Every day the devastating yet subtle atrocities plaguing the Earth continue at the will of corporations, politicians, and human apathy. Just as 19,000 innocent non-human animals are murdered in the U.S. per minute,thousands of human animals fail to notice or confront it. While 10 billion non-human animals are murdered yearly in the U.S., millions of human animals are enslaved, exploited, and murdered in the U.S. yearly as well.This is not a comparison between non-human animal and human animal deaths per year. This is a presentation.

All numbers set aside, the fact is animals, non-human and human are being murdered by the millions on a yearly basis. Animals, human and non-human, are murdered by many forms of oppression such as sexism, speciesism, transphobia, homophobia, racism,colonialism, and so on. These are some of the many forms of oppression perpetuated by a capitalist-imperialist system. Speciesism, like other forms of oppression, encompasses hierarchy through the domination of one individual sentient being over another. Total liberation cannot be achieved by combating only one form of oppression.

Oppression in multiple forms are ALL a part of the same complex of hierarchical domination. For long-term results, the struggle for liberation must be radical-the pursuit of identifying and confronting the root cause of oppression itself.

Direct Action:  Any action undertaken without the permission of and outside the interest of governmental institutions.

Direct action is when objectives are pursued and achieved directly without begging or appealing to the oppressor. Emancipation conveys the revolutionary discovery of individual power, self-determination, and autonomy. The struggle for liberation requires individual empowerment because without emancipation there is only submission.  Submission is a compromise that reinforces the inferior value of an individual, placing the power in the hands of the oppressor. As human animals, we too are victims to the same elements of oppression as non-humans.

Our position of dominance is privilege but not freedom by any means. As people oppressed by a system of hierarchy and authority, we are deprived of our ability to interpret our disconnection with nature as an ongoing tragedy. The human animal species continues to simultaneously perpetuate suicide and ecological destruction.

When we get angry, we peacefully protest, sign petitions, or beg politicians to make changes for us. The problem is not with our anger but rather our co-dependency upon representatives of a pre-existing oppressive system. The problem is not in our determination to protest but rather our lack of autonomous potential in achieving objectives directly.

Radical: Of or going to the root or origin; fundamental, grassroots, basic.

Veganism as a liberal movement has shaken the throne of the monolithic system of authority. With the increased state repression of activists, the Ag-Gag bill, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, and the birth of the green scare, veganism has posed a threat to the non-human animal industry.However a closer examination of “success” and “progress” reveals that speciesism still exists, immune to signed petitions and state sanctioned reform. As an oppressive force carried on through cultures, upheld by traditions, and exacerbated by capitalism, speciesism continues to thrive in new “Cage-free”, “Humane”, and “Grass-Fed” advertisements.

These reforms casually continue the promotion of non-human animals as products rather than sentient beings. Under capitalism, speciesism is an integral element of marketing, mass-producing, and commodifying non-humans, while generating poor conditioned wage-slave jobs for humans. Similar to racism,sexism and so on, speciesism fuels a system that exploits the many to benefit the few. Radical change means identifying the root of problems and solving them directly without appealing to the state.

Radical veganism doesn’t mean building more “Whole Foods” markets or asking grocery store food chains to stock vegan “meat” or “cheese”replacements. These grocery stores have gained consumer support for accommodating vegans while simultaneously promoting speciesism with the availability of non-vegan products. Combating speciesism requires uncompromising intolerance to every institution of oppression that upholds it. Any compromise is to de-legitimize the urgency for non-human animal liberation.

Our co-dependency upon these oppressive institutions merely reinforces their existence. Therefore, a boycott of these institutions of capitalism, wage-slavery, and speciesism must be promoted with sustainable communities of resistance based on individual self-determination.

Communities or collectives can demonstrate the abolition of speciesism by putting compassion, equality, and non-hierarchical relationships into practice. To effectively smash speciesism and intensify the non-human animal liberation movement the throne must be torn down, not shaken. Those in power must be confronted, not pleaded with. The changes we wish to see must be manifested directly, not by vote-begging the state. It is through radical direct action that we become empowered with the discovery of our own revolutionary, limitless potential.

Anarchy: Derived from the Greek prefix an (or a), meaning “not,” “the absence of,” or “the lack of,” plus archos, meaning a “ruler,” “director,””chief,” “person in charge,” or “authority. The generic social and political idea that expresses negation of all power, sovereignty,domination, and hierarchical division, and a will to their dissolution.

Radical vegans acknowledge the state as harmful to the natural development of self-responsibility and individual autonomy. Since capitalism requires a state to monopolize force and protect the interests of those in power,individuals acting outside those interests are subject to violent state repression. Even peaceful protests have endured the violent repression and intimidation of the state. When we depend on the state for change we surrender our own capabilities to make changes we wish to see. When we allow capitalism to dominate our lives without confrontation, we consent to the many forms of oppression perpetuated by it.

Harm to one is harm to all. Systematic oppression relies on dividing people from each other and nature. The re-discovery of our interconnectedness with nature challenges the ignorance cultivated and promoted by those who seek to dominate. If our aim is equality, all institutions of hierarchy must be abolished. If animal liberation is the objective of this activism, then as human animals we must critique the institutions of our own enslavement and exploitation. If our goals include long-term change, our actions must be radically direct. Human and non-human animal and Earth liberation cannot thrive under capitalism, a system founded on hierarchy, exploitation, and genocide.

Our co-dependency upon the state for small changes only creates delusions of progress while pacifying our self-determination. Anarchy is the revolutionary art of being free against the law. It is the destruction of oppressive tendencies present in our communication and relationship to one another. Anarchy is an uncompromising love for freedom. A love that gives freedom the opportunity to manifest in the spell-breaking journey of emancipation. A love that cannot be imprisoned by the constructs of control because the nature of its existence is defined by freedom. With love born from a desire for total liberation, let rage bloom in confrontation with every institution of non-human and human animal enslavement.

-Chad Green

Facebook and other forms of social media are in uproar over the recent sharing of an image in which a North Carolina “man” is captured tattooing his 5 month old pit bull. The tattoo consisted of the dog’s name and family crest. “Tattooer” Ernesto Rodriguez feels no remorse for his actions and tells us he will continue doing what he is doing regardless of the “haters”.

In reading more about this issue, I found out that dog tattoos are becoming increasingly more common as a form of identification (what the fuck happened to a plain old collar for Fido?). I’m just going to state the obvious, but, there is no reason you should ever tattoo a dog- that’s not your decision to make. The act is repulsive but sadly not surprising, as we live in a society in which we view animals as property. This even includes our loving companion animals. Acts of animal cruelty like this are committed every single day because of this mindset that we “own” these animals.

So you’re saying, “OK you’ve got me. Tattooing dogs is cruel, and unnecessary I get it , but what is cognitive dissonance and how is it related?”.  In a short explanation- cognitive dissonance is when your mind is presented with two different views. In an act to eliminate dissonance or conflict the mind will change they way you perceive a certain situation, or the beliefs you hold in order to rationalize.

So I present you with two different situations: a picture of a puppy getting tattooed and a picture of a cow being branded. Both actions are committed under the guise of identification, both are painful, and both are acts of animal cruelty. Which do you think will receive the most outrage? The answer is the picture of the DOG! Why is that? The answer is cognitive dissonance.

The people who voice outrage over this picture will characterize themselves as animal lovers, but at the same time they will look at a picture of a cow being branded and remain indifferent. Now, imagine you see a dog in a caged area so as to prevent movement, and a fire red poker is being pressed against his skin. You hear the dog whimper, howl, and cry in pain as his flesh is singed and hair set afire. This disgusts you, doesn’t it?

That’s because you have compassion, but what most humans have is selective compassion due to cognitive dissonance. We don’t want to think of these animals as companions, because that conflicts with our lives and beliefs so we view them as stupid, thoughtless, walking food in order reconcile with our lifestyle. It’s time to wake up! These animals are sentient beings who deserve care and respect like the animal you care so deeply for at the foot of your bed. What am I asking? Not for you to stop being outraged about cruelty to dogs. I’m just asking for a little consistency. End cruelty. Go Vegan.

For the animals, For the Earth
Joel XVX

Ag-gag Laws. Heard of em? Essentially, they’re laws that the meat industry is trying to use to silence any whistle-blowing employees.

What might this look like? Right now, the animal rights movement has been able to use video-footage from within factory farms, to not only show the public (a tactic that Ten Billion Lives Tour uses by paying people $1 to watch a 4-minute video about factory farming), but also to shut down some truly atrocious factory farms. If people who filmed undercover footage, or took undercover photos, could get penalized for trying to show the world the reality of factory farms, progress within the movement would be stifled. And I’m not even delving into another aspect of these ag-gag laws, where anyone who passed on footage could also be penalized. We’re talking about criminalizing the spread of truth.

Imagine not being able to show your friend a video such as Farm to Fridge. Imagine just having to have them trust you that factory farms are horrid, miserable places. I, for one, know that a lot of my friends wouldn’t be able to truly understand the scope behind the institution of factory farming without seeing some footage.

The Humane Society of the United States (the leader in large scale institutional change for animals) asks that you take action. Find out if your state is in the process of trying to pass ag-gag laws, and if so, get in contact with your State Director to stop these atrocious bills from passing. Now’s our time. As anarchists, we have an obligation to make sure the state doesn’t take away even more of our rights. You might hold hesitations with working with lobbyists, but these HSUS State Directors are usually the only ones fighting for animals – I urge you to talk with them, instead of making rash decisions that could harm many future animals. We have a duty to protect those animals, and if that means sucking it up to work with the state on this bill, then hell, I’ll do it.

I understand it’s not the most glamorous. But being an animal in a factory farm isn’t the most glamorous either. Those animals need us more than anything, and leafleting directly benefits them – it creates vegetarians and vegans. Ask your friends how they went vegan – you’ll find a lot of people say they went vegan from leaflets.

A few months ago, two animal rights organizations got together and conducted a survey in which they interviewed hundreds of students at two huge state schools and found out that roughly 1 in 50 people who were given a leaflet, went vegetarian. This data is amazing. On any given day at a campus I will get out roughly 1000 leaflets – so if I give out 1000 leaflets I have made roughly 20 vegetarians. There is no more effective use of my time than that, that I can think of.

I know it’s definitely not the most appetizing of ways to be radical, but you know what? Leafleting is a very radical form of activism– that is how the civil rights and suffrage movements began, and that is how this animal liberation movement is beginning too. Our world is a meat-eating world, unless we bring awareness to the atrocities that happen on factory farms.

As a vegan activist, I take it upon myself, and I hope some of y’all join me, to spread the message. Also, if you bring a friend out with you to leaflet, I guarantee it will be 100% more fun – get your other vegan friends to be active with you. You are not only saving lives, but creating community around animal rights activism.

Please, get active. The animals need us to be active. Every hour we’re sitting on a couch doing nothing is an hour we could be out their converting people to vegetarianism so that our movement grows to a critical mass.

Never forget who we are fighting for.

To see the leaflet I use on college campuses, click here. For further information about those studies I mentioned, please check out this blog. And if you’d like to get some leaflets so that you can pass them out at the local colleges near you, connect with Vegan Outreach for free leaflets!

As if we don’t already have enough things to worry about news from the UK indicates that there have been reports of MRSA contaminated milk.  Multiple samples of this new strain of bacteria have been discovered in samples of milk from five different farms.

This news comes as no surprise to many of us, as we know the real threat that factory farms possess to the animals on those farms as well as the environment and the people who work on the farms. Farmers have resorted to using increased amounts of antibiotics to treat mastitis which is an infection of the udder, caused by the very machines many farmers claim to “not hurt the cows”.

How many of these incidents must we all endure before the world as a whole starts realizing the immediate dangers associated with factory farming? There is absolutely no need to consume dairy products when there are multiple alternatives which are far healthier (and tastier!).

It makes no sense for an adult human to consume the food meant for an infant calf. These outbreaks of super-strain bacteria are a clear indication that the dairy industry is not sustainable on the scale that it is trying to operate on.

Here is a link to the original article.

Although an interesting theory to entertain it is far fetched and unrealistic. However the real doomsday, the end of time, the disruption of life as we know it has been initiated and we, the human race have started the countdown clock ourselves.

Humankind, the vampires of the world we know. We as a species have fed on the precious resources this wonderful earth we inhabit has given us far too quickly. We are bleeding her dry without an ounce of concern for the futures of our children and their children after them.

We seem to only be able to think about our immediate futures, as long as we can make it through the next 25 – 50 years then we will either be ok or at that point it will be some other persons problem. This is not only irrational thinking but also extremely selfish, the actions we take today as a species will mold and shape the futures tomorrow hold.

We need to become all around more aware of the damages we are inflicting towards the earth and towards all in which inhabit this wonderful planet we call home. In the past 10 years over 350 million acres of the worlds forests have been destroyed through deforestation, along with that forest went the homes of millions of plants and animals. Over the last decade we have seen 12 species of animals completely wiped clean off of the face of the earth and species like the Cross river Gorilla, Sumatran Tiger, Borneo Pygmy Elephant, Giant Panda and the Polar Bear are close behind.

We are far too dependent on petroleum, look around you, not a single item in the room you’re in was produced without the use of petroleum in one way or another. As the oil deposits of the earth are sucked dry we seek out other “sustainable” resources.

We scar the ground beneath us with drills, while pumping the ground full of 600 different chemicals, harvesting natural gasses from pockets conveniently located around the countries main aquifers. The rivers and streams of North America are becoming poisoned, the fish and birds are dying and the water flammable and undrinkable.

Worldwide starvation is at an all time high, nearly 1 billion human beings will go hungry this year, 400 million of those being children. 58 Billion land animals are slaughtered worldwide for human consumption each year and by the looks of it 2012 is no different than the last. 10 Billion of those are land animals killed on US soil where we use enough grain to feed 800 million people worldwide just to feed the 10 billion animals awaiting their untimely deaths.

The state of the worlds economy is in the worst shape it has ever been, the United States is headed into a second depression era and the “war on terror” in the middle east has hit the 3.7 trillion dollar mark. The war in the middle east has claimed more than 313,000 lives, upwards of 190,00 of those lives being civilians, including women and children.

Just taking a look through recorded history proves to us that we are a world built upon violence, the oppressors of time have written our history books which are full of violent conflict, murder, torture and greed as the leaders of the world constantly give in to their hunger for power.

Modern day societies are no different than those we read about in our middle school history books. History is still being written by the oppressors. The human species we all know is devouring our planet more and more each day, we are destroying the oceans, the air is becoming unbreathable, we are eradicating the homes of animals, wiping entire species, we are unnecessarily slaughtering human and non human animals by the billions, and we do all of this for what? For the conquest of power and greed.

No the world is not ending tomorrow but its end has been initiated. We are sealing the fate of our children and their children after them. Unless humanity starts to shift towards serious positive change our end is imminent. Change starts with you, you are the only one who can affect your own life and the lives around you through positive change. The facts are in place, it is time that we all removed our blinders and see the world for what it is, the beautiful utopia in which gives us life.

Gaze upon the amazing mountain ranges, look into the mysterious forests, explore this magical place we call home, transfix your senses and take it all in. Earth is a wonderful place underneath, not only does the human species have the power to destroy this place but we also hold the powers to repair our home. Earth is the only home that we have, that is the only reason you need to fight tooth and nail to preserve her and all the wonderful life in which inhabit this place.

With 2012 nearly behind us make 2013 the year for change. The hourglass is emptying at an alarming rate but we haven’t run out of time yet.

Living on the East Coast can get rather depressing sometimes.  Looking out west there is so much high profile activism going on and things here seem kind of dead.

That is why I was so excited when I found out there is an Open the Cages East Coast Tour being planned! This is exactly the catalyst this part of the country needs to really get active and start fighting for our animal friends.

Donate a few dollars and know that your money is being used for some important stuff!

http://www.indiegogo.com/OpenTheCagesTour

Two of our friends in Smash HLS were recently arrested at a home demonstration last week . They could really use some help right now to pay for legal fees, and it is really easy to contribute even just one dollar, all you have to do is go here .  These charges are bogus .

Our movement relies on having a community that looks out for those in need, so by contributing to this cause you are making a huge difference for people who risk everything to help the animals we all fight for.

Smash HLS is a grass-roots activist group aimed at shutting down Primate Products. Primate Products is a south Florida based company that imports and breeds monkeys for use in painful and unscientific experiments.

ps. This was on the Smash HLS site so we took it, cute eh? Protect the people who preserve this!

]]> http://veganwarfare.com/help-the-smash-hls-2/feed/ 0 http://veganwarfare.com/direct-action-workout/ http://veganwarfare.com/direct-action-workout/#comments Thu, 01 Nov 2012 02:31:10 +0000 overlord http://veganwarfare.com/?p=1200

So you want to get in shape to be effective in direct action, huh? Whatever that phrase means to you, I have a workout that will have you prepped and ready to take on whatever the night may bring. You’ll only need a few basics.

You will need a stopwatch, a backpack, some weights to put in it (i.e. books) a fence, such as at a local park, and some grass, at same said local park. Face mask is optional.

This will be a circuit of 5 movements done in sequential order for three rounds to start, then five rounds as you advance. To start, rest 60 seconds before doing the next movement.

1. Lunge/Squat Combo

Load the backpack and put it on your back. Proceed to lunge forward 10 steps, gently touching your knee to the ground for every lunge if your flexibility/strength allows it. Make sure to keep a really upright posture (chest held tall) for the entire sequence.

Then immediately do 10 squats getting the top of your hips below the top of your knee, before standing all the way up. Half squats won’t cut it. No half assing will get you to where you want to be, so things are no different here.

After that do 10 lunges back, followed by an additional 10 squats.

2. Fence Squat/Pull-Up Combo

Wearing the backpack, Hang on to a fence with you hands the same height horizontally and your feet the same height horizontally. Proceed to lower your butt as low to the ground as you can until your arms are fully extended.

Now proceed to pull yourself back up, mostly with your arms, and only using your legs enough to complete the movement. Do this for 10 repetitions.

3. Bear Crawl

Now who doesn’t want to do something as cool sounding as a bear crawl? This is really simple. Back pack is optional. Get on all fours, hands and feet both on the ground. Now crawl a distance of about 20 yards out, then 20 yards back. This will get your blood flowing quick!

4. Backpack Burpee to Thruster

Holding the backpack in your hands, set the backpack on the ground. Jump both feet back away from the pack and touch your chest to the pack (on the floor). Push yourself back up, then proceed to jump your feet back where they started and then stand up while lifting the pack right above your chest.

Perform a squat, then as you come out of the squat, continue to press the weight above your head as high as you can and hold for one second then bring it back down to your chest. Repeat this for 10 reps.

5. Backpack Shoulder Carry/Sprint

Hurl the backpack onto one shoulder. Proceed to sprint as fast as you can a distance of about 50 yards (the short length of a football field), then sprint back to where you started. Hills work great for this as well.

Now you completed one round. Repeat this two more times and call that a workout! This should be done 2 to 3 times a week for at least four weeks. For the more advanced, or as a progression, work up to five rounds.

Once you can do that, you can increase the weight inside the pack. Then after that, try the same workout, but eliminate all rest periods in between and simply get the 5 rounds done AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. Keep track of your time and keep a journal for your workouts.What’s important is that you see progression as you repeat this workout.

Now go out there and be a Knight of Justice, and let liberation’s crusade begin.

By: Ed Bauer
Vegan Straight-Edge
NPC Champion Bodybuilder
ACE Certified Personal Trainer
CrossFit Level 1 Certificate Holder
www.plantfitpdx.com

August brought us the news of a new study suggesting that eating egg yolks could accelerate heart disease almost as much as smoking. As well as a study suggesting that the antibiotics found in most meat products could be directly linked to childhood obesity issues. Just when we thought this years bad news for the consumers of meat and dairy products was bad enough a new interesting tidbit has emerged which will make you think twice about what you’re eating.

The country of Vietnam supplies the US with 100 million pounds of shrimp per year, which is about 8 percent of the shrimp the US consumes on a yearly basis. It has recently come out that the exportation process from one large exporter of seafood, Ngoc Sinh Seafoods Trading & Processing Export Enterprise, includes the shrimp being packed with ice made from Vietnamese tap water which is unfit to drink and hazardous due to the possibilities of dangerous bacteria being passed on to the shrimp. This process has been certified as safe by Geneva-based food auditor SGS SA, says Nguyen Trung Thanh, the company’s general director.

If that doesn’t turn your stomach we assure you that this will. Chen Qiang’s tilapia farm located in Yangjiang city in China’s Guangdong province feeds their fish on a partial diet of feces from hundreds of pigs and geese. You read that correctly, their fish are fed a partial diet of animal poop. “This practice is dangerous for American consumers”, says Michael Doyle, director of the University of Georgia’s Center for Food Safety.  “The manure the Chinese use to feed fish is frequently contaminated with microbes like salmonella,” says Doyle, who has studied food-borne diseases in China.

According to the FDA, 27 Percent of the seafood Americans eat comes from China — and the shipments that the FDA checks are frequently contaminated, The agency inspects only about 2.7 percent of imported food. Of that, FDA inspectors have rejected 1,380 loads of seafood from Vietnam since 2007 for filth and salmonella, including 81 from Ngoc Sinh, agency records show. The FDA has rejected 820 Chinese seafood shipments since 2007, including 187 that contained tilapia.

For yourself, your family, the earth, animals and all humans alike. Choose a vegan diet.

For further reading on this topic check out the original story  Here.