On The Nature Of Resistance
Jerry Vlasak speaks to the Abolitionist

Interview by Claudette Vaughan

Abolitionist: The campaign to shut down one of the world’s largest animal testing laboratories, Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) is fast becoming one of the most significant in the history of the animal rights movement.

Attacks and protests from around the world have been unrelenting, targeting not only Huntingdon itself but also the corporations who do business with this evil lab. In 4 short years SHAC has driven HLS into a 85million dollar debt, getting it kicked out of the NY and London Stock Exchange, bringing the lab’s share prices from a one time high of $30.00 to an all time low of 1/1000 of a cent. Is this a prototype for the future Jerry?

Jerry Vlasak: The message we have all learnt from the world-wide campaign against HLS is that in order to be effective as a movement, and we can be effective, we have to concentrate our efforts on a winnable target, and then persevere in using all forms of attack until we win. Our colleagues in the UK have set an example for all of us with their focused campaigns like those against HLS, Cambridge and Oxford University primate labs and Newchurch Guinea Pig breeders; they simply live these campaigns and refuse to waiver until the torture and killing of animals is stopped.

For way too long now, animal rights campaigners, especially at the grass-roots level, have been all over the map, protesting fur shops one day, butchers and factory farms another, and then circuses another day. Each abuser learned they could sit tight and the pressure would fade, often in just a short time. The movement, especially in the US, has been akin to a “Jack of all Trades and a Master of None.” We cannot continue, for the animals’ sake, to make the same mistakes that were made for so many years.

Of course, the more effective the campaign, the harder the abusers and their protectors in government will come down on activists. This is to be expected, and indeed can be used to gauge the effectiveness of a campaign. Standing on some street corner with a sign twice a year protesting is so ineffective, no one will ever bother you. But when we are effective, we also must be prepared for the repression that come with that effectiveness; we have a lot of work to do it that area.

Abolitionist:With regards to tactics and strategies, does the end justify the means?

JV: The means are perfectly appropriate, and can certainly be morally justified. If you and your family were in a steel cage, locked away in a secured building somewhere, being taken out only when some perverted individuals in a white coats wanted to do horrific and painful experiments on you, what would you expect from those who cared about you on the outside? Would you want them to write letters begging for your release, or maybe do a demonstration for a couple hours outside the building? Or would you want, indeed expect, them to come and get you, using whatever force necessary, and make it impossible for the abusers to continue their torture upon others? I know what I would want, and if we are all honest with ourselves, I think we could all agree on what not only SHOULD be done, but what is the only ethical and moral thing to be done under those circumstances.

Abolitionist: Seasoned activists know that after all the nice words and deeds spoken about animals and their fate, and after attending all the conferences, protests and the demos etc etc, it’s ONLY when economic warfare is inflicted on the breeders, the abusers and industry do we really see the capitalist machine move into action and show it’s true colours. If the animal rights movement neglects to address the root cause of the problem, which is the capitalistic machine, is all else just imagination?

JV: Looking back at history, no oppressor ever threw off the chains of the exploited or oppressed until they were forced to do so. It didn't happen in India, Algeria, South Africa or in the slave-trading good 'ol USA, and it won't happen today concerning animals. Economic warfare is one way to force abusers to stop their abuse; if they cannot afford to hurt animals, much less make a profit doing so, they will stop; simple as that.

Abolitionist: Why is it that animal welfarists never seem to have the stomach for a fight when the going gets tough?

JV: Animal welfarists, those who basically are advocating for the continued exploitation of animals, only in slightly more reformed ways, remain a part of the system that maintains animal slavery is morally justified. Even more than those who profess an animal rights ideology, they are unwilling to surrender even a small part of their comfort level in order to help non-human animals. Heck, they sometimes violently consume the flesh of some animals while they discuss helping other animals. So of course if there is any suggestion that they might personally come under attack, or risk their profession or how they are “perceived”, they run for cover. Many welfarists and welfare organisations are paid so much money to talk about and send out mass mailings on animal suffering, that they really have no incentive to markedly change the status quo.

Even so-called animal liberationists are frequently unwilling to sacrifice their own comfort to help animals; after all, who wants to risk losing access to that big-screen, high-definition television and that new computer that many are addicted to? A shining example is the activists currently being charged with ALF and ELF activity in the northwestern U.S.- half of them have agreed to testify against their fellow warriors in attempts to get lighter prison sentences. Not only does this take their colleagues off the street when there was likely little or no evidence against any of them, but also it sets a bad example for the rest of the movement.

Until we as a movement start to compare ourselves with true revolutionaries from other struggles, warriors who were willing to fight and die for their beliefs, the animals will continue to suffer in record numbers. Recently released statistics from the U.K. for instance, document a 3% INCREASE in laboratory animals tortured in laboratories, and an 11% INCREASE in non-human primate imprisonment and death. As a liberation movement, we are not winning. Instead, we are being constrained by those in the movement who continue to advocate the same, unsuccessful tactics- don’t anger the abusers, don’t alienate the public. The hell with the public, the hell with the abusers, its about the enslavement, torture and killing of our non-human brethren, and what we need to do to stop it. Now. Not next year, or by 2015. Now.

Abolitionist: There are a few stories coming out of the Animal Liberation Movement such as after a mink liberation it was reported that several minks found life in the wild to be too intimidating and had literally queued up outside the farms to get back in. Isn’t this also a metaphor for the human propensity to seek out only what is known to them and risk nothing for an unknown future (for non-human animals)?

JV: I would consider the source of information like this. It's almost always the oppressor who says his mink can’t wait to get back in their cages and wait to have their necks broken or be anally electrocuted.

There is an analogy, however, from 1850-era America when John Brown, a revolutionary trying to free the black slaves here, took over a federal armory in Virginia. In order for his plan to succeed, he counted on the slaves from the surrounding plantations to join him, but most were too fearful of their masters to revolt. They, too, were a bit too comfortable with the status quo to risk it all for freedom. No wonder the animal liberation movement has the same problem- it’s not even our own freedom we are being asked to risk so much for.

Abolitionist: What do you say to activists who have deserted the cause and let the Movement down e.g., the Green Scare happening in the US today?

JV: Those who denounce the movement, or hurt those in the movement by helping send them to prison, are traitors, and should be treated as such.

Abolitionist: Is ‘animal rights’ a fundamental starting point for questioning the death urge of western civilisation and how we all choose to live our lives?

JV: “Civilization” is a destructive force that is destroying the planet; it won’t be long before this culture destroys itself, and probably takes humans and most other species with it. Not to worry, though, even humans don’t really have the power to destroy everything. Once the culture destroys itself, it may take a million or so years to get back on track without humans, but that’s the blink of an eye in the life of the planet.

Certainly the massive exploitation of non-humans (and humans, and the environment) is a major part of “civilization”; living in an extractive, non-sustainable way is foolish and won’t work much longer. Derrick Jensen talks about this so eloquently in his new book, Endgame- I urge everyone to read this 2-volume set and then get to work on making the end of this culture happen as soon as possible.

Abolitionist: How does one target for change the perennial backwaters of animal agriculture for the future? The fact that people are moved to confront the state because of the suffering of animals provides hope in more doing so and denouncing animal abuse. What advise to you have for others starting out in animal rights Jerry?

JV: My advice for those starting out in this movement is to stay away from letter writing and protests, and stay away from the welfarists. Learn instead to stay out of sight of the oppressors. Educate yourself in the ways of the saboteur, and “hit ‘em where they ain’t”. There are plenty of people out there making lots of money off animal advocacy, but most are not nearly as effective as they could be by hitting the abusers where it hurts most. I am encouraged by the thousands of messages we get at the North American Animal Liberation Press Office from young unknowns who have the power to make real change. Make real change the way Melanie Arnold did when she burned an abattoir to the ground, the way Rod Coronado and Peter Young did when they freed thousands of captive mink and destroyed the death camps behind them.

Abolitionist:Are animal rights activists at war for the animals?

JV: It is a war, a war against those who enslave, abuse, torture and murder non-human animals just because they can get away with it, and make a lot of money in the process. Anytime a war is fought against a vastly superior force, guerilla tactics are the only ones that make sense. Ask the Palestinians, the Vietnamese, the Algerians, the South Africans. It’s stupid to go head-to-head against a superior power. All of those mentioned above prevailed using stealth, creativity and courage against much stronger opponents.

As for the tactics, that depends on what we have available to us. If someone is good with computers, lots of damage can be done to the oppressor by hacking into their machines; those with military training could do other things well. Those that can write to inspire others, then write; those that can speak out, then speak out. I think street theatre and increasingly, almost any kind of protest, is becoming useless. The state is cracking down on those they can see, the above ground, legal, grass-roots activists who have embraced effective forms of protest. Here in Los Angeles people are randomly arrested and charged with bogus offenses, and then spend months, as well as thousands of dollars defending themselves. Look at the SHAC USA activists, who were recently sentenced to years in prison for running a website advocating the closing down of HLS laboratories.

Maybe it’s time to rethink how effective protests can be in this climate of repression of our civil rights. Is it worth it to be arrested when one is simply picketing and chanting? The government is so stupid, under those like Senator Inhofe and now Californian Diane Feinstein, they are practically hanging out a banner in front of the Senate office building in Washington DC, saying STAY OUT OF SIGHT, GO UNDERGROUND--you’ll be less likely to be arrested and charged with something then if you attend a legal protest!!!

Remember “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.” —John F. Kennedy