Earth Liberation Front: Leadership

and Organizational Structure

Chris Curran

Leaders?•No identifiable leaders or chain of command

•ELF used as an ideological standard

•Leaderless Resistance

•Earth Liberation Front Press Office

Cell Structure•Autonomous with little to no knowledge of other cells

•Cooperation among cells rare

•Lone wolf attackers and small familiar groups

•Internal recruitment not encouraged

•New recruits are urged to create their own cells instead

Advantages•Decentralized cell structure makes infiltration difficult, and if successful, generally fruitless

•The incapacitation of one cell does not effect other cells

•Lack of communication between cells allows ELF to act without internal conflict

Disadvantages•ELF unable to police the actions of its cells

•No quality control