Will Potter

5 Reasons Why Environmentalists and Animal Activists Should Occupy Wall Street

City by city, it’s growing. If you have been watching the rise of Occupy Wall Street from the sidelines, maybe it’s because you’re not sure if you’re part of the “99 percent” or maybe it’s because you just have other things to do. Here’s the thing: This is bigger than one person, one issue, or […]

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Peaceful Animal Rights Protesters in France Face Violent Bullfighting Supporters

‎About 100 protesters in France occupied a bullring to non-violently stop the barbaric bullfight. In response, bullfight supporters punched, kicked and beat them as they were locked-down and immobilized. Which ones are the “violent extremists”? Source: Animal Equality

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Activist Secretly Videotapes FBI Visit in Des Moines, Iowa

It’s not often that we get to see the FBI in action as agents harass activists. This video is of two FBI agents visiting the owner of Best Place Ever, a video store, and questioning him about last night’s release of mink from a fur farm in Jewel, Iowa. The agents suspect the Animal Liberation Front […]

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Truthout: The “Eco-al-Qaeda”?

I wrote an article for Truthout about how, before the dust had even settled at ground zero, corporations and politicians were trying to use the tragedy of September 11th to label environmentalists as “eco-terrorists.” Here’s an excerpt: On September 12, 2001, as emergency crews searched for survivors, Rep. Greg Walden warned Congress that “eco-terrorists” posed […]

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ArteTv: ‘Qui sont les éco-terroristes?’

A journalist with ArteTv’s Global Mag, a television program that airs in France and Germany, visited the U.S. to report on the labeling of environmentalists as “eco-terrorists.” She came to the book release event in Washington, DC, and I was also able to put her in touch with Andy Stepanian of the SHAC 7, Daniel […]

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Discussion of Government Surveillance of Activists with Will Potter, Former FBI Agent, ACLU and More

I was on Austin’s KOOP radio a while back, and had a great discussion about the FBI’s use of surveillance, infiltration and informants within social movements with Colleen Rowley (retired FBI agent), Michael May (Texas Observer managing editor), Debbie Russell (ACLU of Texas) and Scott Crow (author of Black Flags and Windmills). You can listen […]

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Before Direct Action Was “Eco-terrorism” It Was “Ecotage”

The history of the animal rights and environmental movements has been poorly documented by the mainstream press. The stories of these movements have overwhelmingly been ignored, and when they’ve been reported by newspapers or television networks, it has been through the lens of corporate and government officials. The best, and sometimes only, documentation of these […]

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Monthly Review: “Environmental Justice and the Criminalizing of Dissent”

Monthly Review, a socialist magazine, has a posted a thoughtful review/discussion of my book by Paul J. Comeau. It’s wonderful to see these issues being discussed in increasingly diverse circles. Here’s an excerpt: It is a chilling thought that these laws, which criminalize the protest of the animal industry as “terrorism,” are only a breath […]

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Finland Prosecutes Animal Activists for Undercover Videos Exposing Factory Farms

As animal rights activists continue to expose the systemic cruelty of factory farming, the industries targeted are doing everything they can to keep the public in the dark. I’ve written previously about attempts to pass new legislation criminalizing undercover investigations, how EUROPOL lists undercover videos as a terrorism threat, and how Spanish activists are being […]

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The Lexington High Security Unit

I spoke at the Baltimore Book Festival the other day, on a panel examining tactics the government has used against social movements throughout U.S. history. For my portion of the panel, I argued that we, as a culture, often regard periods of government repression as having an inception and a conclusion. They are finite eras, […]

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