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Doing it Yourself: Direct-action Currents in Contemporary Radical Activism 27well as the strengths and weaknesses, of this tactic. The tradition ofnon-violent direct action in India is particularly strong, with a wellestablishedbasis in Ghandian principles of civil disobedience. TheKarnataka State Farmers Association recently drew upon this traditionto fight illegal secret trials of genetically engineered crops in India. In1998 they launched Operation Cremation Monsanto, in which fieldscontaining genetically modified cotton plants were uprooted andburned. ‘We send a very clear message to all those who have investedin Monsanto in India and abroad,’ the group proclaimed. ‘Take yourmoney out now, before we reduce it to ashes’ (Kingsworth 1999). Thetactic spread to other grass-roots activist groups, and for a time itappeared as though it had worked, as the Indian government haltedtesting. But by April 2002 the tide had turned—the Indian GeneticEngineering Approval Committee decided to allow Monsanto-Mahyco to sell the disputed seeds, at four to five times the cost ofconventional hybrids (Monsanto Inc. 2002).The famous Chipko movement worked on similar principles of nonviolentdirect action and autonomous, decentralized organization toprotect forests and watersheds throughout India (Shiva 1988: 67–77).It was formed and led by village women who were the first ‘treehuggers’—throughoutthe 1970s and 1980s they placed their bodiesbetween the forests and the saws and axes that would destroy them.In 1980 their efforts led to a 15-year ban on the felling of live treesin the Himalayan forests of Uttar Pradesh, and similar reforms wereachieved in other states. The 15-year ban has since expired, however,and the story is similar to that of Operation Cremation Monsanto.At a recent meeting of former Chipko activists, it became clear thatthe gains that had been made were only temporary. The participantscomplained that ‘authorities who should be helping to protect thedelicate ecology of the hills are instead working hand-in-glove withthe timber barons’ (Dogra 2002). Now it is major hydroelectricprojects and the harvesting of traditional herbs for the capitalistmarket that threaten the forests and the subsistence of the peoplewho depend upon them. Some veterans of the first Chipko movementare calling for it to be revitalized, which shows both the enduringpower of direct action and the necessity of endless struggle againstthe depredations of the neoliberal project.Endless struggle certainly seems to characterize the direct actionefforts of the indigenous peoples of Turtle Island (North America),who have been dealing with the effects of capitalist globalizationfor hundreds of years. Every imaginable tactic has been deployed to