This year has been lively, with many campaigns kicking hard worldwide and a hunger for change. The resurgence of a strong front against vivisection and fur is a refreshing and welcomed shift which reminds us that target-specific campaigns have historically proven to bring change much faster than the simple advocacy against speciesism or for veganism, but it also reminds us that pressure campaigns bring heavier blows from the state.
It is not difficult to be beaten by the state. They not only use violence and brutality, but they are skilled at mental warfare. The struggles of allowing new people into your circle, the fear of not knowing how far they will go to destroy us and the constant battle between fighting and retreating take a toll on everybody’s mind.
If you do one thing in the new year, you should check on your comrades to ensure they are doing ok. We constantly feed our brains with the need for secrecy and keep our cards close to our chests. We encrypt our messages, only telling those who need to know where we are going tonight, we plan our actions in silence, we burn letters we receive through punk mail, and we trust no one but those close to us. It is easy to forget that you can share your feelings with your comrades. Make sure you remind them.
If you do one thing in the new year, build safe spaces where people can recover when they experience burnout. Make sure that after fighting for months on a tree sit or after nights of rain, mud and ammonia smell from a chicken farm, people have a warm and welcoming place to recover. Take care of your comrades, make them feel safe, and ensure you tell them you love them. The resistance will grow stronger than we can ever imagine.
Stick together, fight stronger and check on your comrades until we win.
With equal parts of love and rage;
UA Collective.
See you in the next riot <3
