The Archives

• Periodicals

  SEAL #3

  09.18.14 | Permalink

  SEAL (Straight Edge Animal Liberation) Issue # 3 (1996, Apple Valley, MN)

  Well, let’s see here: collegiate lettering, gratuitous X’s, Earth Crisis worship, and “True Till Death.” This cover hit’s every checklist point for a straight edge vegan publication in the 90’s. It then continues with exactly what you’d expect on the inside: moral peacockery, anti-abortion bullshit, and an unwillingness to confront any of the failings of “The New Ethic’s” tendencies towards unethical behavior. Anti-gay bigots are given space to distribute literature, Hardline bands are reviewed, all sans criticism for their abhorrent political leanings.

  That said, this isn’t a complete waste of ink. There is a long interview with Freeman Wicklund before his split with militancy that details three years of exciting activity in Minneapolis, activity which led to the publication of No Compromise and the escalation of direct action amongst the animal lib grassroots. Anyone seeking to understand the movement’s mid-90’s shift would do well to read Wicklund’s words. There are also interesting nostalgic tid-bits for those of us who were around during this time, like advertisements for Amy from NJ ADL’s well known zine Anxiety Closet.

  Do you have other issues of SEAL? We would love to obtain and preserve them. Please contact us HERE if you can help.

  

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• Periodicals

  Facklan

  10.11.12 | Permalink

  Facklan (1996-1997 Umea, Sweden)

  (Editors note: Facklan is a Swedish language publication that we bring to you due to its historical significance. Umea, Sweden produced one of the most remarkable animal liberation communities of the 1990s. Their influence was so strong that politicians in Sweden stated in national media that they feared animal rightists may collapse the countries infrastructure, both through sabotage and the conversion of the nations youth to veganism. Facklan was produced during the infancy of this tiny, but formidable uprising. One of our readers from Sweden has offered the summary that follows.)

  Facklan (The Torch) was a Swedish magazine supporting the A.L.F. and
  other radical groups fighting for the animals. It was released in four
  issues in 1996-1997, during the biggest peak of A.L.F. activity in the
  1990:ies in Sweden. The magazine was based in the northern city Umea,
  which was well known for it’s number of vegans and animal rights
  activists, militant (all fur shops closed in Umea as a result of the
  A.L.F.) as well as non militant (almost 50 percent of the students at
  some schools were vegetarians). Umea was often referred to as the
  “Vegan Mecca”, and was also well known for bands promoting the animal
  rights message, such as Refused.

  The first issue contained translated interviews etc from mainly UK and
  US sources, and also had copied text from the Swedish militant
  activist/anarchist manual Lila Svarta. Of course there was also a
  diary of actions and addresses to imprisoned animal rights activists.
  Two spreads were also dedicated to show mainstream media articles from
  the time, also serving as a sign of the impact of the A.L.F. activity.

  During the later issues, more of the content was produced by Swedish
  authors. In the second issue, there were a lot of more news from
  Sweden and Finland, letters to the editor, communiques from the newly
  started group The Wild Minks, a report from the riot against the fur
  auction in Skara, a piece on the repression of Umea acitivists,
  reviews of records under the headline “Activist Core”, and now also a
  diary of actions focusing on Sweden. Content from abroad was still
  used though, this time information from The Final Nail and on Barry
  Horne. On the last page, a summary in English was also published for
  the foreign readers.

  The third issue contained an exclusive interview with The Wild Minks,
  the group that got most feared among the fur farmers, for liberating
  minks and setting fire to properties of the fur industry. An address
  list to all Swedish fur farms was published together with slogans such
  as “What are you waiting for?”. There were critical articles directed
  to hardcore posers, as well as articles about how animals that had
  been liberated were doing in their new homes.

  The fourth and the last issue contained more articles like “How the
  Raid was Done” – often raids that the police had said were so
  professional it had to have been carried out by professionals from
  abroad… One person urges for a Swedish A.L.F. Supporters Group, and
  a spokesperson who could defend the actions openly. Til now, this had
  only been done my anonymous activists in balaclavas, or by Emelie
  E:son, an anonymous A.L.F. activist from the 1980:ies. Focus was also
  targeted on groups trying to attack Peter Singer (who was at a visit
  in Sweden during this period), there was a big report from the animal
  rights campaigning and activity against the vivisection at the Umea
  University, as well as more information directly from The Wild Minks.

  After the last issue, a Swedish A.L.F. Supporters Group was founded,
  doing both work towards the media as towards prisoners and the animal
  rights movement in general. They also released their own magazine,
  later named Befriaren (The Liberator).

  

  …

• One-off publications, Videos

  90s ALF press coverage: Alaskan Fur Co. and USDA arsons.

  08.02.12 | Permalink

  Random clips (1996 and 1998, various locations.)

  Speciesism is so entrenched that your average person sees nothing wrong with the anal electrocution of a mink in order to steal their fur. This same person, however, will scream bloody murder over an empty building being set alight to prevent such torture. Our society habitually denounces those who resist our everyday cruelties, until somehow logic manages to penetrate and suddenly the rebels are seen as being right all along. At one point in the United States the majority of (invading European) citizens saw nothing wrong with human slavery, and newspapers shouted their outrage over slave revolts, the underground railroad, and the burning of auction blocks that sold thousands of people into bondage. Through the efforts of generations of abolitionists, however, the tide was eventually turned, and none of those aforementioned papers would now dream of supporting the slave trade. The rebels who were hated by the public, who were jailed and hanged and ridiculed to the delight of the media, are now seen as heroes.

  There are, of course, very real differences between the movements to end human and non-human slavery, but the role of the media has remained very much the same. Luckily our movement has had, from time to time, articulate spokespeople who can explain why direct action is taken on behalf of animals. In the 1990s Freeman Wicklund, then the publisher of No Compromise magazine, would act as a press liaison in order to explain the motives of the underground. Later, Katie Fedor would start the North American Animal Liberation Front Press Office. Working closely with former ALF prisoners and the Canadian SG, she appeared regularly on television defending the actions of anonymous saboteurs. (As an interesting side note, Kevin Kjonaas once interned for Katie’s press office, and actually received college credits for defending the ALF!)

  We present here several news clips featuring Freeman and Katie in the 90s doing one of the hardest jobs a good press officer must do: defending the use of arson to save animals.

  …

• One-off publications, Videos

  Animal Liberation: The Movie

  02.07.12 | Permalink

  Animal Liberation: The Movie (1992, England)

  An early and wonderful example of DIY video production and anonymous distribution, Animal Liberation: The Movie was brought to the US by Freeman Wicklund in the early 90s. Often sold on the same tape as the moving Kieth Mann documentary “Angels of Mercy,” it quickly became a must have in the video collection of activists everywhere.

  Documenting the high-water mark of daylight raids, department store arson, hunt sabotage, and undercover investigations in England, this sub-rosa video remains one of the best catalogs of direct action in the 80s and early 90s.

  

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• No Compromise, Periodicals

  No Compromise #8 / Strategic Non-Violence for Animal Liberation

  10.20.11 | Permalink

  No Compromise #8 / Strategic Non-Violence for Animal Liberation Insert (1997-1998, Minneapolis, MN)

  On November 16th 1997, nine years prior to the day that I turned myself in to federal prison in the SHAC 7 case, I was arrested in Anaheim, California. Activists from around the country had descended upon the home of Disneyland to protest the American Association of Laboratory Animal Scientists and we soon found ourselves facing a small army of law enforcement officers. They had miniature tanks, riot suits, pepper spray, batons, counter sniper units on rooftops, and a willingness to use all of the above to maintain the right of vivisectors to keep cutting open living animals. The demonstrations that day set in motion a chain of events that would change the face of grassroots animal rights in America. What does any of this have to do with No Compromise #8 and it’s insert? Allow me to explain.

  Freeman Wicklund was a vibrant, young activist from Minnesota. After animal rights militancy had been severely hampered in the late 80’s by grand juries, arrests, and the presence of informants, Freeman was one of the activists who had helped pick up the pieces. His organizing with Student Organization for Animal Rights had made Minneapolis a sort of mecca for direct action oriented vegans, and his projects in the early 90s included traveling to England to bring back literature, documentaries, and interviews about the strengths and weaknesses of the movement abroad. These materials proved to be very influential, and after a short period of contributing to publications such as Out of the Cages, Freeman started No Compromise magazine with a few friends. No Comp, as we called it back then, was the spark that lit a prairie fire. After its publication actions against animal abusers hit a fever pitch.

  The 1990s were a complicated time. On the one hand a lot of dedicated, sincere people were taking tremendous risks and making large sacrifices to liberate animals from harm. On the other hand, thrill seekers and status hunters wanted to make a name for themselves while having a little adventure. The epicenter of the latter phenomenon was Salt Lake City. The straight edge scene in Utah was notoriously violent and cultish, and it adherents had attached veganism to their gang-like mentality. Direct actions were on the rise in the area, but many of them were being performed by people who could care less about the politics. When Freeman visited the state in 1997 to help train young people to deal with grand juries, he found a movement based on bragging and scene points. Animals were secondary to climbing the straight edge social ladder, and snitching and self incrimination were epidemic. Disgusted with what he saw there, Freeman began reading the works of pacifist Gene Sharp, and slowly he began to have personal doubts about the role of sabotage and aggressive protest.

  Those private conflicts became very public in Anaheim. The AALAS protest drew hundreds of people from multiple states and ended in 8 arrests. While Wicklund was being arrested he began to shout that he was opposed to the ALF at a nearby camera which he mistakenly believed belonged to news media. (The camera was being operated by the police to gather evidence against the protestors.) While we were being detained in the Orange County Jail he told the other arrestees that he was a pacifist now, and upon his release he announced via e-mail lists that he would be quitting his job as editor at No Compromise. When issue #8 was released it contained an editorial announcing his departure, along with a 16 page insert that detailed the focal points of his new strategy.

  The supposed “violence vs pacifism” debate is unlikely to ever be resolved, but the contentious battles between the two sides of that argument can sure tear apart a movement. Freeman, for his part, was not content to simply let his views be known. His actions now provide us with a clear road map of what not to do with tactical dogmatism; he began traveling the country denouncing direct action at conferences, he sent out press releases denouncing ALF actions, he even went so far as to visit and disrupt meetings of pro-direct action organizations, including Student Organization for Animal Rights, the group he once worked for.

  Many people who had been inspired by Freeman now could not decide where they stood and slowly drifted away. Actions slowed to a standstill as infighting raged and many activists just decided to flee the internal drama. By the start of 1998 the number of grassroots groups were declining and regional networks were falling into disarray.

  As time went on Freeman faded into obscurity. His activism became a hodgepodge of confusing moves like running for a school board position in Minnesota, giving equal time to the meat industry when he would table, and requiring that members of his group sign a pledge acknowledging that he was their leader. When his court date in the Anaheim case came around he skipped it to give a lecture about the failings of the Animal Liberation Front. I did show up for my court date, and was sentenced to 45 days in one of the most violent county jails in the United States. There, while on hunger strike, I rejected my own pacifist tendencies, and started down the path that would ultimately lead to my participation in the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty campaign.

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• No Compromise, Periodicals

  No Compromise #6-7

  08.23.11 | Permalink

  No Compromise #6-7 (1997. Minneapolis, MN.)

  The second year of No Compromise was packed with inspiring coverage of the growth of the militant grassroots, including some of the most important events of the 90s: Tony Wong’s hunger strike, the mass arrests and police riot at the Yerkes primate center, and the World Week for Animals in Laboratories arrests at the UC Davis primate center.

  Tony Wong was only 16 years old when he was convicted for a civil disobedience action at the Lazurus department store. He immediately began a hungerstrike in prison, and after a month of not eating the staff at the juvenile facility where he was being held began force feeding him animal products through a tube forcefully inserted through his nose. The brutality faced by Tony acted as a lightning rod, and soon large demonstrations and acts of sabotage rippled across the country. The most important thing that Tony did though was to set an example of dedication that others could admire and aspire to in their own lives. Sadly, Tony eventually embraced a deeply speciesist political transformation and began consuming animals again after sacrificing so much to save them.

  World Week in 1997 saw miniature police riots in Georgia and California. The protests themselves were not as important as the resulting boost to the movement created by the heavy handedness of the cops. As van loads of activists traveled to these demonstrations and found themselves sharing jail cells with like minded comrades, they soon formed tighter networks which led to greater revolutionary potential. The west coast and east coast both saw an upswing in regional actions after these arrests.

  No Compromise was plagued by it’s usual production and distribution delays this year. It only got two issues finished, and they didn’t make it into people’s hands on the advertised cover dates, but both of these issues are wonderful documents of their era.

  No Compromise #1-5 can be found here.

  …

• Periodicals, Underground

  Underground #10-13

  06.19.11 | Permalink

  Underground 10-13 (1998 Ontario, Canada)

  Our Underground collection continues its way into 1998, a somewhat bittersweet year for the movement. After a period of steady growth in both illegal direct action and militant grassroots activity, No Compromise editor and well known activist Freeman Wicklund denounced the ALF (and most forms of protest) at a large demonstration in southern California. His “new” perspective was merely a recycled, pro-animal form of pacifist strategy taken from Gene Sharpe, and he demanded that people take sides. Freeman was charismatic and many young people had first began their involvement after hearing him speak. They were now torn by his change of heart. Many people dropped out, and above ground pressure campaigns largely ground to a halt.

  ’98 also saw a continuation of the previous years snitching epidemic, but, as always, some positive developments buoyed our spirits and resolve. In Oregon, protestors jumped the fences at a farm which bred rabbits for vivisection, and soon the United States had it’s first daylight raid underway. Katie Fedor, an organizer with Minnesota’s Student Organization for Animal Rights, became the United States’ first ALF Press Officer in more than a decade, and soon she was speaking out in favor of sabotage and liberations in major media outlets on a regular basis. The conviction of the “GandALF 3” was suddenly overturned on grounds that they had not, in fact, conspired with person unknown to carry out unknown actions at unknown locations! Finally, good people with dedication and resolve rained hell down on animal abusers all year long, resulting in thousands of lives lived outside of cages. It’s hard to keep a good movement down.

  Also see Underground 1-3 and Underground 4-6 and Underground 7-9 and Underground 14-15 and the final rare issue, Underground 16.

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• One-off publications

  Keep Fighting: Three Interviews with Britain’s Animal Liberation Front Press Officers

  05.20.11 | Permalink

  Keep Fighting: Three Interviews with Britain’s Animal Liberation Front Press Officers (1996, Minneapolis, MN. USA.)

  “In two buildings you have a number of dogs, and these dogs are being cruelly treated by humans. Another team of humans sledge hammer the doors down, go in, rescue the dogs, and take them to safety. In the first instance it is an old house and it’s an illegal dogfight and the team who sledge hammered the door are members of the RSPCA special investigation department and the local police…

  In the second scenario, it’s a research laboratory and the dogs are beagles, and the humans who sledge hammered the door down are ALF activists….

  Now I or someone else can argue until doomsday the rights and wrongs of legislation, but what it boils down to is until someone can explain the difference in the law to the dogs themselves, either both actions are morally right or both actions are morally wrong.”

  -Robin Webb

  Before Freeman Wicklund denounced tactics declared off limits by the state, he produced this fantastic little zine containing three highly influential interviews with Robin Webb, Ronnie Lee, and Robin Lane. Upon its release in 1996 copies of Keep Fighting were everywhere, and there was a noticeable increase in the quality of discourse on illegal direct action.

  The arguments made in this booklet are convincing, and easily comprehensible but not simplistic. Your average, caring person without a masters degree or years of familiarity with activist verbiage can readily take the ideas discussed and share them with others, and many people did. We are happy that the face of underground resistance presented in Keep Fighting- intelligence, compassion, and a willingness to take risks for the benefit of others- is now accessible again for a new generation to read and share.

  

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• Periodicals

  Out of the Cages #6-9

  05.19.11 | Permalink

  Out of the Cages #6 – 9 (1993-1994. Santa Cruz, CA. USA)

  Out of the Cages is a wonderful magazine that filled an important niche in the pre-internet, pre-No Compromise 90s. As the main west coast publication of its time, it had a link to the 80s glory days that ran deep in the area it was printed. Santa Cruz had been the home of early US hunt saboteurs and the earliest cooperation between animal rights activists and Earth First! took place there. Rod Coronado, Jonathan Paul, and other early AR radicals called it home. This proximity to history gave the magazine a much different tone than Holocaust, or Dressed in Black, and unlike Militant Vegan, the group publishing OOTC were above ground liberationists, accessible for correspondence and submissions. This meant that the zine was always filled with fresh perspectives, letters, and debate, and that eventually groups from across the country got in touch to share ideas and announce their campaigns.

  Conflict Gypsy would very much like a complete set of Out of the Cages. If you have any please contact us at conflictgypsy {{at}} gmail ((dot)) com

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• No Compromise, Periodicals

  No Compromise #1-5

  04.01.11 | Permalink

  No Compromise #1-5 (Sacramento, CA / Minneapolis, MN. 1996-1997.)

  No Compromise, which billed itself as “The militant, direct action newsmagazine of grassroots animal liberationists and their supporters,” was the most important animal rights publication of the 1990s. Despite its many problems, frequent delays, and constant changes in editorial staff, the magazine energized the movement in a way that is difficult to explain to a generation that never witnessed pre-internet activism.

  In the mid 90s there were a few, isolated groups around the country who were participating in civil disobedience actions and staging loud protests against local labs and fur stores. These groups were largely unaware of each others’ existence and without a gathering like Earth First!’s Round River Rendezvous, unable to share tactical advice or co-ordinate targets.

  In 1996 there was a national meeting of animal rights activists in Washington DC dubbed World Animal Awareness Week and March for the Animals. The event was considered a failure as only 3,000 of the estimated 100,000 participants materialized. But staff from No Compromise were present passing out the first issue and asking grassroots organizations for their contact information. Suddenly groups like the Animal Rights Direct Actions Coalition were aware of Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, the Animal Defense Leagues, and the Student Organization for Animal Rights.

  As the grassroots grew increasingly aware of the efforts of other organizations, regional demonstrations began being planned. The first such demonstration after the March for Animals took place at the Seattle Fur Exchange, where activists used bike locks to attach themselves to each other and block the drive way of the fur auction. All of the action got reported on in No Compromise, and suddenly bike locks gave way to lock boxes, which gave way to super boxes and barrels and tripods as civil disobedience tactics spread across the country wherever the magazine was distributed. There was an explosion not just in voluntary arrest scenarios, but also in underground direct action. The print runs of No Compromise kept climbing and it became the must read publication for animal rights militants.

  Conflict Gypsy will be posting No Compromise year by year with an analysis of the direction of the movement at that time. Year one represents the return of the militant grassroots after they had been destroyed by grand juries, arrests, and movement paranoia in the late 80s and early 90s. The tone of the magazine at this time was hopeful, and each issue was packed with increasingly daring protests and direct actions.

  …

TALON is a soon to be rebranded archive of animal and earth liberation publications. This site is currently being maintained but please expect to see the collection at a new home soon. sponsors and supporters

disclaimer

The Talon Conspiracy is an online archive preserving the history of protest movements for animal rights and environmentalism. Its owners, contributors, and designers are not responsible for actions taken by third parties which may be harmful or unlawful to the individuals or entities named in archived publications. This web site is provided for the purpose of historical research and analysis, and is not intended to incite, encourage, or condone any criminal action on the part of its readers. Finally, The Talon Conspiracy does not necessarily agree with any of the views expressed in the publications in our archive, but aims to provide a thorough collection of the history of eco direct action. All opinions expressed in our archives are those of their original authors only.