#title Veganarchy #subtitle Anti-Speciest Warfare & Direct Action #author the veganarchist underground #LISTtitle Veganarchy Anti-Speciest Warfare and Direct Action #SORTauthors Steven Best #SORTtopics animal liberation, animal rights, animals, anti-speciesism, animal rights militia, direct action, veganism, violence #date 2014 #source Retrieved January 2020 from [[https://animalliberationpressoffice.org/publications%20online/VEGANARCHY-Anti-Speciesist-Warfare-and-Direct-Action.pdf][animalliberationpressoffice.org]] #lang en #pubdate 2020-04-10T09:07:32 “Labs raided, locks glued, products spiked, depots ransacked, windows smashed, construction halted, mink set free, fences torn down, cabs burnt out, offices in flames, car tires slashed, cages emptied, phone lines severed, slogans daubed, muck spread, damage done, electrics cut, sites flooded, hunt dogs stolen, fur coats slashed, buildings destroyed, foxes freed, kennels attacked, businesses burgled, uproar, anger, outrage, balaclava clad thugs. It’s an ALF thing!” ― Keith Mann ---- Dedicated to the hearts that dance upon ashes of apathy to a battle tune of total liberation. ---- “The first action became known on November 30 1982 when five letter bombs were sent to Margaret Thatcher, then British Prime Minister, the Home Office minister responsible for animal legislation, as well as the leaders of Britain’s three main opposition parties, signed by the Animal Rights Militia. The office manager to Thatcher suffered superficial burns on his hands and face when opening the package that burst into flames. It was later reported that the 8-by-4 inch package filled with gunpowder that exploded evaded Post Office scanners, causing a tightening in mail security at 10 Downing Street. Scotland Yard led the investigation stating, “We are now connecting all five letter-bombs with the same organization.” The non-human animal liberation movement challenges the anthropocentric, speciesist, and humanist dogmas that are deeply entrenched in anarchist thinking and traditions. Since the fates of all species on this planet are intricately interrelated, the one-sided exploitation of non-human animals cannot but have a major impact on human animal life as well. When human animals exterminate non- human animals, they devastate habitats and ecosystems necessary for their own lives. When they mass-produce and butcher farmed non-human animals by the billions, they ravage rainforests, turn grasslands into deserts, exacerbate global warming, and spew toxic wastes into the environment. When they construct a global system of factory farming that requires prodigious amounts of land, water, energy, and crops, they squander vital resources and aggravate the problem of world hunger. When humans are violent toward non-human animals, they often are violent toward one another, a tragic truism validated time and time again by serial killers who grow up abusing non-human animals and violent men who beat the women, children, and “companion” animals of their home. The connections go far deeper, as the domestication of animals at the dawn of agricultural society is central to the emergence of patriarchy, state power, slavery, and hierarchy and domination of all kinds. In countless ways, the one-sided exploitation of non-human animals rebounds to create crises within the human animal world itself. The vicious circle of violence and destruction can end only if and when the human species learns to form harmonious relations – non-hierarchical and non- oppressive — with other animal species and the natural world. On its own, however, the non-human animal liberation movement cannot possibly bring about the end of animal exploitation. It can only do this in alliance withradical social causes, anti-capitalist struggles, and radical environmental movements. In addition to gaining new insights into the dynamics of hierarchy, domination, and environmental destruction from non-human animal rights perspectives, Leftists should grasp the gross inconsistency of advocating values such as peace, non-violence, compassion, justice, and equality while exploiting non-human animals in their everyday lives, promoting speciesist ideologies, and ignoring the ongoing holocaust against other species that gravely threatens the entire planet. Conversely, the non-human animal advocacy movement in part is politically naive, single-issue oriented, and devoid of a systemic anti-capitalist theory and politics necessary for the true illumination and elimination of non-human animal exploitation, areas where it can profit greatly from discussions with the Left and progressive social movements. Further, environmentalists can never achieve their goals without addressing the main cause of global warming – factory farming – and grasping how water pollution, rainforest destruction, desertification, resource depletion and other key problems are shaped principally or significantly from global meat production and animal exploitation. We assert the need for more expansive visions and politics on all sides of the human/non-human animal/Earth liberation equation, and we call for new forms of dialogue, learning, and strategic alliances. Human, non- human animal, and Earth liberation are interrelated projects that must be fought for as one, as we recognize that veganism is central to peace, ecology, sustainability, nonviolence, and the healing of the major crises afflicting this planet. Thus, we must replace partial concepts of revolutionary change, such as involved the liberation of humans, non-human animals, or the Earth, in favor of a far broader, deeper, more complex, and more inclusive concept of “total revolution.” We must replace the critique of any one system of domination with a critique of hierarchy as a systemic phenomenon, as we recognize that capitalism is a metastasizing cancer eating away at the planet and that a viable program for total liberation necessarily seeks to abolish global capitalism and dismantle hierarchy in all forms. ---- **On 30 August 2007, ARM claimed to have deliberately contaminated 250 tubes of Novartine’s widely-used antiseptic Savlon in shops including Superdrug, Tesco and Boots the Chemist who all withdrew sales of the cream. The cell claimed in a communique to Bite Back:** “We don’t want to kill living beings like Novartis but the side effects and the inevitable hospital stay will give people an idea of what Novartis pays for inside Huntingdon Life Sciences. The message is clear and uncompromising Vasella, you must stop killing animals inside Huntingdon Life Sciences or this will only be the beginning of our campaign.” *** No cages. No compromise. To some, veganism is more than just a dietary lifestyle that rejects food and products derived from the enslaved, tortured, and exploited lives of sentient non-human animals. To some, veganism is an avenue of resistance that wages war on capitalism and the state in pursuit of self-sustainability, non- hierarchical relationships, and total human/non-human animal liberation. The assurance of total non-human animal liberation rests upon the complete destruction of speciesism, capitalism, and civilization. As any other movement advocating liberation, veganism requires outreach, awareness, and direct action. As any other form of oppression, speciesism must be brought to attention and addressed with direct confrontation. With over a million lives being taken a day in the name of capitalism, diet, and commodity, speciesism is the silent epidemic of normalized discrimination. Smashing speciesism means extending respect to those whos value of life have been reduced to fast food products and seasoned flesh. To some, veganism is emancipation from the unhealthy, destructive, and anthropocentric traditional role of consuming and oppressing non-human animals. To make compromise for convenience, taste or tradition is to side with oppression. To oppose racism, sexism, and other forms of irrational discrimination while promoting speciesism is to undermine the struggle against hierarchical power and privilege. In pursuit of destroying oppression, all sentient beings, human and nonhuman, must be liberated in the war against domination. ----- **Following the announcement in August 2005 that the Hall family were no longer breeding guinea pigs for medical research, the ARM (Animal Rights Militia) sent letters to the homes of 17 company directors associated with HLS (Huntingdon Life Sciences). Most of the companies targeted were building contractors based in Peterborough, Huntingdon, and Harrogate. A letter from the ARM activists said:** “The company you work for is working with Huntingdon Life Sciences. This is a disgusting and cowardly act. You have a choice. You can walk away from those sick monsters or you can personally face the consequences of your decision. Not only you but your family is a target. Sever your links with HLS within two weeks or get ready for your life and the lives of those you love to become a living hell.” **Two weeks after the letters were sent in late September, nine companies, more than half, severed their ties with HLS.** ---- **** Myth 1. “Veganism is a consumer activity. It is ultimately an attempt to change capitalism and human civilization through the exercise of one’s privileges as a consumer.” This statement disregards the privilege of being a human consumer in a speciesist food market that oppresses non-human animals. While liberal vegans pursue a philosophy seeking to “green” capitalism, radical veganism is inherently anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, acknowledging that intersectionality is fundamental to human, non-human animal, and earth liberation. The abolition of capitalism necessitates the destruction of power structures entrenched in human thinking-including the idea that the lives of non-humans are less worthy of freedom than the lives of humans. Consuming non-human animals is a human privilege derived from non- human animal subjugation. Since the right to freedom for non-human animals ceases to be recognized in species discrimination, the human animal maintains an elevated position of power and privilege over non- humans. **** Myth 2. “Vegan ethics are explicitly non-violent, and don’t allow others to achieve liberation in whatever way they see fit.” This belief stems in part from a moralist position in which non-violence is glorified as the only means of revolution-a peaceful revolution. This belief dismisses the self-defence necessary in combating preexisting structures of violent oppression. Veganism is not only an extension of compassion and respect to non-human animals but to all animal species and the fight for liberation. Therefore, radical vegans deploy tactically diverse direct actions against speciesism and all forms of oppression by any means necessary. Solidarity means ATTACK! **** Myth 3.“Veganism is a privileged lifestyle only made possible through industrialization and access to larger amounts of capital than that required to feed an omnivore.” Many people hold this belief because vegan fake meats and cheeses tend to be more expensive than the “real thing”, and stores that stock these products also tend to be more expensive than regular grocery stores that don’t. But these fake meats and processed foods are not central to a vegan diet nor promoted as permanent dietary alternatives. From an anti-capitalist perspective, meat and dairy alternatives are manufactured by nearly the same environmentally destructive, human labour exploited industries as meat and dairy industries. If one cuts out meat and dairy from their diet and replaces it with fruit, veggies, and grains, that new diet will be cheaper than the regular omnivore diet because fruits and vegetables are cheaper than meat and dairy and can be home-grown collectively in a community or independently. There are many options for people who don’t have money for grocery shopping including dumpster diving, guerrilla gardening or seed bombing vacant lots or unused strips of land. Community gardens promote community collectivism and sustainability. Whether it be a field in a park, a forest preserve, or an abandoned patch of land, there are many places to grow plants and put polyculture into practice. Even smaller plants like strawberry or tomato plants can be grown in pots. **** Myth 4. “The human animal body requires “meat” and “dairy” to survive.” One of the main causes for this common misunderstanding is the idea that milk is the only source of calcium and B12 is derived solely from meat. The required nutrition for a human animal to survive is derived from plants. Since non-humans raised as cattle are fed a plant based diet, these vitamins happen to be present in their meat and dairy. The fact is our required nutrition can be consumed from plants directly without the health problems associated with meat and dairy consumption. The digestive structure of carnivores and omnivores greatly differs from the digestive structure of herbivores. An omnivore has a much higher stomach acid pH level than a herbivore. Meat cannot be properly broken down in the stomach and intestines of a human so a large portion of it is collected in the folds of the colon where it decomposes. A dietary combination of meat and dairy leads to short and long term health problems like osteoporosis, high cholesterol, lung, colon, prostate, and pre-menopausal breast cancer. All of these diet-related diseases are conveniently treated with synthetic chemical drugs and financially fill the pockets of big pharmaceutical corporations. Omnivores have the teeth, claws, and other physical capabilities to catch other animals, tear off big chunks, and eat the meat raw. A human with flattened nails and blunted teeth can not catch a non- human animal and eat it raw. Humans have to cook meat to avoid getting sick which destroys much of the nutrients and proteins while also producing carcinogen compounds such as heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The healthiest foods are the ones that benefit the human body the most. Nuts, fresh fruits, raw/cooked vegetables, grains and other organic foods that are part of a decolonized diet. **** Myth 5. “If only corporations could see the horrors of animal cruelty, more of them will stop using animals as products.” Corporations that sell meat and dairy are not oblivious to the horrors of non-human animal cruelty. Their lack of compassion is an integral part of being a single-sided exploitative institution in a capitalist market of competition. The time and energy spent campaigning and petitioning in an attempt to reform institutions founded upon this exploitation and hierarchy deprives communities of the direct action necessary in pursuing autonomous, self-sustainable alternatives to capitalism and hierarchy. Petitioning in hopes of reforming or “greening” these corporations onlyperpetuates the idea that corporations are more important than a community of self-determined individuals. Veganism is more than just a boycott. It is the demonstration of self-sustainability while respecting the lives of others. **** Myth 6. “ Labels like “Cage Free”, “Free-Range” etc are examples of success” Whenever the value of success is placed on reforms rather than radical changes, the delusion of progress is reinforced. The fact is that non-human animals are still being mass-produced into slavery, exploited, tortured, and murdered. Speciesism must be fought at the root-the root being the speciesist view that non-human animals are products for human use rather than sentient beings with interests of their own. The problem is not that non- human animals are inhumanely oppressed, but rather the oppression of non- human animals existing at all. *** Liberation through Destruction Behind computer screens, hybrid cars, iPhones, GPS systems and plasma television screens grows an epidemic. An epidemic in the construction of another “Whole Foods” market built on top of another poor community. Behind every window of a “pet” store and encompassing every brand name “pet” food. An epidemic that saturates department stores, gives light to newly erected banks, and blooms within the settling dust of deforestation. Domestication: cultivating domination, industrializing the natural world, and re-defining reality. Where industries and technological advancements colonize the earth, oppression pollutes the future. As materialism manufactures artificial happiness, financial comfort nurtures submission. Total liberation will not be achieved with veganism alone but coupled with an uncompromising determination for freedom through the complete destruction of civilization. Liberation by individual will and inevitable desire to destroy every systematic, indoctrinated, and developed instrument of oppression. A fight that begins at birth in the bright fluorescent lights of medical facilities. Liberation will bloom in the re-wilding of the civilized and domesticated. In solidarity with all who are oppressed, the struggle is intersectional and interconnected as we fight to liberate the Earth. For total nonhuman, human animal, and Earth liberation...... by any means necessary. ----- “For us, destructive rebellion against this shit society is the only thing that holds any promise of liberation. We do not want bigger cages. We want to destroy all of them entirely.”