Category: Unoffensive Reports

 (CW – Antisemitism, nazism, fascism)

In October 2019, a mink farm was set alight in Sweden. Almost half of the farm was destroyed, causing almost 100K USD worth of damage. A report sent anonymously read: 

 “There is now one less mink farm in Sweden. It was burned down in the heart of the Swedish mink industry: Sölvesborg, a small town of inbred animal abusers and extreme racists.

The farm was empty, but now future abuse is prevented. No animals were hurt. Unfortunately, no mink farmer was killed in the fire.

To all fur farmers in Scandinavia. You might be next!

Close down before it is too late.

Djurrättsmilisen – The Swedish Animal Rights Militia

in Memory of Barry Horne (RIP)”

This came as no surprise. Sweden has a track record for animal liberation direct action, and many reports are signed as Djurrätsmilisen. But it was everything but ordinary. 

 Sometime after the happening, leaked media showed two teenagers setting the farm on fire. It was a video with a fascist-metal soundtrack published in a fascist channel owned by The Base. 

 The Base is a Neo-nazi group that believes in accelerationism. They believe that society needs a “push” (meaning, creating instability in society through acts of sabotage, bombs and assassinations), to start a new civil war. They believe in a “White Europe” and claim that all wrongs in society are caused by the Jewish people. 

Whilst it was odd to put a report that condemned “extreme racists” and dedicated the action to the memory of Barry Horne with a fascist Neo-nazi group, it wasn’t completely out of the ordinary. Many Base members have taken eco-fascist action to cause chaos in their fantasy world of accelerationist revolution. 

Soon after, two people were arrested. One of them would spend nine months in custody awaiting trial. 

A couple of weeks back, they were sentenced. The trial exposed their involvement in fascist groups, with photos dressed in Nazi uniforms, writing manuals about how to create explosives, and even detailing their intent to kill a judge and bombing an abortion clinic in Stockholm. It also shed light on the action itself. They were planning to release the mink, but as they had not reccied the place beforehand, they did not know the farm was empty. They then decided to pass to plan B, setting the place alight, and they tried and failed to burn two different building until they used the sawdust used in the farm to burn the mink sheds. 

The report was probably a poor attempt to throw the cops off the scent, which was not very effective as both boasted about the action in their telegram chat rooms. 

The sentence was unsurprisingly lenient for the nazis. They were asked to pay a fine and given suspended sentence after being found guilty of arson. 

 This is one of many examples we should be remembering to understand why the animal liberation movement is political. Not only because the abuse of animals is systematic, but also because nazis and fascists should never feel welcome in any environment. Whilst the pair were not involved in any Swedish animal liberation groups, as a community, we should ensure nazis are not welcome either within groups, or online. We cannot “leave politics behind” to “focus on the animals” because nazis and fascists are always a danger to our communities. 

The animal liberation movement is anti-fascist. 

 ANIMAL LIBERATION NAZIS? FUCK OFF! 

Let’s make things clear from the beginning; animal sanctuaries do an immense, thankless and relentless job and are deserving of as much funding as we possibly can provide. They not only offer a place of rest, healing and happiness to animals who previously were used and abused by anthropocentrism, but they also offer a space where folks can get politicised, can learn about speciesism or can simply take a break. They are necessary and no one should be less than grateful that people give up their life to create safe spaces like that. 

 But this is not about animal sanctuaries. This is about the animal liberation movement, and about keeping afloat in the ride that is capitalist society. The past few years, the vegan movement sucked up a great deal of resources, mostly directed towards so-called “saviours” but also some other organisations focused on vegan outreach. This was not just about small donations from individuals, but also about venture capitalists with tens of thousands to spare that could see a potential growth to their fortune by “investing” in figureheads that would teach activists how to convince folks on the streets to buy the products those venture capitalists have stocks in. The funnel was obvious, and it was exponential. The more money venture capitalists put towards the “vegan saviours”, the more notice (partially thanks to publicists and videographers contracted with those funds) the grassroots movement would take towards them, redirecting partially or totally their funds towards that same goal. The “saviours” were created as a marketing strategy. 

 Fast forward three or four years, and folks start feeling that things are not like they thought they were. You start hearing voices of discontent about how figureheads are spending their money or receiving huge wages, and slow and steady the philosophy of “donate to sanctuaries, not saviours”, extends in a fringe of the vegan movement and in a big part of the animal liberation movement. Improvement, right? right. 

Let us redirect you to our first paragraph once again for folks to not misinterpret our words. Sanctuaries are worthy of as much (economic or otherwise) support as we possibly can muster. But where is the nuance on “support sanctuaries, not saviours”? Over the past couple of years, this dichotomy has created a bilateral concept of where money should go. And if you choose one, it is wrong, and if you choose the other one, it is right. 

The problem is, sanctuaries are not the only worthy cause to support. From anti hunt groups who spend their time searching for traps or standing between the wild and the hunter, to direct action groups doing whatever they need to do to make the animal industry tumble, many worthy causes are lost in the lack of nuance. Those organising effective campaigning need support to take their campaign to the next level. Those who spend night after night coding the encrypted applications you use to organise, or the browser to search your information, for free, need support. Those creating anti media, like us, or like Biteback, or Crimethinc, or 325, need help to upkeep web servers and technology to keep bringing that media to you. The folks who organise Food not Bombs and feed as many folks as possible on the street? You guessed it. How about the folks who access farms and breeding centres to provide the wider audience with the photos and videos we all use during outreach? And the folks in prison who cannot eat vegan unless they buy from commissary? And those who were arrested during a civil disobedience action and need to cover a fine? There are many, many avenues within our movement that need all the support we can give. 

 But at the end of the day, capitalism bleeds all of us dry. We only have so much, and we can only give so much to those who need it. There is no doubt that we shouldn’t put ourselves in a situation where we cannot provide for ourselves to support worthy causes. But what is also certain is that we need to be more nuanced than the “either or” dichotomy we have created within the movement. 

Unoffensive has been running for the most part of four years. In that time, we have been privileged enough to regularly support multiple prisoners, to have enough in the reserve to cover fines for people who had trouble with the law, to fund groups that needed a bunch of radios, or a pair of boots, or building material for a treehouse in an occupation. We have also spent quite some money to keep our platforms accessible to all of you, without censorship, when governments have tried to shut us down. In the past couple of months, we managed to cover most of the fines that Djurfront were facing, for demos against a fur farm that will very soon be closed, whilst also sending enough funds to three different prisoners and helping an anti hunt group get their vehicle fixed. All that work is because people have been generous enough to donate to us, and the collective donations have helped many folks keep fighting the fight. 

We have also turned down requests. Many more than we would like to say, and many more than we have fulfilled. The only reason is that we do not have enough funds to help everybody. 

 So this huge write up is just an attempt to make people think about how we have allowed a false dichotomy to determine how we behave in relation to funding and donations. And whilst money is an uncomfortable topic, we still believe it to be an important topic to cover. Money is trash, yet we still need money to navigate capitalism. If you can afford it, donate to whoever you feel is making good use of that money. Get informed, support whoever needs it, or simply use that money to create something better in the world. 

So what do you think? What is the best way of managing money within the movement to help as much as possible? We would like to hear your thoughts in the comments. 

 If you can afford it, we have a Patreon. Folks can support us with as very little a months or with a lot a month. That’s your choice to make. Or you can just donate to other funds if that feels better to you. We are not here to make money off other folks and have zero interest in personal gain. 

www.patreon.com/animalliberation 

 UNTIL WE WIN

 UA. 

The year is coming to an end and it is as good of a time as any to thank everybody that has supported Unoffensive. All we have achieved would have not been possible without all of you on the other side, donating, sharing, commenting, sending complaints and criticisms and encouraging us to carry on. 

It certainly has been a weird ride. Except for the very beginning of the year, we haven’t done any workshops through 2020. That’s the first time in five years that we’ve missed big activist meetups like Earth First! and that we’ve not travelled to multiple countries to meet people and discuss and learn and share. We cannot wait to start all that over as we believe it to be the best way to grow and expand our knowledge. Until then, you can always reach us via email! 

 In true fashion of “new year new me” and blatantly copying @the.cranky.vegan we have a little list for any of you wanting to make 2021 a revolutionary one. Of course, we are big believers of getting things done, so instead of more ideological ideas, we have a few things to add to your To-Do list: 

 1- QUIT GOOGLE. 

Alongside Facebook, they own the internet, and they own you. They sell you too, your data, your activity, your behaviours and your hopes and dreams. Find alternatives. As a search engine, try DuckDuckGo instead. Set it up as your standard on your browser! Instead of Chrome as an internet browser, try Brave. Of course, we would recommend TOR, but for everyday use, Brave can be very useful! Google Maps? Try OsmAnd app instead. How about phones? Google owns Pixel, and it can be de-googlefied! Check GrapheneOs or CalyxOs. Disconnecting Google from your life is a MAJOR anti-capitalist step you can do with very very little difference in your life. 

2- SUPPORT YOUR COMRADES. 

Choose a prisoner, or two, and start writing letters. Once a week, simply send a letter out to someone in prison. It takes virtually no time in your life, but it opens the windows to a huge world for someone incarcerated. Remember that those you cheer with likes and comments under HIT REPORTS are the same as those who are locked up in prison. They also need some love. 

3- BECOME COMFORTABLE WITH THE UNCOMFORTABLE. 

Get used to walking the countryside at night, in the dark. Get dropped away from the city with a map and walk your way back. Call out the police on the streets. Sneak into a university lesson. Shoplift your dinner. Whatever the task, put yourself in places you are not supposed to be. Familiarise yourself with that uncomfortable feeling and learn to manage your adrenaline. Legality is not just papers and rules, legality also lives in your mind. Kill the cop in your head. 

 4- DO SOMETHING ANONYMOUSLY. 

Don’t misunderstand this one. We are not encouraging anyone to go smash a window with a face covering. That would be a terrible, terrible act of vandalism. What we are encouraging is for you to become accustomed to doing things without the backing of social media. Join your local food not bombs and don’t tell your entire following about it. Go to a demo without posting about it. Have dinner without taking a photo for Instagram. In this world of social media platforms, likes, shares and instant gratification challenge yourself to do something without the approval of anyone else. And of course, never smash a window without a face covering. Covid travels faster on glass shards. 

 5- TAKE ACTION. 

The world is full of show watchers. We are guilty of creating them by sharing news of direct action. The reality is, you have the same power as anybody else to do anything you have in mind. Start small. Wheatpaste the streets. Graffiti “Plants will dance on the ashes of capitalism” through your city. Challenge bailiffs at a squat eviction. Stop looking, dreaming about the “what if”. The revolution is in your hands. 

 See you in the next riot 

 UA

Do you have spare coins? We have not reached our initial goal on Patreon yet. 

www.patreon.com/animalliberation

As you know, one of the main tasks we do is to serve as an anonymous platform for folks who decide to take action but want to remain anonymous. Be it the liberation of animals from a p[lace of exploitation to the sabotage of infrastructure or tools used to abuse animals and the earth, Unoffensive receives reports from around the globe to be published anonymously.

With it, there is the question of how to send those reports securely. Whilst in reality, any form of internet communications is never 100% secure, folks can take steps so they are safer online in order to ensure they can keep working without the burden of prosecution by the law. In this post we want to briefly cover the ins and outs of report sending.

Let us start with the most basic of all. You should NOT send reports online over instagram or Facebook private message. It is not private and it is in fact very easy to track down. This might come as a surprise to many, but we have received reports over social media before, and we suspect it to still be a thing in the future. We do not want to know who you are, and if you do not want folks to know who took action, you should not be using insecure platforms. If, on the other hand, you want to publicise an open rescue, that is for you to choose, but we rarely platform that kind of action as it already carries traction in other social media groups.

So how do you actually send a report? We have an exhaustive explanation on our website under the “Contact Us” tab, but we can quickly explain over here. There are two main methods that you can chose from, one being the form within our website and the other one, using a spam email address. Regardless, both of them require a couple of steps before you do any sending.

The first step would be to connect to a VPN. VPN serves as a mask between your computer and the Internet Service Provider. Instead of you asking the questions to the Internet provider, you tell the VPN to ask those questions for you. You NEED to understand that using solely a VPN does not equate to being secure, anonymous or private online. In this case, we only need the VPN to not let your internet service know you are connected to a TOR network (we will explain this shortly!). You can download and use very intuitively RiseUp VPN or ProtonVPN.

Once you are connected to a VPN, you want to open TOR. TOR is like any other internet browser, but it uses multiple jumps (or nodes) to go from the request to the answer. For that reason, it is a lot more difficult to track down your internet activity. It also comes packed with tools that help with privacy and don’t let websites spy on your behaviour. You can download and install TOR (for free!!) in torproject.org

Once you have connected to a VPN and opened TOR, you have two choices. One is to simply fill the form in our contact us and click send. We have it configured so that it is encrypted and only us holding the private key are able to understand the language of the email.

If you do not want to fill up that form, you can instead use a spam email address (never your personal address!) to send a report. You can go to any spam email service like tempr.email, which creates a disposable address without any details where you can compose an email and send it to unoffensiveanimal(at)riseup(dot)net.

If you need to send media (photos or video) you should be aware of metadata. You can read more about it on our website. Once you got rid of metadata, you can simply attach it (whilst still using TOR and a VPN) to any file sharing service (like WeTransfer, also free) and then paste the link to download the files in the same email as the report.

The report should not include any personal details or anything that can give away your identity. We don’t need to know, and we (almost always) simply copy and paste the report without any editing. Be mindful about what you are writing.

It is as simple as that! You can read more about it on our website www.unoffensiveanimal.is/contact-us

Stay Safe.

LOVE AND RAGE.

You’ve been asking for it for a long time and we have finally managed. All clothing sizes and designs have been restocked, and we have added a new design to the website for all of you who basically have a whole Unoffensive wardrobe!

Our new design ‘All Animals Are Equal’ by @pduthiedraws, is based on a personal take on Animal Farm, by George Orwell. We’ve had enough of folks depicting pigs as evil and using their image to represent dictators and police. Pigs are fucking badass animals, and in our personal Animal Farm story, they are instrumental in bringing down the establishment, one Molotov cocktail at the time! Grab yourself a hoodie or a tee and support our work!

Our tees and hoodies are always printed on organic cotton, certified fair-trade and climate neutral and with vegan ink, so that you feel like the world is better while reading buzzwords about greenwashed capitalist fucking bullshit.

Every order from now until the end of December will include a free Wildfire Magazine and a few stickers, so if you are grabbing a present for a mate, they will get a few extra bits with it!

Remember that our merch is pay as you feel because we let folks decide if they would like to donate extra. We are not a shop, but a collective, and all money raised goes towards the different projects that Unoffensive have, from prisoner, arrest and court support to media production or funding grassroots groups. If you can afford it, throw a couple of extra coins with your hoodie order! Printing costs are high so any extra money is appreciated so we can keep sending money to prisoners or helping with fines!

www.unoffensiveanimal.is/shop

If on the other hand you don’t want any more clothing but you want to support us anyway, remember that we have links for donations:
www.paypal.me/unoffensiveanimal112
www.patreon.com/animalliberation

SEE YOU IN THE NEXT RIOT

UA.

As you all know, we spent almost three months working alongside Underground Badger Syndicate in the badger cull, partly helping badgers make it through that horrible time, and partly filming a documentary about badger cull action. As you might also know, due to repression, we lost most of our footage and will have to wait until it is released or until we can film it once again.

During that time, Unoffensive Animal was mildly dormant as we were unable to focus on internet work as much as we normally do. Slow and steady we have been getting back to bring you direct action news as well as prisoner support and other stuff we believe we should give platform to.

Sadly, due to the lack of work online, our fundraising fell behind big time, and in the past few weeks we have really felt it. We run out of merch but we were unable to print more and a couple of requests for funds by groups were sadly postponed as we run out of money completely. The latest is our web server bill, that is due pretty soon and we are still trying to work out how we will cover.

We don’t really talk about money often because there is a huge stigma about donations, patreon and funding, but the reality is that within this capitalist society we try to navigate, money is needed every now and then. The conversation around funding and generating money through animal rights is an important one to be had and certainly not as black and white as “Give money to sanctuaries, not to saviours”, as it creates a false dichotomy where different collectives, organisations and even individuals are erased or wrongly attached to either one or the other. Whilst we praise the reminder that sanctuaries are a massively important part of this movement that deserve upmost support, it is important to also remember that campaigns, collectives and prisoners are also worthy of support.

We have written about how we manage money before, but we can sum it up quickly again. Unoffensive works as a media platform, so a part of the money goes towards serves, web stuff and technology bullshit. Some of it is either lifted or borrowed but a fair bit of website requirements we actually have to pay for. We also work as a platform for prisoner, arrest and court support. A good chunk of the money goes out for prisoners to get some food from commissary or for individuals that have been fined after arrest. If and when we have any money left, some of the money goes towards supporting groups and campaigns with equipment and other means. An example of this would be a night vision for an anti hunt group, or some cash for a grassroots group who needs to cover vet bills.

Note that none of the money goes towards personal gain, towards rent, or food, or anything like that. Whilst we are not necessarily against folks making a living out of donations, Unoffensive was never set out to “pay wages” and we will never do so.

So if you believe in the work we do and you think you would like to help, we really, really could do with the support.

We have two streams of income. The first one is merchandise. We are in the process of restocking and releasing new items. We print on organic, fair trade garments with vegan ink and we are shit at being organised so your parcel might take a while, but hey, long live anarchist self organising no?

Secondly, we receive donations through either PayPal or Patreon. Both are shit and both take commission but what can we fucking do. When folks join Patreon they get a sweet nothing as a reward as the only thing we could think of was educational PDFs and whatnot and we cannot imagine putting knowledge behind a paywall, so everybody is welcome to contact us and ask for any information needed.

Are you able to help us out and keep us going?

If so, these are our links:
www.patreon.com/animalliberation
www.paypal.me/unoffensiveanimal112

And if you can’t, don’t have the means or already donate to other causes, maybe consider sharing our words and supporting us that way instead!

SOLIDARITY IS OUR STRONGEST WEAPON.

UA.

Our work in the badger cull is over and we can get back to focusing on Unoffensive Animal. Sadly, due to police repression, we lost a lot of our footage and we might not have enough to publish our full light documentary on the badger cull any time soon, but if it does appear, we will get back working on it as soon as possible.

It certainly has been a rough few months and as every year we are incredibly impressed by the amount of people out fighting the cull and the passion displayed by many of them. It is a humbling experience. We certainly want to mention @undergroundbadgersyndicate for their dedication. If you’re able to, please support them in any way you can.

Now that we are back, we want to hear from you. Unoffensive has always been a platform where direct action is published, but also an educational tool. What would you like us to produce? Would the series on technology and security be something people are interested in? ALFRIDAYS? Incite, Conspire, Inspire? Something completely different?

Whatever it is, please drop us a comment, give us suggestions and requests.

Equally, we would like to hear from people about merch. We don’t make a lot of money out of merchandise but we still believe it to be a good way of spreading the word and raising a few pennies. A few people have contacted us and asked when we are going to restock. Are people interested in a Unoffensive Merch Restock before all the capitalist Christmas bullshit kicks in? Would it be good to have a new design? Would people be interested in beanies?

Lastly, the folks at Wildfire would also like to hear about the magazine. If you have read the first edition, what did you think? If you haven’t, why haven’t you?

Talk to us as we want to hear as much feedback as possible and kickstart unoffensive as hard as we possibly can!

If you’re able to support us, we have to pay for our website server (that’s kinda an annoying thing that happens once a year!) and it really isn’t cheap.

For one off donations, PayPal is peng, send us a friends and family tip to unoffensive_animal (@) tutanota (.) com

If on the other hand you want to become part of the super fucking awesome and fantastic club that our patreon supporters are, the link is just here: www.patreon.com/animalliberation

And if you can’t afford donating, we also love you because your worth is not measured by your donations the same way that our worth is not measured by our productivity. (But if you can share and comment and like that would be amazing).

Waiting to hear from all of you.

See you in the next riot

UA.

PS: How peng is this photo from Underground Badger Syndicate?

First of all as a quick update about what we are up to, we are still working hard in the badger cull as it has not ended in multiple zones. This is the main reason we are not updating our website and socials as often as normal. As soon as the bloodbath is over we will be able to put a bit of love and care into up keeping Unoffensive Animal, but we don’t want you to think we are abandoning the project, we are just terribly busy!

There is a second reason why we’ve been publishing A LOT LESS than normal. For some odd reason, our standard way or receiving hit reports safely has stopped working.

Guerrillamail does not want to interact with RiseUp so any emails sent through guerrilla mail are NOT being received. Folks needing to send hit reports whilst remaining anonymous need NOT TO USE GUERRILLAMAIL.

Any reports sent during the last month that have not been published yet should be sent once again. We will edit the website explaining how to contact us once the badger cull is over, but for now this is a quick how to:

1- Use a VPN (RiseUpVPN works and it is free)
2- Use Tor Browser (just download the browser, it is easy!)
3- visit tempr.email (instead of Guerrillamail) or any other throwaway email service. You can also create a throwaway account with literally ANY email provider, so long as you do not use it any longer.
4- attach your media to a WeTransfer and copy/paste the download link. We are working on using different and more secure methods of receiving media, but for now that is the easiest and more intuitive
5- don’t write personal details. We don’t need to know.
6- send your email to unoffensiveanimal (at) riseup (dot) net

It is as simple as that. Share this information with everybody and let them know that our email service was down, but we are now able to receive reports once again as long as folks use a different email provider.

Nothing else to add. See you in the next riot!

UA.