WEBVTT - The Corporate Push to Criminalize Speech 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:13.360 Now you might think of the Mounties as kind of 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:16.160 like Dudley do, right, They always get their man. They 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:19.680 ride around in the musical ride with their red jackets. 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:26.320 The Mountains make no mistake. They are a vicious colonial militia. 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:30.040 They were formed in order to break the backs of 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:32.720 the indigenous resistance on the prairies, to open up the 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:37.040 land to railways and western expansion by settlers. And they 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:40.239 are still doing that job here on the colonial frontier 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:44.199 in Northern VC, except these days they have helicopters and 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:46.559 attack dogs and all the rest of it. 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:52.760 The response from the authorities, like the police, whenever that 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:57.080 I say protests against oil companies, it's always different from 0:00:57.280 --> 0:00:59.160 how they respond to other protests. 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:03.240 After about two hours of a standoff, they just line 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:07.039 up the riot squad and just marched the mean you know, 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:10.240 I remember them performing together. Reminded me a bunch of 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:13.880 that have puffed up turkeys. I went and then went 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:16.400 in and surrounded all these poor kids and started arresting 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:17.160 them and moving on. 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:23.440 So technically the investigation is still on and I can't 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:27.959 plan around it. I can't, and I don't know when 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:31.200 it's going to end, So I don't know how long 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:31.839 it will take. 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:38.240 When the former colonies acquired independence. In the advent of dicolonization, 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:43.039 largely after the Second World War and the advent of 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:47.639 the United Nations, the former imperial powers needed a legal 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:52.920 system to protect the economic interests of their corporations. 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:55.440 When I went to surrender. 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:58.120 To the FBI, I thought it was going to be kind. 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:01.120 Of a straightforward, more of a like a clerical matter. 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:06.200 But I ended up being put into shackles and taken 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:10.200 into custody for a good part of the day without 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:12.200 a lot of explanation of. 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:17.440 What was happening or why that was necessary. That was 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:22.080 Kainda Gata in Canada, Fine Faced Dunamini in Nigeria, David 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:27.120 Shubridge in Australia, Disha Robbie in Bangalore, Marcos, Oriana and Chile, 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:31.520 and Joanna Altman Smith in the US. Across the globe, 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:35.680 people advocating for climate action, whether they're students showing up 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:41.040 protests or lawyers arguing in court, are being retaliated against 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:48.600 by industries and politicians that feel threatened by that advocacy. 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:51.840 I'm Amy Westerwald, and over the next several months we 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:55.679 will be following this trend across borders, looking at everything 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:59.240 from the history of environmental protest and the suppression of it, 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:02.560 to the way think tanks help to push legislation that 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:09.040 criminalizes protests, to tactics used by both corporations and law enforcement, 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:14.480 from infiltrating movements to stripping environmental organizations of their nonprofit 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:21.760 status and labeling protesters domestic terrorists. For land and water 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:25.200 defenders around the world, being labeled a criminal can have 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:30.840 severe personal consequences, from social isolation to post traumatic stress, 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:35.840 to years of incarceration, and, at the extreme end, assassination. 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:41.560 Most serious repercussions fall on populations that are already routinely criminalized, 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:46.160 particularly people of color and indigenous people, especially in places 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:51.280 that have experienced colonialism in its most brutal forms. Criminalization 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:55.760 also impacts the broader climate and environmental movements, draining them 0:03:55.840 --> 0:04:00.520 of vital resources and key organizers. Ultimately, our ability to 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:04.000 avoid the worst outcomes of the climate crisis depends on 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:08.040 the success of people organizing to protect the land and water. 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:11.800 To edit this series, we've brought on a reporter who's 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:15.560 been covering this issue longer than most, Alleen Brown. You 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:19.240 might recognize her name from her last gig at the Intercept. Now, 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:23.159 Alleen is an independent investigative reporter, contributing to lots of 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:27.800 different publications and publishing her own newsletter too, called Eco Files. 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:31.840 Working with Allen and with reporters on almost every continent, 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:34.359 we'll be bringing you stories that help to trace the 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:37.760 roots of this trend. We're going to highlight successful fights 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:41.280 against it as well and humanize activists that the media 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:44.719 has helped to vilify and dehumanize for far too long. 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:49.120 You might remember us talking about how this trend has 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:53.080 unfolded in the US in previous episodes, where we've covered 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:57.160 the rollout of so called critical infrastructure laws that increase 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:01.000 both the fines and jail time associated with trespassing near 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:05.680 anything deemed critical infrastructure, which can include anything from a 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:10.919 pipeline to a road. Environmental defenders sometimes use tactics like 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:14.960 non violent direct action or civil disobedience to prevent the 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:19.839 construction and operation of polluting projects that can involve physically 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:23.599 standing in the way of construction equipment or trespassing on 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:29.440 private property. More rarely, some activists physically damage equipment. These 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:33.119 acts cost companies money, and sometimes they lead to arrest 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:37.440 under existing trespass or vandalism laws, but in recent years, 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:41.960 corporations have been pushing for new laws specifically designed to 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:47.159 punish and prevent disruptive environmental protests. These laws add additional 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:50.839 jail time and fines to those already existing trespass and 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:54.960 vandalism laws. The first step towards passing those laws is 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:59.839 defining so called critical infrastructure and making sure that the 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:05.400 definition of critical infrastructure includes harmful projects like new fossil 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:10.159 fuel developments. Framing those projects as critical to the security 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:13.800 of a community or to the country helps to underpin 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:18.080 the efforts to frame opponents of dam's minds, oil pipelines, 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:22.600 or coal plants as criminal threats worthy of harsh laws. 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:27.200 Independent researcher Connor Gibson has been following that trend for 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:30.480 more than five years. 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:35.159 So last time we talked it was I want to say, 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:39.359 late twenty twenty one, early twenty twenty two, and it 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:42.680 sounds like in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:47.520 some more of these fossil fuel backed anti protest bills 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:51.039 have been making their way through state legislatures. So I 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:52.960 want to have you first start with a little bit 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:54.920 of like a lay of the land. 0:06:56.400 --> 0:07:00.040 With these new laws that have come into the. 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:06.040 Sure, I think coming out of twenty twenty, I believe 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:09.880 the count was seventeen laws or seventeen states with laws 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:17.160 that upped the penalties for nonviolent acts of protests, usually 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:22.920 extremely targeted at fossil fuel infrastructure protest and protests at 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:26.840 fossil fuel construction sites. And obviously we're talking about the 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:30.600 protests over the Keystone Excel pipeline, the Dakota Access pipeline, 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:33.720 and Bayou Bridge and the Enbridge Line three pipeline. Those 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:37.040 are the main things that the industry had in the 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:42.800 crosshairs when they were devising this strategy to make nonviolent 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:47.920 trespass a very serious felony charge rather than a less 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:51.000 serious misdemeanor, as well as a lot of bills that 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:55.560 target organizations with conspiracy charges and fines if they're affiliated 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:58.160 with these people, in order to broaden that shilling effect. 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:02.880 In twenty twenty two, there was one state that joined 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:06.360 the trend, and that was Alabama. But in twenty twenty three, 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:12.760 now the trend has had a resurgence and two new 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:16.640 states already passed laws this year. The first was Utah 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:22.840 and as of yesterday. A bill that was finalized in 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:26.000 Georgia is now on the governor's desk, and I imagine 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:29.040 that will not be vetoed in the state of Georgia. 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:33.400 So if my count is correct, we now have twenty 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:37.480 states with these kinds of anti protest laws on the books. 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:41.800 That was Gibson bringing me an update in April twenty 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:45.760 twenty three. Four months later, another state joined their ranks, 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:49.440 bringing the total to twenty one states. Those laws began 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:52.800 to proliferate in the wake of the Standing Rock protests, 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:56.719 which began in twenty sixteen and continued into twenty seventeen. 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:01.200 Activists were protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline, which was being 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:03.880 built to transport oil from the back in oil fields 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:07.600 in North Dakota to southern Illinois. It posed a threat 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:11.120 to water resources because it was running beneath the Mississippi 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:15.000 River and the Missouri River near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:19.000 Criminal book gets your money somewhere else. 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:22.960 In the wake of those protests, fossil fuel lobbyists helped 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:28.080 to write new legislation targeted at criminalizing pipeline protests and 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:32.160 then spread it through the American legislative Exchange Council or ALEC. 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:36.280 ALEC is a nonprofit group that connects state legislators to 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:41.240 industry groups and helps to draft and distribute industry friendly legislation. 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:45.559 Is really because we have seen more and more dangerous 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:49.040 and struct attacks going in progress. 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:52.760 This tape is not the greatest. But that's Derek Morgan, 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:55.880 who is the Senior VP of Public Affairs for the 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:59.800 American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers at the time, a trade 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:03.640 group group representing the interests of refinery and pipeline companies, 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:07.600 speaking at a conference about the critical infrastructure legislation that 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:11.560 his group helped to write. Today, he is the executive 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:14.800 vice president of the Heritage Foundation, a right wing think 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:18.720 tank that has also helped to vilify environmental protesters and 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:22.679 fight against climate action. Like others who support these sorts 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:27.119 of laws, Morgan paints things like sabotaging engines and construction 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:32.800 machinery as dangerous. But anti protest legislation is only one 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:37.720 way that governments or industries are trying to suppress environmental protest. 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:40.839 We're going to be back with a global look at 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:44.760 other tactics in just a minute after this quick break. 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:48.319 I MM Welestervelt and this is a new series from 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:53.160 the teams behind Drilled and Damages. The Real free speech 0:10:53.400 --> 0:11:11.800 threat stay with US. Labeling protesters as terrorists has proven 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:15.240 to be an effective tactic for decades. It's a term 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:19.280 that has the power to transform someone using nonviolent tactics 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:23.600 to protect their ancestral homeland into a threat deserving the 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:28.640 attention of a nation's highest law enforcement or even military officials. 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:33.000 It also comes with sentencing enhancements that can dramatically increase 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:36.839 the jail time someone serves if convicted. The label often 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:41.040 requires first redefining the term violence to cover harm to 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:45.000 property in the US that was underway by the eighties. 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:49.440 Among the initial targets were Earth First anti logging activists 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:53.040 because they deployed monkey wrenching tactics like sitting in trees 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:56.800 to stop them from being cut down and sabotaging logging equipment. 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:01.160 Here's Jeremy Walker, a professor at the U University of Technology, 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:05.040 Sydney who researches various things related to the obstruction of 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:05.920 climate action. 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:11.560 One of the key activists in California was a woman 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:16.319 called Judy Barry. Judy Barry was very successful in mobilizing 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:20.920 you know protests people to come and actually occupy logging 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:25.560 operations and getting the way. And the problem with Judy 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:28.000 Barry was that she was very good at speaking to 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:32.439 the logging company's employees and the unions, and the classic 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:34.720 tactic that was used against environments, of course, saying, oh, 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:36.440 they just want to take your jobs away. But she 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:40.480 managed to win the forestry unions on side and work 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:43.079 with them towards a kind of you know, proposing a 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:46.240 kind of forestry plan. And then at some point Judy 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:49.080 Barry with a partner, got into their car and a 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:56.439 bomb exploded in their car. And interestingly enough, the local 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:59.840 police were quickly put off the case, and someone came 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:05.040 from the FBI and they charged Judy Barry. They said 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:07.760 that they accused her of carrying a bomb to blow 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:10.040 something up, and that her own bomb had gone off 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:11.000 and disabled her. 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:16.520 Barry spent the next few decades maintaining her innocence, asking 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:19.400 the police to investigate what she and her fellow activist 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:24.080 Gerald Churney said was clearly an assassination attempt, and fighting 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:27.719 to force the FBI to preserve the evidence that proved it. 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:31.480 Barry died in nineteen ninety seven, so she wasn't alive 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:35.600 to see the FBI and Oakland police eventually pay Earth 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:40.800 First four point four million dollars for violating their constitutional rights. 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:44.679 But even when activists get justice, or when the charges 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:48.640 don't stick in the first place, accusations of terrorism can 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:51.520 keep people tied up in court for years and have 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:56.280 a general chilling effect on activism. Painting environmentalists as terrorists 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:59.120 took off again in the US with the Earth Liberation 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:02.560 Front and Animal Liberation Front in the nineteen nineties and 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:07.520 early two thousands. Both groups used vandalism and in some cases, 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:12.400 arson to get their point across. Here's Earth Liberation Front 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:18.280 activist Daniel McGowan explaining it in a twenty eleven Frontline documentary. 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:20.600 You saw the mills. 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:24.320 Are you going into the forest and you stumble upon 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:30.479 a clear cut like it just blew me away. 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:33.640 Just the arrogance of it. I was like, man, this 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:34.360 is butchered. 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:36.200 You know. 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:38.160 It made me think, like, why are we being so gentle? 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:41.400 Why are we so gentle in our activism when this 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:42.320 is what's happening. 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:42.640 You know. 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:46.960 Other LF activists would explain over the years that they 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:50.440 realized that in some cases, burning down a building or 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:54.920 breaking machinery accomplished something that letter writing and other types 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:58.920 of political activism had failed to do for years, shut 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:02.560 down the activity they were trying to protest. By the 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:05.960 time ELF was at its most active, industry groups had 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:10.360 already spent years sharing information on environmental activists and the 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:14.360 movement in general with the FBI and pressuring the agency 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:18.360 to take stronger action against eco sabotage. But it wasn't 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:21.120 until nine to eleven and the launch of a global 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:25.480 war on terrorism that the label of eco terrorists really stuck. 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:29.120 It's a theme that has repeated itself in other places. 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:33.840 When governments cracked down on so called terrorists, environmental defenders 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:38.680 are often netted in the process. The FBI spent decades 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:43.000 hunting down ELF activists. At one point, the Earth Liberation 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:46.520 Front and the Animal Liberation Front were deemed the country's 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:52.880 primary domestic terrorism concern. Activists from those groups were placed 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:55.960 on the FBI's Most Wanted liss right along with Osama 0:15:55.960 --> 0:16:00.400 bin Laden. Bin Laden, of course, was wanted in connection 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:04.360 with the September eleventh attacks that killed nearly three thousand people. 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:08.360 By contrast, neither the Earth Liberation Front nor the Animal 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:13.120 Liberation Front ever killed anyone, but the FBI justified chasing 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:16.120 after them by accusing them of a sort of economic 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:20.960 terrorism that kept logging and mining and animal agriculture companies 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:24.560 afraid that they might be the next target, that theirs 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:28.200 might be the next building set ablaze. 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:34.440 Jess's home was rated by the FBI, and then two 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:38.120 years later a federal Grand Jurian dieded Jess on multiple 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:42.120 charges and she was placed on house arrests, and in 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:45.560 her sentencing hearing in twenty twenty one, she received an 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:47.400 eight year prison sentence. 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:53.120 This is Charlotte Grubman, a researcher, abolitionist, and organizer for 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:57.720 the Free Jess Team. Jess is Jessica Resnachek, who's been 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:00.440 in jail for two years now and was laid as 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:04.520 a domestic terrorist for using welding tools to pierce above 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:09.280 ground valves along the Dakota Access Pipeline in Iowa. Many 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:12.800 of the Ochetti Shakuwan water protectors that launched the fight 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:16.960 to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline also faced harsh sentences 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:20.479 and violent police tactics and bore the trauma of watching 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:25.560 their homeland transformed into a militarized zone. With armored personnel carriers, 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:30.040 attack dogs, helicopters flying above, and an army of police, 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:33.880 National Guard members and ex military private security guards, all 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:37.919 working together to protect the pipeline. But Resnachek was one 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:42.600 of the only pipeline opponents actually convicted for terrorism. 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:45.680 And she was a domestic terrorism enhancement and was ordered 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:49.560 to pay three point two million dollars to Energy Transfer Partners, 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:52.840 which owns the Dakota Access pipeline in restitution. 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:58.240 Another activist who joined Resnachek in the sabotage, Ruby Montoya, 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:01.800 received a similar sentence. However, in the midst of the 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:06.160 grueling prosecution, Montoya flipped her defense, arguing that she'd been 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:11.160 coerced into these actions. It's an often overlooked but common 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:15.919 feature of criminalization. Under pressure from the state, movement members 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:20.159 at times turn against their former collaborators and friends, causing 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:25.880 painful and deeply personal divisions within the movement and particular communities. 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:32.560 The trend of labeling environmental defenders terrorists is only continued 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:37.760 after Standing Rock. This year, forest defenders protesting a police 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:41.480 training facility being built in Atlanta, a facility the activists 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:45.720 called copp City, were charged as domestic terrorists under a 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:49.840 Georgia law that was initially designed to respond to mass killings. 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:54.320 They included nine people whose arrest warrants accused them of 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:57.960 little more than trespassing in the woods where the facility 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:01.320 is scheduled to be built and associating with a group 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:05.879 called Defend the Atlanta Forest to Cobb County. Warrants claim 0:19:06.280 --> 0:19:09.840 that the Department of Homeland Security classified Defend the Atlanta 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:14.800 Forest as a domestic violent extremist group. They used that 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:20.240 supposed classification to justify the charges against the activists. However, 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:23.720 DHS has claimed that they did not label Defend the 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:28.399 Atlanta Forests as a violent extremist group. This winter, the 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:31.760 criminalization of the Atlanta activists took a tragic turn. 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:36.520 One activist was killed by police in January, and now 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:40.439 officials are accusing others of being quote domestic terrorists. The 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:43.359 use of that charge is alarming civil liberties and human 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:46.280 rights groups across the country. 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:50.560 Some have argued that framing the forest defenders as terrorists 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:53.560 laid the groundwark for police to kill the forest defender 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:58.159 Manuel Paes di Dan, known as Tortugita. An autopsy showed 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:02.080 they were shot more than fifty d times as part 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:13.200 of a police raid on the Forest Defenders Camp. These 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:15.520 sorts of things are not just happening in the US, 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:16.080 of course. 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:20.760 We get contacted by climate activists all over the world. 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:24.719 This is Betsy Apple, a longtime human rights lawyer and 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:28.679 the executive director of a new nonprofit started solely to 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:33.480 deal with this whole global backlash against environmental advocacy. It's 0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:35.880 called the Climate Legal Defense Network. 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:41.040 But right now we're working on providing support legal support 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:47.480 to people in Uganda and Tanzania, in the DRC, Democratic 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:53.639 Republic of the Congo, in Liberia, and a little bit Mozambique, 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:58.679 in Canada, in Brazil, we just hired a new person 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:00.320 to do this work. 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:01.439 In the Philippines. 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:05.400 We've provided some advice in Vietnam, fair amount of work 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:10.200 in Europe as well, in the UK and France, in Poland, 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:14.639 a little bit in Germany. And it's an ever expanding list. 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:19.639 And they're not all people getting arrested at protests applesos. 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:22.760 Both the tactics being used and the people they're targeting 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:23.720 are expanding. 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:27.959 The use of the word activists is perhaps ill advised 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:31.679 because there are lots of people who are advocating on 0:21:31.760 --> 0:21:37.679 behalf of the climate and in supportive climate justice and 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:41.960 in supportive just transition to renewable and sustainable energy sources, 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:44.560 who don't even consider themselves to be activists. 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:52.080 So these people range from lawyers to journalists, to scientists, 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:57.920 to moms and dads to kids, to sort of ordinary 0:21:57.960 --> 0:22:02.879 citizens all around the world who are afraid of what 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:05.160 we've done to our planet and who feel like they 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:10.000 need to take some sort of action to try to 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:12.000 address climate change. 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:15.560 In fact, in some cases, labeling someone as an activist 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:19.959 is another way to silence or blunt their speech, particularly 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:23.840 when that label is applied to journalists, academics, or lawyers. 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:27.359 There's the sort of obvious stuff, the easy stuff for 0:22:27.400 --> 0:22:32.600 people to understand when a protester is out in the streets. 0:22:32.840 --> 0:22:38.840 For example, this past May, there were the Total which 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:42.480 is a giant French oil company which is involved in 0:22:42.600 --> 0:22:47.199 lots of bad fossil fuel projects which contribute significantly to 0:22:47.200 --> 0:22:51.800 climate change. Totel had its annual general meeting in France 0:22:52.119 --> 0:22:55.720 in May and lots of people went into the streets 0:22:55.720 --> 0:23:01.719 to protest Hotel's actions all over the world, and some 0:23:01.760 --> 0:23:06.040 of those people are likely to be prosecuted for criminal 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:09.879 activity for protesting illegally. So that's a kind of clear 0:23:09.920 --> 0:23:12.920 and easy example of the ways in which people who 0:23:12.920 --> 0:23:17.200 are taking action to support the climate are the subject 0:23:17.240 --> 0:23:21.240 of legal process. But then there are the less obvious 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:25.520 experiences that people have of the law. For example, you 0:23:25.720 --> 0:23:33.640 have four, actually now five people who were advocating for 0:23:33.960 --> 0:23:39.800 renewable energy policy in Vietnam and were arrested for tax 0:23:39.840 --> 0:23:45.480 evasion and are in jail and have been criminally convicted 0:23:45.560 --> 0:23:50.000 for tax evasion, which seems like it has nothing to 0:23:50.080 --> 0:23:53.160 do with the climate, but in fact it's a way 0:23:53.480 --> 0:23:57.600 that the Vietnamese government has been able to weaponize the 0:23:57.720 --> 0:24:02.600 law against people who whose activities they don't like in 0:24:02.640 --> 0:24:05.520 the context of the climate. And then I guess a 0:24:05.560 --> 0:24:10.800 third example would be you have a youth activist in 0:24:10.920 --> 0:24:14.280 Western Canada and British Columbia who is a. 0:24:14.240 --> 0:24:16.240 Citizen of a South. 0:24:16.520 --> 0:24:21.479 Asian country, but he's been a student in Western Canada 0:24:21.480 --> 0:24:25.000 and he was a real climate leader in trying to 0:24:25.080 --> 0:24:30.080 stop the destruction of old growth forests and the expansion 0:24:30.160 --> 0:24:35.040 of fossil fuel infrastructure in Canada. He's been arrested multiple times, 0:24:35.480 --> 0:24:38.960 and after his most recent arrest, the Canadian government decided 0:24:38.960 --> 0:24:42.440 that they were going to deport him back to his 0:24:42.720 --> 0:24:47.480 home country, where he indeed may face legal peril there. 0:24:48.200 --> 0:24:53.640 So he's actually experiencing not only criminal process, but he's 0:24:53.840 --> 0:24:58.560 experiencing immigration problems as a result of his climate activism. 0:25:00.040 --> 0:25:03.800 In Central America, human rights defenders have argued that repression 0:25:03.880 --> 0:25:07.600 of land and water defenders can start with defamation within 0:25:07.680 --> 0:25:12.280 a community, often on social media. Sometimes that defamation is 0:25:12.400 --> 0:25:16.800 ceded by outside interests. Once it starts on social media, 0:25:16.880 --> 0:25:20.919 it can escalate to inflated criminal charges that force people 0:25:20.960 --> 0:25:24.800 to go into hiding, and in some case it culminates 0:25:24.840 --> 0:25:28.240 in an assassination made to look like an accident or 0:25:28.400 --> 0:25:32.040 everyday crime. In places where the justice system is plagued 0:25:32.080 --> 0:25:36.560 by corruption and impunity rules, the assassination may be shrugged 0:25:36.600 --> 0:25:40.720 off by the state country by country, case by case. 0:25:40.880 --> 0:25:44.480 We've watched over the past few years as governments influenced 0:25:44.520 --> 0:25:48.840 by extractive industries cracked down on protests against those industries. 0:25:49.520 --> 0:25:52.080 In some places it's been the norm for decades. 0:25:53.280 --> 0:26:01.160 There were threats, you know, constant surveillance following people, and 0:26:01.600 --> 0:26:06.640 in these struggles, many people were assassinated, many people were wounded, 0:26:06.880 --> 0:26:10.560 amongst them my mother, Berta Casseres. She was murdered in 0:26:10.560 --> 0:26:11.720 twenty sixteen. 0:26:12.840 --> 0:26:17.119 Berta Casseres was fighting against dams and mining projects in 0:26:17.200 --> 0:26:21.240 Honduras when she was killed. Although Cassettis's murder in twenty 0:26:21.280 --> 0:26:25.280 sixteen was initially framed as just a robbery gone wrong, 0:26:25.760 --> 0:26:29.439 in twenty twenty two several executives from the company that 0:26:29.520 --> 0:26:33.679 was building the damn Caseis was protesting against were convicted 0:26:33.760 --> 0:26:37.439 of organizing her murder and sentenced to thirty to fifty 0:26:37.520 --> 0:26:41.760 years in prison. As in Barrie's case and many others, 0:26:42.040 --> 0:26:46.160 justice was a long time coming for Cassetis. What happens 0:26:46.200 --> 0:26:49.840 in a lot of environmental defenders cases is that irreparable 0:26:49.960 --> 0:26:54.080 damage is caused long before any kind of justice is served, 0:26:54.600 --> 0:26:57.439 and even when justice does come, damage to the movement 0:26:57.520 --> 0:27:00.399 in general, and the chilling effect that these sorts of 0:27:00.440 --> 0:27:04.439 actions have on protest and criticism and free speech in 0:27:04.520 --> 0:27:09.000 general has set in. In some countries, Fossil fuel and 0:27:09.080 --> 0:27:11.240 mining interests are just such a big part of the 0:27:11.280 --> 0:27:14.600 economy and have been for so long that some politicians 0:27:14.640 --> 0:27:18.680 are more concerned about angering the companies leading those industries 0:27:18.840 --> 0:27:22.320 than whatever backlash they may face for stripping citizens of 0:27:22.400 --> 0:27:26.240 their rights. This is fine faced nominee talking about how 0:27:26.280 --> 0:27:28.480 that plays out in Nigeria. 0:27:28.680 --> 0:27:30.760 When there is a protect against oil company because they 0:27:30.760 --> 0:27:34.199 have the resources they pay to the security operatives to 0:27:34.240 --> 0:27:37.639 go and dislaunch the people that have come to carry 0:27:37.680 --> 0:27:41.159 out protests against them, and as a result of that, 0:27:41.920 --> 0:27:45.439