Last year the Center for Consumer Freedom first broke the news that California State University at Fresno would host a conference on “Revolutionary Environmentalism,” featuring violence promoters like high-seas pirate Paul Watson, convicted arsonist Rodney Coronado, former Earth Liberation Front (ELF) spokesman Craig Rosebraugh, and Animal Liberation Front (ALF) thug-turned-PETA-lecturer Gary Yourofsky. On Sunday the same breed of militants announced plans to “converge” on Fresno in June 2004.
“In this spirit of resistance” an anarchist website told readers, “we are launching ‘Occupied Territory 2004’, in Fresno CA. Centrally located in California, we are calling on all anarchist and anti-authoritarian anti-capitalist groups to converge.” The listing lauds militant groups like ELF and ALF, celebrates “the shutting down, stopping, and destruction of capitalism’s institutions and structures,” and calls “every smashed window, every pied politician, every pig stripped of their dignity” great victories.
Whether related to the original Fresno symposium or not, in 2003 ordinary Californians suffered more than anyone else from animal-rights and environmental terrorism. Just a few weeks after the February conference, ALF thugs left two firebombs at a California restaurant. The next week ALF tried to burn down another nearby restaurant. Two months later firebombs were left under SUVs at a California dealership. At the beginning of August, ELF set its most damaging fire yet — a $50 million arson that destroyed a nearly-completed apartment complex near San Diego. And worst of all, an animal-rights militant set off a series of bombs near San Francisco that were clearly intended to injure or kill human beings. The suspect, Daniel Andreas San Diego, was recently profiled by TV’s “Americas Most Wanted.”
In the midst of all this mayhem, one of the conference participants, Craig Rosebraugh, declared war on America. He called on anti-war protesters to carry out “direct actions” against the American government, military installations, multinational corporations, financial institutions, urban centers, and broadcast television networks. The anarchist website that announced Fresno’s upcoming conference still features Rosebraugh’s manifesto on its homepage.
