3rd September, Portugal.
received anonymously via email:
“2 lives saved in Portugal.Living with huge family in sanctuary now,
These babies were to be slaughtered in 3 month.”
Defend Direct Action
3rd September, Portugal.
received anonymously via email:
“2 lives saved in Portugal.Living with huge family in sanctuary now,
These babies were to be slaughtered in 3 month.”
We’ve all seen the headlines
“100s of black clad anarchists riot through downtown”
“black bloc smash Starbucks windows”
But what is the black bloc, and why is it used?
The black bloc is often seen as a gang or group by the media and the right wing, yet this is not the case at all, the black bloc is simply a tactic used to protect the identity of protestors by giving a uniform appearance across all members of the protestors. This allows protestors to sabotage infrastructure, protect communities, prevent police incursions into established autonomous zones, and more, all whilst maintaining their anonymity.
The black bloc is not a new tactic, having originated in West Germany in the 1970’s and 1980’s prior to the fall of the Berlin wall. During the economic recession occurring at this time, as well as massive amounts of people leaving the cities for the suburbs, many areas of the inner city were left abandoned and were squatted, providing people with free housing.
Within these squatter communities, radical political ideas began to emerge, which caused clashes with police and other government agencies to occur. Due to the violence from the police, protestors donned motorcycle helmets, steel-toed boots, and other protective clothing along with ski-masks to enable them to continue protesting through the violence from police and avoid being targeted for arrest.
Is the black bloc tactic always useful and recommended? Not necessarily, as sometimes it has the opposite effect, such as being the only person in black bloc meaning you stand out and are more likely to be the target of police violence and arrest.
For more information on the black bloc (as well as an insight into the 2012 Montreal student demonstrations that heavily used the black bloc tactic) check out https://sub.media/video/a-history-of-the-black-bloc/
For a history around the world of black bloc tactics, check out “Who’s Afraid of the Black Blocs: Anarchy in Action Around the World” by Francis Dupuis-Deri
28th August, France.
received anonymously:
“[FRENCH BELOW]
On Wednesday, August 28, at night, we, anti-speciesist activists, saboted an aviary where hundreds of pheasants were held prisoners. The wire grid was opened, electrified cables were sectioned, and many openings were cut through the net.
These people were to be sold and killed by hunters soon. We hope the most of them managed to escape.
Our thoughts go to all the non-human people who are still imprisoned today and who will not get the chance to live freely before being killed by humans.
We are not heroes, this is merely a testimony. Now, it is the responsibility of all anti-speciesists to rise up and to help all the victims of speciesism, until total liberation has been achieved.
Until all the cages are empty.
We do not forget our animalists comrades who are victims of repression, including Matthias, detained in jail in Switzerland since 8 months now.
————————————
Dans la nuit du mercredi 28 août, nous, activistes antispécistes, avons saboté une volière où été détenu.e.s des centaines de faisan.de.s. Le grillage a été ouvert, les fils électrifiés sectionnés, et une partie du filet a été coupé.
Ces personnes allaient être vendues pour être tuées par des chasseur.euse.s très prochainement. Nous espérons qu’un maximum de ces prisonièr.e.s ont pu s’échapper.
Nous avons une pensée pour toutes les personnes non humaines encore enfermées aujourd’hui, qui n’auront pas la chance de vivre en liberté avant d’être assassinées par les humain.e.s.
Nous ne sommes pas des héro.ïne.s, ceci n’est qu’un témoignage. Maintenant, il appartient à chaque antispéciste de passer à l’action et d’aider toutes les personnes victimes du spécisme, jusqu’à la libération totale.
Jusqu’à ce que toutes les cages soient vides.
Nous n’oublions pas nos camarades animalistes qui subissent la répression, dont Matthias toujours détenu en prison en Suisse depuis 8 mois maintenant.”
received anonymously via email:
“During the night of the 24th of August in France, 13 rabbits were helped free from their cages and released.
We are aware that this kind of actions is controversial. We’d like to point out that these people are living in absolutely dreadful conditions. They never saw and will never see the daylight. They’re crowded in tiny cages, right upon their feces. Many amongst them (one person out of five) won’t survive those conditions of detention, even before the day they’re sent for slaughter.
Living in nature is risky, but leaving them inside is signing their own death warrant. Outside, each of them gets a chance to survive. Some people worry about predation but it’s an inherent risk to the wild. Foxes, their main predators, are not as numerous as them, only some of them will be eaten no matter the color of their fur. Actually the worst thing that could happen to them is to encounter a humane hunter.
We know that sanctuaries exist. Unfortunately, the total room of these places compared to the number of the other animals killed everyday is totally derisory. All the more almost every female in these farms is pregnant and can have up to 12 babies, which would drastically reduce the number of precious safe places in the sanctuaries. What shall we do concerning those who can’t have a home, leave them behind ?
In this speciesist world where there aren’t any perfect solution, we decided to give them a chance in the wild. This decision is even more pertinent considering the fact that we saw many other white rabbits running free in the fields.
We chose a place far away from the busy roads, a small wood around a field where they can be safe. It appeared to us that there weren’t many foxes there. We stayed with the rabbits for an hour and observed that they spontaneously ate and moved to discover their new environment. They were jumping for joy, relieved after they experienced hell.
Finally, we are not accountable to anyone except the other animals.
We also have a thought for every activist suffering from the state and police repression.
Until every cage is empty.”
28th of July, Netherlands.
Via: BiteBack Magazine.
“The Animal Liberation Front released 11 chickens from an industrial farm in the Netherlands.
Now they can live happily, free from exploitation in a beautiful home.”
19th August, Gloucester UK.
received anonymously:
“During the night of 19th August we visited a partridge shoot of the outskirts of Gloucester and liberated what we believe to be around 5,000 partridges, destined to be shot imminently. After weeks of surveillance of the rearing sheds, we waited until two weeks before the start of the killing season to release them. This was both to ensure that the birds were old enough to survive and to cause maximum economic damage. Our aim is to close this shoot down for good.
Due to the proximity of the farm buildings and the gamekeeper’s house, we built a barricade on the track so if the keeper came out in his vehicle we’d have time to escape should the noise of the fleeing birds wake anyone. We then opened each pen in turn by cutting the zip ties that held the fence panels together and the plastic netted roof before herding the thousands of captives into the surrounding maize and wheat fields.
We will dismantle this industry pen by pen, shoot by shoot.
Until all birds fly free.
Animal Liberation Front
”
So you know we are a media collective that does not fear taking action when needed. From Hambacher Forst to antifascist demos and anarchist community work, we report what’s going on in the front lines for those who need an anonymous platform whilst actively working towards improving the world.
The last few weeks have been intense and exhausting, and you probably have noticed that we have not published as much as normal. We’ve been giving talks in Earth First!, joined the Animal Rights March in London, then headed to Sheffield for more talks and then straight down south to join Smash Speciesism during the slaughterhouse action. All that stuff hasn’t helped us push the internet as much as possible and we have quite a few Hit Reports piled up. We are gonna publish three a day for the next few days until they are all mentioned and shared, but because social media isn’t a fan of us and we are shadowbanned in all platforms, we need you to do your part and share us however you can.
We are trying to take a couple of days off to recover. That last slaughterhouse action was intense, exhausting and draining. It was also quite a success in our opinion, but certainly, it took a lot of energy from us.
We’ve received bad news from the Support Eric King team, we will make a whole post about it soon. Also, Matthias’ appeal was ignored, so he is still locked up. We cannot stress how important it is to support our comrades in prison, so please do anything and everything to send them love or to change this situation.
Next on the list is the badger cull. That means no more workshops and talks for a couple of months, but a serious six to eight week shift of 12 hour days (minimum) until the British government decides it is enough and they stop killing badgers for the year. If you want to get involved with that, please contact Underground Badger Syndicate and let them know.
A is for Anarchy, Technology 101 and ALFridays coming back from next week. If we have the strength and will, we will also schedule a few Incite Conspire Inspire. Depends on the level of energy.
That is all from us, for now, and until we have something interesting to say again. The last thing we would like to ask is for folks to support us. Our funds are incredibly low, we are yet to reach the first Patreon goal and with the cull around the corner, we could do with as much spare cash as possible to cause havoc in the countryside.
If you want some march, we’ve stocked up a lot and you should be able to find your size. We have new designs, old designs, fresh stickers and whatever other stuff you fancy getting and it would be a major help. The same way, if you have sick pictures of our merch, please send them our way!
www.unoffensiveanimal.is/collections
If you’re able to, joining our Patreon helps the team. Even a couple of quid a month is a major donation, imagine if all our followers donated a dollar each!
www.patreon.com/animalliberation
If not, you can drop us some coins via PayPal (try friends and family) on this email:
unoffensive_animal(at)tutanota.com
FOR THE WILD.
28th August – Czech republic, Prague
Butcher shop on the main road was attacked by sprays and stones.
The advertisement was sprayed by “stop killing innocent”, police started chasing us, so we couldn’t finish all.
Photos taken after owner tried wash our graffiti.”
Read below a text sent to us on the incarceration of Matthias, the slaughterhouse sabotage action in Switzerland last year and a call to action to show Matthias isn’t alone:
Exactly one year ago, following the Geneva march for the end of speciesism, activists targeted the canton’s largest chicken slaughterhouse, temporarily disabling it and destroying the killing chain, computers, and the entire stock of speciesist “goods”, thus causing a direct attack on the murder economy of several tens of thousands of francs.(991,856 hens killed in 2018 in the canton, 8,000~ per week in this slaughterhouse, Tribune de Genève, Céline Garcin)
The activists had issued press releases explaining their action through various media.
It was the first such action in Switzerland in at least 10 years.
The idea is simple, however: as antispeciesists we all oppose every forms of animal exploitation and where there are the most victims are slaughterhouses.
Since Matthias’ imprisonment, it has to be said that the repression has worked well. Where is the revolt, the sound of broken windows and the fear of speciesist businesses and multinationals that our egalitarian movement will resist it?
Where are the 250,000 vegans from Switzerland? At the sides of their brothers and sisters, in sanctuaries, and places of domination to resist with them? Or at the supermarket, credit card in hand?
Matthias is innocent until proven guilty, this beautiful judicial system promises us.
And yet, for the past 9 months he has been paying the price of our silence for a prosecutor who dreamed of seeing him held as a leader of actions for which there is STILL no proof.
But since we no longer hear broken windows, it’s because he necessarily did it, right?
It seems obvious to us that the best way to help him, beyond supporting him morally and materially, is to make him this promise: when you’re getting out Matthias, the speciesist industry will have suffered many failures and we are one day closer to animal liberation.
We were neither silent nor fearful, we did not abandon our brothers and sisters to their fate by closing our eyes, we grabbed picks, bolt cutters, shovels and carboys to indicate everywhere and all the time that we are determined to resist their side regardless of our criminal record, regardless of the risks, because they are ready to be free at last!
If his incarceration has taught us anything, it is this: solidarity is never an empty word. Solidarity is lived and proven on a daily basis. Not behind a keyboard. We went to meet activists from all over the world to share Matthias’ story and often the most distant people are the ones who do the most to get him out of his cell.
But this is obviously not enough. In Switzerland it is urgently time to activate all the manoeuvres to denounce his incarceration.
This is a call to action. NOW!
Read the report from the slaughterhouse action last year here:
“On the night of Saturday night, antispeciesist activists attacked a slaughterhouse in Perly, Canton Geneva, announced the activists in an anonymous letter.
Upset citizens have decided to attack a slaughterhouse in Perly, which claims several thousand victims every week,” the anonymous message said.
“Science has long proven (…) the sentience (the ability to feel emotions and live a subjective life) that other animals show. They can rightly be considered as individuals, who deserve to live as long and happy a life as possible,” the letter continues.
“That is why antispeciesist activists decided to undermine this slaughterhouse, damaging its slaughter line, premises and stocks in the hope of temporarily preventing them from taking further lives and showing their refusal to see these morbid places exist.”
Please, help Matthias economically whilst he endures an illegal incarceration by donating on the link below:
As many people might have seen already, Forge Farm Meat’s was blockaded by ten activists during the early hours of Tuesday, lasting over twelve hours before being evicted and essentially bringing the whole murderous operation to a standstill. Below you can read the report of one of the folks involved in the action.
“We didn’t sleep. More for nerves than lack of preparation, but we didn’t sleep. A couple of hours before setting off, after having met with the team, most of us were pacing up and down without much to do. We shared strategy and agreed on the action boundaries. For the action, we are to remain non-violent and we are not interested in causing any damage to the infrastructure. Not because we are non-violent or because we don’t believe in sabotage, but because we need to create an action approachable and acceptable for those who have never considered direct action.
What happens next is a very quick succession of actions that I struggle to remember perfectly. We drive, we walk down a field wet with dew and we carry lock ons. We take turns carrying that heavy concrete box. A rug is thrown over the barbed wire and we all jump over and into the perimeter. Without opposition and with no workers to be seen, we find Death Row and six people stay whilst another four climb up on the waste silo. We hope they bring a cherry picker to evict the silo.
The police come incredibly quickly. Less than ten minutes into the action and they already are here. They shout, they shove people around and struggle with us. They keep shining torches at us whilst threatening us with a hose. They make sexist comments. I feel disgusted by them, even more than I do regularly. I look at the ACAB lock-on and smile. I’m not sure they get the point as one of them says “Who is Acab”?
By the break of dawn, we can see a good few people already supporting us from outside, whilst eight police officers try to break us down. We don’t care. Today we act because of all the sheep these people murder. They are the subject of our action, they are the only important part. No amount of laughter from the cops, threatening behaviour from workers or words of discouragement from the owner of the slaughterhouse changes anything. Those sheep deserve a second chance, those sheep deserved to be listened to, and we act by extending a metaphorical microphone to them. They want to be free. We are just translating their agency into action that other humans can understand.
The smell fills the air. You can chew it. It surrounds us all in sticky doom. It reminds us of the blood and body parts still rotting in the bins right next to us and of the number of individuals that have been murdered in the building for mere profit under the belief that other animals are lesser than we are.
I look back towards the sheep with my heart in my mouth. They look skinny, terrified, seeking a route to escape. One of them coughs very loudly. The sound hits against my ears, hard, and it worries me. The police don’t take notice. Sheep are things to them.
A drone flies above us. It’s one of our comrades, signalling us, so some of us let off smoke grenades. I cannot wait to see the footage with the sun glowing orange behind us, the disgusting building underneath us and the smoke flying high, tarnishing the sky red. If that image doesn’t make people look, I don’t know what else we can do.
We insist on the fact that we are happy to leave the building and unlock if they release the sheep to a safe home. We have it all prepared, spaces for all of them, transport and regulated drivers. It is their call. They have the chance to redeem themselves, to start a new life, to become part of the solution. We are not naive though, and we know there is a very slim chance.
One by one, they get us out of the lock-ons and into arrest vans. We don’t walk, we go limp and make them carry us. Something turns in my stomach when I look back towards the holding pens and see the sheep. I’m being forced to leave them behind.
At the police station, they act like they are all new. It takes hours for each one of us to be processed and even longer to be interviewed. I think of every animal locked in a crate on their way to slaughter, every animal imprisoned in a box inside of a lab, every single one of them. I think of the sheep I met today and I puke. I will be here for a day maximum. They get life sentence.
After the standard harassment of police and a very long arrest, one by one, all of us are let out with conditions. So many people have been waiting for us outside of the station with snacks and hugs. It is heartwarming and gives me back life. They remind me that the action was a success and explain how the media has reacted to it. They explain that thousands of people have commented or messaged in solidarity and that people keep saying they feel inspired and want to take action.
I think about the last twenty-four hours. It’s been a ride. I only hope that people got the message that speciesism needs to be challenged and more and more comrades decide to stand against it unapologetically. A thought crosses my mind at speed; “what are we blockading next?”. I smile. I’ve only been out for a few minutes. I don’t think I can help myself.”
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