Animal Rights Coalition
Report from National Meeting September 26 2004
1)
The
meeting was held at The Allen Club, Hurst Grove, Bedford, from 12 noon to 5pm.
Around 70 people attended, see Local Groups Section to see where they came
from. This report is mostly from memory, next time we will have someone taking
notes.
2) Campaigns Section: The
first section of the meeting was taken up with a round up of some of the
grass-roots campaigns and groups. This was in alphabetical order, suggested it
will be reverse order next time.
ALFSG (Animal Liberation Front
Supporters Group). ALF SG. Unfortunately the car bringing the latest ALF SG
magazines as well as the ALF 3 videos broke down en route, so apologies were
sent for unavoidable absence.
CAFT (Coalition for the Abolish of
the Fur Trade). The main part of the
CAFT talk concerned the recent announcement by Inditex/Zara to make all of its 2,064 shops in 52 countries
fur-free. This had already taken effect in all but 6 countries, where stocks
would be sold but not replaced, but in any case all shops would be fur free
by 31 December this year. There was a
brief history of the Zara campaign, including the fact that Zara had promised
to remove fur in the UK and Europe last year. The difference this time is that
we have an official policy letter this time, signed by the head of the company,
available on the CAFT website. Evidence from various countries is that Zara
shops have indeed removed all fur from the shops in those countries covered by
the immediate ban.
The main focus of the
campaign now is Selfridges, which
has branches in London, Manchester and Birmingham.
CAFT also organised a
minibus for the a weekend of fur action
in and around Cologne in Germany, from Fri 1 Oct to Mon 4 Oct, including a
German national anti-fur demo in Cologne on Sat 2 Oct. There were , contact
CAFT for details. Price would be £40 each, but more important to fill the bus
if you can’t afford it.
There was a request for
support for the National Fur March/day of action in London, Sat Nov 13th,
meet 12 noon, Piccadilly Circus, by Eros Statue, Tube Piccadilly Circus, flyers
to advertise the day were available at the meeting. http://www.caft.org.uk/, 0845 330 7955.
CAPS (Captive Animals Protection
Society) There are now only 8 animal
circuses left in the UK, three of these use wild animals. This is the
lowest number ever.
Most of CAPS work recently has been involved with aquaria. They have commissioned a new report called Suffering Deep Down. An investigation into public Aquaria in the UK , which was available at the meeting. See http://www.captiveanimals.org/aquarium/suffering.htm Copies of the report are available from CAPS
. This has revealed shocking evidence
of cruelty inherent in aquaria. One example was where the public was encouraged
to touch some species of fish, which suffered injuries and deformations due to
the chemicals on humans, for example starfish had lost whole legs due to
contact with humans. Another aspect was the decimation of wild populations to
supply aquaria.
There are also longstanding
plans for a massive new aquarium in the UK. Several sites have been suggested,
and there has already been a consortium set up to plan and fund the project. By
coincidence one of the sites was Bedford where the meeting was taking place.
CAPS are keeping a close eye on developments and are lobbying the local
authorities involved. It was suggested we should campaign against the companies
involved in the consortium which was generally accepted. http://www.captiveanimals.org/,
0845 330 3911.
CBAG (Coalition of Badger Action
Groups) Bristol activists spoke about the campaign to stop the government
slaughter of badgers in various parts of the country. There are 10 killing
areas, each of 100 square kilometres. Reactive killing has been abandoned after
scientific evidence of its failure, but proactive
killing still going ahead. There was pre-baiting going on in two areas, South
Glos and East Devon, where killing would begin in around a couple of weeks.
It was stressed that there were very few people taking action, compared to lots
of well equipped and government-funded DEFRA badger killers, so there was a
plea for more activists to get involved. It was also noted that this was
another broken Labour Party promise.
www.badger-killers.co.uk Ph:07817
858 166.
HSA (Hunt Saboteurs Association)
Cub hunting is well under way, and several people recounted their experience of
recent hunt sabs. http://www.huntsabs.org.uk/
REALFOOD. A big campaign at the minute
is concerned with the provision of vegan food in hospitals, as one of the
founders of REALFOOD has spent much time in hospital lately and found the vegan
diet there was atrocious. There were similar horror stories from other
campaigners so Realfood is putting together an information/catering pack for vegans who are or are about to be going
into hospital, and which will be available on request to all hospitals.
One campaigner had spent
time in Addenbrooks Hospital in Cambridgeshire recently and reported that the
diet there was excellent, as they had regular consultations with Arjuna health
food and organic veg shop in Cambridge. Another person said she had recently
been at Papworth Hospital also in Cambridge, and here too vegan diet was good, so it was thought it
may be to do with a policy of the local NHS trust.
A supporter had baked a very
impressive christmas style cake, which was raffled at the meeting to raise
funds to pay for the hospital info pack. http://www.realfood.org.uk
SHAC (Stop Huntingdon Animal
Cruelty). Much of the SHAC talk was about their philosophy. Instead of focusing on the circle of animal abusers who
had a vested interest in cruelty, they targeted the support network, such as
banks, insurers and suppliers. The abusers need these companies to be able to
operate, but the companies don’t need the abusers.
It was also stressed how
important it is to be well prepared. The SHAC office had been raided by police
yet again earlier in the week, and taken everything, but by the afternoon SHAC
was up and running again. http://www.shac.net/
0845 458 0630.
SPEAK. Work had now stopped for 10
weeks on the proposed animal lab at Oxford University, which is now so
desperate to find a new builder, they have issued a High Court Injunction against Speak, some other groups and 3 named
individuals under the Protection from Harassment Act. Speak would be
strongly defending the action at the
High Court.
Two protesters had recently
been attacked by a worker at the site, when he threw a white powder over them
which caused a burning sensation. The two protesters were taken to hospital
where they had to shower for over 10 minutes to remove traces of the unknown
chemical. The worker in question was arrested.
There had been a successful
demo the previous day at The Royal Institution in London at a lecture by TV
chef Rick Stein about the benefit for the brain of eating fish. Stein was
sharing a platform with his brother Prof
John Stein, who carries out brain experiments on monkeys at Oxford Uni.
Many delegates were disgusted when they found this out, and walked out
demanding their money back. It wasn’t known if this was part of a tour of
talks, so it was suggested people keep a watch for them.
SPEAK was really delighted
with the positive effect the campaign is having, and from the hysterical over
reaction of the University it was clear that the campaign to stop the lab from
being built is not just winnable, it is winning. http://www.speakcampaigns.org.uk/ 07985 330 7985.
SNGP (Save the Newchurch Guinea
Pigs). There was a request for more help for regular demos at the guinea pig
farm. Wednsdays and Saturdays were covered, but more help was needed
particularly on Saturdays. It was suggested local groups commit to one demo a
month. Bedford Animal Action said they
would do the coming Saturday as had already been arranged.
There had been a big demo
recently in Stafford not far from Newchurch, the first time this town had seen
protests. There was lots of support from people in the town. http://www.liberation-now.org/, 01902 564734.
SWAT (Stop Wickham Animal
Testing). The campaign had received lot of publicity following a recent ALF
raid when over 600 mice had been taken from Wickham labs, as well as documents.
Police had recovered all but 40 of the mice, and returned them to the labs
where they were presumably killed. The documents taken had revealed that
Wickham carries out Botox experiments, even though the government claimed to
have banned cosmetic experiments on animals, and also LD50 experiments which
are supposed to be used only in extreme circumstances.
Over 100 people turned up to
a demo in Wickham on Sat 18 Sept, where activists held a sit down protest. http://www.swatonline.co.uk/, 02392 588516.
VEGGIES. Veggies is 20 years old this year, and still going strong. They
would be very active at the forthcoming anti-globalisation actions in London
from October 13th to 17th. It was important to spread veganism to
like-minded campaigns.
They will also be hosting
the next ARC meeting on January 23rd in Nottingham, see below for
details.
As well, they were involved
with organising the world anti-McDonald’s day on October 16th. This
will be the 19th consecutive year. Later in the meeting, they also
gave an outline of the progress of the McLibel trial. After the longest trial
in legal history, McDonalds won on 4 of the 6 counts against the two activists,
but on appeal, two more had been found in favour of the defendants, making it 4
to 2 against McDonalds. And the case is continuing, as the defendants have now
appealed to the European Court in Strasbourg.
http://www.veggies.org.uk/, 0845 458 9595.
VPSG (Vegan Prisoners Support
Group). On a show of hands, it was found that at about a third of the people at
the meeting had had occasion to call upon the support of the VPSG while in
custody. It was requested that people let the VPSG know well in advance before
going to court as this saves time and inconvenience for you and vpsg . http://www.vpsg.org/, 020 8292 8325.
Here there was
a half hour break for food supplied by veggies.
3)
Local Groups Section.
Bedford Animal
Action Group
has monthly meetings Tries to support
all the main campaigns and hire a minibus to go to various demos (Shac, SNGP,
Speak) but are particularly concentrating on Speak with demos and stalls.
They did the last zoo day of
action at Whipsnade Zoo which went really well, tackled from a non-demo perspective
with someone dressed as monkey waving at the children and 2 people us giving
out leaflets to every car in the queue. Some people actually thought they were
part of the zoo which was in our favour, thereby not scaring people away from
taking the information. Because of the traffic jam people had plenty of time to
read the leaflet before they went in. They had a lot of support and no
animosity.
The speaker felt it important
to welcome new people and not treat them like infiltrators and said that Bedford
group tries to make people feel welcome. Having seen a programme about protest
groups and MI5 she felt that it was deliberately trying to create an atmosphere
of paranoia; the more we treat people like infiltrators the more we do MI5's
job for them.
Bristol Animal Rights Network is a network of groups.
Have had very successful demos at Bristol Zoo, where attendances are well down
on previous years. Also involved with stopping the badger slaughter as well as
sabbing.
Cambridge
Animal Rights
Have monthly meetings. Have encountered violence at protests at Linton Zoo, so
on the last day of action did an info stall instead. It was suggested other
groups could support them on the next day of action next Easter Monday. Are
planning to hold a vegan food fayre.
Coventry
Animal Alliance A long standing group. Had
been very active opposing the new greyhound racing stadium in Coventry.
There are regular demos there which get a lot of public support. The group is
very busy planning for Jill’s Day in February, see below.
Essex Animal
Freedom
This group had been going for a few months, but was very busy. They have a
newsletter, available at the meeting.
They were busy with the Great British Circus which was touring Essex,
the only circus in the UK still with big cats. EAF also travels to support
demos for SHAC, Speak, SNGP, as well as
regular SHAC suppliers demos such as BOC in Basildon. Essex activists also
supports anti-fur actions in London, such as the Zara campaign. There are plans
for a website, but for now their actions are covered by LAA’s website.
London Animal
Action Has
a website www.londonanimalaction.org.uk
and a newsletter and has monthly meetings on 2nd Tues of month. Was
involved with Zara fur campaign, now focusing on Selfridges in London. Zippos
circus seems to be in London most of the time now, all venues have had at least
one demo.
Promotes veganism with vegan
food fayres, two already the last one had 430 people attending, mostly
meat-eaters. Also helps to organise the vegan festival. Holds demos at London
Zoo on days of action. LAA works closely with SHAC as there are many SHAC
targets in and around London. London activists also provide support to other
campaigns in other areas, and there is an appeal to raise money for a new
minibus as the old one has broken.
Manchester Animal Protection. MAP have monthly meetings, and website http://www.mapsoc.org.uk/ Their main
campaign at the minute is fur. They have been very active in the Zara campaign,
and are now targeting Selfridges in Manchester. Had done Selfridges the day
before. Would have a celebration event to mark the Zara success, felt that the
movement didn’t celebrate success enough.
Circus pickets have been
mainly been against Bobby Roberts Circus.
There is a planned evening of anti-vivisection speakers (Drs & Lawyers for Responsible Medicine, Dr André Menach - Animal Aid scientific advisor and Dr Hadwen Trust speakers). A public meeting get across the message that animal experiments don't work and why.
Also a new: anti-meat
leaflet 'cashing in' on people's hypocrisy of not eating cats/dogs but eating
other 'farm' animals. This leaflet is available to groups if they would like us
to put their local group dertails on leaflet and send it out on disk.
Nottingham
Animal Rights
www.veggies.org.uk/nar Supports other campaigns, when not doing
this, holds regular street stall in Nottingham. Was involved in the Zara
Campaign. At a recent demo the UK managing director of Zara had phoned the
protestors via the shop manager’s mobile phone, and claimed not to sell fur,
but then lost his temper and became abusive. Manchester and London activists
said exactly the same thing had happened to them.
Nottingham group is also
closely allied to Veggies, so very busy with their projects too (see above)
Northampton
Animal Concern.
It is hoped to reactivate the local group in Northampton which has not met
recently, though Northampton people have been active, for example with sabbing,
Speak and Shac.
Peterborough/Huntingdon Much of their campaigning
involves HLS naturally, there is a suppliers demo once a week, had some
successes lately.
4)
New Campaigns:
APA (Animal
Protection Agency). New group formed
to fight the exotic pet trade. The group was formed by former Animal Aid
campaigners who have decided to specialise in this field. Phone 01273 674253 http://apa.org.uk/
Pack Rescue. Project for a new campaign
to rehome hunting dogs if foxhunting is banned. It was said that as a supposed
nation of animal lovers of 65m people, there should be no problem rehoming
8,000 hunting hounds. These type of dogs have been successfully rehomed before.
A register of potential homes will be collated, potential homes must agree to a
homecheck. This will undermine the hunters’ argument that banning hunting will
mean hounds being killed.
The people collating the information are working with HSA and potentially the League Against Cruel Sports. These addresses will be handed to the Dogs Trust, who will perform the home checking and rehoming. It was felt that people would sooner work with them than the RSPCA because they don't kill healthy dogs Pack Rescue PO Box 339 Wolverhampton, WV10, 7BZ
5)
Jill’s Day. On 1 February it will be 10 years since Jill Phipps was killed
by a lorry taking calves for live export. A big event was planned in Coventry
on Saturday February 5th. The day will be split into two halves,
the first a memorial to Jill’s death, and later a celebration of Jill’s life.
There will be a march through Coventry, covering various themes of animal
abuse. It was suggested that local groups adopt a theme, for example meat, fur
or vivisection, and bring costumes, banners, leaflets on that theme.
Later there will be an event
to celebrate Jill’s life at the West Indian Club in Coventry, with Stalls,
Speakers and music. There was a general request for funding and for support on
the day. Contact 07771 953465.
It was suggested that Jill’s day could be marked by more radical actions at animal abuse establishments. The people organising the day had no objection if others wanted to organise something along these lines on the day, but they had no plans.
This led to a more general
discussion about tactics. For example one person thought releasing pheasants
from their pens would cause them to die from starvation, others thought that
the best course of action was to provide the pheasants with at least a chance
of life..
6)
Future of ARC meetings., The final part of the
meeting was taken up with getting feedback about the meeting, discussing the
future of ARC meetings, and how these can further help the movement in general.
It was agreed that ARC meetings would take place 4 times a year, and would be
organised in advance, and would move around the country to encourage wider
participation. The next meeting will be in Nottingham on January 23rd,
See below.
As well as the meetings, but it was also felt that
ARC could develop a new arm, and the name ARCaction was chosen. There will be organised days/weekends of action
against animal abuse, along the lines of current SHAC days of action.
There was some discussion about the merits of ‘open’
liberations. In some countries activists have been openly taking animals,
mostly from factory farms, and using this to highlight animal abuse in the
media. Tactics vary from country to country, for instance in some countries
activists hand themselves in to the police, but in others they don’t say which
farm the animals come from. It was noted that millions of animals are in
factory farms, which are mostly wide open. It would also be a good thing for
activists to experience the stench and horror of factory farms at first hand.
It was decided to mark the 3rd
anniversary of Barry Horne’s death on Friday 5th November. It was
noted this was, coincidentally, Bonfire night, Fireworks night, as well as
commemorating an attempt to blow up the houses of parliament. Later a website
and email address was set up www.barryhorne.org
and info@barryhorne.org
One person suggested calling for a Royal Commission
into vivisection, as this had been one of Barry’s demands. Others felt this
would be a waste of time and would be used by the government to as a whitewash.
It was also said that the Royal Commission was just one of Barry’s tactics to
highlight Labour’s broken promises.
Future meeting
structure.
Some people felt that as well as a general discussion/announcements meeting
there should be also a workshop style structure, in order to discuss things in
more depth, and to give a chance to contribute to people who don’t normally
speak and to new people.
Several people suggested the organisation of the meetings could be benefit from the input of trained people within the alternative scene, eg Seeds of Change. Some had had positive experience of this with other groups, eg Earth First. These groups may even be able to provide a chairperson trained to reflect the views of the group, we would just pay for their travel costs. They would be vegan and sympathetic to ARC’s aims. The alternatives are to have different chairpeople at each meeting, or a rotating chair from a pool of volunteers.
Someone suggested that
groups who didn't turn up shouldn't get a mention. In reply it was said that
not everyone can turn up to every meeting due to commitments, but it is more
important the information gets out. Others suggested that each group have a
little spiel written down, so that if, in the case of the ALFSG they couldn't
get to the meeting, then another activist could read out what they had to say,
without having to guess what the group would have covered.
The Next ARC
meeting is in Nottingham Sunday 23rd January 2005, Gather at Veggies / Sumac
Centre from 10am for vegan breakfast and social chat, 245 Gladstone Street,
Nottingham NG7 6HX (map and directions
at http://www.veggies.org.uk/sumac/map.html). At the minute the plan it to hold the
meeting from 1pm sharp til 6pm at nearby Forest Fields Community Centre,
Sturton Street, Nottingham NG7 6HU (3 mins walk away) and then in the evening
carry on the chat at Sumac Centre’s vegan social club bar. Vegan food by
Veggies. However it may be possible to host the event entirely at Veggies/Sumac
Centre, to be arranged shortly.
Forthcoming Event, demo against Porton Down, Saturday
October 16th.
For further details contact arcmeetings@yahoo.co.uk