Earth First! Is Not Redneck Friendly

Here’s a short one to hold you over till next week. This is an interesting piece written by an Earth First! (EF) member complaining that while the organization has recently made efforts to make transsexuals feel welcome, regular working class “rednecks” have been forced out by the middle class anarchists who make up the bulk of the membership. As the author notes:

To be an EF!er now (in some circles) apparently you have to be white, middle class, wear black, be angry all the time, shoplift, bathe irregularly, be in your 20s, have no sense of humor and in general walk so lockstep with the new groupthink that you lack that any real diversity or individuality.

He also observes that elitism aside, there are some good reasons to include non-anarchists in Earth First!:

Who is more likely to know how to take apart a CAT dozer? A good ole boy who can field strip a 1970 Ford Engine in his sleep? Or an alienated suburban product of the white middle class?

Of course, the story of what has happened to EF could be used to illustrate the absurdity of the contemporary American anarchist movement in general. Middle class white kids playing dress-up while completely rejecting the working class persons they are supposedly trying to liberate.