Earth First! and the Anti-Roads Movement: Radical Environmentalism and Comparative Social Movements

236 Pages·1999·1.19 MB·English

by  Derek Wall

Earth First! and the Anti-Roads
Movement

Earth First! (EF!) 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.
Detailed accounts of major anti-road campaigns, both in the UK and
internationally, are included, describing confrontations at Twyford, Newbury,
Glasgow and the Autobahn in Germany, as well as information on the globalisation
of Earth First!, with details of protests in Australia, Ireland, Germany, France,
Holland, Eastern Europe and North America. 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. EF! organisers describe how they took on their green
activist identity, the launch of both EF! and the anti-roads movement in the UK,
and experiences of dramatic protest. Exposing the tensions between EF! and other
green activists, they explain the social 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. This is an authoritative work based on passionate and
lyrical autobiographical accounts from activists, blended with a strong theoretical
grounding in critical realism and social movement analysis.
Derek Wall is an Honorary Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Social and
Political Movements, University of Kent at Canterbury, and a green activist.

Earth First! and the
Anti-Roads Movement

Radical environmentalism and
comparative social movements

Derek Wall

London and New York
First published 1999
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, NewYork, NY 10001

© 1999 Derek Wall

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Wall, Derek.
Earth First! and the Anti-Roads Movement: radical environmentalism and comparative
social movements/Derek Wall.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Earth First! (Organization) 2. Environmentalism. 3. Green movement—Citizen
participation. I. Title.
GE195.W34 1999 98–47372
363.7’0576–dc21 CIP

ISBN 0-415-19063-0 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-19064-9 (pbk)
ISBN 0-203-01068-X Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-20425-5 (Glassbook Format)
To Gillian, Larry and Vincent

There are these large pieces of metal hurtling around at
high speed in residential areas. They are such a menace to
life and limb that every journey made by any other means
is chiefly spent dodging these monstrous objects. They are
the single biggest cause of atmospheric pollution and
global warming. They are the largest market for the
warmongering oil industry. Their noise is the noise of the
city. These ‘cars’ are so central to the organisation of this
society, especially the organisation of work, that an
illusion has to be maintained that nobody sees anything
wrong with the ever increasing number of cars.
(Control 1991:5)

Contents

Acknowledgements xii
List of abbreviations xiv
1 Earth First!, profits last—no more roads! 1
Monkeywrenching, the Met and military intelligence? 1
Critical realism and social movement methodology 9
2 Car wars 17
Introduction 17
Prehistory 19
Autobahn 21
Birth of the motorway 23
From ‘not-in-my-backyard’ to green protest 24
Closing the motorway box 27
The prophet 30
The 1980s 33
The rise and fall of green politics 36
An old social movement 38
3 The origins of Earth First! 40
Introduction 40
Resource mobilisation and repertoires 41
Earth First!’s origins in the USA 43
Failed Earth First! mobilisations in the UK 45
Earth First! Hastings 46
Rainforest campaigning 50
Divisions 54
The evolving character of Earth First! (UK) 59
Earth First! and the anti-roads movement: 1992–5 61