Earth liberation is an ideology founded by the radical environmental movement and was popularised by the

Earth Liberation Front The Earth Liberation Front (ELF), also known as "Elves" or "The Elves", is the collective name for Wiktionary:autonomy, autonomous individuals or covert cells who, according to the ELF Press Office, use "economic sabotage and guerrilla warfare to ...

(ELF) as well as the Earth Liberation Army (ELA) in the 1990s.

History

Earth liberation has no universal understanding as a concept, as it is much considered to be a part of

radical environmentalism Radical environmentalism is a grass-roots branch of the larger environmental movement that emerged from an ecocentrism-based frustration with the co-option of mainstream environmentalism. As a movement Philosophy The radical environmental ...

, or as a militant offshoot, favouring instead radical ''and''

revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society. Definition The term—bot ...

environmentalism. Bron Taylor, Best, Steven and Best & Nocella. ''Igniting a Revolution: Voices in Defense of the Earth'',

Lantern Books Lantern Publishing & Media is an American non-profit book publisher founded in 2020, having acquired the assets of Booklight Inc. DBA Lantern Books in 2019. Booklight was founded in 1999, and first located in Union Square (New York City), before mo ...

, 2006, p.4 & 5

As a movement

Earth liberationists reject the mainstream

environmental movement The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement) is a social movement that aims to protect the natural world from harmful environmental practices in order to create sustainable living. In its recognition of humanity a ...

and include a diversity of individuals with a variety of different ideologies as well as theories. Activists include animal liberationists,

anti-capitalists Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists seek to combat the worst effects of capitalism and to eventually replace capitalism with an alternative ...

green anarchists Green anarchism, also known as ecological anarchism or eco-anarchism, is an anarchist school of thought that focuses on ecology and environmental issues. It is an anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian form of radical environmentalism, which e ...

deep ecologists Deep ecology is an environmental philosophy that promotes the inherent worth of all living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, and argues that modern human societies should be restructured in accordance with such idea ...

, eco-feminists and

anti-globalisation The anti-globalization movement, or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist m ...

ists.Manes, Christopher, 1990. ''Green Rage: Radical Environmentalism and the Unmaking of Civilization'', Boston: Little, Brown and Co. They are notably also within the ELF and ELA, with others from the

Animal Liberation Front The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is a Far-left politics, far-left international, Leaderless resistance, leaderless, decentralized movement that emerged in Britain in the 1970s, evolving from the Bands of Mercy. It operates without a formal lead ...

(ALF) and

Class War Class War is an anarchist group and newspaper established by Ian Bone and others in 1983 in the United Kingdom. An incarnation of Class War was briefly registered as a political party for the purposes of fighting the 2015 United Kingdom gener ...

.Quoting "Burn the Rich", popular

slogan
House Fires With a Message in the Northwest
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', March 3rd 2008. A primary concern is making long lasting, systemic change, by overturning contemporary social and

ecological Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...

conditions, as part of an ''earth liberation movement'', similar to the aims of the

animal liberation movement The animal rights movement, sometimes called the animal liberation, animal personhood, or animal advocacy movement, is a social movement that advocates an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human animals, ...

References

Earth Liberation Front Green anarchism Radical environmentalism {{environmental-org-stub