The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) emerged in Brighton, United Kingdom, in 1992, quickly spreading across Europe by 1994. The ELF acronym derived from the original ELF guerrilla group, the Environmental Life Force, that was founded in 1977 in Santa Cruz, California by activist John Clark Hanna.
The ELF has no formal leadership, hierarchy, membership, or official spokesperson, and is entirely decentralized; instead, it consists of individuals or cells who choose the term as a banner to use. Techniques involve destruction of property, by either using tools to disable or through arson to destroy what activists believe is being used to injure animals, people, or the environment.
With many different reasons why ELF activists carry out economic sabotage, a communique to the press claiming the responsibility for arson against urban sprawl in December 2000, described the reason a cell took an action. Some of the most common and notable attacks are against the development of multimillion-dollar houses, a frequent target in the ELF campaign.
Earth liberationists are a diverse group of individuals with a variety of different political ideologies and theories. Elves argue that direct action is required to aid the earth liberation movement, also referred to as eco-resistance movement, and a part of the radical environmental movement. The ELF claim that it would be similar to how the ALF has projected forward the animal liberation movement.
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Origins and Spread
The Earth Liberation Front was founded in 1992 in Brighton, England by members of the Earth First! (EF!) environmental movement at the first-ever national meeting. At the time, EF! had become very popular, so people's concerns were based on maintaining this popularity and by doing so not associating with overt law-breaking. There was no universal agreement over this, but it was accepted amongst the movement that British EF! would instead continue to advocate and focus on civil disobedience and mass demonstrations.
If people wanted to participate in acts of ecotage, the new name "Earth Liberation Front" would be used, with its name and guidelines derived from the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), another movement that uses direct action to liberate animals or sabotage companies using them. The very first ELF action is unknown, or undocumented, but one of the first and most notable actions was on April Fool's Earth Night 1992, a night organized by activists to carry out ecotage and also one of the first of them.
The Elves, as they were also known, targeted Fisons, a peat company accused of destroying the peat bogs causing £50,000-70,000 worth of damage. Pumps, trucks and other machinery belonging to the company were destroyed after legal campaigners, Friends of the Earth, spent two years advocating a boycott of the company.
The ELF quickly spread across to Europe by 1994, with actions first occurring in the Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Scandinavia, Italy, Ireland, Poland, Spain, France and Finland, and the name starting to be used across the globe. The Earth Liberation Front is widely regarded as the Animal Liberation Front's younger sibling, because of the relationship and cooperation between the two movements.
It is believed that cells rapidly established themselves in new countries because of the global outreach of Earth First! Within two years, McDonald's had been vandalized in Germany and Poland, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol had been sabotaged, and high-emission vehicles had been destroyed. The first time it was known that an earth liberation action had happened in North America, was in 1995, in Canada, by a group calling itself the Earth Liberation Army (ELA). They were considered by the European Elves at the time to be "transatlantic cousins".
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On Columbus Day 1996, activists spraypainted "504 years of genocide" and "ELF" on the walls of a public relations office, as well as a McDonald's restaurant in Oregon, the actions were the very first by the ELF in the United States. The same restaurant then had its locks glued and spraypainted again, but this time in support of the British McLibel Two, two activists who had distributed anti-McDonald's leaflets.
In late November 2008, a group calling itself Eco-Anarquista Por El Ataque Directo (Eco-anarchist cell supporting direct attack) claimed responsibility for several recent actions, including half a dozen Molotov cocktails thrown at tren férreo (metro rail) in Mexico City, incendiary sabotage against Telmex, and a Molotov cocktail thrown at a Banamex ATM. The group claimed that these attacks were a form of protest against the construction of a new rail line (line 12), in Mexico City (D.F.) and Mexico State.
Over the first months of 2012, several car arson cases in Buenos Aires were claimed by the "Frente de Liberacion de la Tierra", stating that "... is already the largest ski operation in North America and now wants to expand even further. The 12 miles (19 km) of roads and 885 acres (3.58 km2) of clearcuts will ruin the last, best lynx habitat in the state. Putting profits ahead of Colorado's wildlife will not be tolerated.
Actions also included sabotaging power lines, the burning of an SUV dealership, and the burning down of a logging headquarters causing $1 million in damages. The Elves wrote to the local paper "Let this be a lesson to all greedy multinational corporations who don't respect their ecosystems," with most actions taking place in Oregon. The ELF then set fire to Michigan State University on New Year's Eve, using a gasoline bomb to cause $1.1 million in damages, because of a program to provide GMO plants to African farmers.
ELF spokesmen claimed Monsanto had been a major contributor to funding the program; however, the only funding from Monsanto Corp. was a one-time sum of $2,000 to send five African students to a conference on biotechnology. The next day, commercial logging equipment was set on fire, with "ELF" and "Go Log in Hell" spraypainted on a truck. In March, a total of thirty SUVs were torched, belonging to Joe Romania's dealership, in Oregon, with damages estimated at $1 million.
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On May 21, a fire destroyed laboratories, offices, and archives at the Center for Urban Horticulture, University of Washington, causing a total of $7 million in damages. The arson destroyed 20 years of research and plant and book collections. The ELF claimed responsibility based upon the incorrect belief that the university was involved in genetic engineering of poplar trees. No genetic engineering was being conducted.
On November 7, ELF member Ian Wallace planted incendiary devices outside of two buildings on the campus of Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan during the early morning hours. On January 1, in Girard, Pennsylvania, jugs of gasoline were set under three vehicles at Bob Ferrando Ford Lincoln Mercury and set ablaze. Two pickup trucks, one Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) and a car were destroyed causing $90,000 in damages.
On August 1, a 206-unit condominium in San Diego was destroyed, with a banner left at the scene saying "If you build it, we will burn it", signed "The E.L.F.s are mad". The damages totaled $20 million after flames reached an estimated 200 feet (61 m) in the air, as over a hundred firefighters attempted to put out the fire.
A nearly completed 9,600-square-foot (890 m2) house, worth $3 million, was burnt to the ground in Washington. It was reported that a bed-sheet was draped across the front gate, with a message reading "Built Green? Nope black. On the morning of March 3, explosive devices set fire to four multimillion-dollar homes from the 2007 Seattle Street of Dreams in Echo Lake, Washington, causing $7 million in damage.
Authorities described the act as "domestic terrorism" after finding "ELF" spray-painted in red letters, mocking claims that the homes were environmentally friendly: "Built Green? Nope black! McMansions in RCDs r not green. On March 23, the ELF claimed the burning of an excavator in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.
In 1994, Dutch authorities and police made claims that British ELF activists were traveling abroad to cause sabotage, which was disputed by ELF. Later that year the first Earth Liberation Prisoner (ELP) was caught and later charged. Known as Paul S., he was arrested and accused of carrying out an 18-month campaign of vandalism in the Netherlands against road construction sites. The Dutch government attempted to declare him insane, because of his inability to provide a political reason for his actions, other than his care for the environment.
Due to the increased popularity of the environmental movement, as well as the animal liberation movement and estimates that five ALF actions occurred per day, police carried out a series of raids against animal rights and environmental activists. In total, there were 55 homes raided against suspected ALF and ELF activists, including an individual in Italy. The police had not managed to charge anyone with any illegal activities, until on January 16, 1996, when six men were charged for a five-year ALF/ELF campaign.
Daniel G. McGowan was charged for two counts of arson and conspiracy in the FBI's "Operation Backfire". In 2008, the FBI increased the reward for handing over four suspects to $50,000.
The name "Animal & Earth Liberation Front" or "Earth & Animal Liberation Front" (ALF and ELF, respectively) is commonly used when undertaking an animal liberation action, that is inclusively an environmental issue. Or alternatively an ELF action that includes in some way liberating or rescuing animals; for example actions to protect the forests.
Both names are also used by radical activists when engaging in direct action to liberate animals and defend the earth by using property destruction. During the mid-1990s, the Western Wildlife Unit, an ELF branch in Britain, was responsible for various acts of animal rights themed violence. The vandalism included spiking trees as well as targeting anglers.
Molland also writes that the first ALF and ELF co-action was established on March 14, 1997, when the " Animal Liberation Front - Eco-Animal Defense Unit" claimed the spiking of 47 trees in a clearcut area, Oregon. However, this claim contradicts the Southern Poverty Law Center, which states that the first incident of cooperation between the two movements was 6 months before these events on October 27, 1996, when the ALF & ELF were both responsible for firebombing a Forest Service truck in Detroit, Oregon.
It was then reported that a week before the Bay Area cells fur farm raid, on March 11, 1997, four trucks were torched, at the Agricultural Fur Breeders Co-Op. As the ELF was becoming well established through its actions, on 21 June 1998, the United States Forest Service wildlife research center near Olympia, Washington was set on fire with "Eco-Defense" and "Earth Liberation" spray-painted on construction machinery, which had received extensive damage in New Jersey on the 2nd Feb. Both the actions were claimed jointly by the ALF & ELF and were estimated to have caused one of the worst damages yet, estimated at $1.9 million.
Actions claimed by both the ALF and ELF jointly have appeared across the globe, nearly as much as the ELF has, causing more activists from the ALF and other movements to become involved; believing in "No Compromise in Defence of Mother Earth," a popular Earth First!
Despite this, in comparison to the ALF, there have been few communiques in recent years that have been released to the media or ELF Press Offices. Working together, cells from A.L.F. & E.L.F. The FBI designated the ELF as "eco-terrorists".
The FBI's most recent report stated that there had been over 1,200 "criminal incidents," within January 2006. Representative Scott McInnis, then chairman of the US House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, subpoenaed Craig Rosebraugh in an effort to investigate the ELF's activities.
Here is a summary of notable ELF actions and their consequences:
| Date | Location | Description | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 1992 | United Kingdom | Targeted Fisons, a peat company | £50,000-70,000 |
| 1996 | Oregon, USA | Vandalized a public relations office and McDonald's restaurant | Unknown |
| May 21 | Washington, USA | Fire destroyed laboratories, offices, and archives at the Center for Urban Horticulture, University of Washington | $7 million |
| August 1 | San Diego, USA | Destroyed a 206-unit condominium | $20 million |
| March 3 | Washington, USA | Set fire to four multimillion-dollar homes | $7 million |
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