PalCo Bankruptcy Plan; Maxxam Sells Redwoods to Developers

contact: 707-845-9046

The Humboldt Forest Defense Association is a growing direct action collective of affinity groups. We are strengthening our community and processes and are considering planning a winter camp-out here in Humboldt.

Also, someone anonymously wrote-

"Even thinking about development in the sacred redwoods ecoregion will bring in some additional neighbors, the guerrilla factions of ELF"

Why even say that? Do you live in Humboldt County? It's unlikely to happen and it's irresponsible to throw statements like that around.

What is likely is nonviolent direct action to impede the development of this land in the form of road blockades, tree-sits, lockdowns and more. We'll have to innovate!

The same person who anonymously wrote the one sentence about the ELF also wrote a number of other statements in the article above, though you (humboldt activist, another anonymous writer) chose to focus in one one sentence for your critique..

To answer your question, "why even say that?"

Well, why not say it? How unlikely is it? Do you really know the true answer to your own statement? Are ELFers limited to one geographic location, or can they migrate, become nomadic?

Think of ELF as adding a divesity of tactics to the north coastal region, employing some additional tools in the toolbox that seem to be rusting from lack of use..

The article above also states that this invasion of Humboldt by ELF guerilla factions would occur only if Maxxam/PL land is sold off for development. Regular forest defense actions would proceed as previous, non-violent road blockades, treesits, tripods, etc..

Nor do these hypothetical ELF factions plan on coming into the Arcata plaza with their wickedly curved Persian swords ready to lop the heads off of loggers, hippies or any other residents (though a good solid "thwack" against the neck of the McKinley statue may ring out in the foggy mist one fine morn!!) of Humboldt..

Again, ELF maintains that no living humans or animals will be harmed in any of their actions. They're also rumored to be rather respectful of the plant community also..

That only leaves the so-called "violence" of property destruction, which even Ghandi himself stated was not true violence in his understanding of the word..

Though i DO NOT agree with Ward Churchill's statement on the "Little Eichmans" of 9/11 and his mistaken "left gatekeeper" belief that there was no U.S. government complicity in enabling the 9/11 WTC building collapse following the airplane crash, i DO agree with Ward on issues concerning restoration of indigenous people's land & treaty rights

and;

with statements in his book "Pacifism as Pathology", an internal critique of the insistence by various authoritarian leftists that non-violent pacifism is the ONLY way to gain any changes in the current corporate status quo..

"Liberal activism often embraces non-violent resistance in response to State-sponsored terrorism at home and abroad. In this emotional critique, Churchill urges activists to support any and all tactics in order to stop the tyranny of the State. Churchill argues that the terrorist attack of 9/11 disrupted US global capitalism more radically than any peaceful protest the Left has been able to organize. Recorded at a packed and fired up AK Press warehouse in Oakland. "

book @;
http://www.akpress.org/2002/items/pacifismandpathologyintheamericanleft

As a writer, i cannot claim myself to be a practitioner of ELF tactics, though i do support their presence and actions wherever they exist..

Pacifists and advocates of non-violence also have the responsibility of historical accuracy, as in Ghandi and ML King did not act entirely alone. During both of these struggles, there were other, unamed individuals elsewhere who were engaging in vandalism and other activities of property destruction. Specifically, in India there were guerilla armies blowing up and demolishing British weapons depots and weapons transport trains simultaneously while Ghandi held his non-violent sit-ins in cities throughout India..

This forced the British military officials to negotiate with Ghandi and his non-violent approach, which appeared to become the sole means for overcoming imperialist British armies, though that is only half of the story..

"The tide of Indian nationalism, having acquired momentum steadily since Gandhi was first arrested, attained a climactic stage in the spring of 1930. On March 12 of that year, following British rejection of demands for dominion status for India, Gandhi announced that he would lead a mass violation of the government salt monopoly. The violation was accomplished, after a long march to the Gulf of Khambhat, by boiling seawater to produce salt. Similar actions occurred throughout India, and on May 5 Gandhi was again jailed by the British authorities. Riots and demonstrations developed immediately in Calcutta, Delhi, and other centers. Trains were stoned, telegraph wires were cut, and various government officials were assassinated. Striving to cope with these and later disorders, the government carried out wholesale arrests, and by November about 27,000 Indian nationalists had been sentenced to prison terms."

read on @;
http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/GeogHist/histories/history/hiscountries/I/india.html

Here's a more detailed account of armed resistance in India alongside Ghandi's non-violent resistance;

"Emergence of the armed revolutionaries

Virtually all the armed revolutionaries had participated enthusiastically in the non-violent non-cooperation movement earlier. But when the non-cooperation movement was suddenly suspended by Gandhi, the more radically minded of the young leaders looked to other leaders for inspiration. In 1904, V.D. Savarkar had organized Abhinav Bharat as a secret society of revolutionaries. Anushilan Samiti and Yugantar were two other such societies. Ideas of armed resistance to British rule were propogated and international centres were established with Madame Cama and Ajit Singh representing the struggle in Europe, and Shyamji Krishnaverma and others organizing chapters in London.

Frustrated and disillusioned by the inaction of the Congress, the revolutionaries in northern India were the first to reorganize under the leadership of the older veterans, Ramprasad Bismil, Jogesh Chatterjea and Sachindranath Sanyal whose Bandi Jiwan served as a textbook for the revolutionary movement. They met in Kanpur in October 1924 and founded the Hindustan Republican Association (or Army) to organize armed revolution to overthrow colonial rule.

The advance of the armed struggle required bold and risky actions. Volunteers had to be recruited and trained and arms had to be procured, requiring money - hence raids on the British treasury. On 9 August 1925, ten men held up the 8-Down train at Kakori (a village near Lucknow), to get access to its railway cash. British reaction was quick and hard. Ashfaqulla Khan, Ramprasad Bismil, Roshan Singh and Rajendra Lahiri were hanged, four others were sent to the Andamans for life and seventeen others were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. The Kakori case was a major setback to the revolutionaries of northern India; but it was not a fatal blow. Younger men such as Bejoy Kumar Sinha, Shiv Varma and Jaidev Kapur in U.P., Bhagat Singh, Bhagwati Charan Vohra and Sukhdev in Punjab set out to reorganize the HRA under the overall leadership of Chandrashekhar Azad. At this time, they were also strongly influenced by socialist ideas. At a Delhi meeting in September 1928, a new collective leadership adopted socialism as their official goal and changed their party's name to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (Army).

On 8 April 1929, HSRA embarked on a plan to throw a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly against the passage of two new repressive bills - the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Bill. The aim was not to cause any loss of life, but to use the daring action to awaken and energize the Indian masses. It was intended to 'make the deaf hear'. The objective was to get arrested and to use the trial court as a vehicle to disseminate their dreams and ideas for a new and liberated India.

Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt were tried in the Assembly Bomb Case. Later Sukhdev, Rajguru and tens of other revolutionaries were also tried in a series of famous conspiracy cases. Their fearless and unswerving attitudes in court became legendary. Every day they entered the court-room chanting slogans 'Inquilab Zindabad,' 'Down, Down with Imperialism,' singing songs like Sarfaroshi ki tamanna hai (our heart is filled with the desire of martyrdom) and Mere rang de basanti chola (dye my clothes in saffron, the color of courage and sacrifice).

In March 1931, Rajguru, Sukhdev, and Bhagat Singh were hanged by the British in spite of tremendous popular opposition to their hanging. Bhagat Singh became a household hero, and his hanging led to an outpouring of grief and sorrow all over the nation. Although the Congress could have utilized the mood of popular anger to accelerate the mass struggle, it's response to the Bhagat Singh trial was tepid. In his private negotiations with the British, it appears that Gandhi did not press the issue of Bhagat Singh's impending death sentence. Supporters of Bhagat Singh became particularly bitter when Gandhi failed to fight hard on their behalf.

In Bengal too, armed revolutionary groups started reorganizing and developing underground activities even as some of the leaders maintained their links with the Congress. One of their planned actions was to assassinate Charles Tegart - the much hated Police Commissioner of Calcutta. The attempt failed and Gopinath Saha was arrested and hanged for the attempt despite massive popular protest. Despite the setback, attempts at armed revolt were not abandoned. Among the new 'Revolt Groups,' the most active and famous was the Chittagong group led by Surya Sen.

Surya Sen had actively participated in the Non-Cooperation Movement and had become a teacher in a national school in Chittagong. He had also been closely associated with Congress work in Chittagong. Along with other colleagues in the local Congress committees, and several young recruits, Surya Sen and his compatriots decided to organize a rebellion, on however small a scale, to demonstrate that it was possible to challenge the armed might of the British empire in India. Their action plan was to include occupation of the two main armories in Chittagong and the seizing of their arms with which four large band of revolutionaries could be formed into an armed detachment. In a fierce fight, (April, 1930) eighty British troops and twelve revolutionaries died, but Chittagong could not be held by the revolutionaries. When the armed revolutionaries dispersed into the Chittagong countryside, most of the Muslim villagers gave food and shelter to the revolutionaries in hiding, enabling them to survive for three years. The Chittagong Armoury Raid had a tremendous impact on the people of Bengal and inspired numerous other acts of armed resistance. But Surya Sen was eventually caught and hanged in 1934. Many of his co-fighters were also caught and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.

Just as it seemed that the national movement was completely slipping away from the influence of the Congress, Gandhi returned to the mode of non-violent struggle and launched the salt satyagraha (1930-31). Campaigns to boycott imported goods were also launched. With the masses energized once again, a series of anti-British action took place, of which most notable were the raid on the Chittagong Armory and a mutiny by Garhwali soldiers in Peshawar. For ten days, British authority in Peshawar collapsed. But the brave soldiers of Peshawar who had resisted British orders to shoot at their civilian brethren during a mass demonstration received little sympathy from Gandhi."

read on @;
http://india_resource.tripod.com/freedom.html

Meanwhile in modern day Iraq, Moqtada Al-Sadr and the Mahdi army are certainly not limiting themselves to only one form of resistance when the privatization of Iraq's underground oil privatization is happening..

"Mr Sadr, revered by millions of Iraqi Shias, spoke after leading Friday prayers in the Grand Mosque at Kufa, just over 100 miles south of Baghdad. It is one of the four Iraqi cities considered holy in Shia Islam. He always wears a black turban, the traditional symbol of a Shia cleric who can trace his ancestry to the Prophet Mohamed. But for the second time in two weeks, he also wore a white shroud - a symbol of his willingness to be martyred, and his belief that death is close at hand.

"There is nothing to talk about," he said angrily. "The Americans are occupiers and thieves, and they must set a timetable to leave this country. We must know that they are leaving, and we must know when." He has reason to be wary of US offers to negotiate. As I revealed last month, respected Iraqi political figures believe the US army tried to kill or capture Mr Sadr after luring him to peace talks in Najaf in 2004.

With US, British and Iraqi government forces still conducting operations against the Sadr movement and its army, the cleric warned he was prepared to launch another armed uprising. "The occupiers have tried to provoke us, but I ordered unarmed resistance for the sake of the people," he said. "We have been patient, exercising statesmanship, but if the occupation and oppression continues, we will fight." The Mahdi Army has been relatively quiet, but it is becoming more active in Baghdad, responding to a series of devastating suicide bombings by Sunni extremists.

Mr Sadr, whose rise to become one of the most influential figures in Iraq coincided with the US overthrow of Saddam, said his movement sought to follow the example of Hizbollah, the Shia armed resistance movement in Lebanon. "Hizbollah and the Mahdi Army are two sides of the same coin," he said. "We are together in the same trench against the forces of evil."
"

read on @;
http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick06042007.html

So it goes with the struggle against imperialist colonialism here in the americas, and this resistance has an equally long timetable that will no doubt continue into the future..

"Columbus Day on Oct. 12 is celebrated as a holiday in the United States and several Latin American nations, but Chavez said it should be remembered as the "Day of Indian Resistance."

"We Venezuelans, we Latin Americans, have no reason to honor Columbus," he added.

The Venezuelan leader said Spanish, Portuguese and other foreign conquerors had massacred South America's Indian inhabitants at an average rate of roughly "one every 10 minutes." He described Spanish conquistadors like Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro, as "worse than Hitler."

He said even the continent's geographical names, like America and Venezuela, were imposed by foreigners.

Chavez's opponents, who are seeking a referendum to try to vote him out of office, say his self-styled "revolution" in the world's No. 5 oil exporter is aimed at installing an anti-U.S. communist system like the one in Cuba. Chavez says his brand of left-wing nationalism will make Venezuela more independent.

The Venezuelan leader hailed as heroes Indian chiefs who had fought against the invaders, such as Guaicaipuro who resisted the Spanish founders of Caracas, and American Indian chief Sitting Bull, who defeated U.S. Gen. George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.

"Long live Sitting Bull!" Chavez declared, drawing applause from his audience, many of whom wore traditional native clothes and head-dresses."

article @;
http://www.transformcolumbusday.org/media/20031011-rt.htm

Of course we all love our family, friends, bodies and ecosystems we call home, and would like nothing more than to remain alive and well for many years to come, The greatest sacrifice made is one's physical freedom and comforts of life lost to prison, and the breath of life is the ultimate gift that one does not ever want to give up..

However, complicity with the occupation of corporate imperialists (here or elsewhere) by not fully engaging or limiting oneself in choosing certain methods of engagement over others is the sadness of not having tried hard enough and surely to witness the destruction of one's home (forest, desert, mountains, etc..) by the imperialist occupation is worse than the pain of any bullet..

Summing up, whatever you choose to do, BE SAFE!! and try VERY hard not to get caught. Nobody in the established Humboldt forest defense movement is responsible for the actions of any outsider! We're all individuals who make choices, nobody is responsible for any action that they themselves did not act out in physical form. Since this doesn't involve payments for actions, the same rules of inciting violence or "ordering hits" do not apply. So far one writer here is doing most of the inciting, so this writer is the only one responsible..

FBI ALERT!!

This writer also encourages solo "lone lobo" actions instead of group cells to avoid any testimony in court as witnessed in the recent green scare episodes where one or more members of the group cell snitches and gets everyone caught. What nobody knows can't be said...

Reconsider the effectiveness of admitting your actions for the sake of pride and/or media publicity. Better off to present the police with a face of insanity and/or ignorance and live to fight another day than to admit to any actions, even under duress..

You are clearly not involved in whats going up here. We don't need no ELF to accomplish the protection of our natural heritage here. I believe it would hurt more than it will help. Don't assume I'm a total pacifist either.