Dressed in Black 1-3 (1994-1995. Syracuse, NY. USA)
Dressed in Black was more heavily distributed than other animal lib zines of its era due to the fact that Syracuse band Earth Crisis allowed members of the Syracuse ADL to leaflet their shows in the city, and took copies on tour with them in the mid-90s. Sadly, this zine died before reaching maturity, but the complete collection lives on in our archive.
Out of the Cages 6-9 (1993-1994. Santa Cruz, CA. USA)
Although issues 1-5 of Out Of The Cages are said to be mostly local organizing bulletins we would still love to complete our set. If you have them- or other publications of note- please contact us!
A.L.F. Action Reports 1-11 (1983-1984. London, England)
This made it very difficult for interested parties to keep abreast of the multiple actions happening in England every single night. In response the ALF’s press office began to distribute Action Reports, a typewritten diary of every known direct action for non-humans for the month it was produced. In some cases full statements from participants in the underground would be published, other times reports were compiled from mainstream news articles.
The idea of Action Reports soon spread to Australia, the United States, and elsewhere. Eventually these reports evolved into the “Diary of Actions” that became common in radical AR publications such as No Compromise.
We are uncertain if this is the complete set of action reports. If you have information- or other publications of note- please contact us!
ALFSG – Diary Of Actions 1-3 (1986-1987. London, England)
Animal Info 1-8 (1995-1996. Christchurch, New Zealand)
Still, Animal Info is an example of committed (but imperfect) activists organizing on a grassroots level and agitating against speciesism. Its international news coverage was impressive given the limited number of pages, and nicely bridges the U.S. coverage lapse between the time Open the Cages stopped publication and No Compromise began.
The Hillgrove Campaign 1-9, 11-14 (1997-1999. Oxford, England)
The momentum of Consort spilled over into the next breeder campaign- a cat farm owned by the infamous Christopher Brown. The protests which occurred against his establishment were epic, and involved everything from encampments on the surrounding property to the cattery areas being raided. Legend has it that so many rocks were thrown at his house that the roof collapsed from the weight. The British government and local police had vowed to keep the Brown’s in the cat killing business, but the tenacity of campaigners proved to be too powerful. Hillgrove closed, and this publication was how the campaign celebrated and told people to be on the lookout for their next target. Within months of the publication of this final dispatch that target was made public: Huntingdon Life Sciences.
While this makes for invigorating reading, there are also disappointing, even racist moments in the newsletters. One example is Dr. Vernon Cole comparing being stopped by police during a lecture to the harassment and brutality faced by black youth in Britain- a false equivelancy that misses the mark by an offensive distance.
We are still seeking issue 10 of The Hillgrove Campaign. If you have it- or other publications of note- please contact us!
Resistance Volume 1 1-4, Volume 2 1 (1999-2001. Portland, OR. USA)
Craig eventually became known internationally for his support of political violence and ecotage, but for a few years he was an advocate of Gandhian nonviolence. After participating in several voluntary arrest actions he co-founded the group Liberation Collective in 1996 as a blanket organization meant to tackle a wide variety of social ills. The group planned a number of media spectacles across the United States, from Buy Nothing Day car smash-em-ups in busy downtown streets to the cross country Primate Freedom Tour. (The PFT was credited in large part to a group called Coalition to End Primate Experiments, but the greater part of the organizing was done by LibCo members.)
After the failure of attempts such as One Struggle to document a broad movement for ecological sanity and justice for all life, Liberation Collective took up the torch and released the first issue of Resistance. The inaugural issue was unlike any other in the series though. The main forces behind the publication, Craig and Leslie James Pickering, had politics that were no longer meshing well with the rest of the group. Liberation Collective was falling apart due to a number of factors, and ultimately LJ and Craig struck out on their own, founding the North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office and continuing the Resistance project as a newsletter of their new organization.
The third issue of Resistance launched what was to become the best source of information for a rapidly expanding underground movement. The Earth Liberation Front was becoming active across the United States, but supportive coverage could be difficult to find. Even the Earth First! Journal wasn’t always willing to support the large scale arson attacks of the ELF, and when they did they lost membership. (Famously, Julia Butterfly left Earth First! after the Journal gave positive coverage to the Vail arson.) Resistance, however, published nearly every ELF communique unedited, and covered the multiple federal investigations into the groups actions. Activists seeking a better knowledge of the events leading to the green scare and “Operation Backfire” arrests would do well to start by reading the early volumes of Resistance.
The SG Volume 2, 1 (1987. London, England)
Sadly, this didn’t save the SG’s volunteers from further political prosecutions. During this time British security services estimated that up to four hundred direct actions were happening every day in the United Kingdom, with more financial damage being incurred by animal abusers than the British government faced at the hands of the IRA in Northern Ireland. The state was not willing to risk these actions spreading no matter how legal the efforts of those publicising them. So, after a single, wonderful issue, the SG newsletter was once again put out of business. At least they went down fighting! This newsletter features inspiring reports, hilariously snarky editorials, and some of our favorite images from the frontlines of the fight against speciesism. After the original Animal Liberation Front Supporters Group newsletter was repressed out of existence, an attempt was made at a second volume that could survive government harassment. Steps were taken to clear each article with attorneys and the majority of the content was reposted from mainstream news articles. Calls to action were kept out of editorials written by the SG (Although they still appeared in the many first hand accounts and communications sent from those underground) and, in general, the tone was far less militant than the final issues of Volume 1.
CLOSE HLS newsletters (2006-2007. Location unknown)
We are still seeking additional issues of Close HLS. If you have them- or other publications of note- please contact us!
Support Animal Rights Prisoners newsletter #1-5 (1991 – Northampton, England)
Barry was one of the most dedicated activists our struggle has ever known, but it would be a disservice to him to strip him of his humanity by pretending that he was without error. There are some poorly examined ideas in the pages of SARP that deserve measured critique, but for every weakness there are also beautiful moments that give voice to our imprisoned comrades, remember our dead, and call for nothing less than a revolution to liberate non-humans. Barry wrote with an intensity and single minded dedication that reminds us of just how precious each second spent fighting is, and how we must stop wasting those ticks of the clock. To Barry, life, and even death, should be utilized battling the scourge of speciesism. These newsletters are Barry’s voice ringing out from decades past, telling us to ACT NOW in solidarity with the animal nations.
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