| Background Information | Earth First! is a direct action environmental group. Founded in the United States in 1980, it was established in Britain by Jake Burbrudge and Jason Torrance. In Britain, the group is particularly associated with the major, and radical, anti-roads protests of the 1990s, such as those at Twyford and Newbury. Rather than being a formal organisation, the groups is perhaps better conceptualised as a banner, or brand, under which individual groups and activists operate. Engaging in non-violent direct action, the group has links with the Earth Liberation Front, which was established as a separate body in 1992, in order to concentrate on more extreme protest, including covert criminal damage. Sources: Lent British Social Movements since 1945 2001 pp218-9; Seel Direct Action in British Environmentalism 2000 |
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