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.

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Periodicals
Lomakatsi
09.07.12 | Permalink

Lomakatsi #1, 2, 3, and 4 (1987-1989, Washington, DC)

Many of the participants in the first boom of U.S. animal liberation activity were radicals, and not just when it came to their critique of non-human slavery. As I have mentioned in previous posts, speciesism is so intrinsic to most cultures that people embracing a pro-animal ethic almost always came from the fringes. These early pioneers pushed the message, took direct action, and put the plight of animals front and center in works of art, music, and literature. What became of these rebels when the movement became more mainstream, and thus more profitable to the careerists at national organizations? As a generation of gray, corporate pseudo-activists began to wield suits and ties instead of spanners and bolt cutters the old guard revolted in a variety of ways- one of which was an eclectic, anarchist journal known as Lomakatsi.

Taking the Hopi word for “Life in Balance,” a small collective of artists and activists set out to reject the dominant themes running through other, tamer publications. More than that, they started a project to live communally on a small parcel of land and experiment with more sustainable, less technological ways of living. By sharing their space with each other, and their thoughts with the world, the rebels continued to have an impact on the direction of the mvoement.

During it’s short life, Lomakatsi circulated about 1,000 copies per issue, introduced anti-civilization themes to AR folks through articles by John Zerzan, (And a letter from Feral Faun in one issue!) and stirred up plenty of controversy. Each issue contained DIY instructions for sabotage, oddball illustrations and comics, and advocacy for some ideas that were challenging to say the least. Their intentional community eventually stopped producing a journal, but those following animal liberation history will certainly see the influence that Lomakatsi had on our movement’s dialogue as we moved into the 1990s.

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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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