Month: January 2022

There are folks in the frontlines that for one reason or another are widely known and mentioned often. Other people chip away at the enormous rock that is oppression throughout their whole life without asking for credit and without wanting notoriety. Sometimes those people fall through the cracks and only those who knew them personally remember them once they are gone.

Fernán was one of those people. Fernando Sanchez Grassa. An animal liberationist involved with the Spanish ALF (FLA), an anti-fascist, a fighter against Daesh who joined the YPG in Kurdistan and an incredible human being who is remembered by his friends with the love and rage reserved for those who truly meant something to your life.

Fernán died climbing a mountain in the Himalayas on the 4th of November 2019. A year later, an unnamed group liberated a dog tethered to a dairy farm and called him Fer.

When talking to people who knew him, they only have words of adulation. “He was incredibly sweet, a revolutionary to the core”. “He was in the riots in Italy, 2001, when Carlo Giuliani died. There are pictures of him at a mink raid, placing incendiaries at a fur farm and even some photos during a partridge farm liberation”.

And indeed, Fernán was photographed many times during FLA (ALF) raids. In 2003, after having visited a mink farm in Lubia, Spain, and having found that all the animals had already been killed, they planed and took action by setting the farm on fire. That arson would be the only recorded fur farm arson in the country of Spain. They would later dedicate the action to not only Barry Horne, but also the Palestinian people.

He was photographed cutting the fence of a game farm breeding partridges for hunters to shoot, and on a different occasion, at a mink farm raid where over 1000 mink were released before the farmer interrupted the raid.

There is no doubt that Fernán fought against oppression at a completely different level that many of us would only dream of. And after having learnt about him, we felt you too should know his name. He never took action to gain fame, but his memory should be powerful enough to still inflict blows in the oppression machine that devours the earth.

He was also a published author and we would like to end this with a quote from one of his books that perfectly explains what his life and history should do to all of us:

“We hope this article is nothing but a germ that replicates and creates more memories and love. We now pass you this weapon; take it”.

So we’ve talked about our background and our intentions and we have mentioned what Unoffensive does. If you haven’t read those two posts, head to Part 1 and Part 2 of the series. Today, we will try and clarify what we do not do.

Unoffensive is a media platform receiving anonymous reports. We cannot put you in touch with the ALF because we do not know who sends those reports. In fact, when people send incomplete reports we are unable to respond to them to clarify details or ask for photos. We do not have contact with the Animal Liberation Front.

In the same way, we do not take part in illegal actions. There is no point in contacting us to “join during an action” because we are a media hub, not a direct action group. We also do not fund illegal actions. We will discuss more how we deal with money in future instalments, but folks need to understand that donating to Unoffensive is not a way of sending money to people taking actions of liberation or sabotage.

Lastly, people must know that we do not share “sign the petition” links. For the most part, they are a way of collecting huge networks of email addresses willingly given by like-minded individuals, so it is a very easy way of creating lists of people that might take dissenting actions. On a more practical level, we would not be able to share every single petition we get sent, so we decided that we do not share any of them. There is a similar action about sanctuary fundraisers. We do not share sanctuary fundraisers but not because we do not think folks should support sanctuaries, but because sanctuaries do not need the heat that we could add to the equation. People should support animal sanctuaries without a doubt, but of the three fundraisers we have shared in the past, two of the sanctuaries were raided a week later. It is not worth the hassle because it is obvious that authorities do not understand we do not have links with illegal actions, so they blame anyone else by proxy.

So to sum it up, no, we cannot put you in touch with the ALF. No, we do not know who did x, y or z action. No, we cannot send animals to your home if “homes are needed”. We cannot fund illegal actions and we do not take part in illegal actions either.

In the next post, we will talk about how people send reports anonymously.

For now, if anyone wants to support Unoffensive, you can do so by donating on www.patreon.com/animalliberation.

until then

SEE YOU IN THE NEXT RIOT!

So now you know our political background and intentions (if you don’t check out Part 1!), and it is time to talk about what we do.

Unoffensive serves as a platform for a multitude of things, and one of them is reporting on animal liberation direct action from around the world. We receive anonymous reports submitted via secure means and publish them on the platform, allowing those taking action to explain what, how and why they took action whilst remaining anonymous. This means that individuals and groups can remain safer whilst having the opportunity to reach out to wider audiences and express themselves however they want.

We also try to help as a prisoner support hub. This translates in a few different ways. We collect (and try to keep up to date) addresses for those locked up in prison, so people can write letters. We give updates about their current situation, and we try and send money for their commissary or legal fees as much as we are able to.

But prisoner support isn’t just about prisoners! We also try to publicise court cases and sentencing of activists that have not ended up in prison, as well as help fundraising or sending money for their legal fees. This helps create a culture of solidarity, but also it is useful as a “sentencing comparison” so folks understand previous sentencing attached to actions and are able to weigh up the risk-reward factor.

Lastly, we try to also be an education hub. Be it by talking about history, or about anarchist concepts, or even about security and technology, if folks that follow us learn something new that will further expand their knowledge and help them keep fighting, that is our biggest and most important objective.

Now that you know what we do and who we are you should be able to paint an image of what Unoffensive is. In a future post, we will cover what we do not do.

Until then;

SEE YOU IN THE NEXT RIOT!