The Social Life of a Reactionary, Anarchist, Terrorist Movement: Earth Liberation Front
Ecoterrorism is hard to define. It is used by the FBI and other government agencies to describe individuals or groups that use arson and sabotage against property, equipment, materials, or facilities that they feel are being used to destroy the environment. This is known as direct action and many such direct action tactics exist such as ecotage, eco-drama and monkeywrenching. Ecotage Acts of major economic sabotage that are designed to hurt the profits of businesses that radical environmentalists believe are profiting from environmentally harmful practices. Eco-drama (Staging non-violent, often illicit events that cause no property damage, but that are designed for the sake of gaining media attention for an environmental cause or to expose an environmental abuse. This type of action is often designed to spur a law enforcement response to maximize sympathetic media attention. Monkeywrenching was made popular by Edward Abbey's fictional work The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975). It generally refers to minor acts of vandalism or sabotage that are undertaken to frustrate the perpetrators of a perceived environmental harm (CITE).
The most well known of these organizations is the ELF or the Earth Liberation Front. They are a reincarnation of an earlier organization that also used the acronym ELF but the earlier version was the Environmental Life Force and did not advocate the use of unlawful methods. It was the later group that published the field guide for monkeywrenching. They were later plagued by the same problems that follow extremist groups across the spectrum. Savoie noted in ‘If a tree falls’ that because they were so critical of outside people ...
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...xisted a decade after their first action. The grander version of their goal: "The end goal of the ELF is to save life on this planet, to stop violence." (Elaine Close) The question then is whether they can seriously use unlawful acts to save anybodies lives. Some compare it to a revolution (Randal) Highly motivated individuals with some public support and a moving and convincing platform it can fit that definition. But is the issue serious enough to justify unlawful acts and could it be addressed more effectively by changing laws and hearts not violence? Some employ markedly fatalist logic: if everyone on earth is going to die if so-and-so manufacturers keep throwing so-and-so toxic sludge into so-and-so waterway then how can we just sit back and wait for the courts? Participation in these activities demonstrates extreme distrust of the justice system and lawmakers.
organizations such as The Sierra Club, Friends of Earth and the Earth Island Institute fought
1) To inflict economic damage on those profiting from the destruction and exploitation of the natural environment;
For instance, in the case study of Emelle, Alabama, the Alabamians for a Clean Environment group formed, only through the disagreement of the approaches of how Sumter Countainians Organized for Protection of the Environment was addressing the issue. One important aspect of advocacy is unification. Thus, when environmental justice groups are combating these issue within their community, they need to unite as a collective unit to enact the change they envision. A great example of a group that unified together to achieve success is the Love Canal tragedy, where the community members unified to pressure the government to act on the waste left underneath the elementary school. If there were not unified, the constituents residing around the Love Canal may not have forced the government to listen. Hence, my recommendation is for advocacy groups to learn from one another, embody off the success of one group, and collectively set a mission and outcome plan to combat these injustices. After all, Martin Luther King, a proclaimed civil rights leader once said, “there is power in unity, and there is power in
Members would do undercover investigations into slaughterhouses or laboratories. It works with celebrities and government officials in campaigns to spread the message and get free media coverage. They pass out flyers and talk with people one-on-one. Some also acts as “field workers,” which means they go to neighborhoods and offer dog houses, toys and neutering/spraying services to (owners of the) dogs that seem neglected. The organization uses many methods to fight for their cause, but haven’t succeeded much in getting laws made.
In this vast contemporary society, many voices go unheard. Our society struggles to break free from the problems it presents to us. Problems such as the environment, human rights, animal rights, and peace among nations continue to exist. Organizations such as Greenpeace, Sierra Club, and Amnesty are 3 of the biggest associations to help fight and put a cease to the world’s troubles.
In this day of globalization and social media, this has meant that these Native groups are reaching out to the world for support and to educate our political leaders and the populace about environmental concerns. This has resulted in a better understanding of Native spirituality. Groups such as the Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers (http://www.grandmotherscouncil.org/), Idle No More (http://www.idlenomore.ca/), The Nibi Walk project (nibiwalk.org), The First Peoples Worldwide (http://firstpeoples.org/wp/), and numerous other groups have been created to promote environmental projects, sway political processes, and share the beliefs about why these things are important to Native
Human beings have been shown to be the cruelest animals on the planet. While other animals will kill for defense or food, humans are the only ones that inflict unnecessary cruelty onto others like they do through experimentation. Fortunately, some people throughout the years have shown sympathy towards the various animals that are tested on day after day and work to stop the atrocities committed by man. Animal rights activists and their cause can be traced back to their origins in the antivivisection campaigns of the 1900s. Both individuals and groups of people work to abrogate the abuse of animals, usually through protests. The most prominent organization that advocates for animal rights is PETA or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who have fought many battles in the war against animal cruelty. Two of PETA’s victories were in their campaigns, where they worked with several other organizations, against Gillette and Colgate for their experimentation on and mistreatment of animals. Their victory against Gillette came with, “the multinational company announcing a moratorium in December 1996 on animal testing of its ...
Earth First! In effort to take a non-violent approach to protecting the environment, Earth First! made its mark in the late 1970s. However, during that time, the group had little to no impact on environmental policies, and many of its members decided that the group was not radical enough, despite the leader’s request to continue using non aggressive strategies. This led to the establishment of ELF in the early 1990s. The ELF’s purpose is to carry out the most violent “direct-action” agenda, with a goal similar to ALF to inflict the maximum economic damage to the enterprises they felt were destroying the environment. Some of their acts included breaking into farms, releasing animals, setting fires to buildings, and wrecking offices that provided services to businesses they are
In Module one, I learned that terrorism is a result of physical harm or deadly acts of force with the intent of a political outcome by the use of terror for coercion. There are various types of terrorism such as international terrorism and domestic terrorism. International terrorism occurs outside of the United States with a purpose to influence the policy of a government by intimidation. International and Domestic terrorism both involve violent acts dangerous to human life that violate federal and state laws. Domestic terrorism occurs within the United States with the intention of coercion or intimidation by way of mass destruction, etc. Some forms of terrorism include Improvised explosive devices (IED), kidnappings, suicide bombings and
First of all, let me start off with what Amnesty International is, and what their mission is. Amnesty International according to it 's website is a non-governmental organization that, "investigate and expose the
The activist’s anti-capitalists, green anarchists, deep ecologists and eco-feminists. Their objective is to make overturning social and ecological conditions, as part of and earth liberation movement. . Leader 2003. This group has a bit more of a detrimental effect then the KKK this group has the tenacity to effect the lively hoods of day to day Americans, by “torching sport utility vehicles, ski resorts, research labs.” Phillips 2014. This group has some good points to make evident to the public which are the fact animals are used for experiments and the ecological damage corporations do to gain substantial profits. Their means to create chaos have been drastic the most common have been sabotage towards capitalist corporations and other organizations who are destroying the natural environment. Their main objective is to bring to light the atrocities that are done every day to wildlife both land and sea. I found this group to be somewhat correct on fighting for the wildlife but the way they fight is not so friendly or
National terrorism has been the focus of attention since September 11. But now domestic terrorism is becoming increasingly common among hate groups across the nation. Domestic terrorism can be defined as visible crime, or “street crime.” These acts would consist of violent crimes, (acts against people in which injury or death results) property crimes (acts that threaten property held by individuals or the state) and public order crimes. (acts that threaten the general well-being of society and challenger accepted moral principles) It can also however be described as political crime, (criminal acts by or against the government for ideological purposes) which would include the 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombing.
Terrorism is an act of implementing extreme measures over a group of people in order to restore a balance that was unjustly taken away. Radical Islamist use this form of practice as a way to gain back power and domain over what they believe was once rightfully theirs to begin with. Islamists try to strengthen the role that they have over the world by forcing people to live by what they believe in and to practice those beliefs that they are given. Radical Islamist believe that God is the maker of all laws, and countries that do not rely solely on this belief should be punished by acts of terrorism.
After 9/11 and the anthrax letter attacks, North America, in particular the United States (U.S.) remains quite vulnerable to an attack (1, 2). According to the article titled “Agroterrorism in the U.S.: Key Security Challenge for the 21st century”, some of the areas in which the U.S. remains vulnerable to attack include: water supplies, food production, food processing, and food distribution. What do these area have in common? They are all connected to agriculture. A bioterrorist attack in which agriculture is the target is termed agroterrorism. Agroterrorism can be defined as “the deliberate introduction of a disease agent, either against livestock or into the food chain, for purposes of undermining stability and/or generating fear.” Agriculture
Animal welfare groups portray the Inuit as monsters who kill animals for pleasure, but in truth, the