Animal Liberation

The sociology of work too frequently ignores Nonhuman Animals as producers, consumers, workers, coworkers, and commodities. Especially in the capitalist system, speciesism is fundamental to the economy. This presentation is a response to Tim Strangleman’s ‘Voices of Guinness’ (Oxford 2019) presented to the School of Social Policy, Sociology, and Social Research November 14, 2019.

«Il movimento di liberazione animale è lʼunico che agisce per puro altruismo».
Abbiamo sentito così tante volte frasi come questa che ormai ci sembrano ovvie.
Effettivamente, possono essere vere, dipende dai punti di vista e dalla risposta alla domanda: «Da chi è composto il “movimento di liberazione animale”?» Pensare allʼanimalismo come lotta altruistica presuppone infatti che gli animali non facciano parte del movimento di liberazione animale. E questo presupposto poggia sullʼidea, altrettanto diffusa, che gli animali non siano in grado di protestare, di ribellarsi, di desiderare la fine del loro sfruttamento. «Siamo la voce dei senza voce». «Gli animali non possono protestare, noi sì». Anche queste sono  affermazioni che abbiamo sentito (e sostenuto) innumerevoli volte, tanto che ci sembrano costituire lʼunica narrazione possibile della questione animale e della lotta contro lo sfruttamento dei non umani. Scopo del presente saggio è quello di mettere in discussione lʼinevitabilità di questa narrazione, mostrando che gli animali si ribellano,
svolgendo il ruolo di soggetti attivi più che di semplici vittime o di beneficiari passivi della “buona coscienza” animalista. Inoltre, cercheremo di mostrare come lo sforzo di mettersi in posizione di ascolto delle istanze espresse dai soggetti non umani possa aprire nuove strade per la lotta di liberazione animale.

Il contributo si propone di indagare il rapporto fra soggettivazione maschile e diffusione del veganismo/vegetarismo. Il rifiuto di cibarsi di corpi animali ha, infatti, un particolare impatto sia sulla percezione pubblica dei modelli di maschilità, sia su quella individuale del proprio corpo, della propria sessualità e del proprio posizionamento in termini di genere e orientamento sessuale.
In particolare, è centrale la relazione fra consumo di carne e maschilità
“tradizionale”: la dieta carnea può essere considerata come un dispositivo di riproduzione della norma eterosessuale e, contemporaneamente, della norma sacrificale. Il gesto di non cibarsi di carne – un gesto ricco di conseguenze sul corpo e nelle relazioni interpersonali – è dunque oggetto di uno stigma che, nel caso del veganismo maschile, assume connotazioni omofobiche e misogine. Le strategie discorsive utilizzate dai maschi vegan per rispondere alla marginalizzazione, come rilevato da Simonsen, tendono perlopiù a rafforzare l’eterocentrismo, con l’intento di rassicurare l’interlocutore sulla conciliabilità del veganismo con i valori dominanti, a partire dall’eterosessualità obbligatoria e dai ruoli maschili “tradizionali”.
La tesi proposta è che tale intreccio di vegefobia e omofobia sia
riconducibile alla potenzialità di destabilizzazione della maschilità egemone che il veganismo possiede in quanto tecnologia del sé capace mettere in discussione contemporaneamente due privilegi, quello di specie e quello di genere, e che l’adesione maschile a una norma sacrificale che sancisce il privilegio umano di mangiare senza essere mangiati sia collegata alla norma eterosessuale in quanto dispositivo che attribuisce al maschio il privilegio di agire la penetrazione senza subirla. Viene abbozzata una lettura parallela di testi provenienti da due ambiti di pensiero tradizionalmente distanti, l’ecofemminismo (Plumwood) e la critica queer antisociale (Bersani), al fine articolare in modo più puntuale alcuni aspetti del legame fra norma eterosessuale e norma sacrificale.

This article explores whether or not animal activists who engage in violence might legitimately be labelled “terrorists.” To this end, I examine common assumptions concerning the use of pre-emptive counter-violence in order to defend the comparatively defenceless. Through the use of casuistry, this essay compares specific hypothetical instances of killing comparatively defenceless individuals, beginning with scenarios that offer a clear general consensus, moving to more controversial cases. This indicates that contemporary violence on behalf of animal liberation, often assumed to be rash and radical, is actually quite restrained. The intent of this paper is not to make claims as to how liberationists ought to behave, but rather to highlight egregious inconsistencies in our attitudes toward violence on behalf of those who are comparatively defenceless.

This book is about the unjust, morally and politically indefensible treatment of non-human animals  within contemporary capitalism, as well as about what is necessary to bring about genuine animal liberation, both in terms of lifestyle changes that should be made by individuals and in terms of systematic social, political and economic changes that are required to achieve this end. The purpose of this book, therefore, is to offer a critical analysis of the way in which the expansionist capitalism of today fails to regard and treat animals as they deserve, who is to blame for this, and why and how we should begin to fix this. However, while I will argue that the dissolution of capitalism and the structures and systems that it necessarily relies upon and promotes is required for lasting and comprehensive animal liberation, beyond arguing that Marx’s famous principle “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” should be extended to animals as well as that the system that replaces capitalism requires veganism, I do not articulate what the alternative to capitalism is, nor do I address the many and varied challenges that a post-capitalist society would surely face. To be sure, this important and pressing project is beyond the scope of this book, and it is a complex consideration that many scholars ranging from Marx to contemporary theorists of various kinds, including critical theorists, social theorists, Marxists, ecology theorists, and anarchists (for example) have engaged in, or at least have attempted to. Nevertheless, I hope that the examination of the negative relationship between capitalism and animal liberation that I offer in this book will provide some helpful pointers for those who are engaged in the difficult work of elucidating a just alternative to capitalism that is workable and realistic, which takes into account justice for animals alongside its concern for bringing about justice for humans.

This provocative and groundbreaking book is the first of its kind to propose the concept of Eco-ability: the intersectionality of the ecological world, persons with disabilities, and nonhuman animals. Rooted in disability studies and rights, environmentalism, and animal advocacy, this book calls for a social justice theory and movement that dismantles constructed "normalcy," ableism, speciesism, and ecological destruction while promoting mutual interdependence, collaboration, respect for difference, and inclusivity of our world. Eco-ability provides a positive, liberating, and empowering philosophy for educators and activists alike.

The Queer, neo-insurrectionist network known as Bash Back! has contributed to the queering of the animal liberation discourse through the publication of their 2010 communiqué entitled, “Bash Back!ers in Support of Autonomous Animal Action Call For Trans-Species Solidarity With Tillikum.” The politic developed by the neo-insurrectionist Queer movement, as exemplified by Bash Back!, has served to disrupt anthropocentric notions of human-liberator, animal-captive that form the centerpiece of the animal liberation discourse. Through their appropriation of an attack wherein an orca whale killed its trainer at SeaWorld, Bash Back! problematizes not only the normalized domestication of non-human animals for entertainment, but also the discourse used to critique such enslavement. Through satirical posturing and a liberatory framework, Bash Back! attempts to draw intersectional connection between the systems of domination that enslave both non-human animals and non-heterosexual Queers. Through a queering of this understanding of liberation, Bash Back! serves to shift the animal liberation discourse away from the human centric “total liberation” framework, and towards an anti-speciest framework proposed herein, termed “total solidarity.

Paper available at:
https://www.academia.edu/1449289/_2012_Operation_Splash_Back_Queering_Animal_Liberation_Through_the_Contributions_of_Neo-Insurrectionist_Queers

While the case for veganism may be argued to be beyond debate, ending the exploitation of nonhuman animals remains hindered by the ubiquity of speciesism. This paper therefore explores the resilience of the speciesist order in two related contexts: the cultural reproduction of speciesism, including the ridicule of veganism; the applicability of Cohen’s sociological theory of denial to the exploitation of nonhuman animals. In so doing, the paper points towards intersections between speciesism and other forms of oppression, which may in turn help to inform effective vegan activism and prevent veganism from being marginalized as a “single issue."

Não sou especialista em direito, mas considero obtusa decisão tomada pelo Supremo Tribunal Federal em favor da constitucionalidade do sacrifício de animais em rituais e cultos religiosos. Como leigo, pergunto-me: como a maior das instituições humanas, a Justiça, pode ter privilegiado a tradição em detrimento do que temos de mais precioso, a vida?

Não sou especialista em direito, mas considero obtusa decisão tomada pelo Supremo Tribunal Federal em favor da constitucionalidade do sacrifício de animais em rituais e cultos religiosos. Como leigo, pergunto-me: como a maior das instituições humanas, a Justiça, pode ter privilegiado a tradição em detrimento do que temos de mais precioso, a vida?

This article aims to reflect on the issue of non-human wild animals as workers in wildlife tourism based on multispecies ethnography carried out within the Pantanal Norte (mt). From a context the relations between species review in contemporary society, we discuss the premise of freedom of non-human animals in tourism and their effects on the depiction of a harmonious coexistence between human and non-human animals imaginary, advancing the debate about the practices in which animal work is legitimized and its implications among tourism actors. The data were based on an interdisciplinary theoretical framework that marks animal studies and the results indicates that tourism offers a safety net to non-human animals, which is conditioned to the expression of submissive behaviors and the vulnerabilities that such work provides are generally relativized.

This is the PDF-PowerPoint I used for my contribution exposed during the International Symposium Bioethical reflections upon “animated” and “unanimated”. The Symposium was oganised by the Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University of Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation Moscow Russia. It took place on Friday, 11th June 2021.

Theorizing, our search for answers in a world filled with unknowns, sometimes yields wonderful and important information—information that is critical to how we understand our world and how we live in our world, and which aids us in a host of ways.  Other times, theories are the product of vested interests and partiality, especially when humans theorize about “others.”  In these instances, we often do great damage with our theorizing.  If we are to theorize about oxen and sheep, then we must theorize about self.

Then again, theorizing self is perhaps not the most appropriate response to the problematic nature of theorizing.  Today, what we need—and what cattle and mice, turkeys and pigs, Gobi jerboas and water opossums need from us—is not theorizing “others,” but a change of heart and a change of lifestyle.  If we are to save ourselves, our planet, and these many individuals, we must see and accept our commonality with all creatures and stop posing theories that begin with an assumption of critical difference.  Because we have been unable to theorize justly about “others,” it is time to dispense with theories and rediscover empathy, compassion, and common sense—of course pigs and cats think and suffer, have personalities and volition.  Those who would suggest otherwise hold the burden of proof.

This study of children's literature as knowledge, culture, and social foundation bridges the gap between science and literature and examines the interconnectedness of fiction and reality as a two-way road. The book investigates how the civilized narrative orders experience by means of segregation, domestication, breeding, and extermination, arguing instead that the stories and narratives of wilderness project chaos and infinite possibilities for experiencing the world through a diverse community of life. AbdelRahim engages these narratives in a dialogue with each other and traces their expression in the various disciplines and books written for both children and adults, analyzing the manifestation of fictional narratives in real life. This is both an inter- and multi-disciplinary endeavor that is reflected in the combination of research methods drawn from anthropology and literary studies as well as in the tracing of the narratives of order and chaos, or civilization and wilderness, in children's literature and our world. Chapters compare and contrast fictional children's books that offer different real-world socio-economic paradigms, such as A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh projecting a civilized monarcho-capitalist world, Nikolai Nosov's trilogy on The Adventures of Dunno and Friends presenting the challenges and feats of an anarcho-socialist society in evolution from primitivism towards technology, and Tove Jansson's Moominbooks depicting the harmony of anarchy, chaos, and wildness. AbdelRahim examines the construction, transmission, and acquisition of knowledge in children’s literature by visiting the very nature of literature, culture, and language and the civilized structures that domesticate the world. She brings radically new perspectives to the knowledge, culture, and construction of human beings, making an invaluable contribution to a wide range of disciplines and for those engaged in revolutionizing contemporary debates on the nature of knowledge, human identity, and the world.

The link leads to the syllabus for a course I taught at Haverford College in Autumn 2015, "Injustices: Human & Animal."

DESCRIPTION
Almost everyone today pledges allegiance to justice. Politicians, pundits, and ordinary people declare their commitment to human rights, equal respect, fairness, and even-handedness. And yet the world is awash in accusations of injustice and oppression. We are frequently told that we live in a world marked by global gender injustice, global racial domination, the brutal exploitation of sweatshop labor, the social exclusion and humiliation of people of diverse sexualities, the mass murder and torture of animals, and the legacies of systematic subordination and brutalization of the Jews. What should we do about these accusations? Some people ignore them, some dismiss them, and some assert them as obviously true. This course is for those who want to think them through. What does it mean to say that a group is oppressed? What sorts of harms or rights-violations are central to social injustice? What role do human rights, liberal principles, socialist principles, national self-determination, and cultural recognition play in claims of social injustice? What, fundamentally, is wrong with oppression? What kind of responsibility do people have for such injustices? And, above all, who today is oppressed, and what should be done about it? We shall examine arguments aiming to show that today there are worldwide injustices done to refugees, women, non-white people, colonized people, indigenous people, the global poor, sweatshop workers, and the working class. In each case, we look at proposed remedies for the claimed injustice, and questions about who has what kind of responsibility for dealing with it. We pay special attention to the question of whether animals are currently victims of a worldwide injustice by those who eat them; kill them for their skins or furs; or use them to produce eggs, milk, wool, or the like. We examine proposals to remedy this alleged injustice by morally requiring people to recognize animals as moral equals, or by awarding them citizenship rights. By the end of the course, students should have a firm grasp of the arguments for and against the existence of these injustices, and of arguments for and against prominent proposals to remedy them. They should also have a command of the concepts of injustice, oppression, systematic harm, rights-violations, misrecognition, maldistribution, disrespect—and their contraries: justice, respect for rights, recognition, etc.

Syllabus: https://sites.google.com/site/tjdonahu/home/injustices-human-animal

An exploration of critical anti-speciesist pedagogy and activist academics, based on the co-authored book chapter contained here:

https://www.academia.edu/1968315/_2013_From_the_Classroom_to_the_Slaughterhouse_Animal_Liberation_By_Any_Means_Necessary

"
This is the first book to define the philosophical and practical parameters of critical animal studies (CAS). Rooted in anarchist perspectives that oppose all systems of domination and authoritarianism, CAS both challenges anthropocentrism and presents animal liberation as a social justice movement that intersects with other movements for positive change. Written by a collection of internationally respected scholar-activists, each chapter expands upon the theory and practice underlying the total liberation approach, the roles of academics and activists, and the ten principles of CAS. With apolitical animal studies and exploitative animal research dominating higher education, this book offers a timely counter-narrative that demands the liberation of all oppressed beings and the environment. Defining Critical Animal Studies will interest educators, students, activists, community members, and policy makers seeking accessible theory that can be put into action.

Defining Critical Animal Studies: An Intersectional Social Justice Approach for Liberation
Edited by: Anthony J. Nocella II, John Sorenson, Kim Socha, and Atsuko Matsuoka

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD:
David Nibert

PREFACE:
Ronnie Lee

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

DEDICATION

INTRODUCTION:
The Emergence of Critical Animal Studies: The Rise of Intersectional Animal Liberation
Anthony J. Nocella II, John Sorenson, Kim Socha, and Atsuko Matsuoka,

PART I: INTERDEPENDENCY

CHAPTER ONE:
An Introduction to Anthropocentrism, Humanism, and Contemporary Animal Ethics
Adam Weitzenfeld and Melanie Joy

CHAPTER TWO:
Ecological Defense for Animal Liberation: A Holistic Understanding of the World
Amy J. Fitzgerald and David Pellow

PART II: UNITY

CHAPTER THREE:
Until All Are Free: Total Liberation through Revolutionary Decolonization, Groundless Solidarity, and a Relationship Framework
Sarat Colling, Sean Parson, and Alessandro Arrigoni

CHAPTER FOUR:
One Struggle
Stephanie Jenkins and Vasile Stanescu

PART III: CRITICAL SCHOLARSHIP

CHAPTER FIVE:
The Ivory Trap: Bridging the Gap Between Activism and the Academy
Carol Glasser and Arpan Roy

CHAPTER SIX:
Critical Animal Studies as an Interdisciplinary Field: A Holistic Approach to Confronting Oppression
Kimberly Socha and Les Mitchell

PART IV: RADICAL EDUCATION

CHAPTER SEVEN:
Radical Humility: Toward a More Holistic Critical Animal Studies Pedagogy
Lauren Corman and Tereza Vandrovcová

CHAPTER EIGHT:
Engaged Activist Research: Challenging Apolitical Objectivity
Lara Drew and Nik Taylor

PART V: TAKING IT TO THE STREETS

CHAPTER NINE:
From the Classroom to the Slaughterhouse: Animal Liberation By Any Means Necessary
Jennifer Grubbs and Michael Loadenthal

CHAPTER TEN:
Taking it to the Streets: Challenging Systems of Domination From Below
Richard White and Erika Cudworth

AFTERWORD:
From Animal Oppression to Animal Liberation: A Historical Reflection and the Growth of Critical Animal Studies
Karen Davis

____________________________________________________________

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT CRITICAL ANIMAL STUDIES READER:

"Defining Critical Animal Studies is the type of book that everyone should read, not just animal rights activists, but also the naysayers, fence-sitters, and uninformed. And why? Because this book is educational, enlightening, and transformative. It literally alters how we see and understand the issues of human and nonhuman relations, equality, democracy, food, consumption, activism, and social movements. And the book accomplishes this task by practicing what it preaches: bringing together a variety of scholars and activists, both old and new, that address the theoretical, practical, political, and personal intersections of animal liberation."

-Dr. Jason Del Gandio, author of "Rhetoric for Radicals: A Handbook for 21st Century Activists"


"Through their work in this excellent volume, the editor and contributors give me hope that perhaps all is not lost for our species. But then I think, what kind of society marginalizes, harasses, and surveils these kinds of people as terrorists, but valorizes and rewards the real radicals and the real terrorists whose blood-lust for profits has normalized the systematic torture, oppression, and genocide of creatures unfortunate enough not to have been born human? As long as the latter group retains the backing of state violence, they'll continue super-sizing us toward extinction."

-Dr. David Gabbard, professor of Education, Boise State University


"Defining Critical Animal Studies comes at a moment when the devastating effects of climate change, the loss of species in the current 6th mass extinction, the overconsumption of the earth’s resources, endless toxic wars, and the exponential increase in human population are converging far more quickly than scientists predicted to create a multitude of crises – not in the distant future – but right here and now. This book reveals the necessity of reframing social justice and animal rights thought to forge new visions and creative movements to end human and corporate domination and exploitation of other humans, other forms of life, and the Earth."

-Dr. Julie Andrzejewski, Professor, St. Cloud State University


"This is a must read for anyone concerned with the interconnectedness of struggles for justice and liberation. It is against single-issue politics. It is for the rights of all animals, irrespective of species, age, sex, race, class and ability. What an exciting book!"

-Dr. Piers Beirne, author of "Confronting Animal Abuse: Law, Criminology, and Human-Animal Relationships"


As radical means “root,” Defining Critical Animal Studies is a radical book that explores the social, historical, and political roots underlying the oppression and exploitation of human and nonhuman animals alike. The book is also radical in advocating for the connection between scholarship and activism, and in promoting interdisciplinary and intersectional approaches to “the question of the animal.” Students, scholars, activists, and citizens interested in engaging social justice across the species boundary will find these essays confronting many of the key issues of the twenty-first century, where what is at stake is survival itself.

-Dr. Dan Featherston, Assistant Professor, Temple University, and Editor, Lexington Critical Animal Studies Book Series


"Critical Animal Studies is a spreading academic discipline that brings much-needed activist and radical perspectives to classrooms globally, just the kind of thing that breathes life and real substance into higher education."

-Leslie James Pickering, former Earth Liberation Front Press Officer


"There is an urgent need for a broader analysis in the animal liberation movement. The contributors to Defining Critical Animal Studies grapple with questions our movement will have to engage in in order to move forward."

-Erin Marcus, Event Coordinator and Co-Founder, Open the Cages Alliance


"Finally, a collection of work that details the rapidly growing field of Critical Animal Studies. Scholars and activists will find much-needed intersectional analysis that calls for nonhuman animal liberation, dismantlement of human oppression and the end of environmental exploitation. Defining Critical Animal Studies should not be read by anyone who wishes to continue the status quo."

-Jessica Ison, Institute for Critical Animal Studies Oceania, Director"

HELP ME FIND A PLACE TO PUBLISH THIS! I wrote this piece for a book project and now it does not quite fit.  Help me locate a new home.
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The anarchist project, as it has been developed over the centuries, has been to expand human freedom and reduce misery, toil and coercion throughout society.  As political thought has developed since the 18th century, anarchism has sought to expand this sphere of the included subject to advocate for women, people of color, the working class, and nearly from its inception, non-human animals.  In the modern arena, anarchism and anarchist direct action movements have struck back at capital and the State with the aim of reducing animal exploitation, financially paralyzing abusers, and raising radical awareness.  This chapter seeks to explore the myriad of ways in which the anarchist revival of direct action, which followed the 1999 anti-WTO demonstrations in Seattle, have engaged with this fight.  Through an examination of contemporary anarchist tendencies including the Greek insurrectionists, the international militants of the Informal Anarchist Federation, the Mexican eco-anarchist bomb tossers, the US Queer network Bash Back! and others, we will examine the inseparable link between those that oppose State power and those that seek to strike back against speciesism, ecocide and domestication.  Drawing primarily from movement communiqués, the chapter explores a discourse on the inherent linkages between the anarchist struggle, and that of animal liberation as told through the words of a clandestine, globally-dispersed network of attackers.

An exploration of sexual infiltration amongst the left as interpreted through Foucault's framework of "docile bodies", the Panopticon and surveillance as fostering a disciplinary society.

Video link at [Begins around 42:00 minute marl]:
http://www.spreecast.com/events/the-politics-of-violence-the-state

Final paper available at:
https://www.academia.edu/5401087/_2014_When_Cops_Go_Native_Policing_Revolution_Through_Sexual_Infiltration_and_Panopticonism

The Queer, neo-insurrectionist network known as Bash Back! has contributed to the queering of the animal liberation discourse through the publication of their 2010 communiqué entitled, “Bash Back!ers in Support of Autonomous Animal Action Call For Trans-Species Solidarity With Tillikum.” The politic developed by the neo-insurrectionist Queer movement, as exemplified by Bash Back!, has served to disrupt anthropocentric notions of human-liberator, animal-captive that form the centerpiece of the animal liberation discourse. Through their appropriation of an attack wherein an orca whale killed its trainer at SeaWorld, Bash Back! problematizes not only the normalized domestication of non-human animals for entertainment, but also the discourse used to critique such enslavement. Through satirical posturing and a liberatory framework, Bash Back! attempts to draw intersectional connection between the systems of domination that enslave both non-human animals and non-heterosexual Queers. Through a queering of this understanding of liberation, Bash Back! serves to shift the animal liberation discourse away from the human centric “total liberation” framework, and towards an anti-speciest framework proposed herein, termed “total solidarity."

Final paper available at:

https://www.academia.edu/1449289/_2012_Operation_Splash_Back_Queering_Animal_Liberation_Through_the_Contributions_of_Neo-Insurrectionist_Queers

Cet article ancien montre que le statut éthique de l'animal ne va pas de soi et qu'une réflexion sur le sujet suscite nécessairement de nombreuses et difficiles questions. Il est suivi du compte-rendu d'une émission radio que j'ai animée à l'époque sur ce même thème.