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ECOWARRIORS! |
Environmentalism is dead. Long live environmentalism!August 28, 2005It's hard to admit, sticks in the craw, brings the lump to the throat... and it's true. Environmentalism really is dead. I'm talking about environmentalism that seeks to preserve wilderness, critical habitat, open space, miles and miles of... miles and miles: that part of the world that exists for itself, not as a stage for Homo Sap and the Development Band. Environmentalism that puts humans in their place alongside all other species, not above. The Big Greens, all of them, have sold out to the mythology of sustainability, whatever that means. The Sierra Club has become the green arm of the Democratic Party: a political party, a vote machine, not a grass roots environmental advocacy group. Compared to the big SC, all other "environmental" groups pale in comparison. If John Muir were alive now, he'd turn over in his grave. The environmental movement gave in to the power of "compromise." Somehow, along the way twixt Thomas Jefferson and George W. Bush, the ideal of democracy was twisted into the practice of compromise. In order to court a broader spectrum of the people, ideals were abandoned in favor of "collaboration." What was forgotten along the way is that collaboration requires a unanimity of goals. In order for the Forest Service to collaborate with a group such as Earth First!, both groups must share a common goal, say, preservation of old-growth forest. But this is not the case. The Forest Service's primary goal is multiple-use of the forests, including the single use of cutting them down. This is in direct opposition to the goal of old-growth forest preservation. There can be no collaboration, no compromise, among such disparate goals. The Forest Service, ever since Gifford Pinchot, is supremely successful at doing its job of providing dead trees to the forest products industry. The Forest Service needs no collaboration with those who seek to preserve wilderness and intact forest ecosystems. Likewise the defenders of wilderness need no collaboration with those who seek to destroy wilderness. Wilderness knows no compromise, only loss. It's time to return to the environmentalism of Edward Abbey, of John Muir, of Walt Whitman, of Henry David Thoreau, an environmentalism that recognizes that humans are an integral part of the web of all life, that humans cannot exist in an exclusively man-made world, that being human requires the experience of an untrammeled non-human world for its completion. In these days of electronic distraction made manifest in all aspects of human life, the natural, non-human world is lost, even when "consumed" by the avid outdoorsperson decked out in the latest hiking technology. The "outdoors" has become a commodity, a marketing ploy, a sales gimmick, a vacation destination, a glossy photo on a Chamber of Commerce brochure. Even the concept of "sustainability" has been squeezed through the tube of development interests, until it comes out as the absurd oxymoron of "sustainable development." As Ed Abbey said, "The idea of wilderness needs no defense. It only needs more defenders." Let's recruit members of the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, Wilderness Alliance, and all the other Big Green Boxes, get them out of their chairs, away from their computers, on their feet and out into the wild, just for a short while, say, three weeks or so, maybe a month. No damned cell phones, no pagers, no iPods, no GPS's, no technological mediation of any kind. Ok, a good knife and a bag of raisins. Let them experience our true home, the wilderness, from whence we came and to which we all yearn to return. Environmentalism is dead. Long live environmentalism! Michael Leona Gulch Pacific Plate June 8, 2001 As Western civilization, if there is such a thing, blunders ever closer to the edge of societal collapse, ecosystem failure and general cultural ennui, a small and scattered cadre of dedicated enviromeddlers works to save what little is left of the wild and struggles to prevent further damage to ecosystems already in decline. Eschewing the easy but ultimately hopeless path of armed insurrection and violent revolution, these foes of the (corporate) Earth work in their home bioregions to oppose and physically stop, when necessary, activities destructive to the living Earth. Recent articles in the mainstream corporate press have focused attention on fires and property destruction at facilities related to genetic modification, urban sprawl and animal experimentation. CBS has publicly 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 such groups as ELF, Animal Liberation Front, Live Wild or Die, and the original Earth First! are not "groups" in the sense of a recognized gathering of members with officers, leaders or even facilitators. We don't meet in boardrooms or high rise office buildings and plot "the overthrow of the United States government by force and violence." We 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 as representatives 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 in opposition to 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. 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, a 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. While Earth First! groups, clubs and RRR gatherings may be fun, they necessarily draw attention to our unswerving opposition to the dominant paradigm, serving as a convenient fishing hole for would-be FBI informants, industry sycophants and government toadies. The popularity of such gatherings has driven many of us from the fold, preferring instead to conduct our creative field services beyond the light of public scrutiny, in the cool enveloping darkness of remote locations and stealthy maneuverings. We can use this to our advantage. While we put on the lively show, block the roads and timber sales, dance and frolic on the capital steps, meet in colorful neo-hippie celebrations, make bold speeches in highly visible gatherings, we distract attention from those who eschew public recognition, who prefer to work in anonymity, who treasure the unstructured, unfettered life of the solitary activist, who carry the banner and the ideal of Earth First! in their heart but not on their sleeve. In effect, Earth First! has two activist arms. The public, propaganda arm consists of highly visible, politically pointed protests, guerilla theatre, road and equipment lock-downs, banner hangings and other assorted public protestations against corporate excess. The actions of this group serve to educate the public, bring attention and additional resources to the cause, and thrust a well-placed middle finger in the face of the established authority. These activities are often designed to create a respite for beleaguered and threatened ecosystems, giving those who work within the existing system increased opportunities to craft and implement legal impediments to corporate hegemony. At the same time, a dispersed minority of EF! followers prefers the muted clink of bolt cutters in the night air, the slow drip of vital fluids on cooling desert sands, the solid thunk of a well placed spike, the cheery glow of blazing billboards against the night sky. This pleasant evening's activity harkens back to the mythic origins of Earth First! and the Ecowarrior tradition. Ned Ludd is our patron saint, reminding us that it is not people we oppose, but social institutions that oppress human individuals and bring about widespread destruction of the wild. As ecowarriors, we have an obligation to ourselves and to our fellow activists. Doc Sarvis explained the guiding principles of ecotage to Hayduke in Ed Abbey's "Hayduke Lives" as the Code of the Ecowarrior:
In our activist lives, we choose our strategies, our tactics, our field of battle. We cannot afford to discard any of our tools; we cannot ignore any effective tactics. We must make use of all resources available to oppose the corporate growth maniacs, who want only one thing in this world: EVERYTHING! East Mesa Rio Grande Valley Doc Sarvis, in Monkeywrench Gang, by Edward Abbey |