Revolution is probably necessary to end the Animal Holocaust. And it is likely well below the horizon. Most of us cannot even envision revolution. Guns? Violence? Storming the halls of government? Not necessarily. Revolution need not be violent. Revolution can be achieved through sheer numbers in the streets. Revolution can be achieved through a critical…
Almost all of us began our involvement with the Animal Rights movement as rescuers. Saving homeless dogs and cats. Feeding strays. Fostering animals set to die in shelters. Adopting ones we couldn’t place. Only becoming familiar with the horrors of the meat, leather, dairy, and egg industries from colleagues in the movement. Even then, most…
There are some crimes that are so horrific that normal criminal penalties seem entirely inadequate to impose. Murdering children and pedophilia spring to mind. But even those pale when compared to genocide and other war crimes. And eco-cide. Eco-cide, the killing of the environment upon which we all depend for life and sustenance is one…
Per capita consumption of meat continues to increase. Further compounded by the increase in human population, the number of animals killed to satisfy human blood lust has never been higher. And the future is even more bleak. Humans slaughter a billion animals per week in slaughterhouses, another ten billion a week in gill nets, factory…
“Class Struggle” has been the heart of traditional Marxist socialism since Marx and Engels penned their revolutionary tomes in the late 1800s. Modern communists and industrial socialists are still steeped in the dogma of class warfare, class struggle, and the stratification of society by class. Social classes of the Nineteenth Century were markedly different from…
The internet affords us the ability to organize as no movement has ever organized before. Imagine how quickly Christianity would have spread had the internet existed 2,000 years ago. Imagine the Enlightenment having transformed Europe in decades instead of centuries. Even the struggle against Jim Crow and segregation would have been decided in years instead…
Originally posted on Species and Class:
By Jon Hochschartner So in the hopes of making the animalist movement less politically isolated, I think it would be really cool if anti-speciesists participated more in conversations among the broader left. To that end, I’ve compiled a list of contact information for a variety of socialist and anarchist…
Originally posted on Species and Class:
By Jon Hochschartner Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant is an influential figure on the American left. Running on a platform of raising the minimum wage to $15/hour, rent control, and taxing the rich, the Socialist Alternative candidate beat her Democratic opponent in last year’s election to become the first…
It is illegal to sell children. That follows from it being illegal to own children. Children are not property. We are not owners, we are guardians. So it should be with animals. No living being should be able to own another. Or be allowed to sell or buy another. Owning another being is slavery, whether…
An age-old philosophical question is whether the ends justify the means for accomplishing them. This test can be applied to any human endeavor, and usually breaks against achieving the ends if injustice or unfairness is required. However, sometimes the ends are of such import that the means are justifiable. Most would concede saving life is…
Armory of the Revolution 