to change in the way our society functions if the police didn’t exist? What are the first steps in achieving this? We would like to see a discussion form in the comment section on this post. Thanks for watching!
The 3rd Annual Law and Disorder Conference will take place April 6-8th, 2012 at Portland State University.
This conference calls for people, movements, organizations and collectives to present alternative accounts to the political dimensions of civic engagement, mutual aid and revolution as they relate to economics, politics, invention, technology, work, artistic and cultural production, the body, pedagogy and social change. The conference promises to create a provocative space for comparative critical dialogue between activists, revolutionaries, educators, artists, musicians, scholars, dancers, actors and writers. The conference invites panels and workshop on all aspects of social change from the revolutionary to the academic.
Check out this video promo for the conference this year!
By Joel Olson
Occupy Wall Street and the hundreds of occupations it has sparked nationwide are among the most inspiring events in the U.S. in the 21st century. The occupations have brought together people to talk, occupy, and organize in new and exciting ways. The convergence of so many people with so many concerns has naturally created tensions within the occupation movement. One of the most significant tensions has been over race. This is not unusual, given the racial history of the United States. But this tension is particularly dangerous, for unless it is confronted, we cannot build the 99%. The key obstacle to building the 99% is left colorblindness, and the key to overcoming it is to put the struggles of communities of color at the center of this movement. It is the difference between a free world and the continued dominance of the 1%.
Left colorblindess is the enemy
Left colorblindness is the belief that race is a “divisive” issue among the 99%, so we should instead focus on problems that “everyone” shares. According to this
argument, the movement is for everyone, and people of color should join it rather than attack it.
Left colorblindness claims to be inclusive, but it is actually just another way to keep whites’ interests at the forefront. It tells people of color to join “our” struggle (who makes up this “our,” anyway?) but warns them not to bring their “special” concerns into it. It enables white people to decide which issues are for the 99% and which ones are “too narrow.” It’s another way for whites to expect and insist on favored treatment, even in a democratic movement.
As long as left colorblindness dominates our movement, there will be no 99%. There will instead be a handful of whites claiming to speak for everyone. When people of color have to enter a movement on white people’s terms rather than their own, that’s not the 99%. That’s white democracy.
The white democracy
Biologically speaking, there’s no such thing as race. As hard as they’ve tried, scientists have never been able to define it. That’s because race is a human creation, not a fact of nature. Like money, it only exists because people accept it as “real.” Races exist because humans invented them.
Here at BWM, we think it is important to recognize and let you know about folks who we think are worth doing so. Joel Olson was definitely the kind of person we wish we were able to work or organize with or even meet. Joel had a lot of wonderful things to say and we hope you read about Joel and his writings and pass them on to friends and family.
“Dear Comrades:
It has come to my attention that the esteemed activist, writer, and academic Joel Olson passed away while on sabbatical in Europe.
Joel was Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Affairs at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he
specialized in political theory. A noted expert on racial politics and extremist ideologies, he was the author of _The Abolition of White Democracy_ (University of Minnesota Press, 2004) as well as numerous articles and reviews. Joel was working on a second book, entitled _American Zealot: Fanaticism and Democracy in the United States_, at the time of his death.
During the 1990s Joel was involved with Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation and later went on to form Bring the Ruckus! He was a well-known figure in the anti-racist and pro-immigrant movement in Arizona.
Details surrounding Joel’s sudden and very untimely death remain unclear, but it goes without saying that his comrades in the North American Anarchist Studies Network, and throughout the North American and international anarchist community, will very much miss him, and we give our love, sympathy, and solidarity to his family, friends, and loved ones during this most difficult time.”
Nathan
Nathan J. Jun, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Midwestern State University
