A-Infos (en) Freedom 6405 8 Mar, 2003 - A perspective from Earth First!

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Existing in the UK since 1991, Earth First! has been 
described as more of a 'space' than an organisation, 
and indeed the series of actions and events that have 
happened under the EF! banner have usually been 
linked only by the fact that the diverse participants 
have, at some point or other, shared either physical, 
political or emotional space. One such forum for face 
to face contact is the annual EF! Winter Moot, held 
last month, and designed to complement the 
Summer Gathering. These shifting spaces (plus the 
monthly EF! Action Update newsletter) are the bonds 
that hold the Earth First! together as a network. I 
must emphasise that these only form the consciously 
created bonds. What really holds EF! together is 
shared experience and activity - the anti-roads 
protest camps, for example, were seminal in forming 
this activist community. Today the main areas of 
radical ecological activism are made by a more 
diverse body of protests and campaigns, including the 
war to destroy the biotechnology industry, to restrain 
climate change and to save aspects of UK ecology, 
such as peat bogs.

Direct action has been making the Earth First! 
critique, but it is intellectually charged none the less. 
Many different thinkers and radical traditions inform 
the Earth First! activity, often to a shifting extent. 
Since the J18 Carnival Against Capital in 1998, 
anarchist and other overtly anti-capitalist ideas have 
been rising to the forefront, to mingle with other 
anti-authoritarian and ecological traditions. In the 
process this could mean EF! moving away from its 
traditional role as the radical wing of the 
environmental movement towards adopting a more 
general anti-capitalist focus. This could be a 
mistake.

Since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962) warned of 
the dangers of agro-chemicals such as DDT, a large 
body of European/US ecological literature has 
developed, and the blame is increasingly being laid 
on industrial society. This means capitalism, but also 
any other modern division of labour. With a critique 
this deep it can seem opportunist to get involved 
with any campaign or movement that does not 
challenge the subsistence basis of modern society, 
and maybe it is. Fighting for short term gains, such as 
the stopping of a particular war and raising living 
standards within the present society, are irrelevant if 
one sees industrial capitalism as heading towards 
imminent apocalypse.

However, I prefer to see these long and short term 
focused campaigns as complementary. Challenges to 
industrial society will come through human 
movements. Even if all we can do is 'visualise 
industrial collapse' (a slogan of USA EF!) then the 
extent of social collapse will surely depend on the 
extent to which we depend on industrial logic. 
Developing a series of deeply-rooted communities 
and networks is probably the best way both to 
reverse ecological destruction and to withstand its 
effects. Earth First! has participated in many 
struggles in the UK, probably because it is one of the 
best collection of sincere direct action activists in 
these islands. In the process, many campaigns have 
absorbed an ecological and direct action ethos that 
would otherwise be missing, just as EF! Has absorbed 
influences from social anarchism and socialism.

When I wonder, for example, whether EF! will 'get 
involved' with the anti-war movement, this is beside 
the point. EF! is not an organisation, but a 
discussion. No doubt many ecological activists will 
get involved, but EF! institutional participation in 
anything is a contradiction in terms! And the ongoing 
ecological crisis will not disappear any time soon. 
The 1990s were a moment of breaking awareness 
about the urgency of capital's assault on our planet, 
but that assault continues apace. And, judging by 
non-free market societies such as USSR, this assault 
could continue even after considerable social 
restructuring. Radical ecological action remains as 
urgent. My hope is that EF! and other movements 
and struggles can continue to have mutually fruitful 
relationship.
Ned Ludd

To find out more, see Action Update and Do or Die: 
voices from the ecological resistance. There's a full 
list of local EF! groups in the Action Update, with 
many major towns having local groups or campaigns. 
Do or Die, Editorial Collective, c/o Prior House, 6 
Tilbury Place, Brighton, East Sussex, BN2 2GY. 
Earth First! Action Update, 22a Beswick St, Ancoats, 
Manchester, M4 7HS

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