No compromise

by Vital Michelon and Remi Frasser 
(Translated by A Planeta)
Main pic:  Camden, (Georgia, EEUU) (scenes.noblogs.org)

(Castellano)

Anyone involved in the defence of the environment, water and earth will recognise this slogan: «No Compromise in Defence of Mother Earth». It is the motto of Earth Frist!, a radical environmental organisation of clear anarchist vocation which flourished in the 1980s in the United States, and in the 1990s in the United Kingdom. It is still going strong.

Its vision contrasted with that of lighter environmentalists who generally did not focus on the real problems and their causes, with little impact, often very condescending to real environmental and social criminals, often without questioning the connections of these problems to wider problems, and above all without connecting these to the main and shared root: a system, capitalism, that puts profit above Nature and People. But this attitude was also a reaction to those people who were so respectful of the staus quo, that they rejected more radical positions when the crimes and their repetition were colossal. Or when they put supposed democracy (or their concept of democracy – an interesting debate) before direct action; or when campaigns were proposed to be conducted in respectful ways that did not guarantee either the defence of the environment or of vulnerable and constantly battered communities, or the objectives of such campaigns. Or when legal formulas were prioritised that dragged on and stagnated without resolving anything.

In the light of these situations and an exponentially deteriorating Planet, direct action is the only option left 1. Direct action simply means avoiding intermediaries (institutions, authorities, etc.) and trying to solve problems vy yourself. It includes more widespread practices (protests, sit-ins, occupations, strikes, etc.) to more radical ones such as sabotage. Especially for people and communities who see their ecosystems disappear, and often, with them their resources and means on which they depend. Many times their action does not correspond to a broader aim, but rather seeks to solve their specific problem. But most of the time they understand that problem as part of a larger one, and their action, also, as a contribution to something broader. The threats they faced due to political disregard, lack of commitment and apathy, forced them to use more radical methods. From occupations to sabotage, always with respect for Life as a maxim.

We should add that this radicalisation also has consequences for the activists who opt for it, above all in the repressive level, but also in the personal level, as it entails physical risks. It also entails a higher degree of commitment and recognition from the movements. In many cases, the objective will be the paralysis of damage, the dismantling of the machinery that causes it, but above all it will be a form of publicity for this to be carried out.

The action must guarantee Life, that any Life won’t it be put in danger, including that of the activists who undertake it. But as we say, the action will entail repression and punishment for those who promote it. Especially in the current framework, where laws are being enforced with this aim in mind. But not only the laws, but the interpretation as well, as attempts are made to equate these actions with terrorism, or as we say, to present it as the made-up concept of eco-terrorism, in order to apply these harsh laws against them, in order to neutralise activists, but also to dissuade other potential ones. Activists Ruby Montoya and Jessica Reznicek had their sentences increased to 6 and 8 years in prison under the ‘anti-terrorism’ clause. Also, in the United States, after the attacks of 11 September 2001, the Homeland Security Act and the Department were created, which have been also used against social movements and activists.

In the same way, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO, is now also been applied against activists. That is the case of 61 people who have participated in the defense of the Weelaunee forest against the decvelopment of the Cop City project in Atlanta. Ironically, in this state another person is also prosecuted under the same charges but for very different reasons: Donald Trump. As CrimethInc reports, this is not the first time that RICO charges have been used frivolously to intimidate activists, having already been used in 2016 and 2019 when the Dakota Access pipeline company filed RICO charges against Greenpeace. All of these charges were finally dismissed, but as often happens, these prosecutions served to create a bad image and diminish the social respetability of the accused, and to intimidate and dissuade activists.

The action to be organised must also be respectful of social movements that share the same objective of the action. While it is not very easy to combine the confidentiality required for an action with a wider debate in search of consensus, any sabotage must respect socially rooted campaigns and not be counterproductive to their objectives. This is undoubtedly one of the most contradictory aspects of the action, because if the reason for carrying it out is the lack of participation, of consultation; the ignoring of an opinion, a collective; the imposition of a will. On the other hand, direct action is an individual decision, although it can rest on a consensual feeling (expressed in many ways, and known, above all, because it is shared space, community, etc.). Therefore, when deciding to carry it out, the repercussions on the affected community and on the collectives already involved in the campaign must be very clear.

They should also not have an environmental impact, although this is often unavoidable. A small environmental impact will always be justified by the more drastic impact of the project to be stopped. But the aim should be to avoid any impact at all. By instance, mainstream media report that the Washington State FBI has investigated at least 41 incidents of what they call eco-sabotage since January 2020. These were mainly direct actions against railways and rail lines related to oil production, because this cross-border area (Canada-US)¹ is a high density oil transport area with up to 75,708 million litres of oil transported per year. The map of spills in the state is chilling (see image). It must be taken into account that spills from derailed trains have ended up in rivers, polluting the water system and consequently the environment. What is not acceptable is that the action to be taken has the same effect as a transnational crime. For example, a sabotage of an oil train derailed in Custer (Washington, near the Canadian border) on 22 December. This derailment resulted in the spillage of some 110,000 litres of crude oil, a fire and the evacuation of 120 people. But equally, we cannot allow this action or, as usual, a whole movement to be demonised when spills are incessant and no real solutions are found – (List of oil spills).

The radicalisation of the movement and also in Earth Frist! was a reason for its instability, because of elements that prioritised respectability. However, the Earth First! formula was limited to non-violent² and we would say above all collective direct action, rather than sabotage. The reason for this is political but also practical, because claiming or promoting the latter leads to criminalisation and legal repression, but can also be counterproductive for mass movements. Thus, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF)³ was the movement that advocated these options the most⁴. For these reasons, there is also no website for this movement/group (only this one: www.originalelf.com). So, before we go any further, it should be made clear that none of the actions in this article have anything to do with Earth First!

Earth First! continues, with occupations and actions such as this past August at the end of the UK Summer Gathering of activists at the proposed Marchon mine site in Kells (Whitehaven). Meanwhile, on Turtle Island (USA) the Summer Gathering was held in July at Rob Ford Meadows, an occupied Abenaki territory (called Vermont or New Hampshire).

In the current moment of political impasse and the unabated advance of the capitalist machinery, of its extractive, destructive and polluting machinery, with latent problems such as the climate crisis not only unresolved but also prolonged, betrayed, sold out again and again, deepened; with problems such as that of waste; With the continuation of extractive projects with the related destruction, with the full impact on communities, on their sustainability, on their territory, it has been proven that words are superfluous.

Thousands of people are organising all over the world and are standing up to the predatory system. Thousands are standing up to it without concessions. These actions may seem excessive to some, but they are undoubtedly a wake-up call on a Planet that is heading for disaster. And above all, should not be ignored.

Perhaps because they question the results of conventional campaigns, or perhaps because publishing them can sometimes border on criminality for supposed apology, but radical activism in defence of the Planet remains silenced. But it needs to be heard because they are attempts, in many cases desperate in the face of unsolvable situations. Because in many cases they correspond to the failure to achieve objectives, to the failure of these conventional campaigns. And, as we say, because in many cases, the people behind these acts risk a lot. Therefore, we thought it necessary to share them.

Latest actions collected from different media

These are actions such as the burning of a car in Toulouse belonging to the construction company Eiffage. This company builds motorways and prisons. The action was also in favour of the 9 women of 8 December, the day they were arrested. In the days of Black Lives Matter! protests all over the world these 9 people were arrested on terrorism charges because they were with a person who had recently returned from supporting the YPG struggle in Rojava.

In Hamburg, on 8 September, the sabotage of freight traffic in one of Europe’s largest ports took place by setting fire to the wires of the train carrying these containers.

At the end of September, logging machinery was destroyed by fire in late September in Camden County, Georgia, USA. Since 2000, the state of Georgia has suffered 36% deforestation of its forests, equivalent to and 1.49 GTm of CO₂e emissions.

Tesla and electric cars as a target

It is clear today that the panacea of the electric car is not a solution, but more business as usual, and above all, more impacts on the environment and vulnerable communities. With the aggravating factor that it is presented as a solution, but also that the Planet and many people can no longer cope with any more impact. These impacts are related to the same impacts as the conventional car (construction, roads, and other infrastructures, etc.) and although they will not consume oil, they will consume electricity in large doses that must be produced and transported, and above all stored in large batteries. These require large volumes of lithium, cobalt and nickel, the extraction and appropriation of which has already started a new plundering and destruction.

For this reason, there are already those who oppose this whole business and circus, in which one company stands out: Tesla. Let’s be clear that Tesla is currently the most valuable car company in the world. In 2020 its shares were worth more than those of General Motors, Ford, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Toyota combined!

Its founder was Elon Musk, who still owns many of its shares. But it was from this company that Musk became the richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of 231 billion (according to Forbes). He is followed by other new billionaires who have been dubbed Teslanaires. So the electric car may not help to challenge the climate crisis, but it is very good for speculation and profiting. Musk is also the founder and chairman of SpaceX, owner of X Corp (formerly Twiter). In many of the businesses he participates with Peter Thiel, an active Trump supporter, and owner of Cambridge Analytica, which develops artificial intelligence (it participated in the manipulation of Trump’s elections) and is connected to Palantir, a company of mass surveillance against social movements.

Last year (October 2022) Tesla started construction of its new electric SUV factory in Grünheide, Brandenburg, east of Berlin. This plant is expected to produce 500,000 cars per year and will have the world’s largest battery plant. For this purpose, 153 hectares of forest were cut down despite 360 objections to the project.

In this story, more of the same old story: more production, more millions, more profit, more cars. What changes? The battery? Another capitalist irony: cars that in theory emit less emissions in stead of forests that absorb CO2. Faced with this destruction, the local community organised itself in the Grünheide Citizens’ Initiative. Environmentalists wondered why the project should not be located on the site of the now-paralysed Lausitz lignite open-cast mine, an area deprived from its own ecosystem.

When the logging started, an occupation of the forest also began. And then more radical actions began. In one action they poured bitumen on 12 luxury cars and a Tesla company car on their premises in Essener Straße, north of Hamburg (October 2020). The fire is spectacular and makes the message quite clear, but it is not the only option when considering sabotage.

Now the actions continue against Tesla and the model it wants to impose. On 6 October 2023, a fire broke out in the car park of a Tesla dealership, burning 14 electric cars. In September, a similar fire occurred at another Tesla branch in Frankfurt (Germany) in which 15 electric cars were set on fire. The people who committed the action sent out the statement below.

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«Tesla in flames»

source: de.indymedia /via: sansnom Translated by Act for freedom now!

The International Motor Show (IAA) was held in Munich last week. At this summer show, all manner of multinationals were once again able to show off their gleaming, beautiful cars and congratulate themselves on their economic success in their air-conditioned conference rooms, limousines and exhibition halls.

At the same time, this summer has once again been full of fires. In Rhodes. In Portugal. In Maui (island of Hawaii). At the same time, many people’s homes were flooded. In Slovenia and Austria.

Many people’s lives were shattered. These deadly catastrophes have many causes, and the IAA is just one of them. We say Switch off the system of destruction!

So we torched a few new Tesla cars this evening in Frankfurt. In salute to the Munich protests. One of many attacks on the destructive automotive industry.

Tesla is one of our greatest enemies. This company represents better than any other the ideology of green capitalism and the pursuit of global and colonial destruction. Electric motors are constantly presented as the clean alternative. This is a cynical lie. Like other companies, Tesla exploits resources all over the world. The raw materials needed for electric car batteries, such as lithium and cobalt, are mined in Latin America or Africa under miserable conditions. Despite the pretty green paint job, fossil fuels are used to transport and extract them.

All this is linked to the oppression of indigenous communities, whose resistance must spur us to action.

Tesla accepts all this in order to produce cars that can slither through city centers. Which will show day after day that there is wealth to be had. But not for everyone. According to Tesla’s logic, only a few are entitled to own such cars. It’s a question of class that determines who drives or has the right to drive these cars.

This time, in a show of resistance, we attacked a parking lot housing Teslas for sale. Often, and just about everywhere, it’s Teslas belonging to private individuals that are hit, when it’s not the construction of its factories that are sabotaged, as in Berlin-Grünheide. All these acts are important to damage this group. Not only economically, but above all politically. To show that we don’t agree with the green lies, the plundering of raw materials or the cities and roads that belong only to the rich. In our opinion, these poisoners must pay a high price!

Tesla is part of a conglomerate of groups owned by Elon Musk. His patriarchal fantasies are apparently inexhaustible. He is one of those people who want to dominate the Internet, space, new technologies and artificial intelligence, and seems to know no limits to his fantasies of domination.

SpaceX, for example, is a company that wants to create more resources, rockets and spaceships to make space a vacation destination for the rich and advance the idea of one day inhabiting Mars. The appropriation and subjugation of territories for capitalism continues, all the way to Mars. A dystopia that speaks volumes.

As for the neurotechnology company Neuralink, its aim is to link the human brain to machines. They are experimenting on animals to see how thought flows can be read. In the long term, this is claimed to be used for curing diseases.

But like SpaceX and Tesla, Neuralink also aspires to a longer-term perspective, in which individuals have a different value. In which some people have a right to a better life in the midst of the ecological catastrophe that is already upon us. Incorporating certain thoughts and ideas into the development of AI can only give rise to a deeply racist technology.

Some may claim that their electric cars are not responsible for the destruction of the world’s ecosystems, exploitation and displacement of populations. Some grant themselves the right to be blind to their privilege of colonial and ecological destruction. We must destroy these patriarchal and colonialist conceptions of the future. They are the enemy of a world and a way of life that are ecological and based on solidarity.

Greetings to all those on the run and in prison!

Switch Off – the system of destruction!

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Direct action against oilpipes

It is clear that despite all the attempts to introduce a new element into the market such as the electric car and all its paraphernalia, fossil fuels are the big star of the business. They keep pumping oil, and despite all the evidence of their impacts and all the attempts to reduce their consumption, we are still hooked to it. This is also why many people have sought more direct formulas. We have outlined above all the actions taken against the highly dangerous transport of oil.

At the beginning of September, action took place against the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) near Teels Creek (Virginia, USA). A large bulldozer and a second small machine were set on fire. Local residents have been campaigning against the pipeline for eight years. They have opted for legal action but also for blockades at key locations such as water crossings and national forests. However, the campaign has no further legal recourse after Congress imposed the remaining permits in June.

According to the activists who carried out the sabotage, MVP can no longer be stopped conventionally, institutionally and with pressure. «We’re not asking everyone to stop using existing tactics, we’re just asking people to stretch their imaginations and really consider how they can be more effective given limited resources of time, money, personnel and energy.»

His statement continues: «We have seen campaign after campaign fail to stop pipelines over the last decade, and we cannot afford to lose any longer.» They then send greetings to activist Jess Reznicek, who is currently in prison for arson and sabotage against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

They also offer inspiration from the websites warriorup.noblogs.org and tension.noblogs.org that provide information on various direct action techniques. Warrior Up focuses on the infrastructure and extractive industries on which the capitalist economy depends. In addition to the aforementioned actions, they report on cases of sabotage against the Hamilton pipeline, the Enbridge pipeline and tar sands pipelines such as the Enbridge (2 lines), the Keystone, the Express (Spectra Energy) and the Trans-Mountain (Kinder-Morgan) in 2016.

Acting against Cop City

Cop City is a proposed police training and other city project that threatens the Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta. This project has provoked great opposition and after being ignored and suffering great repression, it has opted for more radical forms. Security and police cars have been attacked, and machinery used in the destruction of the forest has also been sabotaged.

Among the latest actions we read the action of 1 October, in which an excavator belonging to Brent Scarborough was burnt. Last July 2023 there was also sabotage of Norfolk Southern’s rail infrastructure, because Norfolk Southern is one of the funders of Cop City. The action was not claimed until two months later to be sure that it had been effective.

They also sabotaged a truck belonging to Vertiv, a company that develops equipment and services for computer systems for the US military and police, including, of course, the Atlanta police. In 2023 alone, the latter paid Vertiv 168,315 dollars for its technology.

As far away as Belgium, in Fleurus in August, another action led to the burning of ten vans belonging to the company DH, a subcontractor of the logistics group UPS (United Parcel Service) – UPS works for the US Department of Defense and is one of the main funders of Cop City.

But actions can be of another type, too, and also efficient. On September 6, activists dumped pounds of rotting food into the LS3P elevator in Savannah. LS3P is the architecture firm hired by the Atlanta Police Foundation to design Cop City. This action was done openly by a group that also, during the action, read his accusation about their involvement in the Cop City project. The activists claimed that “as long as repression against strong movements is as inevitable as the decay of our food scraps, we will be here like the microorganisms that turn death into new life, using it to grow our power.”

Actions against irrigation mega-ponds

Another great fight taking place today in the French state is the one focused on irrigation mega-ponds, which monopolize water for industrial agriculture, depriving small farmers, communities and ecosystems of the vital liquid. This fight has involved large mobilizations and also strong repression. In these circumstances, sabotage was to happen.

On October 26, a raft was sabotaged in Vendée and the day before another one in Tusson. The first unused pond had a capacity of 692,000 m³, and that of Tusson 290,000 cubic meters. The repair cost is between 300 and 400,000 euros for the first one and about €500,000 for the second one. In the summer of 2022, two rafts had been sabotaged in the south of the department, in Pouillé and Nalliers.

In this case, the main organization opposing irrigation ponds, Bassines Non Merci, condemned these types of actions. A spokesperson declared: “We are against the destruction of irrigation ponds! BNM has nothing to do with it. Our goal was not to have additional basins but we never wanted to destroy the existing ones. We won our case in court since the construction of nine additional irrigation ponds in Aume Couture was cancelled… But this one (in Tusson) has never been illegal, so why go and damage it? I am shocked”.

Others in France

Also inFrance on October 12, in Guémené-Penfao (Loire-Atlantique), they broke through the door of the town hall and broke seven windows due to the reopening of a quarry. On the ground they wrote “Assassins” in red and a reference to the Pigeon group, a company that requested to exploit the Tahun aggregate quarry again. The wooden stake would come from the fences of the plot located near the chapel of the Holy Places. Similar events already occurred a week before, and also in July.

This project foresees the massive extraction of 2.6 million tons of rock in fifteen years and the resulting 280,000 tons of waste. Also a traffic of a hundred trucks a day, which would mainly pass through the town of Conquereuil. In 2020, a neighborhood group was formed against this project and has not given in since. The location is an area frequented by mountaineers. There are a hundred wild orchids, such as spiranthes. Another conflicting point is the preservation of the water resource, since the old quarry is located in the spring that has supplied water to the surrounding towns, especially during the long drought of 1921.

Direct action against the Mayan (misnamed) train project

As we have already reported on this page, on 9 September, the Coordinadora de Mujeres Anarquistas claimed responsibility for the destruction by explosives of a cargo truck of the repudiated Tren Maya in Escárcega (Campeche state). This project is causing the devastation of disparate ecosystems (jungle, mangroves, petenes, celotes and coastal dunes) in 5 states in the southern part of Mexico, as well as the indigenous communities of these ancestral territories. In the Yucatan Peninsula, the project is expected to deforest more than 2,500 hectares of rainforest. For all these reasons, this project has provoked great rejection, but despite this it has been ignored by the government, which continues in.

This is their communique (from Actforfree):

«CARE AND THE SWEET SMELL OF DYNAMITE! Communique year 1. Number 1.

“Women, slaves of the slave: encourage your comrades to shake off the yoke that oppresses us all equally. Reject the lies and deceit of the vestmented executioners: throw their “relics” and their ridiculous suits to the pigs and swell the ranks of the libertarian women who, united with the rebels, make propaganda with the pen, the word, and also with the rifle or dynamite, destroying the dens where the wolves of power, money and religion dwell. Forward libertarian women!”

Francisca J. Mendoza, ¡Tierra! #481, December 28, 1912

At approximately 10 p.m. on September 9, 2023 we placed an explosive device made with dynamite and butane gas in a cargo truck on 31st Street in Escarcega, Campeche, with the intention of sabotaging the war that the Mexican government is waging against the jungle with the construction of the so-called “Mayan train”.

I. IT IS NOT JUST A TRAIN, IT IS NOT MAYAN!

It is a project of destruction by territorial reordering that intends to establish a model of “development poles” leading to the expansion of fully capitalist relations in the Yucatan peninsula, which will provoke proletarianization, forced displacement, generalized contamination, dispossession and destruction of our ways of life. WE DO NOT ACCEPT IT.

This project was imposed through the operation of the militaristic state machinery in collusion with the agrarian mafias that have operated in the Yucatan peninsula since colonial times; and in the rigged “consultations” that were carried out, we women of the region were never asked our opinion. THAT IS WHY WE HAD TO RESORT TO PROPAGANDA OF THE DEED, TO MAKE CLEAR OUR REJECTION OF THE PROJECT.

We don’t want to see the jungle destroyed! we don’t want to leave our communal ways of life! we don’t want our daughters to become their cooks, their servants or their rape objects! And that is what the violence of your “development” offers us with this train.

Our daughters will be free! Free as the jungle! We do not want violence, but it has been the government and the exploiting bourgeoisie that is destroying our ways of life, our bodies, our territories with violence! And we will defend ourselves!

In this scenery of amphitheaters and devastation that they want to impose on us, the ethics of care in our hands will have to acquire the sweet smell of dynamite!

II. WOMEN’S DISGUISE. PATRIARCHAL SKIN

Today, the commentators of power boast -as if it were an “advance”-, that in the next elections in the territory occupied by the Mexican state, the presidential candidates will be women. As if just changing the body would change politics. But we want to tell these ladies that their bourgeois, white, racist, elite feminism is garbage that we will not digest. We clearly understand that the State is the juridical form that organizes the violence of patriarchy, capital and colonialism to subjugate us. That is why the State must be attacked, because it is the source of patriarchal violence! NOTHING THAT COMES FROM THE STATE WILL BE ANYTHING BUT PATRIARCHAL VIOLENCE AND RACISM NO MATTER HOW MUCH THEY PUT ON A MASK WITH A WOMAN’S BODY!

We are not women of the jungle, we are the jungle defending itself!

From somewhere in the jungle in the Yucatan Peninsula,

Coordinating committee of anarchist women for the defense of our body-territory
Freedom for anarchist prisoners! Freedom for Monica Caballero, Francisco Solar and Alfredo Cospito!

p.s. We salute the compas of the informal feminist commando of anti-authoritarian action that have acted in other places of the territory occupied by Mexico, because they inspired us to take this path.»

 

FURTHER INFO:

• https://earthfirstjournal.news
• https://eu.crimethinc.com
• https://www.earthfirst.uk
• https://scenes.noblogs.org/
• https://aplaneta.org/enciende-una-cerilla
• https://actforfree.noblogs.org
• https://sansnom.noblogs.org
• https://switchoff.noblogs.org

Respect existence or expect resistance!

Tú enciende una cerilla