“One does not necessarily allow the state to define what is legal. The state has the power to enforce a certain concept of what is legal, but power doesn’t imply justness or correctness. So the state may define something as civil disobedience and may be wrong in doing so.” ~ Noam Chomsky

[Transcript] newsCOUP PODCAST: Episode 3

You’re listening to newsCOUP — where Public Herald sets the record straight on what’s in the news. I’m your host, Joshua Pribanic, coming to you from our offices in Pittsburgh.

Today on the show we’re talking about direct action. What’s the right approach? Should you go to court? Should you contact your elected officials? Should you take on the state, break the laws and perform acts of civil disobedience? And, do you do this alone? Or, do you get your community involved…do you get masses of people involved?

Then when the police show up, what’s next? Should you get arrested? And, how can something like an “action consensus” help you organize and handle law enforcement.

We start the show with Gillian Graber, the director of Protect PT, who’s fought since 2015 to protect communities from fracking in southwest Pennsylvania. Her story recently shared evidence of criminal acts with Pennsylvania attorney general Josh Shapiro on both the state and oil and gas industry — she joined a growing list of organizations and individuals across the state who’ve asked Shapiro’s office to investigate DEP.

For those new to Public Herald, our newsroom published a list of 178 cases of official misconduct committed by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection during citizen complaint investigations related to fracking. We officially submitted a letter to the Science Advisory Board of the EPA in 2016 asking for a criminal investigation of the PA DEP and EPA. That speech can be viewed in our documentary on fracking, Triple Divide Redacted, available online to stream.

“Throughout American history the political leaders have always exhorted the American people to be nice and quiet and leave things to them. But when very serious evils confronted the American people they had to go beyond the congressmen and senators, and they had to commit civil disobedience, and they had even to break the law.” ~ Howard Zinn

Halfway through today’s show we switch gears and speak with German Activist Daniel Hofinger of Ende Gelaende, and Lisa Winter from Rising Tide North America Collective. Their work in direct action helped mobilize over 5000 people to stop a lignite coal mine in Germany. We talk about why civil disobedience is so important in the United States and how the general public can get involved.

This segment covers rights of nature, legalizing civil disobedience, direct action in the face of militarized police, and how an action consensus helped to organize thousands of people on unified principles.

As always, we are publicly funded and grateful for everyone who listens in and shares our work. Please consider becoming a lifetime member for only $30 or making a donation to our work at publicherald.org/donate to help Public Herald continue to produce newsCOUP. There are also other ways to donate — you can share this show on twitter and tag @publicherald or @newscoup, or leave us a review in your podcast app.

With that, let’s dive into the show.

This week we close out the show to the largely unreported story where over a million students have been walking out of class every week into the streets to demand authorities take action on climate change. The school strikes were inspired by the 16 year old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg — who since September 2018 has been leaving school every Friday to strike in front of Swedish parliament. Her now famous “panic” speech that shamed political and industry leaders for their inaction on the climate crisis has led to her nomination for the Nobel peace prize.

The show today is as much a story about our responsibility for the next generation as it is a wake up call for everything that’s happening around us – whether it be in the economy, politics, social justice or the environment. And we want to thank those like Greta, Gillian, Daniel and Lisa for having the courage to speak out, put their bodies on the gears of the machine, and do all they can to make it stop.

Coming to you from Public Herald Studios you’ve been listening to newsCOUP.

***music in episode 3 of newsCOUP came from Godspeed You! Black Emporer