Igniting A Revolution: Voices in Defense of Mother Earth

	Click here to read Claudette Vaughan's interview with Dr Steve Best
	Click here to read the 'Taste of Leeds' interview with Dr Steve Best

Every day ecological, anti-nuclear/military, animal liberation, anti-fascist/racist, anti-state and the indigenous peoples' liberation walk through difficult terrain. Forced to endure attacks from the mainstream media, government, courts, the prison industrial complex and general public every day of travel on this path becomes longer and truly more horrible.

This important new book, Igniting A Revolution Voices In Defense Of Mother Earth is a series of essays from the above ground radical environmental and animal liberation movement.

The book is divided into seven parts. Part One is on the History and Nature of Revolutionary Environmentalism. Part Two is based on the Sustainability and the Politics of Consumption. Part Three. Religion and Spirituality. Part 4. Primitivism and The Critique of Civilisation. Part 5. Repression and Resistance Part 6. Direct Action and Beyond. Part 7 Social Movements and Alliance Politics.

No matter how diverse these voices are, this is a source book we truly need to strengthen our resolve in readiness for the anti-backlash campaigns and to turn the tide against activists being continually scapegoated by the tri - dominant cultures' "big guns", the political right, corporations and the state.

This book is said to be written by and for earth liberationists, animal liberationists, Black liberationists, Native Americans, ecofeminists, political prisoners, primitivists, saboteurs, grassroots activists and militant academics and those who will join the resistance movement and fight for Mother Earth.

Derrick Jensen, Rosalie Little Thunder, Jeff Luers, Leslie James Pickering, Kanahus Pellkey, Josh Harper, Anthony Rayson, Craig "Critter" Marshall, Marilyn Buck but to name just a few are some of the voices in the book. Committed, passionate and talented writers and activists infuse the movement with their encouragement, thoughts and insight. And there are a river of stories to be told too.

With the sentencing of the SHAC7 coming up and the "Green Scare" happening while so many environmental activists involved in a round up by State are now turning snitchers, this book is timely indeed.

Speaking truth to power of new ideas concerning radical ecological politics has the capacity to trigger, mobilize and organize new activists while revitalizing and strengthening existing activists.

There are plenty of stories to be told too. Some will move you, challenge you, shock, anger and educate you. Most importantly, hopefully they will inspire you to action. These voices are against brute force and injustice.

Such voices as the activist Jeff "Free" Luers who is currently serving 22 years and 8 months in prison for property damage. As he says in the book, there just came a time when enough is enough. "When it came to dealing with the state and greedy corporations, the word "please" was no longer in my vocabulary." Luers also talks about his own encounters with interspecies communication something that, I predict, will emerge more and more in the coming years for hard-core earth and animal activists.

pattrice jones, is another activist who wrote "Stomping With The Elephants Feminist Principles for Radical Solidarity" for the book. jone's analysis on How do you break a wild animal? makes for absorbing reading. She brings to the table a terribly tragic situation that interconnects, not alienates, sexism, speciesism and environmental exploitation while mirroring simultaneously "different symptoms of the same injury".

Increasingly now as appositive phenomenon we are seeing direct action reinventing the social justice activist's landscape. The cornerstone of the movement has a wisdom to impact to build decentralized coalitions using nonhierarchical models. There's no denying it. Direct action creates a powerful, successful and life-changing action in the face of enormous odds. One action can change the political landscape and radicalise a new generation if done correctly.

Each person who speaks in this book has their own 'unlimited sets of responses' on dealing with how to fight for the earth. Some of the personal views in the book show how direct action is organised to provide not only emancipation for the subject at hand, which is noble enough, but show how it can also provide a powerful model from which activists can emulate.

There is a task ahead for a small group of people to build a movement so eventually to create a new economy and a healthy environment. One that protects human, non-human and planetary rights. There are many smaller campaigns ahead of each one of us involved in the struggle and we deserve to learn the truth of what we are up against.

The voices in Igniting A Revolution Voices In Defence Of Mother Earth are direct, creative and accessible. Even though there is no consensus on what constitutes "success", this isn't a criticism as activists are nevertheless defining a new moment in grassroots organising. The essential elements of this moment in grassroots organisng is of a effective, decentralized, multivocal radicalism based upon direct action.

Lastly, let's not forget the fallen. Those voices, not present in the book, but are part of our history and those who made the ultimate sacrifice with their lives for the eco and animal liberation war. The ecology wars have been underway for quite some time now.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Bill Rodgers, Karen Silkwood, Dian Fossey, Chico Mendes, Jill Phipps, Mike Hill, Tom Worby, Fernando Pereira, Hilda Murrell, Valery Rinchinov, Joy Adamson and Guy Bradley and Barry Horne to name but a few.

Today's voices combined with those that went before us reflect the seriousness and magnitude of the conflict. This is not a game. This is not a dance. Fear not the mountain in front of us.

In the final analysis, the outcome of the eco- wars will prove more critical than any ever fought by the human race. No less than the survival of all sentient life on the planet will depend on it. This in turn, in one way or another, involves each of us, every day of our lives. Society is creating ecocide and our actions can't reverse past destruction. But our actions today might just be able to halt the past from becoming the future.

Igniting a Revolution Voices In Defense of Mother Earth is well written, informative and interesting. It makes a valuable contribution to the understanding of the radical environmental movement. Every university library in the country should acquire a copy.