eco-terrorism

Radical Enviro Group Publishes New Book Promoting Eco-Terrorism

A radical environmental organization wants to teach you how to become an eco-terrorist. Earth First! – a group that has endorsed violence as a means of stopping energy infrastructure development – is now selling copies of a third edition of its Direct Action Manuel or DAM, according to a new report from InsideSources:

They call it DAM. That’s short for Direct Action Manual. Groups connected to the protest camp for the Mariner East 2 pipeline in Pennsylvania are selling copies for $25. Published by Earth First! — an openly radical environmentalist (sic) group and journal — the manual lays out protest techniques for use by environmentalists. Some of these approaches were even used at the pipeline protests in North Dakota last year. Earth First! supports violent actions against energy infrastructure development and the manual itself is essentially an ecoterrorist’s handbook, laying out techniques and approaches to stop various forms of energy infrastructure development. Now on its third edition, its publishers are supporters of the protest against the Mariner 2 pipeline in Pennsylvania and worked to stop the Keystone XL pipeline in the past.

The DAM provides over 300 pages of instruction on how to fight energy infrastructure projects, including a section titled “Making Life Hell” and a step-by-step guide on how to make paint bombs:

“The possibilities are really endless, and you should let your imagination run wild,” the Direct Action Manual advises. “Do they only value money and property? Some slashed tires, paint stripper, and sand in the gas tank can certainly make them think twice about if their choices are worth it…Channel your inner younger sibling energy and you’ll be sure to make someone’s life hell.”

Furthermore, the book provides advice on how to get media attention and sway public opinion:

Examples of ecoterrorism are interspersed with instructions on how to wage a more conventional public relations campaign by researching investors, political connections to the energy companies, and office locations to find targets for demonstrations and protests. It also explains how to talk to the press about a protest issue, suggesting that limiting the locations of interviews and selecting which journalists to talk with helps to get the appropriate environmental message out.

Predicting the rise of social media at Standing Rock, the Direct Action Manual says that the best means of getting media attention is probably to create your own on the internet.

“Be the media you wish to see in the world,” it reads. “To ensure the coverage that you want, document your actions with your own photographers and videographers.”

It’s no surprise that many of the destructive tactics — arson, harassment of law enforcement, use of improvised explosive devices, and hurling Molotov cocktails at police — were used during the month’s long protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota.

No wonder eco-terrorism, according to the FBI, represents “one of the most serious domestic terrorism threats in the U.S. today.”