Leaderless Resistance and Ideological Inclusion

The Case of the Earth Liberation Front

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4086350
AutoresP Joosse (0000-0001-6381-3285, University of Alberta, autor de correspondencia)
Año2007
Volumen19
Número3
Páginas351-368
Fecha de publicación2007-07-04
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaTerrorism and Political Violence (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0954-6553 • E-ISSN: 1556-1836
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09546550701424042
OpenAlexW2082272247
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas22
Referencias citadas4

Leaderless resistance is a strategy of opposition that allows for and encourages individuals or small cells to engage in acts of political violence entirely independent of any hierarchy of leadership or network of support. This article examines the development of the leaderless resistance strategy by the radical right and more recently by the radical environmentalist movement. While both movements use leaderless resistance to avoid detection, infiltration, and prosecution by the state, environmental groups like the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) benefit additionally because of the ideological inclusiveness that leaderless resistance fosters. Historically, ideological cleavages have rendered radical environmental groups such as Earth First! less effective than they would have been otherwise. Using leaderless resistance, however, the ELF eliminates all ideology extraneous to the specific cause of halting the degradation of nature. This elimination enables the ELF to mobilize a greater number of "direct actions."

Ideology · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Engineering · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Ecology