The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) is the collective name for anonymous and autonomous individuals or groups that, according to the now defunct Earth Liberation Front Press Office, use "economic sabotage and guerrilla warfare to stop the exploitation and destruction of the natural environment." [1] The organization has been active in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom where the movement was founded. ELF sympathizers say that it is an eco-defense group dedicated to taking the profit motive out of environmental destruction by targeting and causing economic damage to businesses through the use of direct action.[1] The ELF was classified as the top domestic terror threat in the United States by the FBI in March 2001.[2][3] The ELF's guidelines require that individuals or groups acting on its behalf "take all necessary precautions against harming any animal — human and nonhuman."[2]. On the lack of deaths from ELF action, the FBI's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism has said, "I think we're lucky. Once you set one of these fires they can go way out of control."[4] The group came to public prominence when they were featured on the television show 60 Minutes.[5] Their techniques involve destruction of property that they believe is being used to injure animals, people or the environment. These activities are sometimes called ecotage and there are marked differences between their actions in the United States and in the United Kingdom. The Earth Liberation Front has no formal leadership, membership or official spokesperson; instead it consists of individuals or small groups who choose to use the term. The FBI says that activist Rod Coronado is "a national leader" of the ELF in the USA, while Coronado describes himself as an "unofficial ELF spokesman".[6] Craig Rosebraugh served as an unofficial spokesperson for the ELF from 1997 to early September 2001.[7] However, doubts have been raised about whether Rosebraugh or other unofficial spokespeople for ELF actually have any ties to the group.[8]
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History
The Earth Liberation Front was founded in 1992 in Brighton, England by members of the "Earth First!" environmental movement. The name was derived from the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a group that uses similar tactics to liberate animals or sabotage companies using them.[9] In the September–October 1993 issue of the Earth First! Journal, an anonymous article announced the creation of the ELF in England. It said the ELF "is a movement of independently operating eco-saboteurs" that split from the "British EF! movement, which has focused directly on public direct actions." The author noted that, unlike the ALF which seeks publicity, "ELF cells, for security reasons, work without informing the press and do not claim responsibility for actions... The surest way to be done for conspiracy or to attract surveillance or infiltrators is to seek attention."
ELF guidelines for action
The Earth Liberation Front has published guidelines for action. These guidelines say: Any direct action to halt the destruction of the environment and adhering to the strict nonviolence guidelines, listed below, can be considered an ELF action. Economic sabotage and property destruction fall within the guidelines.[10]
- To inflict maximum economic damage on those profiting from the destruction and exploitation of the natural environment.
- To reveal to, and to educate the public about the atrocities committed against the earth and all species that populate it.
- To take all necessary precautions against harming life.
Actions, police response, and convictions
ELF "monkeywrenching" has been carried out against facilities and companies involved in logging, genetic engineering, home building, automobile sales, energy production and distribution, and a wide variety of other activities, all charged by ELF with exploiting the environment. Individuals work in autonomous affinity groups and are self-funded.[11] In late 2005 and early 2006, as part of Operation Backfire, US grand juries indicted a total of 18 activists on a range of charges related to "violent acts in the name of animal rights and environmental causes".[12] According to the FBI, many of these acts were carried out on behalf of the ELF.[13] Although some of those arrested deny any affiliation with the ELF,[14] others, including Rod Coronado, have established ties to the group.[15] In late 2006 a number of self-described ELF members pled guilty to arson and other charges in U.S. federal courts.[3] On November 11, 2006 Joyanna Zacher, Nathan Block, Daniel McGowan and Jonathan Paul pleaded guilty to several eco-sabotage related charges, as part of a global resolution agreement with prosecutors. Judge Ann Aiken presided over the hearings. The change of pleas from the four defendants resolves all current “Operation Backfire” cases in Oregon.[4] On December 15, 2006 Chelsea Dawn Gerlach and Stanilas Gregory Meyerhoff, pleaded guilty to $20 million worth of arsons committed between 1996 and 2001 by the Eugene-based cell of the ELF known as "The Family". Their fire-bombing of a Vail ski resort resulted in $12 million and the FBI characterized the ELF as the United States' "top domestic terrorism threat". Gerlach has previously pleaded guilty to 18 counts of arson, saying she was motivated by "a deep sense of despair and anger at the deteriorating state of the global environment," but adding that she has "since realized the firebombings did more harm than good." Meyerhoff has renounced ELF and pleaded guilty to 54 counts, but is still under indictment in Michigan, Arizona, Washington, Wyoming and California.[5] The FBI alleged that the group was led by William C. Rodgers, who was arrested in December 2005 and committed suicide in jail just before he was to be transferred to Oregon. Two other ELF members indicted in the Vail arson, Josephine Sunshine Overaker and Rebecca J. Rubin, have not been apprehended. Vail Resorts Inc. has since rebuilt the firebombed lodge.
Criticism of ELF
The FBI designated the ELF as "eco-terrorists."[16] Representative Scott McInnis, then chairman of the US House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, subpoenaed Craig Rosebraugh in an effort to investigate the ELF's activities. On hearing Rosebraugh's testimony, McInnis suggested it was "luck" no one has been killed by an ELF (or ALF) attack.[17] Referring to the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front, ATF Deputy Assistant Director Carson Carrol has said, "The most worrisome trend to law enforcement and private industry alike has been the increase in willingness by these movements to resort to the use of incendiary and explosive devices."[18] It has also been claimed the ELF's actions harm the environment, a spokesman for the Vail Ski Resort, which the ELF fire bombed in 1998 in protest of a planned extension, explained, "more logs were used to rebuild the resort than were cut for the [original] expansion" [6] (pdf). In 2001 the ELF targeted the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture in with the aim of disrupting research into genetic engineering. However, the targeted researcher was investigating hybridization in poplar trees, and the resulting fire killed a significant number of endangered plants.[19] ELF was also featured in commentator Bernard Goldberg's book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America as #23, "The Unknown American Terrorist". They were listed and criticised for damaging property and acting like a terrorist group in the name of saving the environment.[20]
In popular culture
- Folk musician David Rovics performs a song dedicated to the ELF called "Song for the Earth Liberation Front"[21] as well as a song about accused ELF activist, Jeffrey Luers titled "Free", after Luers' nickname.[22]
- Edward Abbey published The Monkey Wrench Gang in 1975. The book is thought to be the inspiration for the formation of Earth First!. In 1989 he published a sequel Hayduke Lives.
- In the 2004 novel by Michael Crichton, State of Fear, a fictional group based on the Earth Liberation Front, but called the Environmental Liberation Front instead, is the main villain.
- In the novel by Nicholas Evans, The Divide, a main character is involved in ELF activities.
See also
- Earth Liberation Prisoner Support Network (ELPSN)
- Green anarchism
- Anarcho-primitivism
- Deep ecology
- Green syndicalism
- Green Scare
- Operation Backfire (FBI)
- William Cottrell
- Darren Thurston
Further reading
- Best, Steven and Nocella, Anthony J. Igniting A Revolution: Voices in Defense of the Earth, AK Press, 2006. ISBN 1-904859-56-9
External links
- Earth Liberation Prisoner Support Group (ELPSG)
- North American Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network
- GreenIsTheNewRed.com
- FBI on Eco-Terrorism
- Covert Repertoires: Ecotage in the UK
- Do or Die: Voices from the Ecological Resistance
- Earth First! (UK) action reports
- Earth First!
- Bombs and Shields: Covers the latest ELF news
- www.fbi.gov Search:Single Issue Terrorists?Domestic Terrorists: Earth Liberation Front
- Website offering criticism of the Earth Liberation Front
References
- ^ http://arkangelweb.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=405
- ^ http://prfamerica.org/EarthLiberationFrontNo1onFBIList.html
- ^ http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress02/jarboe021202.htm
- ^ http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/19/domestic.terrorism/index.html
- ^ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/10/60minutes/main1036067.shtml
- ^ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10370129
- ^ http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/02/334091.shtml
- ^ http://www.laweekly.com/news/news/earth-to-elf-come-in-please/20/
- ^ http://greenfield.fortunecity.com/tree/16/fire.html#
- ^ http://www.tkb.org/Group.jsp?groupID=41
- ^ http://www.tkb.org/Group.jsp?groupID=41
- ^ http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/speeches/mueller012006.htm
- ^ http://www.fbi.gov/page2/jan06/elf012006.htm
- ^ http://www.indymedia.org/en/2006/01/831928.shtml
- ^ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10370129
- ^ http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0130/p20s01-sten.htm
- ^ http://www.stopecoviolence.com/pdfs/2_12_02.pdf
- ^ http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/19/domestic.terrorism/index.html
- ^ http://www.museum-security.org/01/116.html
- ^ http://www.philosophistry.com/specials/100-people.html
- ^ http://members.aol.com/drovics/elfl.htm
- ^ http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/12/306830.shtml
