THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT AND ENVIRONMENTAL TERRORISM

Stefan H. Leader and Peter Probst

Terrorism and Political Violence, 2003, vol. 15, issue 4, 37-58

Abstract: The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and its sister organization the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) are believed responsible for some 600 criminal acts between 1996 and 2002 and some $43 million in damages. Committed to direct action and revolutionary violence, ELF relies on a leaderless resistance model of operations. They have no discernible organizational structure and rely on members who understand the organization's goals and orientation to take action on their own initiative, making identification and prosecution of perpetrators very difficult. ELF favors rollback of industrial civilization to preserve the environment. ELF is media saavy and unlike Islamist terrorists, generally “want a lot of people watching, not a lot of people dead.” Their tactics emphasize attacks on property not people and include arson, sabotage, and vandalism designed to cause significant economic damage. Targets have included research laboratories, multi-national corporations, and the logging industry. ELF poses an immediate and direct threat to research facilities and labs involved in or seen as involved in research on genetically modified organisms, but could easily shift to nuclear industry targets.

Date: 2003
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DOI: 10.1080/09546550390449872

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