By Leslie James Pickering- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Arissa Media Group; 2nd edition (May 15, 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0974288403
- ISBN-13: 978-0974288406
Former ELF spokesperson, Leslie James Pickering, traces the first five years of ELF activity through communiques, underground newspapers, interviews and news media releases. The first book to be published on the ELF, Earth Liberation Front 1997-2002 is a must read for anyone interested in understanding the radical environmental movement in the United States and the birth of a clandestine, underground organization acting in defense of the planet.
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Leslie James Pickering quit high school at seventeen to struggle against this system that stops at nothing to profit from the destruction of everything. After five years of continuous civil disobedience and protest, he grew frustrated with the lack of results in his activity and helped to found the North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office (NAELFPO) in early 2000. He served as press officer with the NAELFPO until his final resignation in summer of 2002. During this period, the NAELFPO sustained two raids by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), responded to half a dozen grand jury subpoenas; conducted pubic presentations; produced booklets, newspapers, magazines, and a video on the ELF and handled the release of dozens of ELF communiqués. Through the NAELFPO, Pickering was the editor of Resistance, the Journal of the North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office, as well as many other independently-produced materials regarding the Earth Liberation Front. Pickering served twice as ELF Spokesperson, handling countless local, national, international, corporate and independent media inquires, which resulted in coverage in the New York Times, the Washington Times, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, Rolling Stone magazine and many more. He has also appeared in televised interviews with the ABC, NBC, CNN, FOX, CBC and BBC networks, as well as National Geographic TV and many others. He has given lectures at various conferences and at Lewis & Clark College, Saint Michael s University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Bard College, Yale University, New York University and many other institutions of learning. In 2003, Pickering resigned from the NAELFPO, issuing a lengthy statement renouncing nonviolence philosophy and single issue-politics, but he continues to support the ELF as a component of a revolutionary movement.
