NCEF!ers on drama detail during PL bankruptcy

Maxxam OUT of Humboldt! requires unity!, 25.11.2007 14:41

If Humboldt forest activists are ever going to succeed in evicting illegal clearcut logging pratices from the redwood region following Maxxam's '85 takeover of recently bankrupted Pacific Lumber, infighting needs to be mediated to prevent discord. Since internal conflict between activists is a favorite weapon of FBI "COINTELPRO", how do activists resolve disputes without losing time and energy needed for resisting corporations like Maxxam??

This series of comments followed the recent article from North Coast Journal about NCEF! vs. Trees Foundation, thoughts on strategy to unify forest defense before PL returns from TX bankruptcy trial for more clearcutting..


original article @;
 http://northcoastjournal.com/100407/cover1004.html


Infighting and disruption tactics against NCEF!

by COINTELPRO vs. NCEF! revistited 2008 Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007 at 1:47 PM

The drama played out between Shunka and others in forest defense activism isn't anything new, especially in the ways that professional disrupters (FBI, hired thugs, etc..) are able to heighten divisions between other activists. Backing anyone into a corner, whether male or female, will result in said person changing their behavior and responses in an increasingly negative manner. The tactic of "shunning", popular in certain treesitter circles, is effective at increasing pressure on the person targeted for isolation. As shunning increasingly backs people into corners, their behavior naturally becomes more paranoid, hostile and abnormal. Thus the shunning has shown to be effective at isolation from the community by "proving" the person's emotional instability in public episodes of frustration. Shunning can also be distributed to anyone else who choses to break the code of shunning and talks to the person targeted for isolation..

Though i am not defending Shunka's choices to prevent access to the NCEF! media office space to a majority of activists, it also had the reverse effect as many activists did not want to be seen talking/walking with Shunka to the office for risk of violating the shunning taboo against Shunka..

What NCEF! was before all the splintering and Shunka's lone reign at the office does not need to be forever banished to the memeory of "shunkadom", as any name or office space is public commons, and there is no copyright on the name NCEF!!

Neither is Shunka the only eco-activist whose behavior and ego have been unchecked over the last few years, we're ALL guilty of bringing our own egos into the fray as the most noble, brave and dedicated activist against the Maxxam/PL corporate wheel of destruction. However, we cannot continue to resist the incredible financial power of Maxxam Inc. if we ALL can't learn a bit more of the humble modesty traits that acknowledges we're all special and part of something, a leaderless resistance against corporate tyranny. While we cannot ignore differences and wrongs enacted on one another, it is essesntial that we refocus our collective (and individual) energies on combating the initial source of the problem, Maxxam Inc. in Houston and their PL bankruptcy trial. The majority of forest defenders (including Shunka!) agree, Houston based Maxxam corporation is not welcome to continue logging operations in Humboldt county, CA..

Maybe if Shunka can gracefully step down from the current heights of NCEF! office occupation, the shunning and isolation from other activists can also be stepped down. We ALL have feelings and are vulnerable to tactics of shunning, even Shunka with all his pride may be walking wounded deep inside. Surely we cannot expect to pin the problems of Maxxam/PL over the last few years on one lone wingnut??

Let's revisit the earlier conflicts within NCEF! and the direct role played by the FBI in enhancing disputes within the activist circles..

"What they did to us was — the term for this in the FBI is COINTELPRO, counterintelligence program. This was a program started by J. Edgar Hoover back in the bad old days, and now in the bad new days they still do it. It is a way of targeting domestic radical groups that they think are a threat to the U.S. government. I guess that is quite a compliment for us. I guess we are a threat to Charles Hurwitz, and he is more powerful than the government, so maybe it all adds up.

J. Edgar Hoover described COINTELPRO as a program “to expose, misdirect, isolate, and neutralize” political groups that he didn’t like. That is what has been done to Earth First! The methods that they used in COINTELPRO include disinformation, fake documents, infiltration, agent provocateurs, fomenting infighting within a group, getting the group to do things so that they will be discredited, and also framing and assassinating leaders.

The most famous victims of COINTELPRO were Martin Luther King, who was spied on in his motel room, and in the Black Panther movement there were 32 killed in all. Fred Hampton was a famous victim of COINTELPRO, murdered in his bed. Geronimo Pratt, framed by the very same guy, Richard W. Held, who was in charge of our case at the FBI. Leonard Peltier is another well-known victim of COINTELPRO. They did not just frame Geronimo. Before they framed him and put him in jail, they fomented infighting within the leadership so that people in Black Panthers thought Geronimo was an FBI agent. Then, when he was framed, the other Panthers would not testify in his behalf."

review @;
 http://www.prisonradio.org/revolutionary-ecology.htm

Fomenting infighting within the group is certainly an easier and less traceable method of neutralization than car bombs. Of course Shunka and Judi Bari is like comparing apples with oranges, the two situations are very different. However, we have Shunka resembling a mountain lion backed up into a tree, claws and fangs bared to fight anyone seeking to pull him down. Judi Bari was more of a centrally located old growth tree, linking many different habitats with her wide range of branches. This effectiveness of Judi's central positioning of joining forces between labor and environment was "neutralized" by unknown assailants (Maxxam's hired goons?) in the form of a car bomb. Following the bombing, Judi's health worsened and her activism eventually diminished as her cancer consumed her time and energy. In this case the use of (government sanctioned) violence interfered with Judi's role as central organizer and peacemaker between the ecoactivists (treesitters) and the loggers. We use the term "government sanctioned" because the FBI has shown being obstructionary, ineffective and uncooperative in their investigation of Judi's bombing..

In Shunka's case, there is no central positioning, only a mountain lion (Shunka) being backed into the tree, in this case the tree being the NCEF! media resource office. In this case, neutralization only required that Shunka remain treed indefinitely, with the angry "mob" below at times both coaxing and threatening the treed cat, adding to his panic and confusion. Scapegoating and shunning provided the fuel to keep Shunka in his tree, with Shunka's independent personality counteracting the mob below into a stalemate. Enter the Trees Foundation lawsuit, and we witness the "perfect storm" of personality conflict. Result? Virtual neutralization of NCEF! and a frequent and steady disruption of resource flows to forest defense activists, NCEF! affiliated or otherwise..

Nobody likes to be accussed of being a paid disrupter, informant or other evil agent of U.S. imperialisms though we should all be aware of how our actions effect others, and how shunning can be counterbalanced indefinitely by dominant personalities. Just another problem to be worked out with dialogue and increased awareness. Thanks for everyone's participation. Peace be upon you all..


Interesting analysis

by Shunka Wakan Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2007 at 6:36 PM

shunka_2007 [at] yahoo.com (707) 822-1513 920 Samoa Blvd., Ste. #221, Arcata, CA 95521


Interesting analysis, although not quite accurate, in my opinion. The main flaw in your painting of the situation is that people still come to the office, and the pressure to "shun" is only coming from a small clique of people within the forest defense and overall community. I'm still surrounded, every day, by people who support me as a person and know that I'm an honest and upstanding individual. It makes sense that I would be targeted in a character assassination campaign, because I hold the keys to a lot of truths that others don't want taken seriously.

When we witnessed the murder of David "Gypsy" Chain, on September 17th, 1998, we were painted as "hippies" and the lies abounded in efforts to pin Gypsy's death on us, the eyewitnesses. Maxxam/Pacific Lumber and the Humboldt Co. Sheriff's Dept. didn't want the truth to get out about the circumstances surrounding Gypsy's death, yet those of us who were there, or at least I, knew what had happened, knew that the logger was intentionally falling trees in our direction, and had seen the videotape confirming the death threats made less than an hour before Gypsy's death. I knew, for a fact, that Gypsy's death was not an accident, no matter what the media and other people in the community might say, based on what they had heard, not on what they had seen.

In the same way, I will always know what happened in the Trees Foundation situation, will always know that the donor came to me initially, and that the Trees Foundation lied when they promised to contact the donor to clear thing up, "before we spend any of the money." I will always know that they lied, several times over, in the course of the lawsuit and events leading up to the lawsuit. I was there from day one, and literally sent the donor to the Trees Foundation, when I could have (should have) just accepted the donation myself, on behalf of North Coast Earth First! I trusted the Trees Foundation, which was my biggest mistake of all...lesson learned, and in the course of it all I saw the true colors of a few more folks, and know not to trust them, either. That's fine...expensive lesson, yet it's always worth knowing who you can and cannot trust in this world, and life goes on....

I've never denied access to the office to any activist in good standing with the local movement. I've denied access to dogs before, because the offices I've run have been in professional buildings, and that, apparently is grounds for a boycott in and of itself...seems a bit reactionary to me. I could go into the long stories about why I don't trust this person and that person, yet I don't think it's appropriate at this venue, so I'll just say that life happens, and there's a lot of water under the bridge from over nine years of activism in this small community of Humboldt County. Things are bound to get a little sticky, if you know anything about small-town politics, and I suppose I'm a bit used to it, after witnessing it for a majority of my life. I don't let it get to me, which the former poster calls "mountain lion" energy...I like mountain lions, yet I disagree that I'm "treed." LOL I'm doing what I'm called to do, which is run a support office for the local North Coast Earth First! movement, and I have a lot of friends and supporters, both within and the movement and within the larger community, spanning worldwide.

It's interesting to me when people take a crack at psychoanalysis, or sociological analysis, when they don't really know the facts, when they're not really close enough to the situation to really understand it. It all sounds so intelligent, yet it's so academic, which is why academia often falls short. "Cultural Anthropology" usually doesn't get you to the core of the culture, because there's an inherent distance between the culture and the anthropologist. The previous post was most likely written by someone who doesn't see my day-to-day life, doesn't see how much support I actually do have, doesn't realize how invented their reality actually is.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions...go to the source.

P.S. If anyone's acting like a COINTELPRO agent, it's the people spreading all kinds of lies about me. Makes sense, though, you have to discredit any witnesses as fast as you can, right?

 http://www.northcoastearthfirst.org





Observations require neutral ground

by Stop infighting in forest defense! Sunday, Nov. 25, 2007 at 1:56 PM



Shunka wrote;

"It's interesting to me when people take a crack at psychoanalysis, or sociological analysis, when they don't really know the facts, when they're not really close enough to the situation to really understand it. It all sounds so intelligent, yet it's so academic, which is why academia often falls short. "Cultural Anthropology" usually doesn't get you to the core of the culture, because there's an inherent distance between the culture and the anthropologist. The previous post was most likely written by someone who doesn't see my day-to-day life, doesn't see how much support I actually do have, doesn't realize how invented their reality actually is."

Mysterious "COINTELPRO" anthropologist responds;

Yes, this author is guilty of all of the above. However, to avoid any further accusations let me clarify a few points in the above piece;

To claim Shunka is a "treed" mountain lion is an observation of divisiveness within the greater Arcata activist community, in particular forest defense. The aspect of Shunka being "treed" is in response to an equal and (possibly greater) opposite force that pushes back, both sides pushing against one another into equilibrium. Being backed into a corner or "treed" encourages defensive responses, thus escalating tensions indefinitely. Since we're not able to live inside the minds of each and every person we psychoanalyze, we can only rely on limited facts..

Yes, when Shunka tables there are plenty of people in the Arcata community who support his efforts. Since Shunka is a friendly person, of course the supporters will be allied with Shunka as an individual. However, when other people table for forest defense there is also a great deal of support. This is based on limited yet consistent observations over several months. What this support of forest defenders (NCEF!, wesavetrees, mattole restoration, etc..) indicates to this 'outsider cultural anthropologist' is an overall dissatisfaction from the Humboldt community with the logging practices of Pacific Lumber under the control of Maxxam, Inc., and resulting support of the forest defense community..

Not everyone in Arcata or elsewhere has the time or desire to sort through the feuding between various factions of the greater forest defense movement(s) in Humboldt county. Maybe we should take some advice from Moqtada Al-Sadr, who advised Shia/Sunni Muslims to cease fighting one another and focus their resistance on the U.S. military occupation forces as the main problem. (Am NOT advocating violence against Maxxam/PL contract loggers, simply apply Moqtada's unification theme to forest defenders minus the grenades, bombs and such, or replace incindiary devices with lock boxes, black bears and helicopter lines, etc..). We need to restore the themes of unification between recently unemployed loggers and forest defense activists begun by Judi Bari prior to the planted car bomb that wounded her severely enough that it resulted in her illness and death. How can forest defenders reach out to loggers if we cannot even get along with one another??

Would Moqtada Al-Sadr's plans for Shia/Sunni unification reduce violence in Iraq if there was a concerted action in the resistance to sabotage U.S. petroleum extraction infrastructure instead? Maybe the recent decrease in the Iraqi death toll is a result of people on both sides of the Shia/Sunni conflicts hearing the wisdom of Moqtada's request for unification and placing down their arms simultaneously??

Infighting amongst activists is a great loss of potential energy that could be used for resistance. Why did U.S. foreign policy promote arming both Iran (Ollie North Iran-Contra) and Iraq (Reagan-Rumsfeld-Saddam) at the same time, and watching Iraqi/Iranisn soldiers kill one another off over several years? Maybe to tire both nations out so a future invasion of both Iran/Iraq and oil heist would be possible in paranoid post-9/11 U.S. political culture??

In this case the occupation forces in Humboldt is Maxxam Inc., with CEO Hurwitz filling in as Commander in Chief GW Bush. Instead of oil we have giant redwood trees. We are not bombed by U.S. military planes with white phosphorus, shelled with radioactive depleted uranium, though tear gassing and felling trees on top of people (David Chain) is rather brutal treatment for U.S. residents from domestic authorities (Humboldt sheriffs)..

Am hoping these comparison can help people understand that there is a bit of urgency in resolving these internal disputes as the forces of occupation are intent on doing a great deal of additional damage to the region (Iraq and Humboldt) if not met with a well organized resistance..

If an observer can attempt to claim neutrality for the simple reason that these internal conflicts between forest defenders needs to somehow become resolved with quickness, fairness and equity for all involved, and the "greater good" (Uh, oh, that's beginning to sound a bit dictatorial, eh?) of the forest defense movement, are we disconnected to the culture and thus less observant? If we are submerged into the culture, does that not influence our bias in any direction as we have greater difficulty maintaining neutrality??

Acording to some folks in the community, even maintaining neutrality with this NCEF! office situation is to side with the oppressor (Shunka) against the oppressed (activists opposed to Shunka's control of NCEF! office/resources), and then we are labeled quislings??

Meanwhile this activist "drama detail" takes up needed space that could be used to write about the process of the Pacific Lumber bankruptcy trial taking place in Maxxam's home state of Texas, a land far, far away from infighting activists, laid off loggers and flooded out homeowners. That leaves us with getting any updates from the folks at ASJE, EPIC, etc..

Latest update on PL "Chptr 11 reorganization" plan;

"PL has filed their plan of reorganization, seeking to sell the Marbled Murrelet Conservation Areas for the inflated price of $400 million, convert 21,800 acres for low-density development, sell the town of Scotia, and hold on to the remaining 181,000 acres. PL's plan tremendously overvalues these lands, sometimes by as much as 10 times the assumed value.

PL had claimed that Maxxam would make a 'significant contribution' to the reorganization, but all that Maxxam offers is to forgive $40 million inter-company indebtedness (a claim by Maxxam against PL!) and to offer the company's real estate expertise, as well as shouldering some tax burden from future development."

article found @;
 http://www.asje.org/PL_Bankruptcy.html

So in that sense we in CA all share the common ground of being left out of the process of the PL bankruptcy trial and the future of Humboldt's forests are being decided in a Texas courtroom??

Isn't that enough for people in forest defense actions to put aside their differences with one another? Is "no dogs in the building" the only reason for the dispute, or is this anthropologist missing some additional facts??

It is no secret that recently revived (Homeland Security, FBI, etc..) COINTELPRO tactics encourage divisiveness within activist communites far and near, the secret is in finding ways to mediate internal conflicts without tearing apart the people who are in the forest defense activist community..

Any suggestions for unity within the community??

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WE HAVE UNITY 22.12.2007 - 12:47 We have unity... The only threat to our collective efforts has been Shunka. One lone person. Who cares about social dynamics? We need help. Why after so many years of silence is everyone interested in Shunka and his rantings? Would it be more of a spectacle if Britany Spears fell out of a tree? Of course it would be. It's a sad state of affairs when the public is more interested in drama then destruction of ancient forest. Hopefully, Shunka will go away, or at least become more proactive in attaining solidarity in the movement with his North Coast Earth First! website. JEFF>