Ecodefence

⁽¹⁾ Ecodefence is a provocative call to those deeply concerned with the need for immediate protection of the limited wilderness areas remaining in Canada and the U.S. ⁽²⁾ Foreman concedes that ecodefence is not the only answer to the defence and promotion of wilderness. ⁽³⁾ The guide includes contributions from several different authors who, with the exception of Foreman, remain anonymous because the ecodefence tactics they advocate are acts of civil disobedience or crimes against property. ⁽⁴⁾ […] who should be included in the ecodefence groups, and how to ensure one’s own safety and the safety of those engaged in the activities one is trying to prevent. [¶] Despite the space dedicated to the safety issue, one walks away with the sense that ecodefence may be a very dangerous activity.

Ecodefence groups are seen, generally unfavourably, as a mix of ‘Green Luddites’ and ‘Green Guerillas’ (neither comparison is very satisfactory; the latter description is inept, given that they generally avoid violence, in ordinary senses, and intend none, carry no weapons, and only venture out on occasional forays). One reason for the controversialness of the tactics is that ecodefence activities conflict, through direct commission, with the laws of the state, which are commonly arranged to allow, or even encourage, environmental devastation and vandalism.

The front page leads with an editorial about the Gandalf trial under a typically confrontational headline: ‘Fuck you, pigs!’. The following three pages are taken up with the magazine’s regular ‘diaries’: of animal liberation, ecodefence and ‘community resistance’. Each attempts to list all examples of actions (both violent and peaceful) that have taken place in support of these causes since the previous issue.