Blocking of construction sites, roads, demonstrations, deflating tires… Some environmental activists seem more and more tempted by civil disobedience, even more radical actions. The All Saints weekend demonstrations in Sainte-Soline in Deux-Sèvres, where 4,000 to 7,000 people protested against a mega-basin construction project, illustrated this phenomenon. From now on, participants in these hitherto peaceful movements no longer hesitate to contact the police. The trend worries all the way to the top of the state, which, for the moment, does not seem to be able to engage in a dialogue with these activists. In the book The Coming Showdown, published on March 1 by Editions du Rocher, journalists Anthony Cortes and Sébastien Leurquin examine the risk of escalation between two camps braced on their positions. Until the conflagration? Interview.
L’Express: Extinction Rebellion, Terres de Lutte, Deep Green Resistance… The “camp” of radical ecology today seems fragmented into a myriad of movements. Can we map them?
Sebastien Leurquin: We could speak of a constellation. On the ground, we discovered an aggregation of different groups which can each carry out their fight, but agree to cooperate and form a common ecological project of magnitude. This galaxy goes from France Nature Environnement, which ensures the legal and judicial fight, to Deep Green Resistance, which is an ultra-radical movement. In the middle, we find older associations, such as Greenpeace.
Anthony Cortes: We also find associations such as Alternatiba, a movement created in reaction to the Copenhagen Conference in the early 2010s. which are more specialized in media stunts, such as Extinction Rebellion and Last Renovation. These groups are followed by a more radical, even clandestine sphere: animalists and anti-tech activists who can, for example, take action against farms, 5G antennas or fiber optic terminals.
You mention the group Deep Green Resistance. Who are they ?
Sebastien Leurquin: They recently arrived in France and are attached to a publishing house, Les Editions libre. In the text, they claim to want to “deconstruct” the notion of violence. It is only a semantic hardening: they replace certain words to use others. When activists attack a Lafarge factory in Marseille, attack construction machinery, they will speak, for example, of “disarmament” of “polluters who are destroying the planet”, and not of “sabotage”. They carry out the same work of reflection around other words, such as those pertaining to violent action. Deep Green Resistance activists never admit that they are “attacking” anything, but prefer to call themselves “in defense” of the planet.
When asked about the possible violence that this type of reflection could generate on the ground, they affirm that they would not be responsible for it. But we could consider them as preachers. They say they are there to theorize and provide tools, but the logical continuation of their reflection is in reality concrete and violent actions.
Anthony Cortes: They intend to enter into the more traditional environmental movement. To meet them, we had to pretend to be activists, otherwise they refused to talk to us. They explained to us that they sought to penetrate the more traditional movements of ecology, normally hermetic to violence, to try to make it the main axis of their struggle. This also responds to what the Free Editions are doing on the subject, by publishing books like How nonviolence protects the state by Peter Gelderloos. This essay is a tool allowing them to be a Trojan horse in the traditional pacifist environmental movement. Deep Green Resistance represents barely a few dozen activists in France. There are some in Paris, in Brittany, or in Lyon. They are not looking for massification. Having two or three activists allows them to join one or two groups and, by trying to convince a few, they manage to spread a little music that is a vector of violence. And it works: an activist from Extinction Rebellion told us that he wanted to do this work. Questioning violence as self-defense. A ground swell runs through these activists. It is obviously not the only fact of Deep Green Resistance, but this type of movement contributes to it.
How do you explain the shift from eco-anxiety to radicalism, even violent action? Does this transition concern a specific part of the population?
Anthony Cortes: Some activists have told us about the clicks they have had, like this person in the south of France who, during an episode of unexpected heavy rain for the season, felt that his environment was slipping away. From there, he felt an immense rage that he could not explain. Its outlet was militant commitment. We spoke to psychologists, psychiatrists, who explain to us that the vast majority of activists vent their rage through their commitment. The feeling of threat to one’s own family, one’s own life, translates into a response to violent action.
Sebastien Leurquin: The people involved in these groups generally have a fairly high cultural capital. Their level of education is too, as is often their family economic capital. Overall, these activists come from a rather privileged social category. This is a matter of concern for the state: some of the “winners of the system” finally go into rebellion.
What is the state’s response to this situation? Does he understand this evolution of militants?
Anthony Cortes: It is necessary to dissociate politics from the state machine. The intelligence services have absolute knowledge of these movements, and even an understanding. They understand the part of emotion which means that, for these activists, anything can be done for a cause which seems to them to be the fairest. The policy, however, is different. Gérald Darmanin will talk about ecoterrorism, a concept which is not recognized in French law, and which does not currently exist. But this drift does not date from today. After the Islamist attacks in 2015, a state of emergency was declared. COP21 is coming and activists are under house arrest due to a “threat” identified by the services.
François Hollande explained to us that it was to protect them. But there too, we rather see a State that did not know what it was dealing with. Subsequently, several decrees brought into common law exceptional measures to fight against Islamist terrorism. And it is often environmental activists who suffer, especially with abusive searches. A similar movement occurred with the intelligence unit of the gendarmerie Déméter, supposed to fight against attacks on the agricultural world, which was judged partly illegal in 2022 by the administrative court of Paris (the State appealed this decision, Ed). Part of politics is distraught in the face of this new radicalism.
Sebastien Leurquin: We can see it with the term “ecoterrorism” used by the Minister of the Interior. When questioned, an adviser from another ministry accused him of making a “com stunt” at little cost. A high-ranking source within our own intelligence services said, “The minister must have information that I don’t.” This episode reveals the embarrassment that exists within the state machine. When he reacts with alacrity, the politician can create something that does not really exist.
In your book, you reveal the number of 2000 individuals on file S by the intelligence services, in connection with the environmental movement. What does it correspond to?
Anthony Cortes: Contrary to what one might think, it’s not just Last Renovation ecologists. It includes animalists, anti-speciesists… The intelligence services are not afraid of a movement in itself, but of individuals who will identify targets and take more radical action. The intelligence services explained to us that since the movement of the yellow vests, it is very difficult to identify specific groups. We observe formations of reduced cells of two or three people carrying out sometimes brutal actions, attacking above all the material. These 2000 people on file S are a good indication of the state of mind of the intelligence services: they want to show that their vigilance extends from the simple militant of Last Renovation who blocks a stage of the Tour de France to the activist which burns 5G antennas. The nebula is in turmoil, and ultimately the threat can come from just about anywhere. By way of example, we can cite “Le Bloc Lorrain”, an ultra-left group which carried out its ecological transition recently, out of opportunism.
Sebastien Leurquin: This question of the porosity between these two worlds has been studied by sociologist Colin Robineau. He evokes the greening of the ultra-left and the radicalization of environmentalists. This is what we found in Sainte-Soline: even if the ecologists declare themselves to be deeply non-violent, they accepted in their ranks, for this demonstration, dozens of black blocs. In the front row, therefore, we had the black blocs with a desire to do battle with the police, and behind, the environmentalists who marched for this prohibited demonstration, turning a blind eye to the violence – and somehow accepting it .
Anthony Cortes: This is in line with a theory that is fully accepted by the environmental movement. That of Andreas Malm’s reversed front: the existence of a radical front in the struggle allows the moderate front to be heard and considered by those in power. By instilling a kind of fear, the balance of power sets in, necessarily favorable to the camp in struggle. This theory is very much in vogue among activists. Malm is the author of How to sabotage a pipeline, and is the current thinker of the environmental struggle. This reference marks a turning point for the environmental movement, which is gradually moving away from pacifism and towards radicalism.
Should we expect eco-terrorist actions in the short term?
Sebastien Leurquin: There is not yet any ecoterrorism in France, but an intelligence expert told us that he feared that it would eventually happen. Generally, we are ten or twenty years behind the American radical movements. However, eco-terrorist actions have already been carried out there. Today, two camps are facing each other, each braced on their positions.
Anthony Cortes: The fears of the intelligence services also come from an internationalization of the movement. In Europe, the various environmental movements, but also of the ultra-left cooperate. Some come from the harshest countries, such as Italy, Germany and especially Greece. Last year, a movement tried to attack a Tesla “giga-factory” in Germany. There were no victims, but the attempt made an impression.