It began 16 years ago with a meeting of disaffected environmentalists in Brighton. Today the radical organisation they created – the Earth Liberation Front – is described as a decentralised al-Qaeda-style network and America’s No 1 domestic terrorism threat. It even provided inspiration for the villains in Michael Crichton’s 2004 thriller State of Fear…
…and it really doesn’t get much better from Chris Ayres in Los Angeles of The Times on March 11, 2008.
The disaffection Ayres refers to was with Earth First! (Journal), a previous (and still-existant) incarnation of the radical, direct action environmental movement. For another account of the ELF, see PRIMITIVE DISSIDENTS: EARTH LIBERATION FRONT AND THE MAKING OF A RADICAL ANTHROPOLOGY by Jay Hasbrouck (PhD Thesis, December 2005). The comparison to al-Qaeda makes sense from the perspective of state and capital, but little sense from a human one. Also, the declaration that the ELF (and the ALF) was Public Enemy #1 was initially made some time ago, that is, prior to 9/11. Still, this hasn’t prevented the FBI from listing Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, Josephine Overaker, Rebecca J. Rubin, Daniel Andreas San Diego and Justin Franchi Solondz as among their Most Wanted Domestic Terrorists, all of whom are accused of belonging to or taking part in ALF/ELF actions.
Anyways, Bad people from Brighton also do things like Do or Die! and Schnews — both are worth reading.
See also : It’s the End of the World as We know it and I feel FINE #28 | It’s the End of the World as We know it and I feel FINE #27 | It’s the End of the World as We know it and I feel FINE #26
