Fight Speciesism! #4 - Out Now

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WHO ARE WE?
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Antispeciesist Action is a collective of militant antispeciesists and animal rights activists committed to confronting animal abuse, suffering and exploitation of non-human beings through the use of direct action.

We believe in the 'No Compromise' philosophy, veganism and actively support the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and animal rights prisoners.

We are opposed to capitalism and the state, understanding that without both entities, the universal exploitation of animals would not be possible.

Until Every Cage Is Empty!

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ANTISPE NEWS
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Antispe  http://google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22antispe%22+site:indymedia.org.uk&start=0&sa=N

Antispeciesist Action  http://google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22antispeciesist+action%22+site%3Aindymedia.org.uk&meta=

Antispeciesist  http://google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22antispeciesist%22+site%3Aindymedia.org.uk&meta=

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FIGHT SPECIESISM!
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FS! #1  http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/400058.html - June
FS! #2  http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/06/401410.html - July
FS! #3  http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/403623.html - August

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LOOKING FOR A FLAG?
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 http://rootsofcompassion.org/shop/product_info.php?products_id=606

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SUPPORT ANTISPE!
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 http://indymedia.org.uk/images/2008/04/397924.gif - Flash Banner
 http://indymedia.org.uk/images/2008/04/397559.jpg - Header

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ANTISPE FORUM
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 http://www.veganelinke.antispe.org/viewforum.php?f=40

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PRISONER SUPPORT
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 http://vpsg.org - Vegan Prisoners Support Network (VPSG)
 http://alfsg.org - Animal Liberation Front Supporters Group (ALFSG)
 http://spiritoffreedom.org.uk - Earth Liberation Prisoners (ELPSN)
 http://anarchistblackcross.org - Anarchist Black Cross (ABC)

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HOW TO BLOC
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1. Find others who look like they are there for the autonomous bloc, for example people with green&black flags and/or wearing bandanas/balaclavas.
2. Join with them. 3. Move as a group joining with others until all groups are as one.

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ANTISPECIESISM
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The best detailed description of animal rights and anti-speciesist action can be summed up in the Abolitionist Manifesto parts 1-3:

I. Animal liberation begins in our heads. Animals will never be free unless or until we cease viewing them in instrumental terms. This means that animal liberation hasn’t even begun in the heads of the new welfarists, who endorse measures (e.g. welfare reform and “humane” animal products) that reflect an instrumental view of nonhumans and as such show that they do not — at bottom — reject the property paradigm. An indispensably necessary precondition of animal liberation is thus that we view animals in noninstrumental terms — as inherently valuable bearers of moral rights — and treat them — without exception (including in campaigns) — pursuant to that view. As Gandhi said, we must be the change we wish to see.

II. Animal liberation will not merely be enhanced or safeguarded by certain moral relations between humans and nonhuman animals. Rather it will be constituted by certain moral relations — specifically, a concern for animals’ welfare informed (or rather transformed) by respect for their inherent value. Since new welfarists’ compassion and urge to alleviate animal suffering conflicts with respect for animals as rightholders, something which shows itself in their endorsement of supposedly “humane” animal use which is a rights violation, it follows that not only is there no common ground between welfarists and abolitionists, but that new welfarism — necessarily — has nothing to do with animal liberation, since the latter is inherently impracticable without respect for animals’ inherent value which is theoretically informed by the concept of animal rights, i.e. the basic right not to be treated as property, solely as a means to humans’ ends.

III. Abolitionism is principled antispeciesism, which in turn is a moral imperative. Maintaining a moral imperative is not about being fundamentalist, fanatical, purist, absolutist, elitist, extremist. It is about being radically opposed to the corrupt instrumentalization of reason which pervades the new welfarist movement and which manifests itself in the way the latter has no moral baselines — no principles — and rules nothing out in advance. For the new welfarists, even incremental measures that radically negate animal rights (such as the promotion of “humane” animal use, working with institutional animal enslavers, and supporting speciesist welfare groups) have legitimate instrumental value. But an “animal rights” movement that doesn’t rule out — a priori — those things that conflict with principled antispeciesism and the status of animals as rightholders is not only a pseudo-animal rights movement: it is an expression of counterfeit moral responsiveness to animals.

By contrast, abolitionism is a rights-inspired movement, which means it rules out — in advance — those things that conflict with antispeciesist, animal rights maxims because the latter are taken to be wrong in principle, in particular the promotion of meat and other animal products that were supposedly produced more “humanely” than others.

Co-authored by James Crump and Karin Hilpisch
 http://westernanimalrights.wordpress.com/animal-rights