Earth Liberation Front

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Vail ski resort arson

The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) is an international movement of autonomous affinity groups that engage in sabotage against environmentally destructive industries. Beginning in the UK in 1992, it spread throughout Europe at first and then to the United States in 1996. In the mid to late 2010s, ELF cells have taken action in countries such as Chile, Mexico, Iran, Turkey, and Russia, often in collaboration with the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI).

ELF actions have taken place in "Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Iceland, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Sweden and the UK" as well as the United States.

In 2005, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that the ELF had committed over 1,200 actions and cost companies tens of millions of dollars in damages (By 2004, "extreme animal rights and environmental activists" had caused over $100 million according to the Anti-Defamation League). The ELF's 1997 Beltane communique begins, "Welcome to the struggle of all species to be free. We are the burning rage of this dying planet." The declaration endorses both social ecology and deep ecology, and it says, "We take inspiration from Luddites, Diggers, the Autonome squatter movement, the A.L.F., the Zapatistas, and the little people--those mischievous elves of lore. Authorities can't see us because they don't believe in elves. We are practically invisible. We have no command structure, no spokespersons, no office, just many small groups working separately, seeking vulnerable targets and practicing our craft."

The ELF has never harmed a human being in any of their actions. In March 2001, the Property Rights Foundation of America reported that the FBI ranked the ELF as the United States' top domestic "terror" threat. In 2005, the FBI's deputy assistant director, singling out the ELF in particular, described "the eco-terrorism, animal rights movement" as "[t]he No. 1 domestic terrorism threat." In How Nonviolence Protects the State, Peter Gelderloos points to the FBI's classification of the network as evidence that the ELF is a relatively effective threat to the state.

Structure and Guidelines

Each cell of the ELF operates autonomously and separately from the others. ELF cells anonymously send communiques to the above-ground Press Office, which publicizes and explains the underground actions. All ELF cells follow certain guidelines:

Any direct action taken to halt ecological destruction whilst keeping to the following guidelines could, if claimed as such, be considered an ELF action.

• To inflict maximum economic damage on those profiting from the destruction and exploitation of the natural environment.
• To reveal and educate the public about the atrocities committed against the earth and all species that populate it.
• To take all necessary precautions against harming any animal - human and nonhuman.

There is no way to contact the E.L.F. in your area. It is up to each committed person to take responsibility for stopping the exploitation of the natural world. No longer can it be assumed that someone else is going to do it. If not you who, if not now when?

Origins in Europe

The ELF, or the "Elves", first formed in Brighton, United Kingdom in 1992, at a national gathering of Earth First!ers. Fashioning themselves after the Animal Liberation Front, the ELF went on to use militant tactics to help out Earth First! campaigns. For instance, "during British Earth First!'s Mahogany Means Murder campaign of the early 1990s, Elves would mingle in with the EF! activists and whilst the EF! activists dropped their banners and blockaded the premises, the Elves would be busy gluing the locks of the building that the EF! activists were occupying."

The ELF spread throughout Europe at first. Neil Molland summarizes:

"To name just some of the early actions, the ELF in Holland targeted Amsterdam Airport, damaged cars, destroyed hunting platforms, and attacked oil exploration equipment. In a German forest near Frankfurt, Elves damaged dredgers being used to destroy the forest in preparation for urban expansion, while elsewhere in Germany activists targeted McDonald's restaurants, hunting platforms, and neo-Nazi political groups."

United States

Eugene, Oregon cell

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the Eugene, Oregon cell of the ELF caused major economic damage to various industries, attracting high-profile attention from the media and the government.

The ELF spread to the United States in 1996, when Josephine Sunshine Overaker and her boyfriend set fire to a U.S. Forest Service truck and spray-painted a circle-A and "Stop raping our forests" on the side of the rangers' station in Detroit, Oregon. On the 30th, she and two others burned down the Oakridge Ranger Station, causing about $5 million in damages.

On 21 July 1997, the cell burned down the Cavel West horse slaughterhouse. Before setting fire, the Elves set about four hundred horses back into the wild. After the arson, the facility never opened again. On 19 October 1998, the group executed its most famous action, an arson at Vail, Colorado's ski resort which threatened lynx habitat. The fire caused at least $12 million in damages, and grand jury sources suggest it was more than twice that amount. Journalists Sara Burnett and Will Potter have said the arson caused close to $26 million in damages.

The cell's other arsons damaged the headquarters of U.S. Forest Industries, Boise Cascade and Superior Lumber, a Eugene police station, biotech research facilities at the University of Washington, 35 SUVs at Eugene's Romania Chevrolet Truck Center, and a Bureau of Land Management wild horse corral. The cell also attacked a meat company in Eugene and signed the action as the Animal Liberation Front: "As long as companies continue to operate and profit off of Mother Earth and Her sentient beings, the Animal Liberation Front will continue to target these operations and their insurance companies until they are out of business."

According to McGowan, the group moved too quickly and made significant tactical mistakes, for example when they set a fire at the University of Washington that got out of control and destroyed a library in addition to their target. McGowan opposed his cell's attack on an SUV dealer, since he worried it would compromise the legal situation of Jeff "Free" Luers and Craig "Critter" Marshall, who were then being tried for setting fire to SUVs. McGowan says that at his cell's last meeting, the group split irreparably apart as some members appalled the rest by bringing up the idea of targeting individuals in addition to property. The cell fell apart, and McGowan moved to Canada and then New York.

The federal government launched a major investigation called "Operation Backlash" to catch ELF militants and others they deemed "eco-terrorists". For three years after the actions, the federal agents had no evidence or significant leads, but they came to suspect Jake Ferguson, known for his militant posture in Eugene's environmental scene. Although they had no evidence against Ferguson, they led him to think they did and thus scared him into cooperating. He wore a wire and obtained evidence against other members of the group. Ultimately, 8 co-defendants cooperated with the government, while 4 others, including McGowan, refused. McGowan plead guilty in 2006 and was sentenced to 7 years in prison.

Dibee was extradited by the Cuban government to the United States, and in 2022 he plead guilty to involvement in ELF arsons. As of 2022, Overaker remains the only one member who was never caught. Her whereabouts are unknown.

The following list of United States actions is from the publication Do or Die:

1998

June 21 Olympia, Washington

In the early morning a joint cell of the ALF and ELF destroy two US Department of Agriculture Animal Damage Control Buildings. An estimated $1.5 million in research was lost and $400,000 in structural damages was caused.

October 18 in Vail, Colorado

Huge damages were caused to Vail Associates who were planning to develop a huge wilderness area into a ski resort. The largest act of eco-sabotage in US history, it catapulted the ELF into the public eye in North America.

December 26 in Medford, Oregon

US Forest Industries suffered damages estimated at $700,000 from a fire that gutted their offices. The target served as the corporate headquarters for four logging mills.

1999

December 25 in Monmouth, Oregon

Fire destroys the main office of the Boise Cascade logging company costing over $1 million. ELF claim responsibility in a communiqué.

December 31 at Michigan State University, Michigan

Offices doused with gasoline and set alight. The ELF said the fire was set in response to the work being done to force developing nations in Asia, Latin America and Africa to switch from natural crop plants to genetically engineered sweet potatoes, corn, bananas and pineapples. Monsanto and USAID were major funders of the research and promotional work being done through Michigan State University. According to local newspapers, the fire caused some $900,000 in damage.

2000

January 23 in Bloomington, Indiana

Fire destroyed a building site at the Sterling Woods development with estimated damage of $200,000. The ELF targeted the house because the sprawling development it is part of is in the Lake Monroe watershed that's being jeopardised by building developments.

April 30 in Bloomington, Indiana

At least six pieces of logging and heavy construction equipment were sabotaged, and a trailer full of wood chips was set ablaze at a road construction site just outside the city. Damages were estimated at over $75,000.

September 9 in Bloomington, Indiana

Fire erupts at the headquarters of the Monroe County Republican Party Committee headquarters. Investigators say a flammable liquid was poured on the building and ignited. The fire was a reminder, according to the ELF communiqué, that it would not sit quietly as politicians pushed for plans to extend an ecologically destructive highway.

December 9 on Long Island, New York

Fire erupts in a condominium under construction. The ELF claims responsibility, saying the homes were "future dens of the wealthy elite." The group, announcing "an unbounded war on urban sprawl," claims it checked for occupants - human and animal - in 16 buildings before setting incendiaries.

2001

January 1 in Glendale, Oregon

The ELF claimed responsibility for burning down the Superior Lumber Company offices. This caused at least $400,000 in damage. The communiqué stated that, "This year we hope to see an escalation in tactics against capitalism and industry."

January 23 in Louisville, Kentucky

The ELF takes action to counter urban sprawl. Five windows were broken, and 18 vandalised in the first wave of attacks against corporate development.

March 5 in Huntington, New York

Corporate shops whose owners have involvement in the clear-cutting of forests in the Pacific Northwest had their windows smashed. The communiqué warns that actions will continue until the corporations stop their economic support for forest destruction.

November 27 in Boulder, Colorado

The ELF use arson to destroy a $2.5 million mansion belonging to corporate developers. The target was razed to the ground, leaving only the cement foundations recognisable.

2002

September 3 in Irvine, Pennsylvania

The ELF claims responsibility for an arson attack on the US Forest Service Northeast Research Station. The laboratory was set ablaze during the early morning hours, causing over $700,000 damage and destroying 70 years worth of research.

2003

January 2 in Erie, Pennsylvania

The ELF destroys several off-road vehicles at a car dealership.

April 10 in Santa Cruz, California

The ELF spray-paint anti-war messages on about 60 vehicles and trucks.

June 4 in Chico, California and Washington, Michigan

Two separate arson attacks against urban sprawl target luxury homes under development. These are the third and fourth attacks against urban sprawl undertaken by the ELF in 2003.

2010s

In 2014, an Iranian cell spray-painted "ELF" and a circle-A next to a critique of the cutting down of two old-growth trees in the city of Sabzevar. The same year, attacks on excavators in Russia and Turkey were each signed by the "ELF/FAI/IRF." FAI referred to the Informal Anarchist Federation and IRF stood for "International Revolutionary Front." Later that year, a U.K. attack on luxury and corporate cars was signed by "F.A.I. Torches in the Night -Earth Liberation Front."

In 2015, a Mexican cell attacked a Honda dealership and released a statement declaring, "Once again, tired of their artificial world we have acted to demonstrate that we will never accept their offers to live in this filthy puddle that is full of automatons filled with indifference who do not show even the most minimal respect for the Earth." In 2016, a group of ELF and Animal Liberation Front cells jointly took responsibility for a series of coordinated sabotages and blockades around Chile against pharmacies, a butcher shop, a slaughterhouse, a railroad, a bank, and a police station.

In 2017, Chilean ELF and ALF militants set off noise bombs in an Arauco Forest Company truck. In 2018 ELF and ALF cells spray-painted a Chilean police boat and launched banner drops and noise bombs against the dairy and hydroelectric industries. The accompanying communique expressed solidarity with Mapuche resistance to hydroelectric dams.

Criticism

Unrepentant Marxist blogger Louis Proyect writes, "In a novel, a well placed firebomb might discourage a corporate despoiler but in the real world, the businessmen will pay for the damages with insurance and plunge ahead, making sure to make an amalgam between the underground activists and those who are using mass action to protect the environment." However, not all companies and facilities have recovered from ELF actions; the Cavel West slaughterhouse was never rebuilt, for example. Further addressing this line of criticism, former ELF Press Office member Craig Rosebraugh argues that property destruction is an excellent tool for public education, and that if it were to be repeatedly applied to a single target, insurance companies would raise their rates and eventually refuse to cover the company. In other words, the pnly problem with ELF attacks was that there weren't enough of them.

Rosebraugh has criticized the ELF's choice of targets. To Rosebraugh, it was necessary to pick more powerful targets: a car manufacturer instead of just a dealership, Monsanto instead of professors' offices, and most of all the U.S. government itself.

The anonymous author of "The Telescope or the Kaleidoscope" criticizes the ELF's nonviolence-inspired guidelines and urges a more insurrectionary approach.

Prisoners

Marius Mason is serving 22 years for ELF actions including a 1999 arson of a GMO research office at Michigan State University and a 2000 arson against logging equipment in Michigan.