NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #30/NN_1992_30.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/9289

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Subject: Re: Wise Use in Northeast (anti-Green)
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Date: 13 Dec 92 22:24:00 GMT
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/* Written  2:07 pm  Dec 13, 1992 by cberlet in igc:publiceye */

THE SCENT OF OPPORTUNITY:

A Survey of the
Wise Use/Property Rights Movement
in New England

by William Kevin Burke

December 12, 1992

Preface (by Chip Berlet)

When William Kevin Burke first came to use the
library at Political Research Associates in 1987
he had built a solid reputation as a freelance
journalist, with a particular interest in
environmental issues. At Political Research
Associates, we had an interest in the emerging
right-wing anti-environmental movement which
spawned the Wise Use movement. This interest
reflected our eleven years as a research center
that monitors and publishes on the political
right wing. On both a professional and a personal
level, the match between Political Research
Associates and Bill Burke was a good one, and we
have worked together ever since to uncover the
activities of the fast-growing anti-environmental
movement. This report is one result of that
collaboration.

In 1988, as communist governments were beginning
to crumble in Europe, conservative magazines
began to refer to environmentalists as
"watermelons": green on the outside, but red on
the inside. Environmental activists across the
nation began reporting an increase in incidents
of surveillance and harassment. In the late
summer of 1988, Greenpeace Magazine asked
Political Research Associates to investigate
these reports and prepare an article on
right-wing involvement in the anti-environmental
movement.

By 1989, PRA had become an informal clearinghouse
for an ad-hoc network of groups and individuals
sharing information on Wise Use and other aspects
of the anti-environmental backlash. Sheila
O'Donnell, a licensed private investigator at Ace
Investigations in California specializing in
cases involving activists, began to document
incidents of physical assaults on
environmentalists. Brian Glick, a civil liberties
attorney and author of War at Home, a book on how
activists can resist political harassment,
provided valuable historical analysis of the
emerging anti-environmental movement. In early
1989, Seattle-based author Dan Junas, working on
a book for PRA about far-right theocrat Rev. Sun
Myung Moon, discovered that Ron Arnold, organizer
of the first national Wise Use conference in
August 1988, had deep and longstanding ties to
Moon's political operations. In July 1989,
Canadian journalist Howard Goldenthal sent us his
article exposing Arnold as "an American
right-wing ideologue...on an all-out crusade to
thwart the environmentalist movement in Canada."

By the fall of 1990, when Greenpeace Magazine
published my article on attacks on
environmentalists, many other researchers were
investigating the growing conservative backlash
against the environmental movement. Journalist
Margaret Knox in Missoula, Montana and Eve Pell
of the Center for Investigative Reporting wrote
early and excellent reports on
anti-environmentalism. Colleen McCrory, a
Canadian activist, emerged as the leading source
of information on Wise Use in western Canada,
where it is called the SHARE movement. Sara
Diamond wrote about the free market
environmentalism campaign. Johan Carlisle
reported on right-wing propaganda campaigns
against environmentalism, and media coverage of
the ecology movement. California activist Mickey
Dulas was among the first to report on
intimidation by off-road vehicle groups such as
the Sahara Club USA, Inc., of Granada Hills,
California. The Data Center in Oakland,
California has consistently provided background
information on corporations and political trends
involved in Wise Use and other anti-ecology
campaigns. These researchers, and many others,
developed the supporting research that has begun
to draw attention to the little-known but
dangerous work of the Wise Use Movement.

In August 1991, I joined a group of researchers
concerned about right-wing anti-environmentalism
and attacks on environmental activists. We met in
Seattle to share information and talk about the
lack of media interest in the growth of the
anti-environmental movement. While a few
excellent articles had appeared by then, most
people (even most environmentalists) still were
not familiar with the movement, and those who
were often did not appreciate its clout. We
discussed strategies to increase coverage of the
issue. Fortunately, however, the issue was
already gaining steam among other journalists.
Within a few months, Wise Use and the
anti-environmental backlash finally became a
major media topic.

PRA continues to serve as a clearinghouse for
information about the right-wing
anti-environmental movement. As a part of that
effort, we are proud to have sponsored William
Kevin Burke's important research, "The Scent of
Opportunity: A Survey of the Wise Use/Property
Rights Movement in New England."

     Chip Berlet, Analyst
     Political Research Associates
     Cambridge, MA