Wednesday, November 17, 2010

The Voice of Radical Environmentalism Heads South.. But Not For Retirement

 The Earth First! Journal celebrates its 30th year in print and in action with a move to the sub-tropics of Florida

 The image above was selected as one of "The Greatest Environmental Magazine Covers"

Lake Worth, FL-- For 30 years, the Earth First! Journal has been carrying news and opinions from the frontines of ecological resistance to readers around the world. While it has moved to several locations throughout its history, this winter will mark the first office in the South.

While the Journal will continue to cover global eco-defense movements, this relocation will also give Earth First! an opportunity to amplify its voice towards defending the Everglades, one of the largest roadless areas in the lower 48 states and protecting the imperiled coastline of the southeast.

The Earth First! (EF!) Journal focuses on ecological direct action no-compromise strategy, grassroots organizing and biocentric philosophy, including vocal support for underground eco-resistance, such as the Earth and Animal Liberation Fronts (ELF and ALF). The publication also often addresses indigenous solidarity, environmental justice and various forms of land-based struggles.

The publication is run a by an editorial collective of activists involved directly with the movement. For example, Leah Rothschild, a current Journal editor, first saw the publication while living at a tree sit overseas, against a rock mine slated to level the forest which bordered a national park and the ancient Nine Ladies stone circle in Derbyshire, England.

"I wanted to be a part of that sort of journalism, on the frontlines. Thanks to the Earth First! Journal, people around the world get involved with protests and blockades like the one at Nine Ladies." Says Rothschild. "And that's how we win."

The rock mining plan in Derbyshire was eventually canceled in 2008, due to the opposition.

The Journal is distributed in countries around the world, including the Philippines, Iceland and Australia. It is also circulated in dozens of prisons, with subscriptions to many eco-political prisoners here and abroad.

In its new Florida office, the EF! Journal Collective will be partnering with the local Everglades Earth First! (EEF!) group and the Night Heron Grassroots Activist Center, a community space which EEF! helped to open last year in the coastal city of Lake Worth.

Local EF! activists expect that the national attention brought by the Journal will aid in their various campaigns against government agencies and corporations such as:
Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the people responsible for approving most every industrial project in the state;  
Florida Power & Light (FPL), trashing the state with power plants and pipelines;  
Scripps Biotech, clearing endangered species habitat for genetic engineering and animal testing labs;  
Palm Beach Aggregates, implicated in major political corruption, pursuing expansion of their rock mines into bordering cancer cluster neighborhoods; and  
Southern Waste Systems, using African-American neighborhoods as their dumping ground for construction debris, also implicated in political corruption.


The collective who produces the Journal also coordinates the EF! Speakers Bureau, a newly established project to facilitate EF!-oriented presentations for student and community groups.

More information about the EF! Journal can be found at:

www.earthfirstjournal.org
(includes information on the release of the hot, new anniversary issue and the archive of selected articles from back issues)

www.newswire.earthfirstjournal.org
(online daily reports from the eco-frontlines)

www.speakers.earthfirstjournal.org
(find EF! speakers and trainers available for booking)


About partnering groups:
www.evergladesearthfirst.org
www.thenightheron.org

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