As a revolutionary movement, we're no strangers to media slander. In May, right-wing outlets tried to link us with a murder. And now, this week, it's not one but two major green media platforms - standard-bearers of left-wing environmentalism - that are doing everything they can to slow our momentum. A perfect opportunity to make our position clear: we are firmly opposed to these media voices that keep playing lullabies on the deck of the techno-industrial Titanic, while we are organizing the mutiny.
The High Priests of the Green Transition Strike Back
Like many French-speaking environmentalists, we first became aware of the scale of the ecological disaster through outlets like these. Yet the very same voices now accuse us of having an “apocalyptic vision of the future” or of fueling “eco-anxiety and fear.” These are the same outlets that, for years, have published article after article on the collapse of the biosphere, the systematic destruction of ecosystems, the widespread poisoning of our bodies, and the dark future that awaits if nothing is done — all while increasingly authoritarian governments equip themselves with ever more advanced tools of repression.
We all (more or less) agree on the diagnosis. But knowing is no longer enough. It’s time to act. So - what now? These green media outlets, when they’re not outright dismissing revolutionary organizations, maintain a deliberate and paralyzing ambiguity about what action actually looks like. One moment, they praise the illegal direct actions of certain left-wing environmental groups; the next, they’re promoting solar-powered bicycle startups. They applaud sabotage, then urge people to vote for center-left parties to “block the far right” and preserve the EU’s so-called “climate ambitions.” They cheer on the ecological transition, only to criticize photovoltaic energy. They expose the horrors of mining and extractivism - then turn around and promote Fairphone. And yet we're the ones accused of being “confused” ?
But honestly, did we expect anything different from media funded by a former multimillionaire chemical industry executive who wants to push the soft left in the next elections? Media that spend their time trying to put us to sleep with false hope? These outlets, dependent on industry and guilt-ridden readers, play the role they were given: they profit from the disaster - which is their business - then sell unrealistic, out-of-touch solutions that they sometimes even criticize themselves.
Energy transition, renewable energy - all promoted by a well-meaning left-wing government promising to fund planned degrowth with “money from the ultra-rich.” These utopian projects don’t challenge the industrial system’s material foundations or its everyday operations, nor the authoritarian social structures that let central governments control large populations. Against these fantasies, ATR fights through collective action to shut down the machines that, no matter who controls them, destroy and enslave.
Inform with one hand, discredit with the other: Media as Instruments of Repression
In times of revolution, Western media played a clear role: using every tool at their disposal to brand resistors as outlaws, reactionary barbarians, and terrorists.
Today, in times of collapse, so-called independent left-wing media play much the same role. Like mainstream right-wing outlets, they act as the police’s vanguard - mocking and ostracizing radical resistance movements, portraying them as vile terrorists who pave the way for fascism and political violence. They interview so-called repentant ex-members who’ve “returned” to the safe path of inclusive activism, and concerned family members who view anyone challenging electoral norms as “lost.” They amplify voices of government-aligned technocrats, academics, and influencers validated by both the left-wing activist scene and established institutions of higher education and research.
These tactics are an insult to every liberation movement in history. Since when has a totalitarian system ever been overthrown by staying safe and sheltered under your mother’s skirts? Would anyone have condemned a revolutionary from 1830, a Resistance fighter, or a guerrillero for rejecting the values of a generation that sacrificed its future to an autocratic regime? To portray anti-tech movements as the primary source of political violence in an age of “techno-fascism” - while enhanced warfare rages unchecked - is to dishonor all those monitored by AI and the countless innocents slaughtered by drones.
When Techno-Solutionism and Techno-Progressivism Strangle the Struggle
If these media - and the reformist clique backing them - are relentlessly trying to discredit, slander, and politically assassinate ATR, it’s because we are among the very few popular organizations that break decisively with the structures, logic, and language of industrial society. et, the laws of this system—accepted and reproduced both by the states and civil societies of capitalist Western countries and their left-wing opposition (whether they promote green social democracy or “degrowth cyber-ecosocialism” [2]) - must continue to appear as “universal laws” to the oppressed, or else risk being outright rejected.
Challenging the techno-industrial system’s foundations means confronting the current world order and the vast privileges it grants to a tiny ruling minority (whose crumbs still fall in industrialized countries like France). Simply put, anti-tech and anti-industrial resistance cannot be co-opted by prevailing narratives, economic agendas, or political strategies. That’s exactly why it unsettles those in power, why it inspires so many, and why the organic intellectuals of the dominant ideology work hard to erase and defame it.
The dominant ideology is the myth of progress, which took hold in the 19th century to justify the material organization of our societies following the first industrial revolution. This techno-solutionism promises paradise on Earth, and that’s exactly what these activists and media claim: that we can keep the industrial system - its comforts and benefits - without exploitation or environmental destruction. It’s a fairy tale, the same story sold more than a century ago by communists and some anarchists. TBut this outdated charade has been hollowed out by the harsh realities of the 20th century and today’s social and historical conditions.
The real issue isn’t how wealth is distributed within an extractivist system - it’s the material foundation of the system itself, shaped over the last two centuries. This is what’s truly reactionary, and what will fuel unprecedented political violence in the years ahead: refusing to acknowledge the fundamental incompatibility between industrial society and any genuine ecological future, denying this truth, and actively undermining those who organize around it.
For a Revolution Against the Technological System
Media in our struggles are merely tools - showcases that pick their side according to the dominant ideology. Perhaps one day, when industrialism and techno-progressive ideology have been worn to the bone, they will promote resistance and revolution against the techno-industrial system. Until then, we are proud to be slandered by those we see as defenders of a deadly status quo: reactionaries perpetuating a dangerous, outdated ideology, traitors to all life, to the Earth, and to freedom.
Such attacks won’t stop us. It will take much more to discourage those of us who oppose the techno-industrial hydra. We are convinced that technocriticism will gain ground because its analyses are the clearest and most relevant in light of the bitter failures of ecological and libertarian struggles over recent decades. We will continue to assert, come hell or high water, that claiming to be progressive while living on the ruins of the world and the blood of billions of innocents is blatant hypocrisy.
We call on everyone who refuses to be fooled by technocrats of all stripes to join and strengthen the ranks of resistance. Because no freedom is won without collective organization, deep solidarity, and revolutionary commitment.
