Silver Spring Monkeys

Black Beast / Turning Point

Black Beast 1-3 / Turning Point 5-8 (1985-1987. Oxford, UK)

The Complete No Compromise

No Compromise 1-30. Includes Strategic Non-Violence for Animal Liberation insert included with issue #8 as separate publication. (1996-2006, Sacramento, CA / Minneapolis, MN / Caldwell, NJ / Old Bridge, NJ / Santa Cruz, CA / San Francisco, CA)

Text postNo Compromise, which billed itself as “The militant, direct action newsmagazine of grassroots animal liberationists and their supporters,” was the most important animal rights publication of the 1990s. Despite its many problems, frequent delays, and constant changes in editorial staff, the magazine energized the movement in a way that is difficult to explain to a generation that never witnessed pre-internet activism.

In the mid 90s there were a few, isolated groups around the country who were participating in civil disobedience actions and staging loud protests against local labs and fur stores. These groups were largely unaware of each others’ existence and without a gathering like Earth First!’s Round River Rendezvous, unable to share tactical advice or co-ordinate targets.

In 1996 there was a national meeting of animal rights activists in Washington DC dubbed World Animal Awareness Week and March for the Animals. The event was considered a failure as only 3,000 of the estimated 100,000 participants materialized. But staff from No Compromise were present passing out the first issue and asking grassroots organizations for their contact information. Suddenly groups like the Animal Rights Direct Actions Coalition were meeting with the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, the Animal Defense Leagues, and the Student Organization for Animal Rights.

As the grassroots grew increasingly aware of the efforts of other organizations, regional demonstrations began being planned. The first such demonstration after the March for Animals took place at the Seattle Fur Exchange, where activists used bike locks to attach themselves to each other and block the drive way of the fur auction. All of the action got reported on in No Compromise, and suddenly bike locks gave way to lock boxes, which gave way to super boxes and barrels and tripods as civil disobedience tactics spread across the country wherever the magazine was distributed. There was an explosion not just in voluntary arrest scenarios, but also in underground direct action. The print runs of No Compromise kept climbing and it became the must read publication for animal rights militants.

The tone of the magazine at its start was hopeful, and each issue was packed with increasingly daring protests and direct actions. As the movement struggled to find focus and dealt with the departure of founder Freeman Wicklund, the the mood shifts to frustration and confusion, only to be plucked back into hopeful territory with the rise of SHAC.

After 30 issues, the steering committee of No Compromise decided to stop publishing in 2006. Their decision could not have come at a worse time. With the SHAC website and newsletter killed by the convictions of the SHAC 7, Bite Back being published only sporadically and with a limited focus, and the Earth First! Journal mired in infighting, the sudden absence of No Compromise meant that the primary sources for radical animal liberation news, opinion, and strategy were the twin sewers of online social networks and the North American Animal Liberation Press Office. These were dark times for our movement, and we are only just beginning to recover.

Targeted

In: Books

Targeted (1992, University of Oklahoma Press)

“This planning is done in a very professional manner because the perpetrators are highly skilled in terrorism.” (52)

Published 11 years after the Silver Spring Monkeys investigation, in the same year as the Animal Enterprise Protection Act and 14 years before the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, Targeted, was intended as a vivisectors manual for managing animal rights philosophy.   

Lengthy and replete with victimization, which includes comparing vivisectors to Jews in Nazi Germany, the book is a vital resource for two reasons; it signals the beginning of a new industry, the animal enterprise security industry, and also provides a starting point in charting the rhetoric of “terrorism” to explain animal rights activism.

The animal enterprise security industry, and it’s growth, comes as a fairly predictable response to campaigns, investigations, releases and sabotage. The industry has raised security costs for animal enterprise, however, fails to provide much in the way of relevance. Current publications, like Extremist Watch in the United States, do little more than assauge the conscience of the industry and Targeted can be read in this vein. As a psychological study, the book is written more as a rationalization of vivisection, and the victimization of vivisectors themselves, than a real manual. Unsurprisingly, vivisectors could learn more from content on this site than they ever would within industry manuals, and even still, that knowledge would not be sufficient to prepare them. In terms of efficiency, one has to question if these manuals and the security industry has the desired effect.  

The most troubling message to chart in the book is the framing of animal rights activists as “terrorists.” Written in the same year as the Animal Enterprise Protection Act was passed, the manual would be foreshadowing that the industry was not about to stop short of this language. It is frustrating to see the amount of organization and lobbying that has happened since the book was published, as the authors main strategic point is that the industry itself must be united and it must develop it’s political network and backing. That strategic line can be traced back to publications like this and explains the current situation wherein the vivisection industry is allowing small public relations reform that drains animal advocacy resources (releasing animals for adoption instead of euthanizing them, usually done within a time frame and without aid from the institution) alongside education campaigns (namely billboards) while solidifying their political power by uniting with other animal enterprise industries with designer bills like AETA, AG Gag Bills, etc.

This manual is a must read for those interested in charting the vital work of people like Will Potter, who, with his book Green is the New Red, has chronicled industry response and Government repression. Also, for those interested in the psychology of vivisectors and the vivisection industry, in between the lines this manual reads like a diary and is full of useful information.