Category: The Frontlines

We have talked about the campaign to save the Atlanta Forest in the past, but things are ramping up. For anyone that is unaware, the forest surrounding Atlanta City in the USA is at risk of being completely destroyed by developers who want to build a new police training centre (a mock city where they can practise how to kill protestors safely) and a huge sound and media studio to serve the film industry. Locals have fiercely been fighting against the development, that would not only murder a huge amount of species but also put at risk everybody living in the immediate area, as the woods serve as a buffer against flooding.

Since the call to the forest was issued, fearing that works would start on the 3rd of May, we have seen a big increase in action and in tactics to defend the forest.

Banks in Portland and the Bay Area have been sabotaged. Atlas Technical Consultants, a firm directly involved in the destruction of the forest, was visited in Minneapolis, resulting on windows smashed, a bucket of paint splattered inside the offices and a slogan urging the company to stop the works in the Atlanta Forest. A different Atlas office was also tagged in Indiana. Atlas in New York was also targeted, and then the attention shifted and Brassfield & Gorrie, another subcontractor, was targeted in broad daylight in their Atlanta office. Anonymous people would leave the scene having covered the place with paint, slogans and smashed windows. The B&G headquarters in Alabama would then be vandalised a few days later, warning the executives that their houses would be next.

The anonymous report delivered, and Keith Johnson’s house (a B&G executive from the Atlanta area) would then be visited by a group of 30-40 people, making it very clear that if you work towards the destruction of the Atlanta Forest, you are fair game.

Meanwhile, within the forest, folks have fought a different kind of fight. When the police attempted to enter by dismantling a shit barricade, another barricade was set alight and people threw rocks and smoke grenades at the them, making the police back off. On a different instance, a bulldozer attempting to cut a path through would receive the same treatment, and the big machine and the cops would have to leave the area. Since then, there are reports of a new barricade in the path, using a black sedan to block the road.

There is no doubt that more will come on the fight to save the forest, but we thought people would be interested to see the different tactics used in order to protect the forest. The activists have identified contractors and those contractors are now feeling the heat in multiple different states, not only in Atlanta but across the so called USA. Not only the offices are targets, but people will visit the houses of their executives, as when things get personal business consider things in a completely different light.

For more information, you can visit Scenes from the Atlanta Forest on https://scenes.noblogs.org/

Whilst Atlanta Police might be a distant target for folks around the world, Blackhall Studios is a multinational company with addresses in most western countries. You can show your support to the forest by organising your own demo or pressure campaign wherever you are. Think global, act local!

ON DEFENCE OF MOTHER EARTH!

Palestine action is a direct action network focused on ending UK complicity with Israeli war crimes. They believe there is already enough information and education available about the blatant oppression of the Palestinian people and now is the time for action not discussion.

They will target any and all companies in the UK who are directly part of enabling and profiting from Israel’s ongoing military occupation of Palestine. Their largest campaign and most well-known target is Elbit Systems. Elbit Systems is Israel’s largest privately owned arms company and it’s biggest single customer is the Israeli Ministry of Defence (IMOD). Elbit has nine sites across Britain, with four arms factories remaining, since they permanently shut their factory in Oldham after dozens of activists occupied, blockaded and damaged the site.

In their own words Palestine Action says “We are tired of the UK profiting from the colonisation of Palestine. We are tired of arms companies operating in the same streets that we live in. We are tired of the lack of repercussions for their actions. And this is exactly what we plan to change. Our actions expose, disrupt and destroy the companies which profit off the death and destruction of the Palestinian people and other oppressed groups across the world.”

Palestine Action’s most recognisable tactics involve covering targeted companies buildings in red paint, graffiti, smashing windows, occupying buildings and amassing crowds of support outside. A number of their actions have resulted in arrests and trials but they also encourage unaccountable actions as well. They’ve even visited Elbits landlord JLL and defaced their buildings demanding they evict Elbit.

When it comes to taking action alongside Palestine action they offer four ways to get involved:

Join your regional group
Set up your own affinity group
Do your own action and send your pictures in anonymously
Join a national working group

For further reading about Palestine action and how they operate check out their website

www.palestineaction.org

This week in The Frontlines we would like to talk about CAFT (Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade), which restarted in November 2020 making a huge dent against the fur industry.

Since its inception, CAFT has played their part to force fur-free policies on Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Alice + Olivia, and Monique Lhuillier. Alice + Olivia only lasted for 11 days when CAFT started targetting them when large nonprofits had been at it for the past ten years.

Their secret? Good old decentralised pressure campaigning and some strategic thinking.

CAFT insists that one of their key strategies is their decentralised campaign model. Instead of dictating, restricting or controlling what independent local groups decide to do, they aim to provide support, information and coordination. Any local group can organise against the target and the only agreed notion is the importance of consistent and focused action.

Secondly, they do not shy away from expanding their target pool. When a company is resistant to activist pressure, they will target secondary and tertiary businesses associated with the fur producing company. No one is safe; subsidiaries, investors and even board members are acceptable targets, and by destroying the company’s ability to do business in peace they manage to get the targetted company to drop fur from their portfolio.

For that reason, there have been many different and colourful actions to put pressure on the fur trade. From peaceful leafletting and demonstrations outside the store to in-store disruptions, writing messages in fake blood, attaching alarms to helium balloons to be released inside the shop and even noise demos in front of managers and corporate executives’ homes, local groups take initiative and decide by themselves what the best course of action is.

CAFT insists on a couple of important points, the necessity of security culture and the zero-tolerance policy against those talking to the cops, but also that they believe all their campaigns are 100% winnable using legal methods.

CAFT’s current campaign is against Moncler group (handy little store locator link just below):
https://www.moncler.com/en-gb/storelocator/
And they have recently expanded their target to Stone Island, being a subsidiary of Moncler. (also handy store locator below:)
https://www.stoneisland.com/experience/en/the-brand/stores/

They are asking for you to start a local group and put pressure on the business however you think is best, or if it already exists, to join your local group and take action!

You can find out more about them or donate to their campaign on monclerkillsfoxes.com, and you can find them on Facebook at Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade https://www.facebook.com/caftusa or on Instagram at @CAFTUSA.

Defend the Atlanta Forest is a campaign aiming to stop the destruction of the woods and the development of the wild in Southeast Atalanta’s forest.

Atlanta was built within a forest. The forest in Southeast Atlanta is home to wetlands that filter rainwater and protest against flooding. It is also the last breeding ground for many amphibians in the region and an important migration site for wading birds.

In the 1800s and after stealing the forest from the Muscogee Peoples, the forest was used as a plantation. Then in the early 1900s, the forest was used as a “farm prison” where prisoners were forced into farming labour. A great example of the economic interest of incarceration.

Since then, Atlanta Police has used the grounds as a firing range.

Now, new plans by the filth have been announced, where 300 acres would be destroyed to then build a “mock city” to practice police operations. You know, because they do not have enough with abuse on the streets, they need to prepare even harder to assault, mutilate and murder people.

Another 170 acres are planned to be destroyed by Blackhall Studios to build an airport and erect the biggest sound stage in America, further fuelling Atlanta’s gentrification.

People have said no, and they are saying no loud and clear. There have been demonstrations, mass email/phonecall days, but also shows of resistance in the form of direct action. From windows smashed to bulldozers vandalised and even arson, people have found ways to slow down the process and to show defiance against the capitalist jaws that want to engulf the forest in the name of “development”.

You should follow this campaign closely and show support from wherever you are. The companies involved are multinational empires that can be targeted in a plethora of ways.

The only thing stopping you is yourself.

Check the campaign’s site here: https://defendtheatlantaforest.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/defendatlantaforest/
Instagram: @defendatlantaforest
Twitter: https://twitter.com/defendatlforest/

Donate to the campaign here: https://opencollective.com/forest-justice-defense-fund

Also, Scenes From the Atlanta Forest is a good resource to keep an eye on what is happening with the campaign:

https://scenes.noblogs.org/
Twitter: @scenesatl

Welcome to The Frontline, a new series showcasing campaigns from around the world. As always, Unoffensive Animal encourages submissions. If you think a campaign should be featured, reach out! You’re welcome to make suggestions but you’re encouraged to draft stuff too, no one knows your campaign better than yourself! From animal liberation to eco struggle and social campaigns, everything is welcome! 

T&S Rabbits is a British company farming rabbits for their meat. Legally speaking as they are not breeding animals solely for fur and rabbit pelts are a byproduct of their murder, they get away with the fact that they are indeed a fur farm in a country where fur farming was outlawed twenty-one years ago. They are also known to use their rabbit farms as a loophole to build brick and mortar houses in unspoilt countryside. They justify building non-permanent buildings to house farm workers, then they turn those buildings into mansions once enough time has passed. Then they move the farm to a different location and sell the property for a huge profit whilst feeding the sprawling monster that devours unspoilt and wild areas.

We have heard of T&S before as multiple direct action reports have been sent to Unoffensive Animal, breaking the news of fur farming in the UK and showing the conditions inside the farm, but direct action is not the only opposition that T&S has to face.

Rabbit Farm Resistance UK is a campaign fighting every inch against T&S Rabbits. They organise protests in front of the farms and they very efficiently monitor all planning applications that the company puts forward, ensuring that every time they ask for a new dwelling or permission to build a slaughterhouse or even to set up a new farm, they can call to arms and vehemently oppose the application, counting with hundreds if not thousands of objections every time Mr Kerry applies for something new.

And they are winning. In the past year, they have managed to shut down multiple applications in different parts of England whilst putting pressure on other government bodies to stop the activities of the farms that are still active.

In September they organised a demonstration in front of one of the farms that developed into a farm invasion. The only worker and resident within the compound retreated into their home, giving access to the farm and allowing the activists to document the conditions inside the farm. Those photos and videos would then fuel an even stronger opposition to the company as they were horrific stills of the torturous life that rabbits must endure awaiting their slaughter.

At the end of that demonstration, two rabbits who needed immediate medical care were given a new life, and both of them are recovering from the abuse and learning to trust others again.

If you are interested in this campaign you should check their socials.

Their website is here: https://rabbitfarmresistance.noblogs.org

Their Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StopGnosallsRabbitFarm

Their Instagram: www.instagram.com/stoprabbitfarms

And their Twitter: https://twitter.com/stoprabbitfarms

Seeing the impressive work that the campaigners are doing there is no doubt that T&S Rabbits will end. The only question is when, and what are you going to do to make it happen faster!

Photo: One of the rabbits living inside a T&S farm.

FREE ALL T&S RABBITS!