June 7, 2023

Some people are asking me if I would ever want to return to SSCS and SS Global, and if given the chance to regain control of both, would I do so?

The answer is very much a “NO.”

Although I created the organization in 1977 and built it into a global movement, and although I had the classic logo designed and designed the Jolly Roger logo myself, I simply do not need the name or the logo.

Those who took it, can have it. They need it more than I do. They created nothing, they simply commandeered what was not theirs. They wanted control and they got it.

I never wanted control. That is why I worked to make SS into a movement with independent national entities.

SS Global was never meant to control these national entities. SS Global was established to coordinate ship and campaign operations. Now they are suing any national entity that does not allow control by SS Global. That is why they are using donor funds to sue SS France.

For both SSCS and SS Global it’s all about control.

It’s also about compromise and a rejection of everything that I built SS to stand for. The very reason for being for SS was to be confrontational, to rock the boat, to make waves and to provoke controversy to motivate change and to make people think.

I established SS to intervene against illegal activities, to be independent, incorruptible and undeterred by danger, risk and political and economic pressure.

If SS is no longer standing for such principles, why would I want it back? 

Quite frankly, the name has been tainted and corrupted. 

I never could have ever imagined a SS that would partner with a fishing company like SS Australia has done. Nor could I have ever imagined SS Global and SSCS partnering with corrupt governments. I also would never have imagined SS supporting cetaceans in captivity.

Nor could I have ever imagined that control of what was once a powerful international movement would fall into the hands of Florida property developer who holds hunting and fishing licenses in Florida and Alaska and supports dolphins in captivity.

Why would anyone support such a thing and as more and more people come to realize what is happening, more and more people are no longer supporting something that is today merely a mirage of what was once real.

I am very grateful that thousands of people have witnessed the decline of what was once the most respected badass marine conservation movement on the planet, and have chosen to no longer support the charade of direct action.

SSCS is suing me and the CPWF for trademark violations, despite the fact that I have never used the SS name or logos since leaving SS and I have no intention of ever doing so.

We have a new name and new logos, but what is not new is our commitment to continuing our more than four decades long practice of aggressive non-violent direct action.

What SSCS and SS Global have abandoned remains our foundation for action and intervention. 

Now there are three very exceptional exceptions to the surrender to compromise and inaction.

SS France, SS UK and SS Brazil remain committed to the ideals, strategies and tactics that made SS what it became, and it is in these three countries that SS survives intact and unblemished.

 I remain a director of all three national entities and our Foundation will not compete with them. 

Perhaps when SS Global and the puppet SS national entities they control, like Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands have fallen and failed, perhaps the once great SS movement will rise again.

One thing for certain is that SS France, UK and Brazil are gaining mores support as support for the SS groups that have surrendered their principles continues to fall.

I have no need to control these three SS groups. The leadership of France, the UK and Brazil all share the same vision, and they also share the courage, passion, and imagination to drive that vision forward in a cause they understand and appreciate.

As for the others they have surrendered their vision to bureaucracy and compromise and quite frankly there is no future in taking that path.

Note: I use the initials SS and SSCS because I am prohibited from using the full names on FB because of trademark complaints.