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Campaign newsletters, Periodicals
N.A.L.L. Newsletters – Summer and Spring 1985
03.26.15 | Permalink

N.A.L.L. Newsletter – Summer 1985, Spring News 1985 (1985, Manchester, England)

Every time we receive a NALL related donation everyone at TALON can’t wait to read it, even if it is just a small newsletter or leaflet. Our fascination with the group stems from their early socialism, their insistence that mass-militancy trumps individual direct-action, and their acts of solidarity with other movements. While their publications don’t always touch on those factors, fans of the Leagues will not be disappointed with these two issues of the NALL Newsletter, especially the Spring News, which comments on the unstrategic militarism happening at the time, specifically the Mars bar poisoning hoax and publicity stunts of groups like the Hunt Retribution Squad.

The excitement doesn’t end there, however! Despite the poor editing, these volumes contain many clues as to the organizing model, rhetoric, history, and strategies employed by NALL- and then there are the small tidbits that will make you love them even more! An embracing of ecological politics, a tendency towards anonymity for the sake of rejecting the big egos that cause so much damage to movements, the fact that NALL was originally called Manchester Animal Liberators, the mention of a cafe run by three NALL members… If you are as fascinated with this classic organization as we are you will absolutely love these two dispatches!

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Periodicals
The SG newsletter, Volume 2.
07.08.13 | Permalink

Supporters Group Newsletter No.1 (1987 – London, England)

After the original Animal Liberation Front Supporters Group newsletter was repressed out of existence, an attempt was made at a second volume that could survive government harassment. Steps were taken to clear each article with attorneys and the majority of the content was reposted from mainstream news articles. Calls to action were kept out of editorials written by the SG (Although they still appeared in the many first hand accounts and communications sent from those underground) and, in general, the tone was far less militaristic than the final issues of Volume 1.

Sadly, this didn’t save the SG’s volunteers from further political prosecutions.

During this time British security services estimated that up to four hundred direct actions were happening every day in the United Kingdom, with more financial damage being incurred by animal abusers than the British government faced at the hands of the IRA in Northern Ireland. The state was not willing to risk these actions spreading no matter how legal the efforts of those publicising them. So, after a single, wonderful issue, the SG newsletter was once again put out of business. At least they went down fighting! This newsletter features inspiring reports, hilariously snarky editorials, and some of our favorite images from the frontlines of the fight against speciesism. It is truly a must read, and we are proud that, despite the efforts of Scotland Yard and other British law enforcement, The SG is still available here at TALON.

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Periodicals, Underground
Underground #4-6
06.05.11 | Permalink

Underground 4-6 (1996, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.)

As Underground magazine continued its run into 1996, the movement was once again in a state of internal dispute. The wave of FBI investigations and grand jury harassment earlier in the decade had put Rod Coronado behind bars. Sadly, an embarrassing moment in our history occurred when a small group of activists, including Rod’s long time friend and former housemate Jonathan Paul, called for support to be pulled from Rod. Their reasons were many, but largely centered around Rod’s desire to make the choices that effected his own defense. Jonathan and Rod later patched up their differences, but for many years those two great practitioners of direct action warred back and forth in the pages of this and other publications, which proved a waste of effort, time, and newsprint.

Luckily for nonhumans, 1996 was also a year that saw a tremendous upswing in resistance on their behalf. Notably, fur farm raids became common occurrences throughout the world. This was the year that saw the release of the infamous first edition of The Final Nail, a publication that gave addresses of fur farms and explained how to raid them. Excerpts appeared in Underground, and subscribers received free copies. Every issue throughout this period detailed the pressure being exerted on the fur farming industry, and proved that Rod’s imprisonment and the ensuing movement drama didn’t put the struggle for fur bearing animals in an early grave.

Underground also contained plenty of letters, news clippings, and short articles. Self criticism, analysis of movement building, targeting, press relations, and other strategic improvements are, sadly, largely absent. Still, the magazine provides one of the best glimpses into the way the ALF worked in North America in the 90s, which is why we will be posting every issue online, for free, by the middle of this month. Animal liberation history is for people, not profit!

Also see Underground 1-3 and Underground 7-9 and Underground 10-13 and Underground 14-15 and the final rare issue, Underground 16.

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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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Most Popular, Periodicals
Live Wild or Die #1-3
05.05.11 | Permalink

Live Wild or Die # 1-3 (Published in various locations along the west coast of the United States, 1989-1990s?)

Edited by rotating teams of anarchists and espousing an anti-civilization perspective a decade before the rise of Eugene’s primitivists, Live Wild or Die was the most radical environmental journal of its time, and perhaps, of all time. Featuring articles with names like “The Eco-Fucker hit list,” which “wise use” guru Ron Arnold later erroneously claimed to have inspired Ted Kaczynski’s choice of targets, LWOD presented an uncompromising vision of a future without industrialism and domestication brought about by train hopping tree spikers, nomadic punk hunt saboteurs, and feral warriors. It was exciting, naive, inspiring, and sometimes a little bit stupid. Still, flipping through it’s over-sized, busily decorated pages you can not help but feel the optimistic spirit of that era. Earth First!ers and animal liberators, monkey wrenchers and black clad messengers run wild across the pulp, heralding a revolution to free the world of exploitation, drudgery, brutality and boredom. Cries for the destruction of corporate property vie for attention alongside snarky comic strips, screeds against new age pseudo resistance, and now un-distributable diagrams for building incendiary devices. The authors believed in their hearts that something better was on the horizon if they could fight hard enough to get there. That deep and passionate longing for utopia is all but dead nowadays, washed away by delusions of “Hope” and “Change” at the ballot box and a green consumerism that only takes us deeper into the pit of shallow lives and dying eco-systems. But somewhere out there I am betting that there are a few young people who pine for a planet that is joyous and just, and I hope they smile, conspiratorially, when they see what the generation who made LWOD was planning.

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One-off publications
It’s a Man’s Game
04.25.11 | Permalink

It’s A Man’s Game (1980s, Leeds, England)

It’s A Man’s Game is a short zine written after an anarchist men’s weekend, outlining what they perceived as sexism in the UK’s Hunt Saboteur Association. The authors argue that all men involved in hunt sabbing engage in behaviors that oppress women, and that women and animals are alike because women are “enslaved as wives” and “used for entertainment, cheap labour, and sex.”

For a zine claimed to be inspired by women’s strength, it is notably absent of evidence of women actually voicing their own concerns with the sabbing scene. Instead, women are portrayed as yet another helpless and oppressed creature that needs protecting by enlightened men – mirroring the paternalistic dynamic of how many animal rights activists view animals. (One has to be pretty obtuse to consider oneself a voice for the “voiceless” – animals are indeed very noisy when being injured or mistreated, and have a long history of responding by maiming or killing their attackers.)

The solutions to sexism proposed by the zine are to disassociate with the HSA, have structured meetings to prevent any one person from talking more than another, and to spend time doing blindfolded trust exercises as a group to build respect for women.

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Periodicals
State of the Movement
03.28.11 | Permalink

State of the Movement #1-3 (1986-1990, Tarzana, CA USA.)

If there was ever a zine series that I wish I could provide Cliff’s Notes for, it would be State of the Movement. SOTM wielded political cartooning the most way other people wield blades, and its editors stabbed at what they saw as hypocrisy and weakness in the movement’s personalities and philosophies. Many of the references made in these cartoons will be lost on younger activists, but we offer the following brief explanation.

The 1980s was a time of explosive popularity in the animal rights movement, and initially, that boom brought together some very unlikely people. Celebrities like Bob Barker held meetings where Rod Coronado would be seated next to the heads of welfare groups. Mass marches took place in cities all across the United States, with tens of thousands of people participating in demonstration on major days such as World Day for Animals in Laboratories and Fur Free Friday. But amidst all this activity, the con artists and career builders were lurking. The tremendous potential for fund raising also meant a corollary potential for salaries, and after a while, the mainstream groups had well-paid executives who wanted to do anything they could to avoid offending their donor base. The philosophy of the movement was weakened as calls for the abolition of vivisection became calls to stop using “pound seized pets” in experiments. Activists who had once loudly supported direct action began whispering supportive words to militants in one breath and then denouncing them to the media in another. Compromise spread like melted soy margarine and soon the whole movement was covered in the oily goo of half-assery!

Amidst this rush to mediocrity, State of the Movement mercilessly mocked those who were selling the animals futures down the drain. The events of the 1980s impact this movement still. We can not provide a comic by comic explanation, but we do hope that people will research this bygone period and learn from the mistakes of the failed movement “leadership” at that time.

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