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Eco-Rebellion
in the Swamps

Earth First! was formed in 1980 in response to an increasingly corporate, compromising and ineffective environmental community. We are not an organization, but a movement, a mentality, a shared affinity, and a broad network of like-minded individuals. There are no ‘members’ of EF!, only Earth First!ers. What holds us together is a belief that the health of ecosystems and wild beings are just as important as, and vital to the health of, human beings. The Earth First! movement has been active in Florida for decades, with several early EF! campaigns based in the state, including one of the first campaigns to push for Florida Panther recovery through the creation and protection of statewide wildlife corridors.

While Earth First! has also had a presence in South Florida for almost as long as the movement has existed, Everglades Earth First! (EEF!) has only begun to organize with active groups and individuals across the bioregion over the past few years. Since then, we have fought around issues of sprawl and urban over-development; corporate biotechnology and free trade; everglades restoration (‘CERP’) politics; rock mining and heavy industry in the Everglades Agriculture Area (EAA). We have protested; been involved with public hearing and lawsuits; disrupted crooked meetings; blockaded roads; hung banners; organized local hikes and campouts in threatened areas; organized support for eco-political prisoners; hosted international EF! rendezvous; and captured the attention of the public and the media all along the way, keeping crucial environmental issues in the headlines.

Our focus at the moment is on energy infrastructure and climate change, targeting FPL´s new fossil fuel and nuclear proposals across southeast Florida and exposing their corporate greenwashing.

Local EF! activists have also strayed from the conventional middle-class environmental world and worked on issues of environmental racism, gentrification and community control over public land (exemplified by participation in Liberty City, Miami’s 6-month Umoja Village homeless land occupation). Some EF!ers also maintain close relationships with our local Latin American and Caribbean immigrant community in recognition that national borders are scars on the earth and people are forced from their homelands by an industrial system of greed and empire. We have marched side-by-side the immigrant rights community and crossed the country to participate in the bi-national No Borders Camp, November 2007 in Calexico/Mexicali.

We believe that white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia and all other oppressive tendencies are connected to the system that is destroying the planet; that our collective liberation is tied to the fate of the earth. The manifestation of oppression in our communities is a serious obstacle to growing and sustaining our movement. Our focus is the earth, but our commitment is to end oppression on all fronts.

While many EF!ers have scientific and/or ecological backgrounds, our struggle is fundamentally about our intuitive connections to land, water, the community of life around us and our willingness to fight for it. We are committed to working with any groups who share these basic values.