Workshop on Animal Rights Activism in Britain at the Anarchist Bookfair 24 Oct
Paul Vegan Anarchist | 07.10.2009 22:50 | Analysis | Animal Liberation | Repression | South Coast
A meeting to discuss the development of grassroots animal rights activism in the past 10 years since the closure of laboratory cat breeder Hillgrove Farm. This was widely seen as the beginning of a new phase in the struggle for animal rights and anti-vivisection but have the hopes of campaigners at the time been fully realised?
Saturday 24 October: Anarchist Bookfair, 10.00am-7.00pm Queen Mary and Westfield, Queen Mary & Westfield College, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS. Tube: Mile End or Stepney Green
From Hillgrove Farm to Highgate Farm: the rise and fall of animal rights activism in Britain, 1999-2009?
Room EB4a (under Octagon Room stalls). 3.00-3.50pm
After a sustained campaign lasting two years, the closure of Hillgrove Farm where cats were bred for experimentation, made national news in August 1999. The Animal Rights movement felt confident and as a result new campaigns were launched, the most famous being Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), which targets Huntingdon Life Sciences, in November 1999.
Nine years later another animal breeder was raided, Highgate Farm near Lincoln, and 128 rabbits rescued. A few months after that, four people were arrested for trespassing there and all were charged with interfering in a contract between a research laboratory and its supplier, s145 of the Serious Organized Crime and Police Act. Three pleaded guilty and two were remanded in custody but when the fourth activist came to trial in May this year, the judge ruled that no offence had taken place!
This workshop will examine animal rights in Britain over the last ten years, asking if state repression and the subsequent decline in morale and support were inevitable and whether the movement has in any way been the architect of its own downfall. We will also discuss to what extent anarchist ideas can help us to understand the situation and find a way forward.
There will many other meetings on a wide range of subjects including:Resisting NETCU, Fighting FIT; Earth First! UK ecological direct action comes of age; Too Many prisons and not enough justice, and many many more. There will also be stalls, films and cabaret, and a creche while Veggies will be outside the venue providing cheap vegan food.
http://www.anarchistbookfair.org/index.html
From Hillgrove Farm to Highgate Farm: the rise and fall of animal rights activism in Britain, 1999-2009?
Room EB4a (under Octagon Room stalls). 3.00-3.50pm
After a sustained campaign lasting two years, the closure of Hillgrove Farm where cats were bred for experimentation, made national news in August 1999. The Animal Rights movement felt confident and as a result new campaigns were launched, the most famous being Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), which targets Huntingdon Life Sciences, in November 1999.
Nine years later another animal breeder was raided, Highgate Farm near Lincoln, and 128 rabbits rescued. A few months after that, four people were arrested for trespassing there and all were charged with interfering in a contract between a research laboratory and its supplier, s145 of the Serious Organized Crime and Police Act. Three pleaded guilty and two were remanded in custody but when the fourth activist came to trial in May this year, the judge ruled that no offence had taken place!
This workshop will examine animal rights in Britain over the last ten years, asking if state repression and the subsequent decline in morale and support were inevitable and whether the movement has in any way been the architect of its own downfall. We will also discuss to what extent anarchist ideas can help us to understand the situation and find a way forward.
There will many other meetings on a wide range of subjects including:Resisting NETCU, Fighting FIT; Earth First! UK ecological direct action comes of age; Too Many prisons and not enough justice, and many many more. There will also be stalls, films and cabaret, and a creche while Veggies will be outside the venue providing cheap vegan food.
http://www.anarchistbookfair.org/index.html
Paul Vegan Anarchist
Comments
Hide the following 3 comments
decline?? what decline
07.10.2009 23:17
For those of us who have been into this for over 20 years we know AR comes in cycles of about 5-6 years. Sure we've had a little downturn the last 3 years but this s normal. We are now on the upturn. We are on th move my friend and the next upswing will be bigger than the last, as people come off the keyboard and go back out to the real world to defend those who can't defend themselves.
get some
Really?
08.10.2009 08:09
There were other breeders around at the same time as Hillgrove who stay open, but the focus was on Hillgrove, in the way that the focus is currently on HLS. If you were to read the Plymouth report and LSR filings you would see that whilst some elements of our movement like to have a moan and wallow in self pity, others are getting the job done. A job which would get done a lot quicker without the morale sapping of constant "repression" mantras.
If not enough people are doing enough then do more stalls and strengthen the movement by making it accessible for new activists. You can't expect people to com flocking to a movement you do nothing to publicise (and when you do it is all whiny). If you look at areas where groups do regular info stalls you will see strong groups with a great track record of actions and success.
The movement is only as repressed as your mind, and it is only as dead as you let it become.
Phillip
Why is all the focus on Hillgrove?
08.10.2009 17:26
And what downfall? Newchurch took 8 years to close! Highgate planed to close down after just one raid but police persuaded them otherwise, so they won't last much longer with some more militant attention. HLS buyout is now fucked without Fortress' loan, so they are unlikely to gain another loan and end up being thrown of the exchange only to liquidate themselves.
As 'get some' pointed out there has always been repression and it comes in stages (just like any previously successful social movement) which is followed by larger uprisings. The repressive eras for animal liberation were 1974-1976 (pre-ALF), 1984-1986 (first wave), 1993-1996 (second wave) and 2005-2008 (third wave). Note how these were always around a decade apart, it mirrors repression against previous movements. The initial stage was basic imprisonment, the first wave were sentences of a few years, second wave were sentences of 5-15 years (such as Keith Mann) and the third wave involved internment (such as Don Currie).
The third uprising is upon us...with groups like MFAH getting started already.
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