Peaceful Uprising: The Tim DeChristopher Interview

by Troy Williams in Queer Gnosis | 0 comments

Is environmental justice a queer issue? Of course! The time is soon coming when gay Americans will enjoy full federal equality in all 50 states. But what good is a gay marriage if we don’t have clean air or water? What good is the legal right to adopt if we don’t leave all our new gaybies with a sustainable, livable future? Climate change is a social-justice issue that should be woven in tandem with LGBT equality. With that, there is a lot we can learn from each other’s respective movements. And here in Utah we’ve got many firebrand climate activists within Peaceful Uprising, founded by the celebrated monkey-wrencher Tim DeChristopher.

In December 2008 Tim famously disrupted a U.S. Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease auction that would have sold public lands to private oil industries. He posed as “Bidder 70” and won 14 parcels near Arches and Canyonlands national parks for $1.8 million. But he didn’t intend to pay. He refused a plea deal and set out to put climate change on trial. However, Judge Dee Benson refused to allow the jury the opportunity to hear the motivations behind DeChristopher’s faux bids. He was recently found guilty of two felony charges and will be sentenced June 23.

After the verdict I spoke with DeChristopher on KRCL’s RadioActive.

Troy Williams: Describe how you felt when you heard the verdict.

Tim DeChristopher: Not particularly surprised. It was one that I was preparing myself for. Especially seeing the way things played out in the trial. The jury was never allowed to hear that the auction was overturned afterward because the government admitted they weren’t following their own laws. The jury was never allowed to hear that I did raise the money for the first payment but the BLM refused to take it. The verdict was a foregone conclusion at that point because they were lacking so much information.

TW: Obama’s Department of Interior ultimately dismissed all the leases.

TD: Right. Not because of my actions but because of the illegitimacy of the auction to begin with. They weren’t following their own standards. They didn’t do adequate environmental impact statements. It was later decided by a federal judge in Montana that the BLM was out of compliance with a 2001 law that would require them to consider the impact of climate change in natural resource development. That was why the auction was reversed but that was something we were not allowed to talk about.

TW: You came out of the courtroom talking about the “finger and the fist.”

TD: The ruling class promotes the view that we should look at ourselves as a little finger out there alone. That we can easily be broken. What they want us to forget is that we are not just one finger. We are connected to a hand with many fingers that can unite as a fist. What was happening inside the courtroom was an attempt to convince everyone that I was just one finger. But what was happening outside the courthouse, in the street, where people were singing all week, was a reminder that I was part of a fist. We’re not going to be broken by this. We’re not going to back down. People are not going to be intimidated into no longer fighting for a healthy and just world.

TW: What impact do you think your actions have had on established environmental organizations?

TD: Greenpeace and Rainforest Action Network were here to lend their support. We’ve received positive responses from 350.org. The hope is that this is stimulating discussion among the movement about what kind of risks we should be willing to take. A lot of the movement is looking for a new path. We are slowly moving toward more confrontational actions, greater levels of risk and more personal stories. A more human movement is the direction we are headed and I’m glad to see that.

TW: Curtis Harring who blogs at Blueinredzion.com wrote: “The real issue is that the environmental community needs DeChristopher to be found guilty.” He continued, “The original movement has gone stale. What was easy to do has been done and the movement, to continue to be relevant, needs to continue to bring attention to the causes it feels are important.”

TD: It’s certainly an unfortunate conclusion from my perspective. But I think there is a lot of truth to those statements about not just doing things that are easy. The predominant question among the environmental movement has been, “How do we achieve our goals without making real sacrifices ourselves?” That’s not going to cut it. Our opponents profit from the status quo, they are very powerful and they are not going to give up with our easy activism.

TW: The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill last year devastated untold marine life and coastal livelihood, not to mention the 12 workers who lost their lives — and yet no one is being tried for that crime. Yet you have been convicted. That’s ironic.

TD: Not really. The ruling class – the corporate interests that run the country – have the power to use the justice system to hold people accountable. We shouldn’t expect them to eat one of their own. They are not the force that is supposed to hold corporate tyrants accountable. (We) are the ones who are supposed to hold the ruling class accountable. It shouldn’t surprise us when one of us does something that undermines what the ruling class is doing that we are punished for it. But we should remember that it is our responsibility to turn around and hold them accountable for their attack on us.

TW: You’ve built an incredible grassroots infrastructure with Peaceful Uprising. What would you like to see happen to that organization after your sentencing?

TD: There is an old Rumi poem that says “don’t go back to sleep.” There has been an awakening here. This whole process has woken a few people to the injustices of the system and to their own power to do something about it. Now don’t go back to sleep.

(Podcast the entire interview at queergnosis.com. Get involved at Peacefuluprising.org)