Rolling Stone interviews BIDDER 70 hero, Tim DeCristopher:
April 22, 2013 4:35 PM ET
There are worse ways for a climate activist to
celebrate getting out of jail than speaking to a packed theater of
comrades and supporters. Tonight, that's how Tim DeChristopher will
publically mark his release from two years of state custody, spread over
four states and five institutions – from the isolation wings of federal
prisons to the halfway house he left yesterday. Following an address
that will represent DeChristopher's public return to grassroots climate
activism, Salt Lake City's Tower Theater will screen
Bidder 70, a documentary about his 2009 trial. Both the talk and the screening will be live-streamed to 50 theaters around the country.
It's a happy coincidence that the event is taking place on Earth Day –
but there was never any question it would be in Salt Lake City. It was
there, in December 2008, that DeChristopher disrupted a federal Bureau
of Land Management auction by submitting nearly $2 million in bids on
oil and gas concessions. For the crime of what the prosecution called
"obstruct[ing] lawful government proceedings," DeChristopher was whisked
from the courthouse following his sentencing to begin his term, which
ended yesterday. The 31-year-old activist talked to Rolling Stone about his time served and the future of the climate movement.
What are your immediate plans now that you're out?
I'll be traveling around a bit over the summer. Then in the fall, I
start Harvard Divinity School. I see divinity school and the ministry as
an extension of my activism, not as a new direction. It's probably the
best outlet for the skills I've built so far. I take inspiration from
the activist leaders of the past, whether it's the [antiwar activist]
Berrigan brothers, or Martin Luther King, or many ministry leaders that
have also been at the front of social movements throughout American
history.
Will you keep up an activist's schedule when you start school?
Obviously I won't be able to do quite as much. I expect divinity
school to be pretty demanding, so I won't be keeping up the full-time
schedule that I had when I was a full-time activist. But I will still be
doing certain speaking events and stuff like that.
Are you prepared to return to prison in the future?
Definitely. Especially having experienced it and knowing that I can
handle it. If the opportunity comes up again to do something impactful,
then I'd have to take that opportunity.
A lot of famous activists over the years have spoken about the benefits of prison time. Did you find that to be the case?
There are certainly upsides. They call it "doing time" for a reason.
You just have a lot of time on your hands. So I read a lot. A lot of my
day consisted of exercising and walking and reading. It was a very
reflective environment and very low-stress environment. It kind of
naturally lent itself to introspection.
Did you have a lot of conversations about climate and energy issues with other inmates?
I had a lot of conversations more about general social justice
issues, about corporate control of our government, how the criminal
justice system works.
Looking ahead, it seems activism around climate and energy is
moving into a more militant posture. For example, the anti-fracking
leader Sandra Steingraber and some of her colleagues in the so-called
"Seneca Lake 12" went to jail in New York just as you were being
released.
I certainly think the climate movement is going to get more
aggressive. There's been a tremendous amount of movement in the past few
years. And with changes like the Sierra Club completely overhauling the
way they were operating [in terms of civil disobedience] – that's a
massive shift, and I think those changes will continue. And I think
there will also be more kind of bottom-up actions in the future. More
things like the tar sands blockade in Texas, things that are not
necessarily done by big organizations saying, "This is what you need to
do and this is how you're going to do it." The grassroots side of the
movement is really stepping up in a big way, and that's been the big
shift since 2009. The grassroots side is no longer willing to limit
themselves to the directions given by the big green groups and the
Washington-centric side of the movement. The big green groups failed
horribly in 2009 with the Waxman-Markey bill. Up until that time, they
kind of kept everyone in check by saying, "We know how change happens,
we know how to do things in Washington. This is what's politically
feasible." And they fell on their face. Now a lot of folks are saying,
"Well, we tried it your way. Now we're going to do it our way."
And your group, Peaceful Uprising, was part of that shift.
Yeah, Peaceful Uprising was forming during that time, largely out of
an awareness that what the climate movement was doing wasn't working and
we needed to do something else. It was started largely for the purpose
of experimenting, and simply trying something new. Not saying this is
the one right way. But saying we need a new way of doing things. And
hopefully there will be more experimenting in the climate movement. A
movement that gets a little bit out of control – that's what we need.
One that's more spontaneous, trying more things and is more willing to
do things even if it's not the exact right thing to do, but just because
we need to move forward.
Will you stay involved with Peaceful Uprising?
I handed over the reins when I was convicted. I was pretty much out
of the picture once I was incarcerated. I am not really in a leadership
position there anymore.
Because of the publicity around your trial and incarceration,
and now with the documentary, you have achieved a national profile and
will be seen as a sort of spokesperson for the movement. Are you
comfortable with this new level of fame?
As far as being seen as a speaker and that sort of thing, that's a
role that I'm willing to serve. I kind of ended up in the role as the
guy who always talked about civil disobedience just because that was the
opening that the movement had in 2008 and 2009. So I sort of ended up
in that role by default. Now I'll try and fill whatever role is needed.
And I feel like I naturally look at things from a holistic perspective. I
tend to be good at articulating a vision of where we need to go. I feel
like I'm well suited for the role that I'm in right now.
Bidder 70 opens in New York for a limited run on May 17th.