April 2003: New Organization Brings Antiwar, Environmental Movements Together; Leader Advocates Violence, Government Overthrow

Arissa logo. [Source: Anti-Defamation League]Former Earth Liberation Front (ELF—see 1997) activists Craig Rosebraugh and Leslie James Pickering (see 1996 and After) form a new activist organization, Arissa, aimed at linking other social movements, particularly the antiwar movement, to environmentalism. Arissa gives Rosenbaum, Pickering, and others the opportunity to speak about their views and sell books by its members. One book is Rosenbaugh’s The Logic of Political Violence, which says that “revolution in the United States must be comprised of a variety of strategies” and that “it cannot be successful without the implementation of violence.” Later, Rosebraugh will echo this sentiment, telling a television interviewer: “Violence is a necessary element of an oppressive struggle… to overthrow an oppressive government.… [ELF is] only part of a larger building revolutionary movement that won’t stop until it has a successful overthrow of this country.” [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]