Anarchism and Animal Liberation

240 Pages·2015·1.23 MB·English

Anarchism and
Animal Liberation

Anarchism and
Animal Liberation
Essays on Complementary
Elements of Total Liberation
Edited by Anthony J. Nocella II,
Richard J. White and
Erika Cudworth
Forewords byDavid N. Pellow
andJohn C. Alessio
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina
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p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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ISBN 978-0-7864-9457-6 (softcover : acid free paper)
ISBN 978-1-4766-2132-6 (ebook)
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© 2015 Anthony J. Nocella II, Richard J. White and Erika Cudworth.
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Cover image: George Tsartsianidis/Thinkstock
Printed in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To all those who continue to struggle toward
an anarchist society: a society of non- violence,
compassion, respect and liberty for all animals, both
human and nonhuman. We will always be indebted
to those who have sacrificed their own freedom and
futures by confronting those forms of oppression,
domination and rule that bring immeasurable
pain, misery and suffering into the world.
Acknowledgments
Anthony, Richard and Erika would like to thank
everyone who assisted in the production and publish-
ing of this book. Special mention must go to David N.
Pellow and John C. Alessio for each writing a foreword
for the book and, of course, to the contributors of the
book—Brian Dominick, Drew Robert Winter, Will
Boisseau, Jim Donaghey, Nekeisha Alayna Alexis,
Mara J. Pfeffer, Sean Parson, Lara Drew, Kim Socha,
John Lupinacci and Aragorn Eloff. Our thanks to Sarat
Colling, Reyna Crow, Carrie Freeman, Ruth Kinna,
Joel Helfrich, Peter McLaren, Nick Ryan, John Soren-
son and Tanya Loughead for their first reviews of the
book. We would also like to thank the Institute for
Critical Animal Studies for supporting this book.
More generally, we are indebted to all those who—
through their work and their activism—continue to
expand the horizons of the field of Critical Animal
Studies. Finally we would also like to thank our i nter-
species families and friends for their love and support.
We hope that this book helps to bring a more socially
just and peaceable future into being for them, for all.
vi
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vi
Foreword
David Pellow 1
Foreword
John C. Alessio 4
Introduction: The Intersections of Critical Animal Studies
and Anarchist Studies for Total Liberation
Anthony J. Nocella II, Richard J. White and
Erika Cudworth 7
Part I. Histories/Futures 21
Anarcho-Veganism Revisited
Brian Dominick 23
Anarchist Criminology Against Racism and Ableism and
for Animal Liberation
Anthony J. Nocella II 40
Doing Liberation: The Story and Strategy of Food Not Bombs
Drew Robert Winter 59
“Nailing Descartes to the wall”: Animal Rights, Veganism
and Punk Culture
Will Boisseau and Jim Donaghey 71
Part II. Intersections 91
Intersectionality, Species and Social Domination
Erika Cudworth 93
vii
viii Table of Contents
Beyond Suffering: Resisting Patriarchy and Reproductive
Control
Nekeisha Alayna Alexis 108
Industrial Society Is Both the Fabrication Department
and the Kill Floor: Total Liberation, Green Anarchism
and the Violence of Industrialism
Mara J. Pfeffer and Sean Parson 126
“A wider vision”: Coercion, Solidarity and Animal Liberation
Will Boisseau 141
Part III. Strategies 161
Anarchy for Educational Praxis in the Animal Liberation
Movement in an Era of Capitalist Triumphalism
Lara Drew and Kim Socha 163
Recognizing Human Supremacy: Interrupt, Inspire and Expose
John Lupinacci 179
Do Anarchists Dream of Emancipated Sheep? Contemporary
Anarchism, Animal Liberation and the Implications of
New Philosophy
Aragorn Eloff 194
Following in the Footsteps of Élisée Reclus: Disturbing Places
of Inter- Species Violence That Are Hidden in Plain Sight
Richard J. White 212
About the Contributors 231
Index 233
Foreword
David N. Pellow
Ashanti Alston, a former Black Panther and Black Liberation Army
activist and one- time political prisoner, once told me, “I really feel like of all
the groups, the anarchist mindset is open to understanding all the different
oppressions.” I concur and I share Alston’s perspective because, like him, I
also identify as an anarchist person of color and I see evidence every day of
my life that anarchism’s core principles and promises make a lot of sense to
those of us who are committed to total liberation—ideas, scholarship, artistic
expression, and action aimed at challenging all forms of oppression. To my
knowledge Anarchism and Animal Liberationis the first book to place anar-
chist studies and Critical Animal Studies in conversation with one another,
and for that reason alone, this is a path- breaking work.
In so many ways, the essays in this book focus on expanding our under-
standing of hierarchy and inequality by making sense of the often tense and
violent relationships among humans and nonhuman animal species. In so
doing, the editors and contributors facilitate the goal of achieving a better
grasp of inequality’s ramifications while also deepening our understanding
of the nature of inequality itself. Only then can we truly grasp the depths of
our socioecological crises and address them effectively.
As a sociologist I must confront the most basic yet profound questions
raised in this book: what is inequality and why does it matter? At its most
basic level, inequality means that if you are “on top” of a social system, or
higher on a social status ladder when compared with another being, then
you possess or have access to more resources, wealth, and privileges. But
more importantly—and from the standpoint of anarchist studies and Critical
Animal Studies—your elevated position above others also means that your
lifeis of greater value than others living within that social system. You likely
own or control and affect more of the planet and its constituent residents
and life support systems than others, you likely own or control and affect
1
2 Foreword
more living beings (and, therefore, likely produce more death) than others,
and you control and benefit from the ideational systems that give meaning
and legitimacy to such dynamics. Inequality is a means of ordering the human
and nonhuman worlds for the relative benefit of some and to the detriment
of others. Anarchist studies and Critical Animal Studies explore the origins
and consequences of varied forms of inequality and hierarchy, and resolve
to oppose them at every level.
Public health scholarship reveals that human life expectancy, morbidity,
mortality, and wellbeing are highly correlated with key measures of inequality.
In the case of environmental inequality and environmental racism, working
class people, people of color, women, immigrants, and Indigenous persons
are more likely to face health risks as a result of environmental racism and
inequality—the uneven exposure to environmental harm that social and insti-
tutional forces routinely perpetrate (practices that are rooted in multiple
forms of social inequality and hierarchy). Thus social or human inequalities
derive their existence through inequalities that also divide, rank, and exert
control over nonhumans and ecosystems. Inequality is, above all, unnatural
in the sense that it does not “just happen”—it requires a great deal of energy,
labor, and institutional effort to produce and maintain unequal societies.
This point is crucial because there is often a great deal of energy invested
into making inequalities appear to be a natural state of affairs. As ecofeminist
Greta Gaard writes, “Appeals to nature have often been used to justify social
norms, to the detriment of women, nature, queers, and persons of color.”
Inequality is not just an imbalance of resources or power, but is frequently
experienced as unearned privileges made possible by domination and injus-
tice. Those who suffer its consequences also routinely resist inequality. This
book is a clarion call to solidarity and a call to join those who are leading
these resistance efforts.
Anarchism and Animal Liberationembraces the idea, vision, and practice
of total liberation, which views inequality as a threat to life itself—for
oppressed peoples, species, and ecosystems—and is organized around the
struggle for justice for all life forms. Individuals, collectives, organizations,
networks, and movements seeking total liberation organize and mobilize in
favor of symbols, metaphors, language, signs, representations, practices, and
structures of equality and justice to do what social movements have always
done: to imagine and create a better world. Only this world would be based
on the idea that inequality and unfreedom in all their known manifestations
should be eradicated.
The editors and contributors to this invaluable collection contend that
one cannot fully grasp the foundations of racism, classism, sexism, patriarchy,
ageism, and ableism without also understanding speciesism and dominionism
because they are all ideologies and practices rooted in hierarchy and the cre-