1980s (Page 5)

The Liberator

The Liberator (1988, San Bernadino, CA. USA.)

In the 1970s, a small group of activists in England decided that animal abuse was so intrinsic to their society, and so protected by the courts and law enforcement, that anonymous, illegal activity was the only surefire way to directly prevent the horrors taking place in slaughterhouses, labs, and killing fields. They began to take the personal initiative to raid and sabotage places where the victimization of animals occurred, but how could they spread their message and tactics? With mainstream media treating them either as misguided nutcases or vicious criminals, and with national animal organizations disavowing their actions, they needed a mechanism to defend their tactics and share their views. The answer was the Animal Liberation Supporters Group, more commonly known as “The SG.” The SG soon took on the responsibility of printing newsletters, conducting press interviews, and raising funds and support for imprisoned activists. Soon, other supporters groups blossomed internationally, and eventually one took off in a small town in Southern California.

The Liberator was a publication of the Animal Liberation Front Support Group of America, an organization with a storied history that included FBI harassment, raids, and internal conflict. This inaugural issue was largely produced by Rod Coronado and Todd Meszaros, and the aesthetics of the issue reflect a bit of the punk influence that the two of them embraced. The design is busy, but also packed with information, press clipping, letters, debates, a timeline of US actions, and historically important letters from figures such as ALF co-founder Ronnie Lee. The centerfold is gorgeous, and it, and many of the other images contained inside were heavily borrowed and reprinted by other magazines.

The mission of the ALF SG of America was to vocally support and defend the ALF, to unify supporters of underground animal activism, to educate the public as to need and rationale of direct action, to encourage implementation of clandestine tactics, to provide a legal defense fund for imprisoned or arrested ALF activists, and to raise funds for all of the above. They did this at a time when dozens of labs across the country were being raided, thousands of people were protesting for animal rights, and the US seemed to be on the cusp of a mass movement for non-humans. The Liberator documented these efforts and is a classic piece of animal liberation history.

Declaration of War

In: Books

Declaration of War: Killing People to Save Animals and the Environment. (1991, Sacramento, CA, USA.)

We’d like to state right from the beginning of this post: this book is poorly written and argued and we do not agree with its primary premise. Throughout the book, it is claimed that the majority of humans will never voluntarily embrace animal liberation, and thus terrorism utilized by a vegan minority will scare the masses into not enslaving other creatures. This belief is farcical on its face and abandons billions of animals to desperate lives of confinement, abuse and slaughter. No militant movement without a large base of support has ever succeeded in overthrowing the dominant order of society. A movement made up of the “liberators” mentioned in this book would be quickly suppressed and the following repression would hinder, maybe permanently, other hopeful forms of saving animals.

However, when Declaration was initially published in the 1990s, it caused quite a stir in a movement that was already tripping over itself to prove how moderate it could be after the radicalism of the eighties. Advertisements for the book were pulled from publications like Animals Voice, and terse editorials were directed at the publishers. Many campaigners at the time rejected the message, but seemed to delight in how it upset the struggle’s status quo.

For some reason, this book has survived with a large cult following on the internet despite never having been taken seriously by even the most radicalized liberationists. Perhaps its appeal lays in its ability to give voice to a fantasy of retribution. Many of us have raged at the harm done to non-humans by our species and dreamed, however briefly, of harming those responsible. The vicarious release given to people by reading this book may then be its only redeeming quality.

Spectacular Times #10: Animals

In: Periodicals

Spectacular Times #10: Animals (1980? UK.)

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Larry Law authored a series of booklets analyzing various issues from a situationist perspective. Consisting of statements by Law, cut and paste articles taken from newspapers at the time, and a little bit of humor, the Animals issue of Spectacular Times reminds of us the deep connections between animal liberation and situationist thought. (Ronnie Lee says that the founding of the ALF was influenced by his appreciation for the Angry Brigade, a British armed revolutionary group whose politics some, Lee included, mark as situationist.)

One article inside concerns the ambivalence and even animosity directed at the animal rights movement from the British left. “Despite all this activity the animal liberation groups are largely ignored by other political groups. Perhaps the politicos are ashamed. In the past five years the animal liberation activists have undertaken more direct action and caused more physical and financial damage to their enemies than the entire British revolutionary left put together. (Including those groups who claim to hold ‘direct action’ as a basic tenet of their philosophy.)” The booklet continues in much the same vain and makes for a great, albeit short read.

AMA Animal Research Action Plan

In: From the antis

AMA Animal Research Action Plan (1989, leaked document, Chicago, IL. USA)

Long before the rise of whistle-blowing superstar WikiLeaks, the animal rights movement had been obtaining documents that our opposition never intended for us to see. One significant example of this was when the North American ALF Supporters Group obtained the American Medical Association’s plan to counter the animal rights movement in the United States. This plot, which became popularly known in the movement as the “AMA White Paper,” was quickly disseminated to the movement through old fashioned postal mail and excerpts in sympathetic periodicals.

The plan itself was pretty basic and involved elements still in use by corporate PR and security firms to this day. Essentially, a wedge was to be driven between the militant aspects of the movement and the national organizations, the public was to be told that animal rights activists are anti-science and stood in the way of “choices” which the average person may wish to make, and that congress should be heavily lobbied to increase penalties for people breaking the law to save animals. These tactics are still used against the movement today, and this publication remains a vital read for those fighting animal slavery.

Against All Odds

In: Books

Originally published in England as a book 25 years ago, Against All Odds was regularly distributed in North America as a low cost zine. It remains one of the best publications documenting the rise of the Animal Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Leagues in England.

In many ways, the 1980s was the high water mark of the Animal Liberation movement. In 1984, thousands of people in England participated in direct action against vivisection, staging large scale raids against six labs. Multitudes of people would overwhelm security in broad daylight and remove the oppressed creatures inside, often causing minor damage along the way and taking out valuable footage which was used to grow the movement. Many dozens of arrests followed these raids, but it is arguable that police response was not the cause of death of this mass militant movement taking shape in the UK.

Around this same time we saw the emergence of groups such as the Hunt Retribution Squad and Animal Rights Militia. Rather than rejecting the idea that animal rights activists were fanatics, HRS and ARM embraced that term and reveled in the negative imagery presented by the media. The Hunt Retribution Squad went so far as to release images of masked activists wielding clubs, chainsaws, and even pavement cutters. The front pages of newspapers widely reported on threats made by HRS to harm hunters if they attacked human opponents of hunting. In the end these counter-assaults never took place, but the damage was done. This type of macho posturing was repellent to many in the movement, and it provided great fodder for the police, courts, and conservative PR teams to use in the war against direct action. Certainly, the few acts of violence taken by the Animal Rights Militia could not outweigh the value of the mass raids and rising public consciousness taking place at the time, and contributed to the recession of a growing struggle for non-human emancipation.

Written in accessible language and unafraid of nuance, its tactical analysis and historical documentation remain valuable to this day. Against All Odds is essential reading for the modern animal liberationist.