I drove over 500 miles to Los Angeles from Mendocino County, where we are facing the destruction of our majestic redwood forest by timber corporations like Georgia-Pacific and Mendocino Redwood Company (a subsidiary of the GAP) and a proliferation of corporate vinyards that are stripping our hillsides of oak trees and poisoning our soil and water with methyl bromide. I dropped my two daughters off with their grandmother to ensure they would not be harmed by the unpredictable behavior of the LAPD and their common use of tear-gas, pepper spray and steel batons. I've been marching and straining my voice with chants of freedom everyday in 95 degree weather. I've performed revolutionary comedy at the Peoples' Convention and I've been a medical assistant at the Convergence Center where demonstrators gather to rest and reorganize.
But one of the beautiful things about this is that each of us has our own story about the people's struggle to rise up and take back the power that Giant Global Corporations, with the help of our militarized police force have stolen from us. Our government has been purchased by corporate monoliths from CitiGroup to Walmart. We share a feeling that our civil rights are being casually dismissed in the name of big business and burgeoning Police domination.
The opposition to our movement, although they couldn't tell you exactly what our movement is about, is trying to figure out who our leaders are. They're having an awful time. One reason is because we are not a hierarchical structure. We are a cooperative endeavor. We share common interests and concerns. For instance, those of us who stand against sweatshop labor walk side-by-side with those who are concerned about the rights of women and children. Those who fight for union representation in the workplace stand with those who defend the last remaining old growth forests. Those who focus on the rights of indigenous peoples are in solidarity with those who are outraged by uncontrolled police violence, the prison industry complex and the racism inherent in the death penalty. What we have are coalitions, where members of each group identify the problem, find the root of it and join in collaboration on solutions. We then make an educational, artful presentation to our community or our constituents and we take to the streets in peaceful marches to spread the message. This is our basic procedure. One person may coordinate a specific event and map it out, but most decisions are made by consensus.
Another virtue of our movement is that it is all-inclusive. We welcome everyone. No matter what color yourare, how old you may be, what religion you practice or what your past or your present situation may be. If you are homeless and don't have a dime, you're in. In fact, we'll make you a spokesperson, feed you, defend your rights and march with you. You can be an ex-con, a welfare mother, a cleaning woman, a college student, a steelworker, a communist, a Catholic, a Nobel prize winner. If you want to join our struggle, come on in.
In planning our direct actions we have agreed on some important guidelines. We will use no violance, physical or verbal towards any person. We consider speech or acts that are racist, homophobic or sexist to be violent. We will carry no weapons. We will not bring or use any alcohol or illegal drugs. We will not destroy property, except barriers that impede our right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
We ask that you follow these guidelines for your own safety and ours. We work out conflicts through mediation and conversation and debate and consensus. There have been no physical or violent confrontations amongst us even though we are dealing with all races, ages, religions, and sexual orientations. We don't want anyone to get hurt. In fact that's what we are fighting against; the random and sometimes methodical torture of inocent people who are trying to survive and exercise their rights.
We are equipped with legal observers, medical personnel, and government officials, like Tom Hayden who has been a longtime peace activist and witness. We have extraordinary artists who have created political theater, banners, and magnificent giant Puppets which tower above our marches, expressing the sentiments of the day. As bizarre as this may seem, the police have mounted an absurd campaign of terror against these puppet people, capturing and destroying them in an attempt to silence our message.
We also have music ranging from Bonnie Raitt and Rage Against the Machine to small time folk singers performing songs of struggle. We have intelligent journalists like Amy Goodman and her show "Democracy Now!", working through independent media. We have brave foot soldiers who put their bodies on the line to defend their constitutional rights and the rights of those who cannot defend themselves. In other words, we are extremely organized and we have a very clear agenda. We will be heard on issues of crimes against humanity and the earth and we will hold those responsible accountable and we will offer solutions.
We are not paid, like the military and the media who seem to have the power to control us, distort our messages, demonize us, assault us and arrest us and do everything but find out what it is we're doing out here. People take time off work and money from their own pockets and travel hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles for a good reason. Instead of assuming we've come to riot, annoy people shopping at the Gap and cause traffic jams, perhaps there could be some intelligent investigation on the part of the media as to why we are here. Imagine Ted Koppel or Larry King having meaningful discussion with Juliette Beck of Global Exchange or the Committee to Free Leonard Peltier.
We are a pure democracy in which people do what they are best at. Whatever their political passion is, they can contribute to this unprecedented movement in anyway they choose. It is based on hope and not fear and we are all leaders.
(The author is the star of "Family Secrets" and "Oh My Godess", rcently performing in Mendocino County.)
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2000
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited