Defend Direct Action
8th December, Stockholm.
via: BiteBack Magazine
reported anonymously:
“The owners of the fur selling shop named Wacko in Stockholm made a promise earlier this year to close the shop in november 2019. They broke that promise, so we broke their window and glued their lock.
We never give in and we always win!
For the animals.
Swedish Animal Liberation Front
Djurens Befrielsefront”
It is with a sense of relief that we greet the online release of the new documentary film, The Animal People, this week. After more than a decade of being dismissed as criminals and extremists, a side to our story is finally going to be told.
Produced by Joaquin Phoenix, the film follows the journey of the SHAC 7: six young activists who find themselves indicted as terrorists by the United States government. The reason for their indictment: the activists’ leadership of a controversial protest campaign aiming to close down one of the largest animal testing laboratories in the world, Huntingdon Life Sciences.
The story about how government and big business colluded to rewrite laws to crackdown on effective activism is an important warning on the lengths that the state will go to in order to protect corporate interests. It is also important because it was not only in the USA that this happened: it happened to activists in the UK too. The signees to this statement have endured years of government repression and draconian prison sentences as a result of our involvement in running the European SHAC campaign, an above-ground grassroots protest group.
As in the USA, the British government took aggressive action against SHAC activists as soon as we began to affect corporate power. Frightened by threats from multi-billion pound pharmaceutical companies that they would pull out of the UK unless the government took action, and unable to pursue underground activists, politicians instead, decided to introduce new legislation to target SHAC. Impressed by how the USA had managed to silence SHAC and spread fear throughout the movement in the USA, the British government decided to replicate the same in the UK, working in collaboration with the FBI. We would soon find ourselves being labelled as terrorists and extremists in the Houses of Parliament and in the press for our protest tactics and support of non-violent direct action. A secret two year £3.5 million police operation was tasked with targeting SHAC and our campaign was infiltrated by undercover police officers. A corporate spy would also go on to admit to spending years inside SHAC, working on behalf of the vivisection industry and collaborating with the police, assigned with sabotaging our campaign.
On 1 May 2007, aiming to decapitate the SHAC campaign, over 700 police officers raided 32 addresses, arresting 30 activists and seizing our campaign banners, posters, megaphones, flyers, computers, cameras and funds. The supposed “leaders” of the campaign (many of us only teenagers) found ourselves being charged with Conspiracy to Blackmail. Despite always including a legal disclaimer as well as paying a top barrister to read through our website and newsletter communications, the prosecution alleged that since its beginning, our protest campaign had in fact been blackmailing companies to drop Huntingdon Life Sciences.
We found ourselves demonised in the press, photos of threatening letters and hoax bombs plastered across pages with the allegation that we were somehow responsible for them. In fact, the prosecution did not and could not allege any of us had sent them: after all, we hadn’t. Rather, the CPS blamed us for the actions of other unknown individuals who had sent them. They claimed it was our fault because we had exposed and published the company details and encouraged people to contact the companies and urge them to sever their ties to the laboratory. Such an extraordinary leap in logic was lost on the media who concluded that we must have sent them.
Because of the political will to see our campaign end, we have all endured years of repression, trauma, untrue allegations being made about us and excessive prison sentences. We have been treated worse than any other criminals in the prison system: denied day release, outside work schemes or tagging and been subjected to punitive and absurd licence conditions upon our releases. The police claim of not targeting lawful activists when they targeted SHAC is hard to believe when they also demanded we receive Anti-Social Behaviour Orders preventing us from peacefully campaigning in any way against Huntingdon Life Sciences (with the threat of a further five year prison sentence if we do so). Unable to continue under all the repression, police harassment and seizures, the SHAC campaign itself was forced to end in 2014 after every single activist who tried to run it found themselves also being arrested and prosecuted.
Whatever consequences we faced for our actions, the brutal reality is that as a result of the repression we faced, the animals who we did it all for are still locked up, suffering and dying inside Huntingdon Life Sciences (now rebranded as Envigo and part of Covance). Many of the SHAC defendants have been designated as core-participants in the Undercover Policing Inquiry currently taking place. The inquiry will look at whether we were victims of a miscarriage of justice because the CPS never disclosed the undercover police operations to our defence. We are pleased that our convictions are finally being looked at but it is with heavy hearts as we remember all the animals who have died in the meantime. We look forward to the whole truth coming out about how politicians and big business conspired to crush our campaign and deny us a fair trial. Until then, we look forward to people making up their own minds after watching The Animal People.
– Alfie Fitzpatrick
– Tom Harris
– Jason (JJ) Maguire
– Gerrah Selby
– Nicola Tapping
– Sarah Whitehead
Although we were going to post a Hit Report, we’ve had to change our schedule to let folks know about last day to order merch before the holidays. We do not want anyone to be disappointed if parcels don’t arrive in time.
For anyone ordering merch outside of the UK to anywhere in Asia, Central and South America, Far and Middle East, Royal Mail cannot guarantee your parcel will arrive before the 25th of December.
For anyone ordering merch outside of the UK but somewhere else than in the above list, the last day you folks can place an order is Friday, 13th of December. Australia is not guaranteed but we will do our best from our side.
Anyone ordering merch to the UK, last orders is the 19th of December.
If you’re grabbing yourself some peng merch or want to gift it to anyone during the holidays, it is your chance now before it is too late.
Email unoffensiveshop(@)riseup.net with any merch enquires or if you have any trouble receiving your parcel.
As per the raffle winner, we’ve already contacted them and they were super happy to have won. Thank you so much for your support and for buying tickets, you make our job a lot easier and we truly, truly appreciate it.
Back tomorrow with banging direct action news.
See you in the next riot.
UA.
5th December, Belgium.
Received anonymously via email:
“A few nights ago, 25 activists liberate around a hundred bunnies from one of the biggest cage farm of Wallonia (Belgium) these individuals are now living free, happy and surrounded with the love they deserve, far from the speciesist hell they were locked in.
They were promised to a nightmare, a terrible fate of slaughter for some humans to enjoy a macabre Christmas meal. This horrible tradition has to end. Animals are not on earth for us but with us. Join the movement, take action. Open the cages and offer your fellow earthlings a home and a family.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Due to the magnitude of the action and the high quality of the photos we have blurred eyes before publishing. We have also deleted sound from the video. This is not Unoffensive’s job, so folks sending reports should be aware of security and take the steps themselves.
7th December, South East (UK?)
Received anonymously via email:
“This week in the south east some of us went out into the night to get some footage and help some comrades out. We had to wait hidden in the dark for quite some time as the farmer was still out on the farm at almost 1am. We watched him walking around, finishing the last jobs of the day, we watched him going into the house and we watched him turn off his bedroom light. Once we were sure he was asleep we crept past his house and to the sheds.
We could hear them, but unlike the last time the doors were locked. We checked every door on every shed, we considered brute force but we have future plans for this place so didn’t want to leave a mark. We went to another place that had been on our radar but despite the hour there were people about. Frustrated but undeterred we went to a third location. A ‘free range’ egg farm. We found a number of hens wet from the rain and huddled against the walls of cold metal sheds. They were a sad sight, one especially was in a bad way. We filled our bags and left, wishing we could take them all. On the journey home they chatted to each other and us, making an assortment of interesting noises.
We dedicate this action to our prisoners and all those kept in confinement. While people are busy this holiday season consuming more things they do not need and do not make anyone happy, we ask that you do not forget our prisoners. Both human and non human animals need our support. Write to prisoners, send them books, help them out of their cages if you can. Whatever you do, do not forget our comrades facing state repression.
Love & Rage
SEALF”
We have a few workshops coming up in the next few months. Even though none of them have confirmed dates and locations (we will upload them all in our events), we though we should mention them in case nearby cities are interested in talks too and want to help organise.
At the end of the month we have a lock on workshop in Nottingham, UK. In January we will be in the German part of Switzerland for another talk (and maybe a visit to one of our favourite sanctuaries ever). Then in February we have been contacted to give a talk in Bratislava. As it is very close, we are looking at organising another talk in Austria and maybe also visiting Czech Republic, so if you live in any of those two locations please PM us or send us an email and let’s organise something!
We are always happy to organise talks, workshops and skill share. As we have heard certain “celebrities” like to put weird rules to their talks, we want to make sure that people understand how we operate. We do not charge for talks. We do not charge for travel. We do not charge for accommodation. We believe knowledge should be free and we would never dream of charging anyone to share knowledge alongside us. That would make the revolution a very middle class concept. The only thing we ask for is to help out with a venue to give the talk and with local promotion. We are always happy with donations (either via PayPal or face to face) to help with travel costs, but those are not compulsory in any way. We also appreciate when someone offers a sofa to spend the night, but again, that is not necessary and we are always happy to sleep wherever, including your friendly city park bench.
So if you fancy organising a talk with UA and think people around you would be into it, please contact us!
You can see the talks we offer on our website:
https://www.unoffensiveanimal.is/workshops/
Once we know more specific dates we will make them public for people to join.
As always, if you want to support us you can drop us a couple of coins over PayPal on unoffensive_animal @ tutanota.com
You can join our Patreon team on www.patreon.com/animalliberation
And you can buy yourself a couple of raffle tickets (LITERALLY 24 HOURS LEFT BEFORE THE RAFFLE IS CLOSED!)
https://www.unoffensiveanimal.is/product/unoffensive-raffle/
UNTIL WE WIN.
UA.
PHOTO: 2011 raid in an Italian university, where three rabbits and many mice were taken away from a lab.
5th December, UK.
Received anonymously via email:
“Sheep left to die collapsed in a field.
This isn’t the only one in recent weeks that’s needed an emergency rescue by comrades.They had been purposefully left with obvious injuries, pain and diseases for months on end, crippling them to the point of collapse.
One had been eaten alive by maggots, only just about surviving after emergency care. The vet was horrified and had never seen one in such condition survive, but they did. Sheep are fucking incredible creatures who always put up such a fight to live.
The pain they have suffered is incomprehensible, terrified and alone just left like that, thinking they were probably going to just die there. Unable to rest or sleep with anxiety of being so exposed and vulnerable in agony. This is another fucking disgusting example of ‘Great British Farming’.
It seems in recent weeks their liberation comes from such miserable circumstances, like the sheep trapped inside the capsized ship in Romania, where thousands drowned, but over 200 were eventually rescued.
It doesn’t need to be this way, they don’t need to suffer, they are there, waiting for you to aid them out of their prisons.
These libs are dedicated to #smashspeciesism where they watched cops herd the trapped sheep into the slaughter house to have their throats slit.
Fuck farmers, fuck cops, fuck oppression.
Don’t be sorry, do something.”
DATES FOR ACTION: 20th to 24th December.
INDUSTRY: Fur Farming.
TARGET: Escada.
LOCATION: International Call to Action.
We have been contacted by the German Coalition Against the Fur Industry for an international call to action targeting a specific retailer, Escada. Escada declared themselves Fur-Free in 2010 after constant campaigning for three solid years. In 2017 they started selling fur again.
We believe that international calls to action against specific targets can be a great tactic to not only raise awareness but also force a business to do a little better and for that reason we are calling on all of our readers to organise, however they seem fit, to put pressure on Escada during the dates provided.
Escada has a very handy website where you can find all of their retail shops so have a look in their finder to be able to approach your closest retailer. You can search by country or by city, they have retail shops in many different countries.
https://www.escada.com/eu/store-locator
As always, we would like to remind people that creativity is a great tool for campaigning. Whatever your tactic is, be it underground or overground, make sure to report what’s happened against Escada and ensure that Escada understands why they are being targeted. For any underground actions please refer to our Contact Us before sending reports. For overground actions, get creative! They like to present themselves as a very posh and fancy shop. Maybe bring nature back to their patch and cover them in autumn leaves. Maybe if they really like fur a hairdressers can donate a couple of bags of hair. That might help them understand what fur really is. Any and all actions are in the toolbox for you to use. Make it fun, make it militant and make it loud.
Find below the original email with more information and links that will help you decide what to do, and join this call to action wherever you are!
Original email:
“20th – 24th December 2019: Days of action against ESCADA´s fur trade!
In autumn 2019 the German Coalition Against The Fur Industry (OGPI)
organised an Anti-Fur tour in Germany and Austria. In October and
November the tour protested every weekend in front of another ESCADA
shop in a different city, always demanding the end of ESCADA´s bloody
fur trade. All in all there were 13 different actions taking place
during that period.
For winter 2019 the OGPI calls for more days of action against ESCADA.
https://www.facebook.com/events/562245501222044/
If you can join in, please let us know in advance and share your
Facebook events with us.
Send us pictures and let us know how it went afterwards.
Together we can make ESCADA fur-free again!
ESCADA has been a target of Anti-Fur Protest from 2007 to 2010 and
declared to go fur-free, but started selling real fur again in 2017.
Since then we have been organising protests against ESCADA.
The OGPI is a network of different groups and individuals organised to
aboliosh the fur trade. There is a campaign team which collects and
collates information about the fur industry and makes this available to
other animal rights groups. The campaign team also suggests strategies,
coordinates actions and provides info-material. But all persons active
in a campaign decide for themselve which form of action they take.
contact us:
more infos:
https://offensive-gegen-die-pelzindustrie.net/wordpress/escada-protests/“
29th November, South East UK.
Received anonymously via email:
“It’s dark and rainy and we’ve visited about seven farms trying to find out some important information. Sadly, all the work accounts to nothing as we have not managed to find what we needed. We approach the last farm knowing it isn’t what we are looking for, but we feel like we should have a look anyway.
Over the electric fence and into what people think free range farms look like. This is top of the top, orchard planted free range chicken egg farm. We’ve seen them before. The kind of farm that helps the middle class feel better about their animal abuse.
We peek inside one of the sheds and realise that there are chicks inside. When opening the door one of them decides to come out. She is a master escapee. We look around, amongst the dead birds and cover our nose to avoid smelling the intense ammonia. If only the grass-fed, free-range enlightened middle class could smell this. It isn’t what we are looking for, se we go back to the door. That same chicken insists on getting out once again, so we oblige. We are not prepared to home multiple chickens, but she is adamant and wants to leave, so we stick her under the armpit and walk away with her.
She’s inquisitive, she adapts to every challenge and, unsurprisingly, she is unwilling to be contained, so she has become a house chicken. No pen will stop her. She is one of many animals who broke free and decided their fait.
This was not a raid, but a mere show of camaraderie and accompliceship. She wanted out, we gave her a ride.
December has started and there is a month to finish the year. We hope you all are preparing huge hits for the holiday season.
Swiss ALF and comrades, SHOW US WHAT YOU’VE GOT!”
October 2019, Czech Republic.
Via: http://michalkolesar.net/?p=5955
“Here I am again opening cages inside this madhouse for at least a thousand time. I pull chickens out and try to keep their wings close to their body. Some of them remain calm, some are terrified and I don’t blame them. Born in hatchery, called for mom and she wasn’t there. Just hands of a man that separated them to different boxes, to be killed or live in hell.
After all this they experienced the transport with thousands of others. Caged since they were just a little chicks and now they have been brought into this factory and that’s their life. Never had a family. Don’t know what it feels like when the sun warms the skin, wind blows on feathers or when the fog falls down. They don’t know what clay, grass or morning dew is. Just the cages, darkness, artificial light, ventilation. In short, all they experienced was just the industrial care.
Then we come into their darkness and torment with our flashlights and we are taking them away. We have a safe home for 35 hens today and they don’t know where they are going. But when it’s done and I see them looking around and chatting with each other in a better world, sometimes I even smile.
Have a good time, my sisters.”