The Archives

Periodicals
Frontline News – The Complete Set!
09.19.20 | Permalink

ALF Canada Frontline News #1-4 (1985-1987 Toronto, ON. Canada)
Frontline News was the predecessor to Combat and Underground as well as the popular 1990s website animal-liberation.net. The early issues were typed and mimeographed newsletters, while issue 3 and 4 were more professional and moved to newsprint. It has taken us 9 years to find issue #2. Special thanks to Matthew Jones for tracking it down and sending the scans.

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Audio / Music, One-off publications
Still Angry?
11.07.15 | Permalink

Still Angry? The Compilation Tape and Fanzine: A Benefit for the Toronto ALFSG (1987, Toronto, Canada)

The Toronto ALFSG released many of the publications on this site and were one of the best sources of information on direct action for non-humans in the 1980s. In order to financially support their work, they released this cassette and zine compilation in 1987. After searching for it since the start of TALON, we finally found a copy just a few short months ago.

Hailing primarily from Europe, North America, and South Africa, the bands on this compilation run the gamut of punk sub-genres and fans of fast, loud music should find something they enjoy. The zine and liner notes are typical of their era- cut and paste style graphics, juvenile interviews, and plenty of righteous frustration with law and order.

Due to a file error, we currently only have Side A of the cassette digitized. Please accept our apologies, we will post the full cassette soon.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/163187882″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]…
Periodicals, Underground
Underground #17
12.24.11 | Permalink

Underground #17 (The rare ACTUAL final issue!) (2002, WIllowdale, ONT, Canada.)

Several months ago we posted Underground #16 along with the all caps tagline, “THE RARE FINAL ISSUE!” Boy, is our face red. The final issue of Underground is actually issue 17.

Much of what was said in our post about issue 16 is also true of 17- the news was late, the supporters groups was constantly dealing with the problems of rotating volunteers, and as print media was being challenged by the internet, Underground also seemed to be declining in quality. The final issue did contain some important bits of forgotten history though, like the joint resignation letter from ELF press officers Craig Rosebraugh and Leslie James Pickering, or the tiny article about Belgian animal liberation super-arsonist Geert Waegemans additional charges. There is also a wonderful transcription of Mirha-Soleil Ross’ radio interview with Rod Coronado, former ALF Press Officer (and current snitch apologist) David Barbarash’s 2001 Year End Direct Action Report, and a reprinting of the ever popular “Staying Free By Shutting the Fuck Up!”

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Periodicals
Frontline #3-4
10.02.11 | Permalink

Frontine #3-4 (1986-1987, Toronto, Canada.)

Conflict Gypsy’s Canadian section grows substantially with these two issues of Frontline. Predating Combat and Underground, Frontline offers a peak into the development of the Canadian Animal Liberation Front Support Group and also into the early histories and first hand accounts of the Canadian ALF.

The difference between #3 and #4 illustrate the growth and spread of the Canadian ALFSG; #4 more than doubles the size of #3 and you see a definite interest in design as the publication grows.

For someone who currently organizes in this exact same area, this post is bittersweet. Activists left from this era are extremely rare and very few know this history (although it is important to note that ARK-II is still active!).

We are dedicated to searching out and preserving this history in order to help bridge that gap. If you can help us find other issues of Frontline, Combat or any other Canadian publication of interest, please contact us at conflictgypsy (at) gmail (dot) com

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Periodicals
Combat #1
07.10.11 | Permalink

Combat #1 (1990, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)

After 6 years of operation in Toronto, a lull in activity caused the ALF Supporters Group Canada to shut down. Other volunteers picked up the slack and soon the SG was moved to Alberta. At this time the ALF was fairly active in the great white north, and soon their night time activities were being covered in a new magazine known as Combat. Considered by many to be the predecessor of Underground, Combat closely followed the template for supporters group publications set by The SG in England with one important difference: They had awesome cover art!

Combat is amongst the most rare militant animal rights publications produced in North America, and when we received this first issue for scanning we were delighted to find, a long, and thoughtful prison letter from Ronnie Lee, updates on the arrests of Jonathan Paul, Bill Keogh, and Cres Velluci, and a short listing of international action reports. There was also a hastily added pamphlet stuffed inside with an update on the jailing of Henry Hutto, an early movement hero who was amongst the first members of both PETA and Earth First! Very little information is available about Henry, who passed away in 2003, but he is a minor legend in some circles and the pictures of a rally held in his honor made holding this magazine that much sweeter.

Issue #2 of Combat is now available HERE.

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