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Red State Rebels: Tales of Grassroots Resistance in the Heartland

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A Review from Media Mouse:

http://www.mediamouse.org/reviews/073108red_s.php

Much has been written during the Bush years about the Red State/Blue State dichotomy that is the United States of America. This faux-populist analysis of politics is seriously inadequate, but since it fits well into the sound bite news media discussion, it is repeated over and over again. This again is the case as the nation is now less than 100 days from the next presidential election. The campaign strategies and news coverage of the campaign trail continues to be framed in the Red or Blue world.

If you are looking for a different read on this country and not wanting to rely on FOX News pundits or CNN experts, then Red State Rebels might be what you need. Co-editor of the excellent online news site CounterPunch, Jeffrey St. Clair has teamed up with Joshua Frank (the author of Left Out!: How Liberals Helped Re-elect George W. Bush) to bring us a fabulous collection of essays that demolishes the checkerboard world of Red States and Blue States.

The focus of this collection is on the lively grassroots activism that is currently taking place in what are generally deemed Red States, but by no means does this book suggest that this grassroots activism is connected to the Democratic Party. In fact, there are numerous stories shared in Red State Rebels of grassroots resistance in GOP territory that is also in opposition to the Democrats. In one essay by St. Clair entitled "The Origin of Western Greens," the co-editor states that during the Clinton years there was tremendous erosion of environmental standards, including:

"relaxed pesticide standards, weakening regulations for the Endangered Species Act, a plan for the Everglades tailored to meet the demands of sugar barons and real estate moguls of South Florida; failure to take decisive action to protect Colombia River salmon due to opposition from the Speaker of the House Tom Foley and the aluminum companies; and the political firing of Jim Baca from his position as director of the Bureau of Land Management for his determination to reform grazing practices on federal lands."

It is the disillusion from these kinds of policies that many of the grassroots efforts described in this book are born. These are individuals and groups who, even though they live in what is labeled a Red State and have contempt for the current administration, do not gravitate towards the Democrats.

The essays are arranged by region, such as Midwest, the Rocky Mountain States, the Southwest, the South, and Indian Country. The topics that are addressed are even more diverse. You might be reading about Native people fighting mining companies in the southwest and a few pages later African Americans are taking a stand against the use of the Confederate Flag in South Carolina. People employ all kinds of tactics in these battle stories, tactics that range from banner drops to direct action and civil disobedience. More importantly, what Red State Rebels provides us with is the message that there are plenty of committed and courageous people in this country who do not put their faith in partisan politics. They rely on critical thinking, organizing and action on behalf of justice.

An important message that can keep us motivated while the Red State/Blue State madness is upon us.

If you are a 'progressive' freegan living in rural Kentucky, Red State Rebels will appeal to you. If you are, however, serious about gaining a complete perspective on the Middle American Revolution, you will be sorely disappointed. Red State Rebels is far from a holistic account of "grassroots resistance in the heartland," and was dissatisfying to this reader, who was excited by the promise of Frank and St. Clair's collection.

The title of the book is deceiving. I expected a digest of radical activity from all sides of the political spectrum, but it quickly became clear that, by "Red State Rebels," Frank and St. Clair did not mean to describe everyone fighting the national status quo within so-called red states. The essays in this book mainly describe groups and individuals fighting against the status quo in the so-called red states. Meaning, simply put, this is a book about only one shade of rebels--pacifists, environmentalists, and progressives--fighting against their classic enemies.

Aside from a brief nod to Randy Weaver and various secession movements, nary a word is spent on the colorful variety of Middle American rebels. Constitutionalists, anti-abortion protestors, Alex Jones, 9/11 truthers, militiamen, and others are conspicuously absent. Their absence is made even more conspicuous because in Frank and St. Clair's introduction, they take great pains to portray their work a focused on a non-partisan approach to the subject. "Neither of us fit in the geo-ideological matrix contrived by the mainstream political establishment," they write. "Neither do thousands of others, left, right and anarcho-libertarians, who reside in the forgotten midsection of the nation."

The articles in Red State Rebels then proceed to breeze past the inhabitants of the Right to focus on champions of the traditional causes of the Left. Including one essay on Randy Weaver does not help balance it out. Furthermore, the "rebellion" covered by Red State Rebels is hardly worth noting. The book portrays a pacifist priest who was arrested for putting a flower on a nuclear missile silo as a great martyr to the cause. Only a handful of the essays address serious actions that threaten the status quo. The great prairie fire portrayed on the cover is revealed, on the inside, to be nothing more than a puff of smoke.

I am afraid that Red State Rebels defeats the editor's own intentions by portraying only traditional Left-wing causes as being worthy of attention in Middle America. I believe there is a desperate need for a second volume of this work, one that fills in the blanks.

In "Red State Rebels", we hear from a broad range of peace, environmental, Native American, anti-racist, and feminist activists working for social justice and ecological sustainability in some of the most right-wing reactionary corners of the United States (like Texas and South Carolina). A few of the book's highlights include: the brilliant essay by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on the importance of subsistence farming in the struggle against settler-colonialism, capitalism, and genocide, the exciting interview with the American Indian activist and radical scholar Ward Churchill on academic freedom, the excellent interview with the working-class environmental justice activist Diane Wilson, and the interesting interview with the Oglala Sioux reproductive rights activist Cecilia Fire Thunder. Living in a small, poor, conservative, southern town in the middle of an ultra-right-wing red state, I am extremely grateful for this thought-provoking anthology. For those of us living in the deep south or in rural America, it is proof that there are other anti-capitalist, pro-feminist, queer-positive, anti-racist activists among us. Thank you AK Press for publishing these wonderful voices of bravery, compassion, and hope!

A thought provoking collection of essays from dedicated authors and activists across the heartland. Finally a book that dispels the myth of a homogenous population in the so called "red states." The passionately written essays document struggles we too seldom hear about in mainstream media. Moreover, the book is not written from a detached academic perspective, but rather comes directly from the source- those who are actively involved in fighting for the what the authors deem: "the essentials of life: water, food, wilderness, and human liberty." Bravo!

bastion of reactionary ignorance so many establishment liberals make it out to be. North Dakota and Montana are shown to have a strong populist, even radical, strain. So much has been achieved without big foundation grants, permission from liberal leaders, waiting for the parties to do the right thing, or any of the number of things currently strangling the progressive movement.

I thought this book would be more centered and neutral than it was. It is incredibly liberal, and trashes "Red State Voters", while glorifying so called lefty rebels. One author, Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz calls all Red State voters rednecks and hillbillies. This book will be picking up dust on my bookshelf, with a bookmark in page 33. I'm sorry that I purchased this book.

I read only part of this book. It is not a discussion of grassroots action as much as a discussion of opinions of various individuals and groups. All talk, no action.