greenscarecoverAt two Minneapolis events today, independent journalist Will Potter is discussing what he calls the “green scare”: “Corporations and politicians are labeling activists ‘eco-terrorists’ and national security threats,” a descriptor at his Web site reads. “Think red-baiting, with a green twist.” As he tells Tom Elko in an audio interview at Sky Blue Waters, post-9/11 policing means the term “terrorist” is used widely to smear and attempt to silence animal rights and environmental activists. But it expands to other activists as well.

As an example he uses the “RNC 8,” activists charged after the Republican National Convention with Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism.

“They’re not saying the RNC8 went out there with Molotov cocktails and threw them at cop cars or attacked innocent civilian Republican representatives walking around the Twin Cities. They’re saying they conspired to do so, and conspiracy is a legal and political term that’s been used throughout history when nothing else sticks.”

Hear Potter at 9:30 this morning at William Mitchell College of Law and again at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute at 7 pm.

Listen to the interview here.