Report From The Earth First! Forum At The Big Green Gathering
July 24th - 28th 1996
At the Big Green Gathering in Wiltshire there was an Earth First! space that had various workshops, activities and discussions going on over the week. On the Friday during the Gathering there was an Earth First! Forum for open discussion among activists on some aspects of the movement and the way people feel things should or could progress from the current situation. Approximately forty people from all over the country attended the forum and in this insert some of the things that were talked about will be briefly outlined for further debate in the wider Earth First! movement.
National Action
After the success of the National Earth First! Action at Whatley Quarry last December the possibility of having another National Action again this year was discussed. It was generally thought that this was a good idea for a number of reasons, which, aside from the actual effectiveness of the action on the target, included the importance of the action as an outreach tool to both get new people involved and also to re-inspire the hardened cynics amongst us. No firm date or target has been decided on at the moment but it is most likely to be around October or November with the actual target one that is related to the new campaigns on Genetic Engineering and Toxics. There will be more details about this in next months Action Update.
National Gathering
For the past couple of years there have been two Earth First! Gatherings a year. These have been on a much smaller scale than the recent one in Wales and it is generally agreed that it would not be practical to have two a year on the scale of the one this year.
Instead of this, people suggested that we keep a large International Gathering to once a year, in the summer, and in the Autumn we try and have Regional Gatherings in every area of the country where we have an active group. This is very important to help build up regional networks of people who are already active, and it also links in to how we get more local people involved in actions and campaigns. In addition to this it will also enable people that are unable to travel far to the large gatherings, or take a whole week off from other commitments, to attend a Earth First! Gathering and find out more about Earth First! and how to become involved.
Having said this the International Gatherings are of vital importance to the development of the ‘movement’ and it is of great importance that the one next year builds on the huge success of this year’s one in Wales. A group of people who are willing to take on the co-ordination and organisation of it need to start talking about it now. Next summer may seem like a long time away but it will be easier and more effective to plan the Gathering over a long period of time at a more relaxed pace than to have a mad last minute rush to get it done. As before, watch the Action Update for more details on this.
Regional Networks And Gatherings
One of the strengths of Earth First! is that it operates as a network of autonomous local groups rather than a centralised organization. It was agreed by all who expressed themselves at the Forum that one of the ways we can expand the size and effectiveness of the radical ecology movement is to involve more local communities in struggles in their own area.
As mentioned in last months Action Update during the phone around it transpired that there are many groups that have ceased to exist or have no plans to do anything in the future. The Earth First! movement needs to build up the effectiveness of its local groups and the support for them. As well as this having strong Regional Networks enables us to work at a local level more effectively, both for actions and campaigns, as well as having effective support for people imprisoned or facing harassment. This is one reason why it has been decided to have Regional Gatherings in the Autumn this year, in place of an International Gathering, to help build up these networks. Active groups, or those that want to be more active, should get on the case and organise a gathering for their region. So far there is to be a South East Regional Gathering, a South West Regional Gathering and possibly a Welsh Gathering as well. Contact your local group for more details.
Tactics
There was discussion of the effectiveness of different tactics that are used in defence of the natural world. Some people questioned the worth of having the tactical emphasis of a campaign on tree defence. The reasons for this were mainly that having the focus on this alienates many people that are unable, or unwilling, to climb trees or are not able to devote the time to building tree houses.
As well as this there is the point that the state seems to have pretty much worked out how to deal with tree evictions and because of this, we should be moving the focus of our resistance to an area where we have the largest advantage over them.
To do this some people thought that the emphasis should be shifted to actions on the ground that more people can participate in, and a possible focus on stopping them actually getting to the site of work, rather than adopting a defensive form of tactics. It was observed that the people we come up against work within a rigidly enforced hierarchy, that relies on the passage of orders and information in order to operate effectively and it was suggested that we should therefore be looking at the communication systems that they use. In addition to this, a number of people felt that there needs to be a increase in monkeywrenching. They agreed that if contemplating this, that it is not only safer but more efficient to do actions that only require one, or at the most a handful of trusted friends.
Of course Earth First! neither condemns nor condones damage to industrial machinery but we do condemn industrial machinery as well as the Industrial Machine!
The above ideas are not necessarily the views of the writers, we are merely attempting to truthfully report what was said by people at the forum.