Defend Direct Action
15th March, Chile
via: BiteBackMagazine
A rodeo ring in Cañete (Biobío) was heavily damaged in an arson attack. According to media reports, a pamphlet referring to the liberation of Mapuche political prisoners was found at the site.
Someone in Norwich, UK, was sentenced to a 1000 GBP fine after being found guilty of attacking multiple butcher shops. Whilst the person feels the sentencing was relatively lenient and they have started to pay the fine in small monthly payments, it would be very useful if that fine was paid in full and gotten rid of as it eases the burden of having probation keeping an eye on you and your transactions.
For that reason and thanks to a very generous donation by artist and comrade @goaskforde, we will be organising an artwork raffle to raise the funds.
Because it is quite a lot of money and we doubt we will be able to raise all those funds with just the raffle, we are asking for people to consider sending a donation over PayPal if they can afford it. You can be overly generous if that doesn’t put you in a difficult position, or you can just donate 5 pounds, every little bit that people put towards this fine helps someone feel supported after being caught doing an anonymous action.
If you are unable to donate, please spread the word as much as possible. Liking, commenting, sharing and saving this post all increase the algorithm and help this fundraiser reach as many people as possible.
Keep an eye for the upcoming art raffle, we will publish it very soon, and for the time being if you can donate, send some coins to www.paypal.me/unoffensiveanimal112
SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON!
Normally on flammable we bring you two or three different bits of news about other struggles, but seeing as stuff is kicking off in the UK, some comrades felt that focusing it around the proposed “Police, crime and sentencing Bill” would be a good idea.
The UK parliament is pushing a new law that threatens the right to protest, sending people who are taking part in “very annoying or inconvenient” protests away for up to ten years in prison, as well as criminalising the very existence of travellers and Roma folk by criminalising trespass and adding prison sentences to the “crime”. It even mentions the possibility of deportation for foreign folk who accept a caution at a protest, or who are found guilty of being part of an inconvenient protest. It is a dangerous law that affects protest camps, targets homeless folk and ensures hunt sabs will not be able to do their job, for example, and amplifies the already brutal powers that the police has to stop dissenting voices.
For that reason, thousands of people have taken to the streets in major cities across the UK. Protests, demonstrations, and even unapologetically militant actions have taken place to oppose the proposed law, and it is believed to be on the increase.
Folks have taken many forms of creative action. We’ve seen banner drops deployed on trees by climbing activists, people purposely trespassing to liberate animals or smashing traps, and multiple squats have popped up in defiance to the PSCB.
Last Thursday, and after organising a free food share in a pizza squat in London, riot police entered RAT’s new occupied restaurant and launched a violent attack against the squatters inside. Someone was beaten unconscious, and everybody was arrested on bogus charges.
Police brutality doesn’t end there. Bristol has seen riot police repeatedly hitting folk with batons for committing the crime of not moving from the floor, and this morning it surfaced that a journalist was tricked into getting close to the police just to be arrested and another journalist was badly beaten whilst filming the demonstration.
Folks are taking action to protect the right to protest and they are doing so in whatever manner they believe is right. In an interview, someone who was present during the first Bristol protest said “Soon we will not be able to go out on the streets to demonstrate, so it does not surprise me that someone burnt that police van. If we are gonna go to prison, we might as well give them fire”.
From squatters to folks fighting for the earth, ALF activists and even folks without any political background are fighting this bill. If you are in the UK, leaderless demos are being called in multiple cities. They advise folk to wear black and to mask up to keep safe. From abroad, folks are calling for over and underground actions in solidarity to make as much noise as possible about the new authoritarian law.
Solidarity with our comrades in the UK fighting this madness.
LIBERATE OR DIE.
20th March, South UK
received anonymously via encrypted email:
“As Easter approaches we decided that we needed to do something, this lamb won’t be appearing on a plate near you! Liberated and safe now, they’ll never know the fate that might have been.
A note to Priti: You might pass in history as the politician that single handedly forced the resurgence of the ALF. Why protest in front of a butchers when you can get a longer sentence than if you smashed the windows or liberated a lamb? Fuck you, you evil, fascist scum.”
23rd March, Kent, UK
received anonymously via email:
“On the Resist Anti Trespass day of action we went for a little walk around the countryside. After a few ignored “private property” signs we heard sheep in a near-by orchard. We decided to take a look and wasn’t prepared for what we saw. Two dead ewes and a lamb standing by them. Knowing they wouldn’t survive, we took this baby to a safe heaven to live the life they deserve.
Fuck the proposed anti trespass law. It affect us all; it’s a racist law specifically targeting travellers. It’s a classist law that will criminalise being homeless. It’s an ecocidal law that will make protest camps completely illegal. It’s a speciesist law that will attack the way hunt sabs operate and the way farm investigators work. Resist Anti-Trespass.
RATS FOR LIBERATION!
(Photo is just a stock image in order to protect the identity of the lamb).”
25th March, North East Uk
received anonymously via encryopted email:
“We set off in the middle of the night with cameras in our bags looking for a broiler farm. The stench alone was enough to lead us to where we wanted to go.
As we entered, hormone-filled chickens where crammed wall to wall, sitting covered in their own shit, some sadly dead already.
Normally we would’ve simply taken some photos to show the public how horrible the meat industry is, but seeing that soon we could face prison for trespassing and even for showing the footage we filmed at a demo, we decided to take a more radical approach. This night saw seventeen chickens liberated. Satisfied and not wanting to get caught, we left but we will return.
Until all are free
NEALF”
NOTE: Today’s A is for Anarchy is in solidarity with the RATS at Resisting Anti Trespass, who are under siege right now being attacked by cops in their squat in London.
We all need shelter, it is a basic need and like so many of our needs capitalism exploits it. We live in a society that profits from exchanging a lot of labour for temporary shelter. A society that makes it impossible for most people to own their own home and thrives off the constant threat of withholding a roof over your head. Rent is theft.
Squatting is a radical action against this. It involves occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area (of which there are many) which the squatter/s doesn’t own, rent or have any lawful permission to be there. Squatting is a lifeline to so many people. Squatting is reclaiming our right to shelter in a world full of empty buildings and extortionate bills. Squatting is protest. Squatting is a landlords worst nightmare.
In many ways squatting is anarchism in action. Squatting is in direct opposition to capitalism and it challenges ideas and norms surrounding ownership of land. Squatting takes space without asking our overlords for permission. It uses direct action to tackle the housing crisis and/or tactically takes specific targets in protest or to enable further protest. For example the squats in Exarchia that anarchists set up in solidarity with refugees and migrants without papers who need space and as much shelter from the hostile state as possible.
While there are many debates to be had surrounding and within the world of squatting, and it is not without its challenges, it is a means of resistance and survival. It rejects the authority of the ‘landowner’, gives the state the finger and not only shows us how we can reimagine ways we could live but actually puts it into practice. Let’s hope the queen can look forward to having squatters as neighbours again.
Squat the world.
Further reading:
Advisory Service for Squatters (UK Based): www.squatter.org.uk
Some anonymous folk have sent a compilation of actions in Sweden by the ALF and other autonomous groups. They also sent the following paragraph:
“Fighting for animal liberation over the whole of so called Sweden. All animal oppressors are targets. All means are allowed. No regret. No forgiveness. No one is safe. The fight continues. Until all are free! – Gråben “
Peter was locked up and sentenced to 25 months after an arson at a duck slaughterhouse in Netherlands. Ten of those months are probation, so he will be coming out of prison this August.
His support group reports that he is in good spirits and that although he contracted COVID, he only had mild symptoms and only spent 15 days in isolation.
He has thanked folks for the letters sent and also for the donations that came in through the fundraiser, which has been used to improve the food he eats, helping with the COVID recovery.
If you want to write a letter to Peter, you can send it via email to [email protected]. Remember to write your address down if you want him to be able to write back.
Solidarity is our biggest weapon!
In 1986, Brass Tacks; Animal Warfare was published in the UK. This is a clip extracted from the document entry that showcases the Animal Liberation Leagues work in multiple laboratories, were hundreds of activists would organise to raid a place together, and in brad daylight. After months of watching and learning, hundreds of folk would break into a laboratory, or a breeding facility, to document, film, steal paperwork, cause economic damage and sometimes liberate animals.
You can see multiple highly functioning teams in action. From folks doing video and audio surveillance, to mass groups pushing their way into laboratories. Tim Phillips gives an interview where he explains the reasoning behind choosing specific tactics, and mentions “Within this laboratories animals have been tortured and died, and they have no say, their only hope is organisations such as ourselves. Arrogance or not, it’s a fact”.
It is also interesting to hear the figures of ALF activists in the UK. They claim about 1300 people involved in underground direct action in the aim of animal liberation. At the beginning of the video, you can read a quote from the ALF Bulletin n.11; “If it is necessary to smash and destroy every butcher’s shop in the land, the the ALF will do it.”
PS: Please note that David Henshaw, producing this documentary, spent quite a few years of his life attempting to link the ALF with the far right and Class War with nazis. Proceed with caution watching complete documentaries made by him.