[lbo-talk] $20 million fire tied to eco-terrorists

[Michael Pugliese]

   Oy vey, Chuck ;-) You trying to get yourself higher up on the list of 
those to be detained under the Patriot Act, like the old, "Rabble Rouser, " 
index of the FBI that had thousands on it?
   Time for some Pig URL's,
http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress02/jarboe021202.htm
http://www.cdfe.org/ (Ron Arnold)
Earth Day 2003 Fact Sheet: The History of Earth Day
... the number one domestic terrorist group."5 ELF is responsible for more 
than $40
million worth of damage since 1997.6. Footnotes. 1 Ron Arnold, Undue 
Influence ... http://www.nationalcenter.org/EarthDay03History.html 
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/protest990120.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/earthfirstalert/message/5628
"The Dark Side of the Left"Illiberal Egalitarianism in America, " by 
Richard J. Ellis, Univ. of Kansas Press, 1998, has several chapters on 
Earth First, btw, no mention of ELF though.

---- Original Message ----- From: Nicholas Wilson To: 
earthfirstalert at yahoogroups.com ; eftalk at yahoogroups.com ; 
efextreme at egroups.com ; collective at earthfirstjournal.org Sent: Monday, June 
04, 2001 6:48 AM
Subject: [EF!t] Re: [EF!] Threats received at Hayduke Rocks!

Threats and actual violence against EF!ers are the predictable result of 
blurring the distinction between EF! and ELF/ALF, and supporting ELF and 
ALF via these email lists and in the Journal.  EF!ers are mostly in-the- 
open community activists, so they make an easy target for reactionary 
attacks sparked by the clandestine actions of ELF and ALF. This includes 
not only vigilante attacks but FBI and local police repression.

Nearly every day now, mainstream news articles carry headlines about "eco- 
terrorists." The campaign by Ron Arnold and the unWise abUse guys over the 
past dozen years or so to demonize all eco-activists as terrorists is 
finally paying off, with the help of ELF/ALF. Changing the way things are 
in this country comes through winning over public opinion, which is why 
corporations spend billions every year on PR companies to do just that. If 
ELF/ALF didn't exist, the unWise abUsers and the PR companies for the 
earth-destroying corporations would have to invent them.

Extremist ELF/ALF type actions are clearly criminal, and will never win 
broad public support, nor will they have any real effect on the industries 
they target. Worse, these actions by a tiny handful of well-meaning but 
short-sighted youths backfire and turn public opinion against all eco- 
activists, quickly undoing two decades of progress won by thousands of non- 
violent direct action activists.

As a result, ever more repressive laws will be passed with full public 
support, and secret police spying and disruption will increase.  If things 
continue as they've gone for the past couple of years, the time is not far 
in the future when simply blocking a logging road with a non-violent 
lockdown will bring a multi-year felony prison sentence for "eco- 
terrorism."

Nicholas Wilson
Mendocino CA

-- 
Michael Pugliese