[ELECTRON] International Womens Day Film Screening at the Electron Club

[Andrew Back]

On (12:13 09/03/10), James Beeley wrote:
> On Mon, 2010-03-01 at 18:58 +0000, Marion Hersh wrote:
> 
> > When there was an Earth First group in Glasgow I was involved in it.  My
> > experience was of a group of gentle people rather than vandals and
> > bullies and opposition to the inappropriate use of technology, not
> > technology per se.
> > Marion
> 
> Earth First! are anything but gentle:
> 
> "In 1987, a 23-year-old mill worker was severely injured when his saw
> blade shattered after hitting a redwood tree that had been "spiked" with
> a long steel nail, following the standard Earth First! recipe. In 1990,
> Earth First!er Lyn Georges Dessaux was convicted of assault after
> stabbing two men with a ski pole in a save-the-buffaloes protest. Earth
> First!ers have set fire to a livestock auction. They've also torched
> logging equipment. 
> 
> Dave Foreman himself pled guilty in 1991 to conspiring to blow up
> electrical lines leading to an Arizona nuclear power plant (he wrote a
> check to pay for 50 grenades). While Foreman somehow got off with
> probation, his four co-conspirators landed in jail. And hundreds of
> other Earth First!ers have spent time behind bars."
> 
> Source: 
> 
> http://activistcash.com/organization_overview.cfm/o/271-earth-first

I know little of this organisation, but I do know you cannot tar all its
members with the same brush. Many organisations have extremists who take
matters too far. I'm certainly not condoning the actions of such people, but
to lump everyone together is, frankly, stupid.
 
> A film justifying this organisation has no place at all in a
> taxpayer-funded arts centre. And before anyone starts claiming the CCA
> is funded by the "common good" or whatever, a quick visit to the CCA's
> web page reveals that:

The Electron Club is funded in kind by the CCA, and by goodwill. Nobody has
made claims as to the CCA's funding.
 
> "The CCA is supported by the Scottish Arts Council, Glasgow City Council
> and by the National Lottery through the Scottish Arts Council."
> 
> GCC gets is funding through council tax and a central government grant
> funded by a variety of other taxes such as income tax and VAT. The SAC
> similarly gets most of its funding via the taxpayer. Taxpayers money
> should not be abused to subsidise political activist groups.