The Earth Liberation Front was named in Brighton, England, in 1992 by Earth First!ers who wanted a banner for clandestine sabotage as their movement turned toward aboveground organizing. Like the Animal Liberation Front whose model it borrowed, the ELF was not an organization but a claim: any cell following the guidelines — inflict economic damage on those profiting from the destruction of the environment; take all precautions against harming any animal, human or nonhuman — could act in its name.
The name crossed to North America in the mid-1990s, announcing itself with Columbus Day 1996 arsons in Oregon and, in alliance with the ALF, a string of actions against wild-horse corrals and fur-industry targets — the beginning of the campaign the FBI would come to call its top domestic-terrorism priority.