Editorial by Claudette Vaughan

A BIG Welcome to the first bumper issue of the Abolitionist-Online. One year after first conceiving this project we are up and running and here to stay, starting off with over 25 hand-selected interviews, over one dozen articles and various reviews to build upon. This Ezine began because of 3 main reasons:

First we asked ourselves this question: What does it mean to be an abolitionist animal rights activist? The attitudes existing in society and within the animal rights movement itself is still too contradictory towards nonhuman animals. It’s legal to butcher ‘livestock’ for food but not to cause them to suffer during slaughter. It legal to kill the chicken for the pot, but not to allow fighting cocks to kill each other. Kittens can be euthanased but not abandoned. Certain types of birds are protected but others are annihilated. People fawn over their companion animals but think nothing of wearing the skins of animals. Parents introduce their children to animals while they are young through zoo prisons and animal ‘farms’ and continue to see no harm in exposing them to circus acts which are degrading to nonhuman animals. The contradiction continues as once hard-line animal rights activists are now seen putting their full support behind so-called “humane” slaughter legislation and/or organic ‘meat’ practices. Call that what you want, but it’s not animal rights.

We also wanted to produce a forum that would at least look at some of the wider forces acting upon the animal rights movement at this time and in some cases actually working against animal rights achieving a foothold in society. E.g., capitalism, patriarchy, consumerism and again, the perceived ‘benign’ industry of animal welfarism. We asked ourselves: Does western culture have a moral imperative? In the west we have been conditioned to think that big is better than small, that strong is better than weak, that fast is better than slow, and that physical strength is greater than moral or spiritual strength. We found that carnivorism ties in very well with consumerism. Both can trip us up and trap our perception into believing that despite our two eyes we can only see in one direction.

What’s occurred in western culture is an unnatural phenomenon that’s never before been seen in nature and it’s called a “spent force”. Rampant in western capitalistic culture is this frenetic need to consume or be consumed, often to the point of destruction. In women we see it in wasting diseases like anorexia nervosa and sex workers being consumed up in the sex industry. In men it’s predominately happening in the corporate state system. In nonhuman animals we see it in factory farming practices, horseracing, greyhound racing and again in the enormous indiscriminate consumption of eating nonhuman animals themselves.

The last reason for starting this ezine is because in an increasing age of specialisation we wanted to give diverse abolitionist grassroots activists from Chile through to Russia an unimpeded, unedited platform to work out of. This is a project born out of repeated unsuccessful attempts to get ‘The Rod Coronado Interview’ online as several animal rights groups refused it on the basis of its contents.
Lastly this ezine reflects, confronting though it is, the fact that there is a grand design to create a new world order in the world today. The proponents of this New World Order will accept animal welfarism but will reject animal rights outright. A one-world government will install its own legislative, executive and judiciary authority and control upon nations.
We on the planet today have been granted an opportunity to work for animal rights before this new world order physically manifests itself and so the Abolitionist-Online insists upon promoting diversity, debate, discussion and even dissent.

We are a non-commercial endeavour. This is our tribute. However, it is expensive work to bring our readers first-rate interviews and maintain the running costs of a website. Please donate if you can. Every 3 months we intend to have a new theme. We invite you to submit material and if interested, you’ll need to contact me for writer guidelines and/or suggested articles. If you want to join our email then please send us your email address.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank each and every contributor in this issue for giving of their time, their expertise and their unfettered opinions. I am indebted to you.

Thankyou to Phil Wollen for the computer hardware.

This site is dedicated to Barry Horne, Jill Phipps, Mike Hill, Tom Worby, the Australian Diana Simpson. And Ronnie Lee.

Claudette Vaughan.
August, 2005.
Abolitionist-Online

- Accomplish the great task by a series of small acts. – Tao Te Ching.