world week activism around the globe

CANADA

Ontario and Toronto

Brenda LaFleshe and her family we busy busy busy in Ontario and Toronto. Just reading her update had me a bit exhausted!

“Hey I got alot done! It was so good to take a break from FB, I realize really how much time I wasted online sometimes. I got much done for AR- I wrote letters to all the Canadian Senators asking them to allow discussion of Bill S-207 and to End the Commercial Seal Hunt. I finished getting new leaflets made and photocopied for the Seal Awareness demo I organized on the 22nd from 4pm 6pm, downtown Toronto. I also had a table for Earthday at a park here in Hamilton at the Treeplanting festival. I made new signs and booklets… I wrote out an advertisement for our monthly Vegan potluck to be published in a local paper. I took great care to the rescued mother cat and her kittens we are caring for and have arranged for them to be put up for adoption and have there vet care paid for by a local rescue called the Pride rescue, and have made plans to volunteer for their spay/neuter catch and release program.”

Here are some pictures from her work. Let’s all emulate Brenda and get out there and get busy.

Earth Day Education

Kitten Rescue!

ENGLAND

World Day for Animals in Laboratories was well attended! I wish I could get a big group like this together. This is amazing, check it out!

WDAIL in London

Also at the WDAIL event was Mizla Manandhar who worked on making posters to promote an animal rights club she starting at her university.

UNITED STATES

La Jolla

Anna NuthaThang organized her first protest! AMAZING! They protested the evil vivisectionists at Scripps. 28 people showed and 200 pamphlets were handed out to educate the public.

Scripps Vivisection Protest, La Jolla, CA

Los Angeles

This was a very busy week in the LA area. The week kicked off with a four day conference, the Animal Liberation Forum, put on by Cease Animal Toruture (CAT), an animal liberationist student group at California State University, Long Beach. Speakers included Peter Young, the Bold Native team, Bob Linden, Marti Kheel and Jason Miller, just to name a few of the inspiring minds that galvanized these activists into a week of protest.

Allan Yaxon, Jason Miller and Nicoal Sheen at the Animal Liberation Forum

Next up was the 5 hour demo outside of the JW Marriot which was housing a conference for Fortress Investment, the group currently propping up the scumbags, Huntington Life Sciences (HLS).

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A few days later came a demo outside of the offices of UCLA vivisectors organized by Stop Animal Exploitation Now. Amazing costumes were made by Katia Kosir (the cat). The best part of the event was the ALF-style liberation at the end. Of course the UCLA cops gave citations to all the acting liberationists for covering their faces with bandannas. AR activists are repressed for having acting skills even in Hollywood! It’s definitely an uphill battle for those of us on the side of justice!

The week in LA ended with three neighborhood demonstrations organized by See You in the Streets.The demonstrations were in the neighborhoods of the horrible mad scientists Joaquin Fuster, David Jentsch and Edith London.

log off and get out

I had the privilege of attending the Utah Valley University Animal Ethics Conference last week. A topic that came up in these conversations several times was the role of Facebook in activism. While Facebook and other social media is good for disseminating information, a prevailing notion was that perhaps it deterred some activism as the time spent chatting and reading others posts could be spent fighting for the animals.

Facebook can be both a blessing and a curse. In the words of one activist, known on Facebook as John Brown:

The dual aspect of FB is clear. It has an amazing capacity for subversive organizing; the creation of a greater union of activists; and the world-wide sharing of information…However, its pacifying aspect is also apparent. One becomes lost in the labyrinth of petitions, meetups, and friend requests. Time ticks by. Hours pass. And nothing substantial has happened. Virtual ‘activism’ replaces actual activism. FB should be used as a tool for organization and mobilization, not decadent stupification.

- “John Brown”

The conference concluded with a wonderful but sobering conversation between the audience members and a powerhouse panel of some prominent defenders of effective activism: Steven Best, Jerry Vlasak and Peter Young. All three of them pondered the role of online activism:

What is it about today’s culture that allows people to pass off their activism as spending 8 hours a day on Facebook and handing out Facebook petitions? And how do we reach people who are interested in helping animals? And how do we get them to realize the revolution is not going to be on Facebook?

–Jerry Vlasak

Why is it that today, in 2010 we probably have so many more people who “care” about the issue but there is so much less being done? We have to ask ourselves, what’s pacifying us? What are these things that come to us as saviors…but are actually pacifiers instead? I would say the internet is one of those things. This has to be one of the greatest myths of the modern day, that the more information you have the more that gets done.

-Peter Young

Steven Best suggested a three day moratorium on Facebook. I think it is a brilliant idea and I am ready to act on it. Are you??

As Dylan Powell from the Vegan Police is fond of saying “Talk – Action = Nothing”

As the tattoo’s on Greg Kelly’s arms say “Words mean nothing. Action is everything.”

So let’s stop socializing and let’s get busy!

I am inspired by their words and hope to use social media to advance a campaign in which we ditch social media for a week and devote that time to the animals. World Week for Laboratory Animal Liberation is almost here. I propose that we spend this week or next figuring out how much time we spend each day online.  Then, let’s take 3 days during Laboratory Week for Animal Liberation to devote this amount of time to the animals (or any other social justice movement in which you are involved).

Let’s use Facebook for it’s good for and promote this event! Please see the Facebook invitation and invite others!!!