Support Scott DeMuth

UPDATE AND FUND DRIVE TO SUPPORT SCOTT DEMUTH!
LETS KEEP HIM OUT!
SUPPORT DAKOTA LIBERATION!
FIGHT THE GREEN SCARE & RESIST THE REPRESSION OF ALL SOCIAL MOVEMENTS!

http://davenportgrandjury.wordpress.com/

Hello Friends from far and wide!

I am writing to give you all an update on the legal case of Scott DeMuth, a friend of mine who is a Dakota organizer, currently facing bogus conspiracy charges under the AETA, Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) is a 2006 piece of legislation that makes interference with and protest of animal enterprises, including First Amendment-protected activities, terrorism. I also want to ask you ask you to assist in raising the $10,000 we need to have by WEDNESDAY, January 13th, for the retainer fee for Scott's legal defense. If you are receiving this later than this date, please know we are in an ongoing fund drive for legal costs! Please read below to learn more about how Scott's case fits into a long history of indigenous resistance to genocide and colonization, the green scare, and state repression of movements for liberation. We are raising funds for Scott to be represented by Micheal Deutsch of the People's Law Office in Chicago, a collective of radical political lawyers founded forty years ago to investigate the murder of Fred Hampton. Deutsch has a long history of supporting revolutionary organizers, and we believe he will be the best person to represent Scott!

So, here's the story :

Scott DeMuth and Carrie Feldman are two Minneapolis activists who were subpeonaed to a federal grand jury in Davenport, Iowa, in November. Both refused to testify in the grand jury, which was opened to investigate a high-profile Animal Liberation Front action that occured at the University of Iowa in 2004. Both were given immunity, and thus, jailed for their principled refusal to testify. Two days after being jailed in contempt of court, Scott received charges of conspiracy. It is very clear that the government has very little evidence with which to prosecute Scott, manipulating the contents of items seized from his home during a house raid prior to RNC in 2008. The prosecution has changed their tune a few times, first arguing that he was involved in the incident, then implying that they believe he has knowledge of those involved. Scott, a graduate sociology student at the University of Minnesota, had all his research into animal rights movements seized during the 2008 house raid, and has stated that as sociologist, his credibility hinges on his commitment to protect the privacy of his subjects. The 5 year statute of limitations on investigating this action was to end the day after he was charged-- which would have meant the incident could no longer be investigated. It appears that the government has charged Scott in order to keep the case open so they can continue look for people to charge. Carrie remains jailed to this day.

Over the last ten years, the government has led a campaign to smash radical environmental and animal liberation movements. This campaign is referred to as the "Green Scare" by activists and organizers involved in these movements. Some believe that these movements have been targeted because they are "bastard movements," often unsupported and unpopular within the broader left, and thus a place that the government can set precedent and normalize their tactics of repression, with passive consent from society and the larger left. These same tactics have been used to divide and repress social movements against oppression since the chicken & the egg, and this will continue as long as our movements remain divided.

A bit about Scott...

To give you a sense of Scott as a person and organizer: Scott is a Dakota descendant who has committed his life to the Dakota Liberation and decolonization struggle. One hundred and fifty years ago, Mnisota Makoce, the center of Dakota & Oceti Sakowin homelands, was colonized by the settler colonial United States. The Dakota Uprising of 1862 led to the exile of all Dakota people from the newfound state of Minnesota. After the uprising, women and children were force marched to a concentration camp established at the sacred Bdote, the site of the Dakota genesis story. Men were force marched to Davenport, Iowa, the same place Scott's trial will occur, and to Mankato, Minnesota, were the largest mass execution in US history was held, of 38 Dakota Warriors, ordered by Abraham Lincoln. Dakota people became illegal in Minnesota and governor Ramsey ordered the bountied extermination of any Dakota people found within the state. Dakota people became scattered, as they have remained since-- spread out on reservations and communities in South Dakota, Nebraska, Canada, and other surrounding areas.

Scott is part of many grassroots community projects in Minnesota. He is a part of the Anpao Duta (Red Dawn) Collective, a Dakota community journal used to build power and awareness in Dakota communities of the growing decolonization struggles underway. He is a Dakota language student at the University of Minnesota, and part of Oyate Nipi Kte (The People Shall Live), a collective working to acquire land in order to establish liberated space for traditional Dakota language, cultural, spiritual, and community immersion. Scott worked to facilitate the creation of Unsettling Minnesota, a settler anti-colonial collective working to support Dakota decolonization projects. He also participates in EWOK! (Earth Warriors are OK!), a collective committed to supporting political prisoners, particularly those targeted by the green scare. Many green scare targets have been people doing green scare political prisoner support work like that of EWOK!. Scott is recognized and respected within his various communities for his commitment to Dakota Liberation & to building communities of resistance and solidarity. He is a powerful and inspiring person to me, and to many many people in his communities.

Here in Minneapolis our community is strapped financially, as Scott and Carrie are now two more in addition to the eight members of the RNC 8 -- a total of ten people in our small community who are facing felony, "terrorism" related charges. Please support the struggle against state repression, against the AETA and the Green Scare, and for Dakota Liberation by donating funds so Scott can get the best legal representation available, with Micheal Deutcsh.


DONATE FUNDS ONLINE WITH PAYPAL AT:
http://davenportgrandjury.wordpress.com/

If you don’t want to use Paypal, you can make checks out to Coldsnap Legal Collective with EWOK! in the memo line, and send them to EWOK! c/o Coldsnap, PO Box 50514, Minneapolis, MN 55405.