Earth First! and the Anti-Roads Movement (PDF)

Earth First! is one of the most controversial and well known green movements in the world and the driving force behind the anti-road campaigns of the 1990s, made famous by sabotage tactics. Detailed accounts of major anti-road campaigns both in the UK and internationally are included, describing confrontations at Twyford, Newbury, Glasgow, the Autobahn in Germany, and information on the international spread of the Earth First! movement, with details of campaigns in Australia, Ireland, Germany, France, Holland and Eastern Europe. Earth First! and the Anti-Roads Movement traces the origins of the movement and the history of anti-roads activism in Britain since the 1880s. Radical EF! organisers describe how they took on their green activist identity, why they launched both EF! and the anti-roads movement, and their experiences of dramatic protest. Exposing the tensions between EF! and other green activists, they explain the political and economic influences on and the culture and politics of protest. Showing how green social and political theory can be linked to practical struggles for environmental and social change, Derek Wall investigates key topics of political and sociological interest in Britain and the World today. This is an authoritative account based on passionate and lyrical autobiographical accutns form activists blended with a strong theoretical grounding.