Vegan anarchist anti-fascists join May Day Chicago march, then block S. California Ave with anarchists of color in front of Cook County Correctional Facility

Vegan anarchist anti-fascists joined the Chicago May Day demonstration with black and green flags and a big banner. After a long day of marching in the streets chanting things like "burn the jails, burn the prisons, just make sure the cops are in em!" and "Arms Up, Shoot Back!" the vegan anarchists weren't ready to call it a day just yet.

While the mass crowd of May Day marchers gathered in the park at the end of the march for speeches and food, the vegan anarchists remained in the street with a small group of anarchists of color who rather than going into the park to enjoy food shared by Food Not Bombs, decided to block and disrupt the heavy flow of traffic in front of the Cook County Correctional Facility on 2684 S. California. Both anarchists of color and the vegan anti-fascists blocked traffic for about an hour and a half, forcing police to re-route traffic (traffic which mostly consisted of police officers trying to go home after their shift ended).

In the article Unconditional Anti-Oppression: The Rise of Anti-Speciesism in the Anarchist Movement radical veganism is discussed as an anarchist perspective on anti-speciesism, anti-anthropocentrism, anti-capitalism and anti-statism. As more vegans begin to embrace an intersectional struggle against all forms of oppression, the state becomes less desirable. This comes with the understanding of how state-sanctioned reform serves as an antithesis to genuine freedom for both human and non-human animals. Radical vegans acknowledge how the state or centralized bureaucracy protects capitalism and preserves the white supremacist, patriarchal order.

As more vegans find the state less desirable, more anarchists are acknowledging the environmental and ecological devastation of capitalism. An intersectional approach to liberation reveals the interconnected relationship between sexism, speciesism, racism and other forms of oppression. Anarchism against all oppression must include anti-speciesism since discrimination based on species upholds an authoritarian hierarchy of human supremacy. Veganism for non-human animal liberation must include a critique of the state which assumes the role of the sole legitimate violent force in pursuit of maintaining colonized territory and imperialist expansion. Any struggle for liberation whether human or non-human necessitates a conflict with the state, capitalism and fascism.

Against all oppression, for total liberation!

SUPPORT NEEDED for STRAIGHT EDGE MADRID ARRESTS: "STATEMENT AFTER THE STATE REPRESSION AND CRIMINALIZATION OF OUR COLLECTIVE"

STATEMENT AFTER THE STATE REPRESSION AND CRIMINALIZATION OF OUR COLLECTIVE

Posted on 6 Hours Ago by sxemad

Translated from Spanish to English from the original statement here: https://straightedgemadrid.wordpress.com/2015/03/26/comunicado-tras-la-represion-y-posterior-criminalizacion-a-nuestro-colectivo/

EVENTS:

On Saturday 21 March 2015 our group attended the demonstration of gears of the dignity given the need to be partners in a process of political representation in the street. While maintaining the nuances of our opposition to wage labor and expand not only the dignity from an ethnocentric perspective, but to give a voice to the voiceless, i.e. non-human animals. After the end of the march many of the people fed up with the routinisation of citizen protest decided to break with the conventionality of marching where and when instructed by the state. After breaking with the normality of the center of the consumerism of Madrid the burden was imminent to what the demonstration dispersed by different streets. Before the imminent police charge, people desperately attempted to flee the police advance for fear of a accustomed police brutality of the Spanish state. In the flee, 3 persons as members of our group were arrested, including two south american, one of whom was younger. The minor was beaten violently and repeatedly by the police after being cornered with other demonstrators by the IPU. He was taken to Moratalaz being minor where he was held for more than 4 hours without going to the bathroom and received repeated beatings by the police accompanied by racist insults. After identifying that they were younger they were sent to the Group of Age of the National Police (GRUME) where the treatment never ceased to be hostile. The other partner (we'll call "N") at the time of his arrest was unconscious and was dragged up to the spot where there were a group of policemen where he received blows and kicks until being awakened in the van of the UIP. When he was transferred to the police station two policemen greeted him by his surname then transferred him and beat him up again and took him up to a room where he had an asthma attack. To be taken to the dungeon is a single cell only. In the early morning of Sunday he is awakened for taking fingerprints where is recognized by a police officer and was taken to the bathroom of the dungeon accompanied by 4 police officers where he received a beating as a threat for the next time the police or 911 is called on him. During his entire stay there referred to him as "Ensamble Sudaca of shit." (beaner or spic of shit).


Criminalization of STRAIGHT EDGE MADRID:It is curious to see how bourgeois media and the police are working in the criminalization of any collective with social conscience. The 3 out of 17 people arrested were part of our collective. The first was linked to our collective directly by the sweatshirt he was wearing, a sweatshirt that any person who wants to can buy for 18€ through contact with us or to go to a drug-free concert that we organize. The other person (N) was linked given that certain persons for personal reasons and cretins explained their identity and their political activity in the network, people then complain which linked the straight edge political ideas with the comfort of their lives and a label only to feed their egos. Apparently now 2 people linked represent the majority of 17. Now they want to criminalize a collective that promotes a drug-free lifestyle and veganism as a way of life, live without causing harm to animals for human benefit.


REPRESSION:Our comrades are awaiting trial on charges of public disorder and 2 of them attacking police. For one of them (N) requested the immediate entry to prison without bail. In this case the prosecutor asks for more than 6 years in prison. We add that during the stay of the dungeon the offenses were changing every once in a while, trying to place false evidence to different individuals in the course of the days in the dungeon finally being our partner (N) because it is in a pending lawsuit which we emphasize that is already shown that he was on the other side of the city the moment that the facts of which he is charged. Not complying with this today, with provisional release, has encountered the harassment of the secret police.

We are grateful to all the groups, collectives and individuals have joined in solidarity with us and we embrace any aid we are provided.

JOINT ACCOUNT: IS91 2038 1095 7530 0193 1786

PAYPAL: la_protesta@live.com

HUMAN AND NON-HUMAN ANIMAL LIBERATION!

“La represión nos derriba, la dignidad nos levanta”

Colonialism, Imperialism and Animal Liberation 

Shared from http://www.shoresofanarres.org/colonialism-imperialism-and-animal-liberation/

Colonialism is not a thinking machine, nor a body endowed with reasoning faculties. It is violence in its natural state, and it will only yield when confronted with greater violence. – Frantz Fanon

It is, in theory, not necessary to point out the brutality and violence permeating the colonial and imperialist projects of various societies as they have come and gone throughout history. The arcs on which these events are documented are, as Marx said of capitalism, dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt. But in practice, the only danger lies in not retelling this story enough rather than in telling it too often.

Whether we are talking about Africans, enslaved and brought to the Americas as a tool for imperialist interests, native Americans robbed of their land, their freedom and ultimately their lives, the utter misery in Kongo under Belgian rule, or British imperialism in India, the underlying themes share a striking similarity. The bodies of the conquered were objectified as machines to do the work of their new masters, the land and riches were confiscated while the cultures and societies, in many cases, torn apart and destroyed. To accomplish this, an entire philosophy of domination was applied through a brutal and multilayered web of racism, sexism, religious persecution and cultural universalism strictly from the perspective of the conquerors. The cultures and practices of the natives were vilified and demonized (sometimes literally, as in the form of witch hunts), while atrocious behavior on the part of the invading empires – both at home and in their new colonies – was often explained as justified or even necessary.

It is no wonder, then, that anarchism is by very definition opposed to these practices of domination and that anarchists are among the foremost critics of this process and its lingering effects. This is very much the case also for anarchists engaged in the animal liberation struggle, as several parallels can be drawn in the way that the highly diminished status of non-human animals could be used as a platform to dehumanize and delegitimize the conquered populations and their cultures. With animals already neatly fit into the narrative of being mere tools and objects for human exploitation, labeling the colonized populations as animals immediately brought to life the desired associations.

Despite this, some would like to fit the animal liberation struggle into the imperialist project, as a form of cultural imperialism, turning such anarchists or other animal liberation activists into proponents of one of the things they abhor the most. It is often the strong advocacy for total abstention from animal exploitation – veganism – that results in accusations of racism and imperialism. How dare we force western values upon indigenous cultures and societies?

This is a serious accusation, and one understandably perceived as insulting for many engaged in the anti-speciesist struggle. But ultimately it is one worth dealing with, because doing so sheds some light on some of the implicit assumptions within the accusation itself. To start with, imperialism, and all its destructive tools, was a means of dominating others, and asserting one culture above another. Veganism, in this sense, is acultural. It doesn’t apply double standards by letting something slide in one place but not the other, it doesn’t try to establish cultural hierarchies and it is not looking to establish domination. On the contrary, it is the dismantling of domination, in all its forms, that vegan anarchists seek. We wouldn’t accept cultural expressions involving slavery, patriarchy or economic exploitation – no matter what culture we are talking about – so why should we accept any additional forms of domination in one place but not the other? Gary L. Francione, an animal liberation proponent, answers this accusation succinctly:

Those in this group beg the question and assume that speciesism is justified. That is, their position amounts to the view that it is racist or culturally insensitive to seek to protect the interests of another marginalized and particularly vulnerable group, nonhuman animals. I would imagine that most of those who have this view would not object if the marginalized beings were other humans. But this is just another way of asserting human supremacy and exceptionalism. I find that as objectionable as asserting racial supremacy.

If anything, vegan anarchists espouse values that are strongly in conflict with contemporary western culture, and most efforts are rightly aimed at western societies because this is where a significant part of the severe exploitation of non-human animals takes place. Not only that, it is in many cases western influence that increases – or at least exerts a cultural and economical pressure to do so – levels of animal exploitation in societies that peruse no or relatively small amounts of animal products, such as is the case in India and among Jainists in particular. No vegan anarchists want to take away people’s means of subsistence. The claim is rather that whoever has the practical prerequisites – economic, environmental, social – ought to choose not to harm sentient beings for nearly arbitrary reasons such as old habits and taste preferences.

In fact, by trying to apply imperialist connotations to proponents of veganism, one unwittingly positions western cultures as the subject, and indigenous cultures as the object. As if the western culture is dynamic, always changing and open to questioning, while the indigenous cultures are static and confined to the state in which colonial powers found them hundreds of years ago, unable to evolve and unable to challenge their own norms and thus develop. Indeed, as Margaret Robinson, a vegan of indigenous background, points out:

When veganism is constructed as white, First Nations people who choose a meatless diet are portrayed as sacrificing cultural authenticity. This presents a challenge for those of us who see our vegan diets as ethically, spiritually and culturally compatible with our indigenous traditions.

The push against speciesist thinking should transcend cultural boundaries, as should any global struggle against oppression, thus uniting the participants across such divides. Questioning part of cultures on grounds of oppression – from within or without – is only hypocritical when done in the traditional guise of ignoring the same issues at home. But here vegans and anarchists are adamant, and emphasize the injustice in western culture as one of the large causes for the problem in the first place. In many of the indigenous legends, the use of animals was seen as a sacrifice, which was done out of necessity, not out of the ability to dominate. Many of these cultures have been pushed beyond such a relationship with nature, and as such can within their own spiritual and cultural heritage find arguments for moving beyond the objectified relationship with animals often imposed by imperialist conquest. In other words, when the material conditions no longer necessitate the exploitation of non-human animals for survival, the indigenous traditions can in many cases be seen as an argument for veganism, and not against it.

When people single out veganism for this type of critique, typically also calling it a form of consumerism, they mistake it for being promoted as the one and only solution to a problem. But I don’t have to think that abstaining from buying slaves, by itself, would stop the slave trade, to think that it would be unethical for me to participate in trading slaves. Consequently, activism and veganism are two components to reach one goal – the end of human domination of non-human animals.

While the activist component of animal liberation promotes agitation, direct action and similar activities, veganism is a way of already living in the now without being complicit in the perpetuation of the exploitation, which, besides showing that our ends can be our means, also shows that it is a viable alternative, and as such paves the way for others to follow suit. The burden of proof should be on the participants in the animal exploitation cycle to show that despite their participation, their choices have no negative net effect whatsoever on the well-being of sentient creatures. Because if their choices do have such consequences, and there is a practical alternative that doesn’t, then clearly that alternative is a better choice. This is especially true if said alternative synergizes with the wider struggle against domination.

There is a difference here between on the one hand anti-capitalist struggle and on the other hand anti-speciesist struggle. While capitalism permeates our entire society, and can be very hard or even counter-productive to fully distance oneself from, our domination of other animals is literally advertising its own presence wherever we face it and is often readily avoidable, so we don’t have to marginalize ourselves in society or act in highly impractical ways in order to withdraw from its perpetuation. Instead, a sharp critique of capitalist practices such as industrialized animal farming can be used as a launching point for a wholesale attack on capitalism as a system. There are synergies abound, comrades, and we should all support each other in building a strong, multi-faceted and vibrant movement that challenges the dominant ideologies of present society on all fronts on which they conflict with freedom and well-being.

Veganism, as an ethical choice, is thus a consistent complement to activism in the quest to end human domination over and exploitation of non-human animals. It transcends cultures, in the same way that other forms of oppression should be resisted no matter where they persist. All cultures are living and constantly evolving, and can from within their own cultural understanding find the tools and means through which speciesism, racism, sexism, capitalism or any other form of domination can be opposed. Everyone who opposes domination should find it within their interest to engage in or at least support the anti-speciesist struggle, for what more severe form of domination could we imagine than the notion that it is acceptable to harm and kill sentient beings because one likes their taste?

An anti-capitalist critique of animal exploitation

Shared from https://network23.org/redblackgreen/2015/01/24/an-anti-capitalist-critique-of-animal-exploitation/

Unlike the UK where the grassroots AR movement has moved towards a reformist, pro-party politics stance in recent years, across the water in the rest of Europe there have been groups determined to develop an anti-capitalist critique of animal exploitation.

A group called Tierbefreiung-Hamburg (Animal Liberation Hamburg) produced a leaflet called Humans, animals and nature in the crisis: On the need for an anti-capitalist critique of animal exploitation for a workshop at the International AR Gathering in Poland in 2012.

It’s refreshing because instead of starting from a theoretical basis about an imagined, idealized world, it dissects the financial crisis and austerity of the last seven years and then links that to the wider issues of our relations with animals: “The imprisonment of animals that is ever-present in our society, their merciless exploitation and seemingly perpetual slaughter are also linked inseparably to an economic system that is aimed solely at use and profit.”

It then talks about the attacks on welfare and workers’ rights – “all aimed at securing the interests of finance and recasting more and more areas of life along economic lines” – before looking at the domination of nature and the ecological crisis – Fukishima, climate change, and the industrialised slaughter of animals as “some examples of the devastating consequences of capitalist appropriation of nature.”

Animals, its says, “are the main victims of nature domination…encaged and murdered in their billions, so their labour power can be exploited and their dead bodies exchanged as commodities.” This is underpinned by the ideology of speciesism, which is a “type of false consciousness about animals” that appears natural and unchangeable and hides “the historical development and social creation of the exploitation.”

The embodiment of this system is the slaughterhouse where “capitalist principles of production are realised” and industrialised killing becomes a rationalised, goal driven process where there are human as well as non-human victims – “abattoir workers on minimum wages labour under precarious conditions and at constant risk to their health.”

How can capitalism and the “authoritarian politics of the crisis regimes” can be overcome? The pamphlet concludes that a first step would be the collectivization of key industries like finance, housing and especially food production. Then the building of “the participation of people in decision-making processes that are actually democratic” which can challenge the “daily barbarity of capitalism”. At the heart of this will be a rejection of violence towards animals and the acceptance of a vegan way of living.

Finally the importance of joined up struggles – or to use the latest buzzword – intersectionality – is emphasized. Single issue struggles will fail and only shared goals and strategies will be able to build ” strong resistance against the attempts to rescue an economic system that is only geared towards exploitation and is not based around needs.”

Overall very well thought through and well worth reading. It’s rare to find a piece of writing that emanates from the animal rights movement which also reaches out to embrace ideas of class and economic exploitation.

The text as it appears on the website is here: http://www.tierbefreiung-hamburg.org/texte/humans-animals-and-nature-in-the-crisis-on-the-need-for-an-anti-capitalist-critique-of-animal-exploitation

Here is a pdf version: http://www.tierbefreiung-hamburg.org/wp-content/uploads/Capitalism_Englisch_CMYK.pdf

Humans, Animals and Nature in the Crisis: On the need for an anti-capitalist critique of animal exploitation

Shared from http://www.tierbefreiung-hamburg.org/texte/humans-animals-and-nature-in-the-crisis-on-the-need-for-an-anti-capitalist-critique-of-animal-exploitation

Saving banks, cutting welfare, de-democratisation. The measures taken to overcome the global economic crisis are the attempt to avert the collapse of the capitalist economic system. Yet there is no reason to save an economic system that is neither willing nor able to find solutions to the social and ecological catastrophes of our time. However, the exploitation of people and the destruction of natural foundations of life are not the only expressions of the destructive violence of capitalist society. The imprisonment of animals that is ever-present in our society, their merciless exploitation and seemingly perpetual slaughter are also linked inseparably to an economic system that is aimed solely at use and profit. Capitalism has to be abolished, not saved, if we want to put an end to this misery.

No hope for capitalism

The capitalist economy is crumbling. What is portrayed as a state debt crisis is actually a real global economic crisis, which emerged from the property and financial crises. The measures taken to deal with it are not aimed at rescuing national state economies, but are the attempt to prevent the collapse of the capitalist economy itself. Banks and companies are supported to the tune of hundreds of billions of Euros whilst many countries have been forced to implement massive cuts to their social security systems by the troika of the EU, IMF and the ECB. The impoverishment of large parts of the population is knowingly taken into account to create “competitiveness” and “credit worthiness”, which mean nothing other than upholding the conditions of capitalist exploitation. There is no good reason to leap to the rescue of an economic system that produces misery on a daily basis and ignores the needs of people and animals.

The so-called saviours of capitalism have proved that they are willing to defend the prevailing conditions to the bitter end. Social attacks in the form of wage reductions, privatisation and welfare cuts are all aimed at securing the interests of finance and recasting more and more areas of life along economic lines. These measures are accompanied by the dismantling of workers’ rights, the expansion of the security services and the militarisation of foreign policies, so that any resistance can be quelled before it erupts. These policies subject all social relations to the creed of profit-maximisation that cements the relations of violence between humans and animals.

Fukushima, climate change, industrialised animal murder: Nature domination in capitalism

In capitalist economics, animals, like nature in general, are merely commodities, means of production or resources that may be exploited. The domination of nature is the basis of human society – as humans need to produce in order to reproduce themselves, they have always needed to alter and use nature. But the establishment of capitalist production methods has triggered fatal dynamics that are literally murderous. Capitalist economics require not only competition but also permanent expansion in the form of advancing valorisation of all natural foundations for life.

Unbridled growth therefore necessarily results in not only social but also ecological crises. Fukushima, the global effects of climate change and the industrialised killing of animals are some examples of the devastating consequences of capitalist appropriation of nature. A critique of the systematic destruction of nature is expressed by the social struggles of environment movements, e.g. against coal-fired power stations, or genetic engineering. Protest movements against the privatisation of water or against land-grabbing are also fighting for a collective and sustainable use of nature based on need and against the profit-orientated destruction of capital.

The destruction of nature and with it the destruction of the basis of human society are immediate consequences of production relations that do not serve our needs but those of capitalist accumulation. That fact that capitalist appropriation of nature does not follow the principles of sustainability, conservation or care is not the result of “environmentally unfriendly attitudes” but is actually the logical consequence of turning nature into capital.

Factory farms, vivisection labs, slaughterhouses: Animals as victims of capitalist nature domination

Animals are the main victims of nature domination. Considered to be nature, they are encaged and murdered in their billions, so their labour power can be exploited and their dead bodies exchanged as commodities. Animals are systematically made victims of socially organised violence. Their bodies suffer injuries en masse – in slaughterhouses, laboratories, or on factory farms. A liberated society that really intends to overcome all relations based on exploitation or servitude cannot ignore animals. No victim of socially-caused violence is a legitimate one. With our current state of productive forces – the technological and social possibilities at our disposal – there is no need for violence against animals.

The exploitation of animals is legitimised backed up by a complex ideology which has come to be known as speciesism. This means a way of thinking about animals that results from the supposed necessity of their exploitation. A type of false consciousness about animals, speciesism helps make the exploitation of animals seem to be natural and unchangeable, obscuring the historical development and social creation of the exploitation. This obscuring of human domination of animals is expressed in various ways: From the retort that “it’s always been this way, it can’t be changed.”, the trivialisation of violence against animals and the playing-down of any criticism of animal exploitation to attempts to deny animals any consciousness, sentience or individuality. The idea that animals can be used legitimately by people must be countered with a critique that refutes the myths of animal exploitation. Animals are not there for people, people have appropriated their bodies and their labour power by force! Animals cannot be kept “humanely”, any form of exploitation – whether in free-range or factory farms – is against their needs and interests. It is not the meaning of animal lives to land on a plate! Animals are not something, they are someone! Current human-animal relations are the result of human actions and are historic. Therefore they can also be changed by humans!

The fact that animals are not recognised as being victim to social relations of exploitation and domination cements their catastrophic situation. Largely ignored, the system of industrial and institutionalized murder of animals carries on. The slaughterhouse can be taken as a place where capitalist principles of production are realised. Under enormous time pressure, animals are killed almost by the second, after being fattened up to their maximum weight. Fully technically rationalised, animals’ bodies are sectioned and processed. Even the smallest scraps of flesh are used to generate capital. The meat industry’s path to big business is strewn with corpses. The human side of meat production also has its victims: abattoir workers on minimum wages labour under precarious conditions and at constant risk to their health. This show how humans and animals necessarily fall victim to exploitation under the rule of capitalism.

End capitalism and animal exploitation: Together against all domination

If social relations are to be guided by principles other than just maximising profit, all people must be able to participate in those areas of life that concern them. Overcoming economic relations of dependence is the basis of participatory processes of negotiation in which the needs of animals as well as all humans can be considered. The authoritarian politics of the crisis regimes throughout Europe are the opposite of any sort of freer society. Therefore it is not only necessary to show active resistance against these world-wide de-democratizing processes, but also to fight to regain the control over our own lives.

The immediate collectivisation of key industries like the finance industry, housing and not least food production is needed in order to stop the blind destruction of capitalist exploitation interests. The expropriation of agro-companies could be a first step to overcoming the current order in the areas of production and distribution of food, in which property rights and profit interests of concerns have more value than social and ecological justice. There is no right to profit, especially when it means that through completely destructive technologies and farming methods, people die of hunger and animals die in abattoirs. It’s not private economic appropriation of social wealth by companies, but the participation of people in decision-making processes that are actually democratic that could put an end to the daily barbarity of capitalism.

The exploitation of animals is part of this barbarity. Criticism of animal exploitation must not just limit itself to particular forms or areas of violence against animals. Violence itself must be at the centre of this criticism because there is no use of animals that doesn’t involve violence; there is no violence that is better or worse. Anyone who really wants to fight against animal exploitation cannot use animals for their own purposes. Anyone who wants to act in solidarity with animals has to be vegan, because violence against animals is not a private matter! Of course there could still be violence against animals in a non-capitalist society, but only that sort of society offers any basis for realising the social project of animal liberation.

One thing is clear: single political movements will not be able to do away with capitalism by themselves. Social struggles can only be successful when they don’t remain constricted to single issues, but instead aim to deprive the various relations of domination and oppression their mutual economic basis. The unified resistance against de-democratizing processes, as well as the reclamation and socialisation of central areas of life is a concrete perspective for various political movements to be able to overcome their organisational individualisation and to follow shared goals and strategies.

So let’s not lose any time and create a strong resistance against the attempts to rescue an economic system that is only geared towards exploitation and is not based around needs. Every day in which people are in servitude, animals are taken to the slaughterhouse and the natural resources are depleted is barbaric in the face of the possibilities of the here and now: Creating a society beyond the production of commodities, exploitation and oppression.

"Decolonizing The Diet: Towards an Indigenous Veganism" downloadable PDF literature

Decolonizing The Diet: Towards an Indigenous Veganism...Unlearning to Relearn

In the age of decolonization and decolonizing pedagogy, students from the Comparative History of Ideas course, “Decolonizing the Diet: Towards an Indigenous Veganism” at the University of Washington have created a cyber class zine to share with our larger communities the knowledge learned, shared, and reflected on from the course readings and in class dialogue, interviews with Native Chefs, written reflections, and meals prepared and eaten which speak to and provide methods towards Decolonizing the Diet, while reclaiming and cultivating an Indigenous Veganism.

This PDF booklet can be found here for online reading or download https://archive.org/details/DecolonizingTheDietTowardsanIndigenousVeganism

8 reasons why meat-eating anarchists need a kick up their anthropocentric arses

Shared from http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2015/01/519071.html


1. Anarchism impoverished

Anarchism, for me, is struggle against all forms of domination. It is a beautifully simple idea that helps call into question every oppressive norm.

But our relationships of subjugation with billions of other species on the earth is one norm that few seem to take issue with; not only are other species unable to communicate their experience to us, but to question means to challenge entrenched habits and world views. If we want to be consistent in our politics, then there’s no way we can continue to ignore the impact our anthropocentricism (human-centeredness) is having on the rest of this planet.

Yet, just because most of us are implicated does not mean that we are burdened with some kind of ‘original sin’. Quite the contrary: the beauty and power of anarchism is that it pushes us all to live lives that are more just, loving, meaningful, satisfying, and collectively free. So when we talk about speciesism, far from being dismissive, we should embrace the challenge it poses, look further into the issue, and do what we can to change the miserable status quo.

2. Alienation from the land

Through civilisation and conquest, insatiable capitalist cultures have alienated most of the world’s population from the ecologies which have been our species’ life support systems throughout its existence. This in turn has desensitised us from the mass enslavement of swathes of non-human lifeforms to the service of humans and capital. Yet, since this alienation is all that many of us city-dwellers have ever known, we do not really appreciate what is being lost. If this rings true for you, then spend some quality time with other animals; look at what they do, how they interact with one another. Read about the taming of the wilderness for capitalist expansion, and learn about the key role animal agriculture plays in transforming vibrant woodland into the monocultural fields that constitute our countryside today.

3. Animals are at the bottom of the dung heap

The sheer scale, intensity, and normalisation of animal exploitation and suffering is greater than that of any of our species. If you don’t agree, (so it sort of goes), you just aren’t paying attention. Hundreds if not thousands of entire species have been enslaved to capitalism, being imprisoned, manipulated, selectively bred, experimented on, used as reproductive machines & killed for our satisfaction, profit, and entertainment.

Each year, around 1,000 million animals are farmed and killed in the UK for ‘food’, while over the same period the equivalent of 86 million chickens are thrown away uneaten. In life, the vast majority of chickens are crammed into sheds with complete disregard for their needs or desires as living creatures, before being killed at 6-7 weeks (naturally, they live for around 7 years). Selective breeding of meaty birds means they’re unable to support their own weight and spend 76%-86% of their time lying down; death from thirst or hunger comes to many. Soiled litter solidifies around their legs producing painful ulcers. In the case of egg-laying hens, the majority kept in cages, the intense stress of their short, miserable lives can lead to self-harm and cannibalism, so many have their beaks cut – without anesthetic – to reduce this risk. Whereas their wild ancestors laid 12-20 eggs per year, human enslavement has produced a modern reproductive machine that lays up to 300 eggs for our pleasure and profit annually. This is to say nothing of the dairy, pork, beef or fish-farming industries. Those animals are not going to be able to tweet about their misery (there is as yet no evidence that pigs are daft enough to while away their time on social media): go read up on it yourself.

Meanwhile, each year nearly 4 million animals in the UK alone are subjected to ‘research’ in the name of science; experiments to test new products like medicines and chemicals (cleaners, plastics, pesticides, food additives etc.), and military trials. The most prestigious UK universities continue to cage and experiment on the same animals for many years on end. These include depraved invasive experiments that physically and psychologically manipulate primates (eg. implanting electrodes into their skulls, removing parts of their brains, studying the effects of deliberately inflicted stress and pain, and so on).

On top of their uses for ‘food’ and ‘science’, there’s the breeding of pets for human pleasure (thousands of which are subsequently held in UK shelters at any one point after being taken from mostly incompetent ‘owners’), and the use of animals to make money in a host of other industries (racing, zoos, circuses etc.).

4. Defensiveness maintains domination

All systems of oppression are supported by defensive attitudes, justifications, trivialisation and denial. Sometimes these claims might be fair enough, but people more often than not simply react to feeling attacked and respond from a selfish position of self-preservation. An anarchist ethic should stem from a desire for individual and collective liberation, so I like to think that when a comrade challenges my behaviour, I put my wounded pride aside for a moment and at least give the point the consideration it deserves.

Yet time and again issues raised around speciesism are mocked, trivialised and dismissed, which is both a massive disrespect to other animals and to those comrades. Ok, so this isn’t helped by the puritannical vegans out there who guilt-trip those who eat the occasional skipped cheese sandwich, but only the laziest and least committed comrade can attribute their crap, anthropocentric attitudes to encounters with the Vegan Police.

5. Animal abuse is inseparable from patriarchy

For me, animal abuse is on the same spectrum as misogyny, homophobia, racism, and the abuse of children, the elderly or disabled. Claims that these analogies are racist/sexist/ableist only underscores the inherent speciesism of such a position, for how can we make exceptions for other sentient beings? The basic principles are there: violence perpetrated for pleasure or gain by ‘strong’ against the ‘weak’.

In one suburban family home, a woman is threatened by a male fist; somewhere in another, a pet hamster gets flushed down the loo: both are worthless rubbish in the eyes of those who wield relationships of possession over them. In the toilets of a hipster bar, a Siamese Fighting Fish lies lifeless and numb on the gravelly bottom of its barren tank; in Croydon, an Afghan refugee friend waits for years on end for word from miserly Home Office bureaucrats: both reduced to mere numbers and objects by those with money in mind.

How can anyone fail see these issues as essentially one and the same, or reject one and justify another?

In 1901, anarchist Elisée Reclus described how as a young man he struggled against almost overwhelming pressure for conformity against his vegetarian ways, “parents, official and informal educators, and doctors, not to mention that all-powerful person referred to as “everybody”, all work together to harden the character of the child in relation to this “meat on feet”…”[1]. Over a century later, the culture of meat & dairy consumption is still maintained by ridicule and social pressure. It is especially bound up in machismo (e.g. you’re a bourgeois wuss if you can’t handle a bit of liver), and marketing that exploits masculine insecurities, even though 99% of such macho posturing revolves around meat pathetically acquired from the likes of Tescos, rather than from creatures that have been hunted (see Carol J. Adams’ The Sexual Politics of Meat for an in-depth discussion on this). If you want to prove yourself an adept hunter, I can think of much better targets than wild boar.

6. Veganism isn’t a middle class ‘consumer choice’

It might sound trite, but for many ‘ethical vegans’, veganism really is a philosophy rather than just a dietary choice. Challenging how we think of animals as products and producers for our pleasure, questioning the ‘necessity’ or inevitability of animal consumption, and varying our diet beyond animal sources is just one part of that, but there are many ways to subvert our relationships with other animals – from fighting the culture of pet breeding, to carrying out acts of liberation & sabotage. In fact, a definition of veganism coined by Vegan Society co-founder Donald Watson, was the notion that animals should simply be free from exploitation and cruelty. This removes some of the emphasis on consumer choices, as favoured by green capitalists & liberals. Too often, critics hone in on hipster vegan cupcake shops or fancy fake cheeses, glibly equating all veganism with shallow ethical consumerism or a bourgeois fad. But where there appears to be a market, we can always expect some corporation to cash in on it (H&M’s recent rip-off of the Kurdish YPJ’s uniform springs to mind as an example). It’s also disingenuous to claim it’s a ‘class privilege’ to eat a plant-based diet – if anything it’s cheaper if you’re not going in for fake meat and dairy substitutes. The irony about these claims is that that the animal rights/liberation movement in the UK is significantly more working class and less dominated by academics than my experience of other major ‘single issue’ movements in the UK at present. Class-based critiques of veganism from feminists with PhDs says more about themselves and where they spend their time than anything else.

There are obviously some people who can’t avoid consuming animals because conditions make it unviable (eg. destitution, certain illnesses, migrants in transit, desert-dwelling peoples…you get the picture); the point is to do what we can because we at least reject speciesism as we should any other system of domination. Unfortunately, many of us are not even there yet.

Attempts to carve out an ethical way of life under capitalism and the state inevitability tend to feel hollow. So what’s the point of changing our individual practices now? Well, apart from the obvious problem that mass insurrection still seems a distant prospect, consistency in our ideas and our actions gives us lives worth fighting for. The existence of relationships based on love, solidarity and respect spare us from unrelenting misery of life under capitalism and compel us to attack the systems which threaten them. Without the inspiring examples of my comrades around the world, I would be tempted with total resignation. Challenging ourselves and each other to question domination in all its guises builds on that affinity and breaks down isolation. Anarchy cannot be perpetually postponed; to whatever extent possible it must be lived in the present.

If respecting non-human life is neglible “lifestylism” as some suggest, then we should see treating our partners with respect (e.g. not abusing them) in the same light. I’m under no illusions about the capacity for veganism to create revolutionary change, but that is as true as for any ‘lifestyle choices': we can’t just content ourselves with changing the way we live & treat each other – we always need to combine this with attack on the structures of power.

7. Veganism is not ‘cultural imperialism’

The basic principles underlying veganism are by no means ‘Western’ (in the sense of a product of ‘Enlightenment’ thought originating in Western Europe); if anything, as capitalist land expropriation first wreaked havoc in that part of the world, quite the opposite is true. Through a close relationship with plants and animals, often amplified by animist beliefs, many indigenous peoples maintain healthier relations with the animals around them – to the point of exaggeration and romanticised cliché. The fact that some prominent English-speaking liberals began to spout loudly about animal welfare in the 19th century does not give the ‘West’ a monopoly on respecting animal life. In fact, some of the discourses in which these were embedded (particularly, seeking a scientific rationale for animal welfare), were more problematic than the practices of indigenous peoples who engaged in hunting for their food, but never sought to enslave the animals in the first place.

There have nevertheless been some overtly racist campaigns from the charity PETA, or imperialist – and frankly ridiculous – concepts such as ‘World Week for the Abolition of Meat’. But just as the existence of liberal feminist charities makes few of us dismiss feminism altogether, this is hardly basis for claims that veganism is inherently ‘Western’ or imperialist. Such an attitude is also patronising and dismissive of the many people and cultures that avoid meat and dairy for spiritual and ethical reasons, either for most of the year or altogether.

Lastly, animal farming goes hand in hand with the continued dispossesion of people from the land. It requires huge quantities of land for production of animal food; this true for both the ‘free range’ animals grazing on pastures and for those eating feed in dark animal factories. By contrast, significantly more people can be sustained on a given piece of land on a plant-based diet than on livestock, which is also far more water intensive. Land grabs from cattle ranching in South America have been a major driver of landlessness of the poor and of destruction of indigenous peoples’ lands and cultures. Arable land is both scarce and poorly distributed; we need to make major changes in our relationships with it if we are to cope with massive population rises whilst resisting unethical practices such as the expansion of human sterilisation programmes or major incursions into what pockets of wilderness remain.

8. Carnivorous appetites mean ecocide

Animal agriculture means habitat loss for wild animals and the precipitation of climate change. The world’s forests, for example, have roughly halved in the past 30 years [2]. Animal agriculture has been a major driver of this, especially in regions like the Amazon, which is both the source of rich biodiversity and approximately 20% of the world’s oxygen output. As anarchists we need to stop supporting the breeding of other living beings and the reproduction of destructive relations with the land – not just as an end in itself, but as one tactic among many in the fight against the immiseration of the earth.

In a world beyond capitalism, neither animal agriculture nor hunting are going to be viable means of survival on a wide scale. The continued breeding and rearing of animals, ethical implications aside, will be unfeasible for many communities due to the intense land and water requirements that it entails. The romantic hunter fantasy of the millenarian primitivists, more ethical on the surface, harks back to an era when the land was carpeted with verdant forests and human was at one with beast. Unfortunately, the post-industrial landscape we are going to be left with is likely to be very different to the forests and steppes we roamed prior to the growth of civilisation. What little wildlife remains will be relegated to the margins and no doubt threatened with extinction by human hunters. Although hunting skills may be useful for individuals in emergencies, it is not a collective solution and will ultimately be suicidal if we see it as such.

~Notes~

[1] Elisée Reclus, On Vegetarianism (1901) in Anarchy, Geography, Modernity: selected writings of Elisee Reclus

[2] Franz J. Broswimmer, Ecocide (2002)

See also From Animals to Anarchism by Dysophia for more on the topic and a good reading list.

Unconditional Anti-Oppression: The Rise of Anti-Speciesism in the Anarchist Movement

Shared from http://veganwarfare.com/unconditional-anti-oppression-rise-anti-speciesism-anarchist-movement/


Negotiation is over. Moving beyond liberal veganism.

About 40 years ago animal rights was a concept promoted and activated by determined individuals, passionate about expanding their sphere of compassion. Not only did many of these animal rights activists go vegan but they also took action in the streets. Big colorful signs, petition signing, banner drops, and other tactics were deployed to disrupt the normalcy of routine non-human animal exploitation. Many of these tactics served to spread awareness of slaughterhouse atrocities in hopes of generating sympathy and agricultural reform. Overtime as more and more people began to acknowledge and speak out against non-human animal exploitation, tactics, ideas, and even other movements began to evolve.

Today there is less sign holding and petition signing as these previous attempts for change have left many disappointed. As the treatment of non-human animals continued despite votes and petitions, activists went underground giving birth to many radical groups like the Animal Liberation Front, Animal Liberation Brigade, Animal Rights Militia, Revolutionary Cells, and so on. Many vegan liberals, disappointed by politicians and the state, had begun to re-examine their own political ideologies.

As tactical diversity grows beyond the state’s control with the intent of yielding self-initiated results, the animal rights movement is now commonly referred to as the “animal liberation movement”. This form of self-determination by individuals working in cells or affinity groups has become appealing for its effectiveness. Online petition signing has seen less activity as prisoner support through fund raising and letter-writing becomes more popular. Single-issue oriented activists have begun to diversify their activism in light of acknowledging the connection with social struggles, eco-defense, and decolonization. This expanding solidarity and mutual-aid has created new alliances, collective efforts, and new methods of resource sharing in many activist communities. The wave of increasingly radicalized vegans poses a threat to capitalism and the state. Today many once willing-to-negotiate activists have adopted new approaches that defy the lawfulness of peaceful protest and political reform. With an increase in property damage, liberated non-humans and appreciation for direct action, it was no surprise when the state constructed AETA (Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act ) in an effort to sway public opinion and discourage the growth of radicalized vegans.

Anti-speciesist anarchism. None are free until all are free.
Anthropocentrism and Speciesism

Anthropocentrism is the belief that humans are superior and therefore entitled to dominate other animals and the earth. This form of discrimination and privilege exists in the anarchist movement, and has played a key role in the perceiving of non-human animal and earth liberation as secondary movements. As any other supremacist ideology, anthropocentrism perpetuates discrimination, enslavement, and murder in general, and towards non-human animals in particular. It embodies an interlocking combination of oppressions which manifest in the dominating social relationship humans have towards each other, the earth and other animals. Similar to white supremacy with the discrimination of non-white people, and male supremacy with the discrimination of non-male identifying people, human supremacy refuses equal consideration and opportunity for non-human animals to pursue a life free of human control.

Like racism and sexism, speciesism is irrational discrimination towards non-human animals based on species. Anti-speciesist anarchism is an anti-authoritarian challenge to anthropocentrism. Biocentrism or Deep Ecology is the re-distribution of power and autonomy equally to all sentient beings through the destruction of human moral elitism. Humans have generally justified their exploitation of non-humans through the catagorization of “animals” as inferior therefore rightfully subjugated. Today many vegan anarchists have replaced “animals” with “non-human animals” or simply “other animals”.This serves to distinguish non-human animals from human animals, while also recognizing the shared animality of both. The word “rights” regarding non-human animals is less often used. Since “rights” in the political context imply permissions or privileges granted by the state, anti-speciesists generally feel this term is inconsistent with autonomous freedom. Anti-speciesism as a significant element and concept in the struggle for freedom is expanding as the intersectionality of all oppressions gains recognition.

Intersecting oppressions

Intersectionality is an examination of how all forms of oppression including but not limited to race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, class, species or disability do not act independently of one another but instead, are interrelated creating a system of oppression that reflects the “intersection” of multiple forms of discrimination. For example, capitalism utilizes speciesism to commodify non-human animals, reducing them to units of production and capital. The legal property status of non-human animals can be compared to that of the enslaved Africans prior to the Civil War. Reproductive control over women reflects the reproductive exploitation of non-human animals. Anti-capitalists who have acknowledged the relationship between non-human animals and capitalism have seen that such a relationship is the antithesis of freedom and must be abolished. Consuming non-human animals perpetuates the capitalist and human supremacist notion that they are sources of food rather than sentient beings deserving of their natural born right to freedom as humans expect for themselves.

Communication, language and imagery contribute to the mutual reinforcement of all oppressions. Since non-human animals are viewed as inferior, their imagery and identity is used as a derogatory way of describing disliked, oppressed or uncivilized humans. For example some of the most commonly known slurs towards women attack their physical appearance and involve non-human animals. In addition to degrading individual women these insults marginalize entire species of non-human animals as well. The hatred and speciesism towards pigs is encouraged when they are used to reference officers of colonial law. In various contexts, pigs, cows, and dogs are considered dirty, unclean, ugly, unlovable beings. These serve as stereotypes that excuse and encourage their exploitation. In the eyes of a speciesist, non-human animals serve to metaphorically reference oppressed humans. Some non-human animals are used to describe people of color (monkey, ape, coon etc) other non-humans are used in the same way for women (bitch, chick, cow etc). People of color who break laws or act out their emotions are often referred to as animals, and a women who acts out her frustration or anger is often referred to as a “bitch”. The marginalization of non-human animals  is intimately intertwined with the oppression upon them. When examined, the mechanisms of domination, violence, and control are the same.

Beyond “veganarchism”; anarchism means total liberation for all

The term “veganarchism” has played an important part in distinguishing the growing wave of anti-speciesist anarchy from traditional anarchism. But as earth and non-human animal liberation gain recognition for their place in the anarchist struggle, the continued usage of “veganarchism” becomes problematic. The term “veganarchism” preserves the same false division currently withering away. It also draws more attention towards veganism as an action without a preexisting cause. This leads to more dialogue and attention on veganism as merely dietary rather than enough dialogue on the oppression of non-veganism. Speciesism, anthropocentrism, and the authoritarianism in consuming other sentient beings for food receives less exposure to criticism than veganism. This imbalance usually results in drawn out debates about veganism being classist or racist. While it is a common mistake for speciesist anarchists to impose white imperialism upon veganism (which marginalizes vegans of color by assuming that whites are the only ones concerned with deep ecology, health, and non-human animal liberation, this mistake is almost inevitable when the scope of veganism is reduced to Western culture rather than global anti-colonialism. Anti-speciesism is increasingly viewed as consistent with anti-oppression, and biocentrism consistent with anti-authoritarianism. This combination of earth, non-human and human animal liberation presents an anarchist struggle for total liberation.

Speciesism is still widely tolerated in many anarchist communities. Despite the growing number of anarchist vegans, speciesism and anthropocentrism are still viewed as secondary problems. Some blame the language barrier between human and non-human animals for this lack of consideration. Intelligence, physical limitations and sometimes even the question of sentience all play a role in speciesist apologism. But as more anarchists acknowledge the intersectionalism and interdependence of all oppressions, veganism is viewed as the logical process of being anti-speciesist. Anarchism without anti-speciesism allows space for irrational discrimination, domination, and oppression. Furthermore, anarchism without veganism allows space for patriarchy and rape culture. The consumption of milk from cows or eggs from chickens enables the coercive and sexual exploitation of vagina-bearing individuals. Without total freedom for all, authority and oppression remain over some to benefit those in a position of power and privilege.

More anarchist collectives have extended solidarity to non-human animals through promoting veganism, opening up anti-speciesist spaces, and being vocal against non-human animal oppression. Guerrilla gardening, community gardening and polyculture are on the rise in many anti-oppression communities in an effort to combat monoculture and Genetically Modified foods which colonize other lands with industrialization and environmental destruction. Despite ever-increasing state repression, a gradual increase of property destruction attributed to non-human animal liberation continues. In online forums and in the streets, speciesism within the anarchist community is receiving more constructive criticism.  Anti-speciesism means critically examining social interactions and communication between all animals, human and non-human alike. In the process of eliminating oppressive language and practices, solidarity is extended with power, respect, and equality to all who are oppressed. Many anarchists across the globe have embraced veganism not only as a practice of healthy survival but also as an extention of solidarity beyond the speciesist limits of human struggle. Today one can see the merging of the anarchist anti-capitalist/anti-fascist struggle with the eco-defense, animal and earth liberation movements. These struggles in combination present an uncompromising war against capitalism, the state, civilization and the myriad of colonial oppression.

-Blitz Molotov XVX

FLA - Frente de Libertação Animal Brasil: Two cells A.L.F joined that afternoon of Sunday 19/10, and invaded a NURSERY of Chinchillas in ITAPECERICA DA SERRA-SP.

Two cells A.L.F joined that afternoon of Sunday 19/10, and invaded a NURSERY of Chinchillas in ITAPECERICA DA SERRA-SP.

Were rescued about 100 CHINCHILLAS, where the vast majority of them were already dying because they are suffering the consequences of the immense heat. Us activists reported the following phrase "when we opened the door we feel an unbearable heat inside the room, for chinchillas that are more sensitive the warm temperatures, was the true hell", "we knew of complaints via the internet, and we went out with our own eyes, getting there we decided that just saiíriamos from there, after shaking off all Chinchillas!".

According to reports, the site was completely sprayed with messages of animal liberation and animal Liberation Front (ALF) symbols.

All chinchillas possessed a kind of hoop around the neck, SINKER so that ACE hanged much!!!

The rescued animals have received all the care needed, pass well, and were taken by TWO CELLS A.L.F in safety, under the responsibility of their own activists.

GO ANIMAL LIBERATION FRONT ON ANIMAL LIBERATION FRONT LIVE! A.L.F!!

Source: Eco-Resistance (Translated by Bing)

Vegan Anarchy Around The Globe: An interview with the Assembly for Antispeciesist Action in Athens, by comrades in Spain (Fiera)

This interview was not given by us at The Feral Space but was done by some comrades in Spain and published in 2nd volume of the anarchist animal liberation zine “Fiera”. We find great affinity with these comrades as we do with all comrades fighting oppression including the struggle against speciesism.

Assembly for the Antispeciesist Action,  May 2013

In which context did the Assembly for the Antispeciesist Action in Athens arise? Which are your goals and what are the difficulties you are facing in realizing these goals?

The Assembly for the Antispeciesist Action was formed in 2010 on an individual initiative. We are an anarchist collective whose goal is to spread the word on total liberation. We feel it is important to note that by using the term “total liberation” we do not only refer to the struggle against any form of domination upon humans. We do not recognize any form of human superiority against other species and therefore the struggle for animal self-determination is an integral part of our political identity, as well as the struggle against nature’s exploitation. Our enemy is not only the core of the state mechanism but also the whole technological-industrial complex that considers human, animals and nature to be nothing more than raw material and production resources.


If we could summarize the main obstacles for our struggle, these would be: state repression either generalized or targeted. The deep roots –religious or otherwise- of meat-eating in Greek society’s culture. The indifference and apathy on behalf of the biggest part of anarchists in Greece when it comes to animal-related issues. Furthermore, these last years in the name of overcoming the economic crisis there is a systematic effort by the state to reinforce the primary production, providing all kinds of motives and financial support to individuals and enterprises that aim to profit through animal exploitation and the destruction of nature (such as the fur industry, meat and milk industry, mining etc.).

On which topics are you working now? Actually, are you involved in any campaign right now?

We are active throughout the whole spectrum of the struggle against human/animal/nature exploitation. In the past we have initiated protests against the fur industry, animal experimentation, pet-shops etc.
Currently we are making some efforts to establish a more systematic communication with ALF/ELF political prisoners around the world.

In Spain we get a few news about the struggle for animal liberation in Greece. We remember some actions like the liberations of thousands of minks in the middle of 2008 or the liberation of some rats from a university laboratory. The feeling we had here is that growth of the struggle for animal liberation is linked with the anarchist/antiauthoritarian movement but, which is the path that the struggle has followed there?

In Greece, whatever analysis exists concerning total liberation comes exclusively from anarchists or anarchist collectives. There is no other organized effort. Of course, there are some initiatives from individuals or associations but in most -if not all- cases they fail to address these issues in their totality and they act in cooperation with the state mechanisms.

How does the antispeciesist and animal liberation struggle fit into the rest of the antiauthoritarian struggles? Is this connection smooth or has it been the target of reticence and criticism from anarchists/anti-authoritarians?

At first, we should note that veganism among Greek anarchists is neither self-evident nor widespread, in contrast with what happens in many other countries. As a result veganism is being criticized very often. As an indication of that, in many anarchist squats you may see people eating meat on the occasion of religious events (e.g. roasting lambs on Easter Sunday or making barbeques on Tsiknopempti – that is the last Thursday before Easter fasting).

Moreover almost all of the collective kitchens contain meat. Anarchists in Greece consider meat consumption as “normal”. Animal Liberation issues most of the times are considered as a joke or at best as something of secondary importance. Something that will be addressed in a post-revolutionary world (sometimes, the same stance may someone see on other similar matters such as sexism). That is why we are not surprised to see so few people coming to the protests that we initiate (e.g. against fur).

In Europe and around the world there are a lot of campaigns (SHAC, KLM-Air France etc.) and projects like IARG (International Animal Rights Gathering). Have you heard of them? In that case, which is your assessment of these strategies and projects?

All actions both “aboveground” and “underground” are positive. However our struggle aims to destroy all forms of domination and cannot be contained by or fall within other types of struggle that call for reforms instead of fighting against the state.

As far as the IARG is concerned we think that meeting other people with similar beliefs, communicating and discussing with them is very useful.

Some of the reports and news that were translated into Spanish were from demonstrations made in Athens and ended with clashes with the police, with high combativity from your side. This is not really common in these kind of demos and sometimes it is being criticized by people from the animal rights and animal liberation surroundings. Do you think that this police brutality aims to silence another front of the struggle that is growing and getting stronger? Or do you think that it is simply a consequence of the repressive moment that Greece is going through these days, and especially against anarchists?

Both are valid. Of course this growing repression is part of a generalized effort to mute every single form of reaction (squat evictions, muting of counter-information networks, special forces inside prisons, prisoners’ hunger strikes etc.). However, as far as our demonstrations are concerned, we also had similar incidents of police brutality in the past despite the fact that the consequences of the economic crisis where not that obvious back then.

Is it possible to remain vegan in Greek prisons?

Generally, vegan diet is not facilitated in Greek prisons. This can only be possible if a prisoner has people on the outside to provide support on this issue by sending in vegan food.

What do you think about the continuous attempts to integrate the term “animal rights” into the animal liberation struggle?

For us the struggle for animal liberation is an integral part of the anarchist struggle. Therefore we reject both the content and the use of the term “animal rights” and the general notion of “rights” itself. It is clear that a legal right could not exist without the state. Legal rights exist only because there is a mechanism that creates them -a mechanism that has always been a part of the hard core of the state- and which distributes them. Legal rights come with obligations and with a bunch of “protective” mechanisms: cops, prosecutors and the whole judicial system. Accepting a legal right means recognition of the authority that puts limits on our life. We fight for freedom, not just parts of it.

As far as the non-human animals are concerned, it is obvious that the whole “animal rights” issue embodies strong anthropocentric elements. Among others it confirms some kind of superiority for human species over the others. Of course, given the extent of violence and exploitation that non-human animals suffer, some “victories” in the legal field are welcomed, but they still remain fragmented. And they are always limited within national borders. A struggle which does not go beyond that, a struggle which does not reject anthropocentrism, a struggle which does not attack the same existence of the dominant structures contains a serious danger: it becomes a struggle for the embellishment of a situation where humans, non-humans and nature are being treated as disposable industrial feedstock and as commodities. Asking for “rights” is not a struggle – it is negotiation and capitulation in a fight that has already been lost.

To finalize this interview, the animal liberation movement takes an increasingly activist and “professional” nature. Associations and hierarchical organizations that work on similar patterns like NGOs are deepening, neglecting the self-organization, combativity, horizontality… Does this happen in Greece? Do you think we can trust and rely on such schemes?

As anarchists fighting for total liberation we reject all kinds of struggle that might embody any type of hierarchical elements. In Greece we do have similar cases, the overwhelming majority of which tend to cooperate fully with the state mechanisms. We are clearly negative towards any such cooperation.
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