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EARTH FIRST! |
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June 24, 2001 Recent articles by CBS News and other mainstream press have focused attention on fires and property destruction at facilities related to genetic modification, urban sprawl and animal experimentation. CBS identified the Earth Liberation Front or ELF as a "group" that has claimed responsibility for these acts, and stated that the FBI is attempting to infiltrate the ELF "and other ecoterrorist groups." CBS, along with the mainstream press, the security industry and polite society in general, fail to recognize that ELF, along with Animal Liberation Front, Live Wild or Die, and the core cadre of Earth First!, are not "groups" in the sense of a recognized gathering of members with officers, leaders or even facilitators. They don't meet in board rooms or high rise office buildings and plot "the overthrow of the United States government by force and violence." They don't have four color newsletters, Java-scripted web pages, membership cards, fund-raising campaigns, boards of directors or free gummed, self-return labels with pictures of cute animals in living color. The label "ecoterrorist group" fits rather loosely on this dispersed cadre of dedicated environmental and biodiversity activists who eschew public recognition for their acts of opposition, depending instead on the act itself to spread political and environmental awareness. Although "spokesmen" have stepped forward, electronically at least, to claim responsibility for these physical acts of opposition, none can claim status of representative for any universal "group" that guides the actions of adherents around the world. The unavoidable response by the world security industry is to attempt to locate and neutralize the "leaders" of any opposition to the economic and political status quo. As we've seen repeatedly at protest gatherings to oppose globalization and the world-wide sellout to corporate hegemony, the immediate response by the constabulary is "round up the usual suspects" and incarcerate them, at least until the fun and games are over. Although the intent is to remove the "leaders" from "planning" the protest activities, the centralized, authoritarian, hierarchical security establishment has yet to understand that there are no leaders, planning is by consensus and grass-roots organization, and the people they have captured are merely the most publicly visible participants who ironically serve as the most effective martyrs and "poster children" for the opposition cause! In the face of centralized oppression, decentralized, non-hierarchical opposition is the most effective response. This simple strategy was recognized well by Ghandi, Che and other pioneers of guerilla opposition to oppressive central regimes. In our modern age of centrally organized, militarized police forces, operating at the beck and call of trans-national corporate interests, our only hope of an effective counterforce is through widely dispersed individuals operating under an overarching banner, such as that provided by ELF, Earth First! and others. Even the traditional "cell" organization of guerilla opposition is subject to infiltration by the constabulary. What is necessary now is a truly anarchic organization, with no leaders, no followers and no organizational structure. Doc Sarvis, in "Monkeywrench Gang," by Edward Abbey East Mesa Rio Grande Valley |