« MIKE HATCH HAS DOUBLE-STANDARD ABOUT PROTECTING THE PRIVACY OF FAMILY MEMBERS #2 | Home | MARK RITCHIE AND EARTH FIRST! #2 »
MARK RITCHIE AND EARTH FIRST!
By Michael B. Brodkorb | July 30, 2006
In the last few days, I’ve posted information about the DFL-endorsed candidate for Secretary of State Mark Ritchie.
Ritchie’s candidacy is being promoted on the Communist Party USA website, Ritchie’s writings have been published by newspaper with “a special relationship with the Communist Party USA”, and he is considered a “thought leader” of the WTO protest in Seattle.
But now I’ve found information that connects Mark Ritchie to the radical eco-terrorist group Earth First!.
Who is Earth First!?
“Earth First! (EF!) is a ‘warrior society’ that takes a ‘by any means necessary’ approach to ‘defending mother earth.’ The group declines to participate in the democratic process, preferring instead to damage, disable, and destroy the property of its ever-growing list of enemies. EF! targets include, but are by no means limited to, loggers, ranchers, and farmers — especially those who grow genetically modified crops. Earth First!ers’ crimes include assault, arson, and untold acts of sabotage.” Source: ActivistCash.com
How does Earth First! describe their activities?
“Are you tired of namby-pamby environmental groups? Are you tired of overpaid corporate environmentalists who suck up to bureaucrats and industry? Have you become disempowered by the reductionist approach of environmental professionals and scientists?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then Earth First! is for you. Earth First! is effective. Our front-line, direct action approach to protecting wilderness gets results. We have succeeded in cases where other environmental groups had given up, and have drawn public attention to the crises facing the natural world.
Earth First! was named in 1979 in response to a lethargic, compromising, and increasingly corporate environmental community. Earth First! takes a decidedly different tack towards environmental issues. We believe in using all the tools in the tool box, ranging from grassroots organizing and involvement in the legal process to civil disobedience and monkeywrenching.” Source: Earth First!
##
Who is Dave Foreman?
“Dave Forman founded the notorious ‘direct action‘ environmental organization Earth First!” Source: ActivistCash.com
##
“Before he quit in the late 1980s, the driving force behind EF! was a man named Dave Foreman. His book Ecodefense: A Field Guide To Monkeywrenching is a how-to for environmental saboteurs. It includes nine chapters of instructions on subjects ranging from tree spiking to destroying roads, from disabling equipment to making smoke bombs. Rodney Coronado, an Earth First! zealot who was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison following a string of arsons, calls the book ‘our bible.’“Â Source: ActivistCash.com
##
“Foreman pled guilty to conspiracy after he was accused of providing the funds to blow up power lines leading to and from a nuclear power plant. Foreman wrote a check to buy grenades. Foreman left Earth First! in 1989 and founded the Wildlands Project, which seeks to restrict human civilization to limited patches of the Earth and wall off the rest for nature to rule. From 1995 to 1998 he served on the Sierra Club’s board of directors. He is presently the publisher of Wild Earth, the periodical of the Wildlands Project.” Source: Activist Cash.com
##
Mark Ritchie and Earth First!
##
Mark Ritchie has appeared at events with Earth First! founder Dave Foreman
##
According to The AgBioWorld Foundation, “IATP [Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy], SUSTAIN and project GEAN (Ge Action Network)Â [used] the same mail drop as radical Earth First! group.”
Ritche’s own campaign website claims Ritchie “founded and spent the last twenty years leading the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy” – the same group that according to The AgBioWorld Foundation used “the same mail drop as radical Earth First! group.”
##
Mark Ritchie endorsed “The Earth Proclamation” along with numerous representatives of Earth First!
##
I’ll be spending a great deal of time over the next few days examining and exposing Ritchie’s background. Once again, I’m shocked that another DFL candidate’s background was not properly vetted.
Topics: Norm Coleman, Uncategorized | 25 Comments »
July 30th, 2006 at 10:11 pm
This is weak, even by your standards. The only thing you have correct is that Mark Ritchie signed on to a procolamtion that had the words earth and first used consecutivley. Neither had anything to do with the Earth First organization, but you are right. Mark Ritchie signed on to a proclomation with both of those words in it.
Read the warning about your credibility in the next post, and feel free to associate it with this post as well. You have broken some stories that have made democrats look bad, but you are SEVERLEY over reaching with this one. You said it yourself on Almanac, that all you have is your credibility. Keep this up, and all you will have is the title “Owner of a once semi-popular blog”.
July 30th, 2006 at 10:19 pm
I’m not over reaching. This story has the same potential of Entenza and Ellison.
I’ve already spoken with a few of my numerous DFL sources and they are shaking their heads.
Ritchie’s past association will play great in out-state Minnesota.
July 30th, 2006 at 10:46 pm
[...] More information that connects Mark Ritchie to the radical eco-terrorist group Earth First!. [...]
July 30th, 2006 at 10:47 pm
The group that pulled together all your “facts”, the Agbioworld Foundation, has already been discredited as a front group for big business in America: http://www.biotech-info.net/well_funded.html
Finding a petition with the words earth and first in it is not as big of a coup as taking a morning dump. But nice try.
You are 0-2 today. Perhaps you should go do your 10 minutes of houswork and quit posting for the day.
July 30th, 2006 at 10:51 pm
Please. My bet is that by the end of this week, Ritchie will be explaining this to the media.
July 30th, 2006 at 11:07 pm
[...] More information that connects Mark Ritchie to the radical eco-terrorist group Earth First!. [...]
July 30th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
I will accept that bet.
July 31st, 2006 at 1:06 am
Dave Anderson and Mark Ritchie worked together on the Wild Farm Alliance project. This is basically a way to promote wild areas in farmland.
// The Wild Farm Alliance (WFA) was established by a group of wildlands proponents and ecological farming advocates who share a concern for the land and its wild and human inhabitants. Our mission is to promote agriculture that helps to protect and restore wild Nature. In essence, we envision a world in which community-based, ecologically managed farms and ranches seamlessly integrate into landscapes that accommodate the full range of native species and ecological processes. //
http://www.wildfarmalliance.org/
Mark Ritchie is listed as supporting the Earth Proclamation. It is also supported by such uber-radicals as the United Catholic Church and the United Nations Assembly. The Proclamation reads as follows:
// WE ARE ONE PEOPLE…
WE SHARE ONE PLANET…
WE HAVE ONE COMMON DREAM…
WE WANT TO LIVE IN PEACE…
WE CHOOSE TO PROTECT AND HEAL THE EARTH…
WE CHERISH THE EARTH’S BIO AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY…
WE WILL CHOOSE TO CREATE A BETTER WORLD FOR ALL…
WE WILL BECOME STEWARDS FOR THE PLANET’S THREATENED AND ENDANGERED SPECIES…
WE WILL DEFEND AND PROTECT THE RAIN FORESTS, REDWOODS, AND OTHER SACRED PLACES…
WE WILL DO OUR BEST TO MAKE THIS DREAM COME TRUE…
WE WILL DO THIS FOR OUR CHILDREN, AND OUR CHILDREN’S CHILDREN…
WE WILL TRANSFORM WHAT NEEDS TO BE TRANSFORMED…
WE WILL BREAK FREE OF OUR CHRYSALIS LIMITATIONS…
WE WILL JOYFULLY LOVE, SHARE, AND FORGIVE…
SO THAT PEACE MAY PREVAIL ON EARTH!
MAY PEACE PREVAIL ON EARTH! //
Not exactly a radical manifesto – it simply calls for protecting the earth and living in peace. Of course, if you are committed to a world-view that insists everyone must be subjugated with bombs and invasions, it just might not be your cup of tea.
July 31st, 2006 at 1:10 am
The same mailbox claim is this:
Mark Ritchie founded IATP.
IATP employed Renske van Staveren.
Renske van Staveren was supposedly listed as geaction.org’s contact person
geaction.org is claimed to have a certain Chicago dropbox address
the same dropbox is claimed to be used by Chicago Earth First
Earth First founder wrote a book on monkeywrenching.
Some Earth Firsters use monkeywrenching to disrupt agrobusiness and polluters.
Therefore Mark Ritchie supports eco-terrorism.
Pretty far stretch, if you ask me. When I checked, Stephanie Weisenbach was listed as the contact person at geaction.org. Hey, all this was back in 2001, so at that time Renske might have had some relationship to geaction.org.
Does Ritchie have any writings supporting monkeywrenching or eco-sabotage? Or that he stands in solidarity with all radical Earth Firsters and their war on agrobusiness? Now that would be something.
Otherwise, I just don’t get it. Once again, I have to ask: where’s the beef?
July 31st, 2006 at 1:12 am
Oh, and that same mailbox claim?
Posted by one John Wallace with a reply-to address of “Conspiracy Theory Research List”.
Sheesh.
July 31st, 2006 at 6:49 am
One thing we’ve learned here is that the more Roving Hypocrite screams “you’ve got nothing”, the more we know we’ve got something.
July 31st, 2006 at 7:43 am
Note:
I am NOT the Dave Anderson referenced in Comment 8 above.
I HATE Nature!! [kidding]
July 31st, 2006 at 9:13 am
You are right Evil.
I would join Michael on this poorly constructed ship named the USS Futility. I think this is nothing. I encourage to two of you to yell it from the rooftops. You may get kind of hoarse explaining yourselves thouugh…
“Secretarty of State candidate Mark Ritchie once shared a mailbox with a guy who knew a guy who once had a cup of coffee with a guy who shared a mailbox with Earth First”
“Secretarty of State candidate Mark Ritchie once signed a procolomation that contained the words earth and first in it, proving that he is actually an eco-terrorist, even though there is no proof to this argument other than the fact that he signed said petition, which was also signed by other known terrorist groups like the UN and the Catholic Church”
July 31st, 2006 at 9:15 am
Having the Republicans brand our candidates as “environmental wackos” gets people excited. It gets their hopes up. Especially outstate where people are more connected to nature, and everyone loves the environment (save for a few people who are more excited about prophecy than reality, and literally interpret a few (old testament)biblical passages about making use of nature and ignore the Christian principles that would incourage stewardship of those resources for the poor, for future generations, etc.).
I think the Republican smear of State Rep. Frank Moe as a environmental wacko, a vegan Sierra Club member helped energize the younger and greener BSU student population and Native American activists to help get him elected. Unfortunately Frank has not been the environmentalist we all hoped he was, but a candidate who was recruited by land developers and their lobbyists and DFL Party hacks (e.g. Rita Albrecht) and he has brought home $$$ for those pro-development interests.
I have more confidence that Mark Ritchie is going to be good at striking a balance between agrobusiness-as-usual and sustainability. Most farmers are ready for real efforts to help smaller scale enterprises with compete with appropriate technology, with meaningful cooperation between producers and consumers, and not simple PR exercises like “corn/soybean checkoffs” that might look good to legislators on paper but in practice cause small operators to contribute to subsidies for the biggest agro-interests over their own.
I encourage Michael Bradkorb to get outstate and talk to farmers about Mark Ritchie. My guess is that he’s going to get an earful of information about the drought, about real farm economics, and very little agreement about the sucessful career of Mark Ritchie speaking and organizing about electoral and agricultural issues being a secret form of support of radical eco-terrorists through shared “dropboxes” or mail-forwarding services in Chicago.
I also encourage Bradkorb to figure out how to do some faith-based assistance to farmers in Northwestern Minnesota as the feds (Bush, the Republican majority in congress, Bush appointees, etc.) have not addressed the drought.
I do credit Pawlety and Rep. Peterson (DINO) for being up there and listening, issuing statements and such, but the national Republican machine has not been responsive:
http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/15131712.htm
July 31st, 2006 at 9:21 am
Folks,
Mark Ritchie’s record with IATP is enough to condemn him, all by itself. People who criticize the “mail drop” issue don’t understand how activists work. When fomenting agitation they often form coalitions and share resources. To the extent that they do this, it indicates that they have shared objectives. The mail drop is only one of many connections between IATP other dubious groups.
July 31st, 2006 at 9:38 am
I know for a fact that Senators Michelle Bachman and Paul Koering share a very similar work mailing address. Does this make Michelle Bachman gay?
July 31st, 2006 at 10:02 am
Schiller,
If you want to talk about his record with IATP, fine. Talk about what they did that you think should disqualify him. That’s an entirely legit thing to do. But this has nothing to do with his record or his stance on anything. It’s using insinuation and thin associations in a shady attempt to slander him without actually dealing with any issues.
July 31st, 2006 at 10:21 am
I like the part of Mark’s speeches about fair trade and trade negotiations when he points out that fast -track negotiation means no open debate, a simple up and down vote and success at 51 votes in the Senate. He says that major trade agreements between the U.S. and foreign governments should be treated as treaties, with full debate and 2/3 majority, like Kyoto would require.
I like that, and when you think about it, it is a pretty conservative perspectative. I think the founding fathers of this nation would take that approach as well, and not let corporate lobbyists and bureaucrats riding that revolving door between government and industry design this sort of law secretly and without review by the citizenry and its representation in congress.
Trade is important. It should serve popular interests, the interests of producers and consumers, and taxpayers and citizens should get a seat at the table alongside the Cargills and ADMs of the world.
Trade can be a tool for good, and be entrepreneurial and capitalist, cooperative and fair at the same time. Fair trade coffee certification, and shade grown and organic coffee certifications have done a lot to improve social, economic and environmental conditions in Latin America. IATP has done some good work.
July 31st, 2006 at 11:10 am
“I know for a fact that Senators Michelle Bachman and Paul Koering share a very similar work mailing address. Does this make Michelle Bachman gay?”
Pfft. There goes my coffee.
“Very similar” is not what MDE found…we’re talking the *same exact* address.
If Sen. Bachmann shared the *same exact* address with Koering, and if Koering’s raison d’existence was to promote the radical homosexual agenda I’d say she’d have some “’splainin’ to do”.
Dang Raving, your squirming is beginning to make *me* feel fidgity.
July 31st, 2006 at 11:26 am
Let’s try this in terms as simple as possible:
You have no proof.
Please find some before bashing Ritchie more.
There, all one syllable words but two.
July 31st, 2006 at 1:07 pm
The problem here isn’t that he wasn’t vetted propperly, many of the DFL Insiders knew about Ritchie. But he was the Minneapolis Mafia’s candidate, just like good old Keith Ellison, oh look, another flop and another sinking ship for the DFL, how shocking.
July 31st, 2006 at 1:30 pm
Death From Above
//another flop and another sinking ship for the DFL//
Another evidence-free slander, coupled with the typical echo chamber from the radical right. How shocking.
We can all make sweeping generalizations about the other side. How about some evidence.
July 31st, 2006 at 3:57 pm
Roving, would you get off the idea that Brodkorb is citing the proclamation as important because of the presence of the words “earth” and “first”? I don’t know why those words are highlighted; i guess it’s residue of a word search. The point he’s making – I’m not saying it’s super-powerful – is that the proclamation was signed by several representatives of Earth First. And it was.
To me, the underlying point of all this kind of issue – with Ellison, and here – is simply calling the question: Okay, Dems, how far do you actually go in your agreement with some pretty radical ideas? Because in spite of whatever you think of this specific one – the Earth First one – the earlier stuff is pretty interesting.
It’s not a “smear” to point out his admiration for Seattle and the need for a world government: that is, if Ritchie stands up for himself it’s not. If he denies it all or ignores it, that tells me he realizes it’s not palatable.
July 31st, 2006 at 7:18 pm
// It’s not a “smear†to point out his admiration for Seattle and the need for a world government: //
Uh, yes it is, unless you can source it.
November 12th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
[...] here for my post that with information that connects Mark Ritchie to the radical eco-terrorist group [...]