Monkeywrenching

Monkeywrenching denotes nonviolent disobedience and sabotage carried out by environmental activists against those they perceive to be ecological exploiters. The term was made popular through its use by Edward Abbey in the novel The Monkey Wrench Gang of 1975, and has, since about 2000, very occasionally been used to indicate other forms of anticapitalist global activism, including culture jamming (see Notes From Nowhere). An equivalent term is ecotage and a contrasting term is ecoterrorism. The latter term is often a misnomer, properly applicable to rogue examples or individuals because monkeywrenching is typically motivated by a regard for preservation of life and is ordinarily restricted to two forms: either to nonviolent disobedience or to sabotage that does not directly endanger others.

Familiar civil disobedience scenarios include activists in vessels who place themselves between harpoon and whale or who chain themselves to earthmoving equipment, thus placing themselves at risk of injury if work activity should continue. Julia Butterfly Hill's tree-sitting effort is the most famous case. Hill remained for 738 days without pause in one prominent redwood tree in northern California beginning in December 1997. In collaboration with the protest organization Earth First!, Hill successfully secured the tree against logging by the Pacific Lumber Company until the parties reached a long-term preservation agreement.

The second approach for monkeywrenching involves destruction of unattended property by guerilla methods. Scuttling whaling vessels, cutting fishing nets, and contaminating the fuel of unattended earthmoving equipment are familiar examples. No annual value for damages can reasonably be estimated. Recent actions have greatly extended the category of environmental exploiter and the variety of targets. In August 2003, a San Diego condominium construction site was burned (damage valued at $20 million), and more than 100 energy-inefficient passenger automobiles were set ablaze at four Los Angeles dealerships in one night ($2 million). Arsonists left messages indicating alliance with the California-based Earth Liberation Front. The closely associated Animal Liberation Front engages in related actions against exploiters of animals; the independent Sea Shepherd Society focuses on the marine habitat.

Monkeywrenching broaches terrorism, as opposed to nuisance and economic harm, in some instances. A clear example is tree spiking, in which metal or ceramic spikes are driven deep within trees for the purpose of damaging chainsaws or blades at sawmills. Spiking has been credited with halting or delaying some U.S. Forest Service logging contracts, and with the serious injury of at least one sawmill worker. It has also been tried as a legal option for deterring illegal deforestation in Indonesia. Following a spiking, spikers usually mark trees or anonymously alert companies and government agencies of their activities. But markings on trees, along with the knowledge that a stand has been spiked, may be lost over the very many years that a forest stands. Consequently, any spiking is likely to pose significant irremediable long-term danger.

Monkeywrenchers have themselves suffered illegal sabotage and death. The most famous case is the 1985 bombing of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbor by members of the French Secret Service.