'freedom riders' to save forests

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16 SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 1990 are aware of this and have decided to meet us head on, early on with the same kind of smear campaign from the McCarthy era.

S.A.: How does Earth First! differ from other ecology groups?

Cherney: Besides being a non-organization with no membership and essentially no rules except to put the carth first, Earth First! differs in three fundamental ways.

The first is "no compromise." We feel that, as far as the environment is concerned, all the compromises have been made. We can't compromise any more of the ozone layer, we can't compromise any more condors when we have only 26 left, or any more spotted owls when we have only two or three thousand left.

In the same manner, we shouldn't have to compromise any more Salvadorans or Guatemalans or South Africans. There are certain things you just can't compromise.

In addition to that, "direct action" is a primary method of Earth First! We allow our actions to the finer points of our philosophy. We're not an armchair outfit. If you see something wrong, you go and do something about it whether it's civil disobedience or writing a good solid letter. You need to be active to be an Earth Firster!

And finally, "biocentrism" is the key paradigm that Earth First! offers to the world. I think that even though it's an ancient way of thinking, we're representing it in a new way for modern society. What biocentrism says is that humans are not the center of the planet. The earth does not center around humans but rather humans must accept themselves as one of many species acThe following interview with Earth First! activist Candace B. was conducted by Barbara Putnam on June 8, 1990. It has been edited and abridged.

Socialist Action: You are helping to organize Redwood Summer. Tell us more about it.

Candace B.: Basically, what we are calling for is "freedom riders" to come and save the last of the giant trees and the ancient forests. We've put out a call all over the nation for people to come and participate in acts of nonviolent, civil disobedience in the redwoods to stop the logging that's going on there.

In November here in California, there are three major ballot initiatives that deal with forest issues-two that are environmental initiatives (Forests Forever and Big Green) and one that is being touted as an environmental initiative that is actually a timber industry initiative, that we've nicknamed "Big Stump."

The timber companies know that once the Forests Forever and Big Green initiatives pass—and pass they will-they are not going to continue to be able to do what they are doing. So they are logging massively so that they can get whatever they can before the new restrictions come down on them.

During Redwood Summer, ing people to do nonviolent civil disobedience—we have trainings happening all the time in the Bay Area and up in Northern California where we have regional action centers. People are learning how to climb trees to do tree sits, people are learning about habitat restoration, people are learning how to work together.

S.A.: There's been quite a bit of media coverage saying that Earth First! is against the timber workers. Where do you think that is coming from?

C.B.: I think that a lot of that is coming from the timber companies. I mean, it's very easy for the timber corporations to point fingers and to say that these people who want the logging to stop want your jobs so that the issue of the old-growth forests and the out-of-control logging practices that the companies are indulging in get lost.

It's to polarize things so that the environmentalists are pitted against loggers and millworkers. Then the timber companies can step back and let us duke it out. Well, we're not going to take that, and that's part of the reason that we feel that Judi and Darryl were targeted. They've been drawing some very important links with millworkers and loggers and so forth up in the North country.

S.A.: So you are saying that the part of large timber companies to say that they are supporting their workers when what they are doing is destroying the last of their livelihoods.

I mean, if you chop down all the oldgrowth trees, clearcutting them, what are these people going to be doing in five years? There will be no jobs connected to the forestry industry at all. So, who are the real culprits here?

S.A.: What about the things the logging bosses are doing to "prove" they are complying with the demands for a better environment?

C.B.: First, they say you can "replant" trees. But as we have seen in the Canadian logging industry, silvaculture does not work-especially when you are clearcutting. You can't replant an oldgrowth forest. What you are going to get after you have clear cut, slashed, burned, and robbed the soil of all its nutrients, is a bunch of sickly, scrawny little trees that get to be about 20 years old, and that is it.

So what these companies are talking about, in terms of replanting, is ridiculous. All they are going to have is a toilet paper pulp farm when they are finished with it.

We've got quotes from the chairman of Pacific Lumber, saying, "We log to infinity, all those trees are ours and we want them now!" This is no vision of the future. It's pretty scary.