Things that make it very difficult to call oneself a Leftist.

The below item represents an entire genre of rhetoric which in language, content, and tone, represents that side of leftism with which makes me sigh.

Before I get to it, several comments. I like environmentalism just fine. What I don't much like is the romanticized version or the sort of thinking that connects a sometimes unfrugal use of resources with "oppression" against human beings, as in the phrase "The domination of wimmin is parallel to the domination of Mother Earth and "non-humyn" animals." These are not parallel. They are quite different. The Nazi regime was utmostly respectful of nature; an attempt was even made to replace traditional German Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism with even more traditional German (read Germania by Tacitus) pagan tree worship.

One notices that trees have replaced, in this line of thinking, the Noble Savage: trees are uncorrupted, free, beautiful, and so on. This thinking takes Rousseau's faulty romanticism even further. (For the most penetrating critique of Rousseau and the Noble Savage, I recommend Camille Paglia's book Sexual Personae; whether one agrees with all of her ideas or not, it's a great read and it reminds you that there many angles from which to examine a problem.) It also represents the "pathetic fallacy." In the back of my mind I wonder what statistically average males from many countries, including America, think when they read this. I cannot help but to think that this sort of thing tars the entire Left. The website is http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~insurgnt/13.1/fallcreek.shtml.

Note the use of terms like "wimmin" which if you are unfamiiliar is supposed to be the non-sexist term for women since it does not contain the word "men." In other such writings, wymyn is used. This one also uses humyn. Note the careful placement of "wimmen and men" which is supposed, one assumes, to decenter masculinity from thought, but only looks like a bearded, bespectacled version of that very 1940s chivalry that many current feminists deride as paternal and sexist.

Note the term "patriarchal death culture." (For current views on patriarchy that radically revise the absolute negativity in which patriarchy is seen by modern academics, I recommend a fascinating article in a recent issue of Foreign Policy by Phillip Longman, March/April 2006. I can put a link to it if requested.) Equating patriarchy with death will be most difficult after reading Longman's article.

The document is interesting and sympathetic as a snapshot of how a small community of radicalized, focussed individuals tries to solve interior problems. I'll give it that credit. It makes me want to be a fly on the wall in some of their community meetings. But it is precisely the sort of ultra-left, very PC attitude that turned me away from the radical left after I heard it too long in San Francisco at Real Food grocery store and a nonprofit punk rock record store on 16th and Valencia where I volunteered for six months or so, and at Berkeley on campus at every single protest. When the radicals take over all left action, the moderates who don't agree with the radicals simply leave. Many are so disgusted they turn right. I did not do this; I stayed moderate left, which is a lonely place in the city of Berkeley.

Note what the writer declares is the source of sexist stereotypes or views about the differing general characteristics of the human genders: society. One wonders if it is "society" that makes male and female cats differ in their behavior; at some point, those feminists who sincerely believe that all gender differences between human males and females are constructed will have to deal with this question.

Note the sigh-inducing line:

"Another reason why abusive men and their supporters felt justified in their behavior is because they felt that a direct action campaign is not a place for feminist politics. Sound familiar? They were either "sick of hearing wimmin whine about sexism" or very self-righteous and denied that they had any sexist, racist, homophobic, classist, speciesist, ageist, ableist behaviors imbedded in their minds."

For those unfamiliar with far left rhetoric, "speciesism" is the belief that some species are more worthy of preserving than others. This is not an "ism," properly speaking, but a respect for the dignity of human life that must lie at the center of progressive politics, or of any politics worth participating in, but has been relegated to another irrational prejudice by the tree people along with discrimination against the handicapped or ableism. For more on their use of the word "racism" which I argue needs to be seriously dissected, please note the Norman Davies post below as well as the Comment section of the "what this site is all about" post.

I will occasionally meet people who talk a much more radical left talk than I do and who are shocked when they finally read things like the below. I realize then that they have never really read much of the far left's rhetoric; and so have never actually comprehended my earnest protestations that the far left is pursuing policies -- if a disjointed group of individuals can be said to pursue policies of any sort -- that are not in sync with the moderate left.

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Addressing Sexist Oppression at Fallcreek
a collaborative effort of wimmin and men

Sitting in the canopy of this old growth forest, in treesits that we created with our friends, as birds sing to one another and the sun turns the sky pink, we think about the beauty of the earth, this place, and the imminent threat of logging. We also reflect on the current strength and good feeling of the Fall Creek Treevillage. We have been here for over three years trying to create an alternative to the patriarchal death culture. We'd rather the Fall Creek Timber Sale was cancelled so we could take down the treesits and leave the red tree voles and flying squirrels in peace. But the forest service and Zip-O Lumber want their profits; they want "their" trees.

Our community has gone through tremendous changes. We've dealt with forest closures, law enforcement, cold weather, diarrhea and oppression within our own campaign. Those of us who currently make up the Cascadia Forest Defenders collective take this opportunity to provide some insight into dealing with problems that affect all campaigns. This information is the collective experience of wimmin and men involved in the preservation of this campaign. Many times issues of sexism and power-tripping are ignored or excused, but left to fester these problems will inevitably divide people and weaken the group. When that happens our efforts to save the forest and end patriarchy suffer too. When it comes down to dealing with problems, most individuals would rather look the other way. We chose to be responsible for our community and pursued the difficult step of getting people who would not stop being abusive to leave.

In January 2001, it became apparent that several men were creating an unsafe environment for wimmin and keeping wimmin and men from full participation. Some men who lived at Fall Creek were abusers or supporters of abusers. They espoused sexist stereotypes, actions and words that had become engrained in their minds (as we all have, society puts them there). They refused to admit to their sexist actions and they refused to begin working on themselves to amend these behaviors. Many wimmin who were involved around this time were no longer willing to keep confronting the abusive, misogynistic behavior, with no positive results or end to the abusive patterns. At that point, Fall Creek became mainly men in the treesits with only a small number of wimmin visiting for short periods of time. This created a situation where wimmin ended up doing the majority of the town and grunt work.

We all suffer from sexism, externally and internally. A beginning step in deconstructing sexism is to recognize the institutional role it plays and that men are trained to be sexist in a patriarchal society. Some men created a "boy's club" within Fall Creek; they would stick up for each other, defend each other's actions and deny that any type of abuse had occurred .

Some of the men in the boy's club had vital skills and resources. Therefore, some people in the campaign questioned whether these men should be approached or asked to leave. They wanted to avoid the issue of sexism because they feared it might hurt the campaign financially and strategically. People tend to be valued for the money they provide and the skills they possess. Traditionally, the men who hold these skills share them with other men, perpetuating inequality. To prevent this chain of male dominance from happening in your campaign it is important to emphasize sharing skills with wimmin. We have found that it was not worth putting up with bullshit from "skilled" people because when they were finally asked to leave, it opened up space for skilled anti-oppressive people and funding is still available. It is more common for people to ignore problems when the people in positions of power are the problem. To avoid this, divide tasks between many individuals and look for funding from several sources. You will be amazed at the opportunities this creates.

Another reason why abusive men and their supporters felt justified in their behavior is because they felt that a direct action campaign is not a place for feminist politics. Sound familiar? They were either "sick of hearing wimmin whine about sexism" or very self-righteous and denied that they had any sexist, racist, homophobic, classist, speciesist, ageist, ableist behaviors imbedded in their minds. It takes a lot of thought, open mindedness and hard work to challenge our inherited beliefs of ism's that dominate our lives. Because of much of the white skin privilege at Fall Creek and in many eco-defense circles, the confrontation of oppression, if any, usually falls along gender lines. We believe this is something that must be challenged and that all oppression with in our action groups must be confronted, not just sexism. This is one of the many lessons we have learned over the past few months and are continuing to work on.

Fighting oppression should have equal importance as the fight for the forest. The domination of wimmin is parallel to the domination of Mother Earth and "non-humyn" animals. There is no fighting for one without fighting for them all. After putting up with sexist behavior for years, some of us felt totally disempowered to do anything. We did not like the way things had been going, and we had no hope that it would change. We became pessimistic and depressed with the situation. We are so grateful that enough of us were empowered to fight sexism and truly create what we want at Fall Creek, a safe space for challenging oppression--a place where we all have the opportunity to learn together and from the forest while we defend it.

We started to have meetings about what to do. It was agreed upon that two men, because of the level of their abuse, were no longer welcome in the campaign and two others were given a chance to evaluate themselves and learn the importance of an anti-oppressive attitude before returning to the forest. All men were asked to participate in a "gender bender," where traditional gender roles in the campaign would be switched for a period of time.

There were people who felt that people in town had no right to make decisions regarding people in the forest. We feel that all people involved in the campaign, whether they live in town or in the forest are part of the same campaign and support each other. Many forest defenders go back and forth between town and the forest and were in town because they were disempowered and depressed by the situation in the forest. In general, most of the people in the forest supported the changes too. We all have a responsibility to confront oppression wherever it may occur, and to work for an atmosphere of inclusion for every gender.

No physical force was used to remove people from the forest. Each man was approached in a way we hoped would minimize defensiveness and help communication. One style was to have a representative of the larger group whom was also a friend of the man approach him one on one. We also tried a group approach with wimmin and men taking part. In either case, talking with people was not easy. A few people had a hard time with the idea of asking anyone to leave permanently. This led us to sugarcoat our words, compromising our group's decision. It was very frustrating to not be firm. We were met with much hostility and verbal abuse. This strengthened our confidence that our decisions would benefit the campaign and that we had not misjudged their character.

One man who needed to leave was in a treesit and refused to be replaced. After determining that he had enough bulk food and water to survive, we decided to cut off his ground support, including fresh food. Within a few days he came down, and the "gender bender" month began.

This entailed having an all wimmin occupation in the forest, teaching and learning practical skills about forest defense and wilderness survival. Many new wimmin came to Fall Creek with fresh energy, skills and resources. They also came with stories of intimidation and offense that had kept them from getting involved when it was predominantly male. Most of these new wimmin are still dedicated and involved.

During this all wimmin forest time, supportive men were in town organizing funds, rides, food and the office. This freed wimmin from town responsibility so they could go to the forest. Everyone's knowledge of forest defense was expanded.

The men whose abuse inspired these actions, did not support the "gender bender" and chose to leave the campaign. Any loss of resources or skills that might have been felt from their absence has been met, and met by people who are as dedicated to a community free of abuse and hierarchy as they are to forest defense. Of course, nothing is perfect and we have to constantly deal with our own shit, but that's part of what this is all about.

If you are interested in what we are doing and would like to get involved or send donations, please contact us! Logging could happen at any time, so come defend the old growth and destroy patriarchy! Contact Cascadia Forest Defenders PO Box 11122 Eugene, Oregon 97401 (541) 684-8977; greencanopy@popmail.com; www.echoecho.org

Endnote: We have made a conscious decision to not name the abusers in this article. Part of this is to respect the privacy of the people who may still feel threatened by them. Some of us would like to have a network to alert campaigns about abusive individuals. Anyone interested in contributing, please get in touch.

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