Tag Archives: abolition

Vegan Trove Podcast Ep 2: Speciesism and Other Forms of Discrimination

Welcome again friends. :-) I invite you to subscribe to my VeganTrove.com site to receive updates on my latest podcasts. I invite you to listen to Episode 2 here.

In this episode I briefly touch on some of the topics covered in my 1st podcast. I explore some quotes, articles and interviews and include some of the audio. I touch on the problems of large animal charities ignoring the solution to animal “cruelty” and more importantly the solution to abolishing animal use (Veganism). I expand on a topic I broached last week about the ecological disaster that is animal agriculture and its contribution to species extinction and climate change and how green groups ignore its contribution and why, and I touch on a number of diverse miscellaneous issues.

This 2nd podcast is again a tad long (approx 45 minutes) but I hope you find it interesting.  Episode 3 will (hopefully) be in the next 2 or 3 weeks if time permits (I’m very busy till February in the new year).

As well as subscribing to VeganTrove.com site for updates, please join “Vegan Trove” on Facebook for future podcast updates :)

Disclaimer: Although I mention various individuals or sites in my podcasts, please note I do not necessarily endorse these individuals, or opinions, links or ads.  Please view my disclaimer.

Please note Episode 1 is already on iTunes and Episode 2 will be available on iTunes shortly. I will post a link when it is ready.
Thanks for listening. I look forward to having the pleasure of your company next time.  :)

For more information:

Russell Brand’s “The Trews

On the Environmental Disaster of Animal Agriculture | UVE Archives

Recommended books 

My LiveVegan Page: Another Facebook Casualty?

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Filed under abolition, animal ethics, animal exploitation, commodification, corporate capitalism, corporate-dominated government

The futility and speciesism of Australia’s “Ban Live Export” campaign

Last night I had a brief and unsurprisingly futile “discussion” on Twitter with an Australian who has set up an account for the specific purpose of promoting the “Ban Live Export” campaign. Unsurprisingly he/she was not promoting veganism.

There’s been a resurgence of the “Ban Live Export” (BLE) campaign in recent months. This campaign has been going for decades now. Please excuse my cynicism, but this ongoing futile campaign is a staple and a great fundraiser for many large Australian animal organisations. “Animals Australia” is such an organisation. Animals Australia is an “animal protection” organisation which — not unlike other “animal protection” organisations — does not have veganism as its moral baseline and promotes “humane” use and “humane” murder.

I have no doubt that the Animals Australia directors mean well, but they are not motivated by a fundamental moral justice to end animal use. Their mission is to “reduce animal suffering” by making animal use and murder more “humane”.

image kindly provided Liz Collins

Animals Australia is a “humane” use (new welfarist) organisation and through its “Ban Live Export” campaign has been promoting a solution — to murder nonhuman animals in Australia instead of exporting them to Indonesia to be murdered. Apparently Animals Australia believes — as does its supporters — that Australia has “humane” slaughterhouses. Really?  Anyone who has ever visited a slaughterhouse anywhere in the world knows they are all horror houses.

In 2003 Tom Hannan, Federal Secretary
Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union wrote:

Since the 1970’s the meatworkers union has opposed live exports on the basis of its destruction of Australian jobs, its inhumane treatment of the animals and the decimation of the meat processing industry.

The Australian Meatworkers Union are very happy to join with Animals Australia at protest events and they do. This should tell us something is very obviously wrong from a perspective of ending animal use. The AMU are happy because if Animals Australia’s “Ban Live Export” campaign is successful, this will mean more work for Australian slaughterhouse workers and Australian slaughterhouses. As is the case with all large animal organisations, Animals Australia has become partners in exploitation by partnering up with industry. Not only does the BLE campaign explicitly promote increasing the murder of nonhuman animals in Australia, it does so –at least in part — through implicit appeal to motives of nationalism, racism, and religious intolerance.

Unsurprisingly there’s not one mention of veganism anywhere in this campaign. In fact, Animals Australia has done its best to avoid promoting veganism in all its campaigns. In their BLE campaign it has specifically asked vegans (who went to the a rally and who were not AA supporters) to not to hand out vegan literature at their protest rallies.

Once again the animals lose.

Sadly, speciesist single issue campaigns such as BLE say to the public that one form of animal exploitation is worse than other forms. BLE campaign says to the public that we can “fix this” situation by murdering animals here in Australia instead of overseas and that it’s morally acceptable to use animals as resources as long as it is done “humanely”.  If BLE is successful (which is highly unlikely because live export is so profitable for the Australian government), it will soothe the public’s conscience by leading them to believe that the answer is “better treatment”, not that we should go vegan and end animal use. The “humane” use animal movement (all large animal orgs worldwide) is speciesist and confused and continues to confuse and reassure the speciesist public.

Humane” slavery is not what we should be aiming for, because there’s no such thing. If we believe in justice and nonviolence, then the end of slavery is what we should unequivocally promote and by that, I mean we should promote clear and consistent veganism.

Today I decided to visit the Ban Live Export Facebook page to leave a comment which I’ve edited slightly:

Someone said to me last night on Twitter that being vegan is too “radical”. But I say the ONLY response to this and other forms of animal use is to become vegan and educate others to do so. Creative, nonviolent vegan education is the answer.

We need to understand while animals are chattel property it will not matter how many single issue campaigns animal groups pursue. It is speciesist and counter-productive to promote them. ALL use is abuse. There is no such thing as non-abusive use.

Ban Live Export campaigns have been going for decades now without success. What does that tell us? It tells us that animal use will continue while the public is speciesist and while the public continue to think that other animals are resources, property and “things”. In other words, animal use will continue while we have a non-vegan public. Even if a “ban” on live export to Indonesia is successful, what will happen is some other country will fill the demand, but animal use will continue.

We need to understand and promote the position that there’s no such thing as “humane” murder, whether it be in Australia or Indonesia or anywhere and even if there were such a thing as “humane” use or “humane” murder, it would still be unjust. The issue isn’t HOW we use animals, but THAT we are use them that is the problem.

The only way to end the torture and murder of 56 billion other animals (not including sea animals) each year globally is for us to stop eating, wearing and using nonhuman animals and that means every person on this Ban Live Export page needs to go vegan and educate the public to do so as well. If we truly believe in justice and nonviolence, then we must be vegan. If we are not vegan, then we are participating in unspeakable violence that is happening to 100s of millions of nonhumans each day. We must “be the change” as Gandhi said. We must be nonviolent in our own lives and avail justice to nonhumans that we would want for ourselves.

I urge you to please consider this and stop promoting speciesist single issue campaigns. Please promote veganism instead.

Not vegan? Start here on this site and on LiveVegan

Please remember if you are not vegan, please go vegan. It’s easy. It’s better for your health, and for the planet (because animal use is an ecological nightmare) and most importantly, it’s the morally right and just thing to do.

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Filed under abolition, speciesism

“33 year vegan’s 33 tips for vegans ” by Vegan Poet

“33 year vegan’s 33 tips for vegans” by Vegan Poet

My personal comment in the comments section at the end of this blog post. Please note that veganism is much more than a diet, and that I am only leaving a comment relating to the health:

I would like to suggest to people to get their Vitamin D blood levels checked yearly (consider getting Vitamin B12, DHA levels as well). It’s a good idea to have a comprehensive blood screen each year. Request these tests from your medical practitioner.

Just as an added note, if you find that your blood iron levels are on the high side or always on the upper side of normal, consider having a simple test for hemochromatosis . It could save your life.

It’s a good idea that people take an interest in their own health and do their own health research and research the health of nonhumans they live with. It’s a good idea to keep records of blood results and review them yourself. Many doctors are not even looking for Vitamin D or B12 deficiency or iron overload.

A friend who gets plenty of sunlight exposure discovered she had dangerously low Vitamin D blood levels. Vitamin D deficiency has become a widespread problem globally, particularly with people with a high percentage of melanin in their skin. If one searches “Vitamin D deficiency” one will find many many articles including medical journal articles which indicate that there is widespread D deficiency occurring and that this deficiency appears to be a major contributor to many very serious illnesses including breast cancer, colon cancer, depression, diabetes type 2 and so on. So I would urge everyone to get their blood Vitamin D levels taken each year. Apparently there are many people who do not synthesize Vitamin D successfully from sunlight.

I found to my surprise, that I also had very low blood levels 3 years ago and so I started taking a supplement “Source of Life Garden Vitamin D3” which is vegan. This product was thoroughly researched by a vegan friend a couple of years ago, and the chemist assured him that the production process as well as the ingredients are vegan.


Disclaimer: Please note I make no financial gain from mentioning any vegan products. Please note I do not endorse opinions, links or ads on this site.

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Filed under abolition

Tim Putnam Speaks on Speciesism and Abolition at Colorado State University

Tim Putnam Speaks on Speciesism and Abolition 04/03/2012 Colorado State University – YouTube.

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Filed under abolitionist, vegan

What is violence? What is nonviolence?

I wanted to share this. I’ve written a rather long winded comment on some of my thoughts on nonviolence. I’m sorry if it rambles, but there’s a point to it 😉

I’ve often wondered what I would do if I was on the receiving end of physical violence. I had the opportunity at one time in my life to discover what I would do. Apart from the shock of the incident, my impulse was to do my best to remove myself. The incident was not extreme enough that I felt my life was in danger, but it was quite shocking and an education. I sometimes wonder how I would respond in a life-threatening situation. I know that I would do my best to temporarily seriously disable the other person, before removing myself, but I really do not know if I could ever deliberately kill another being to save myself. I hope that I would not do that. I guess we never know what we are going to do until we are in that situation. ***I do know that the moment I end the life of another, no matter what has unfolded prior, I have demonstrated that my life is more important to me than the life of that other person’s (human or non) and that this attitude is at the core of most of our problems.****

Forms of social discrimination and social inequity are violence and it is often a precursor to greater violence e.g WWII.

It’s often the case that people refer to the WWII as an example where violence was justifiable to end the war, because the Nazis were doing awful things. It is true the genocidal policies were horrific, but National Socialism rose as a reaction to other injustices. None of it justifies the policy of genocide, but the injustices weren’t justified either.

Please indulge me for a few paragraphs while I discuss some history.

Hitler rose in large part because of the dire situations of the Germans were in during the Weimar Republic. The causes of that situation lie in the Empires of France, Germany, Austro-Hungary, Britain, Russia, and the Ottomans. The empires were extremely classist (and sexist and racist) societies based in hereditary economic divisions in which the aristocracy held almost all the wealth and power, and ordinary people had few rights. The royals and aristocrats of these empires were mostly close relatives, eg. Kaiser Wilhelm was the grandson of Queen Victoria and cousin of Czar Nikolas’ wife. Ordinary people were used as fodder for competitions between family members. A few years before and after conflicts, combatants would be be intermarrying and having celebrations with each other.

Not only did these aristocracies oppress their “subjects”, they garnered much of their great wealth from their Empires, the subjugation of most of the rest of the world. The lead-up to WW I was more about competition in carving up Africa and China and SE Asia than about Serbia. These empires were rooted in oppression, theft and slavery of the majority of the world’s population. The German and Austro-Hungarian Empires were what remained of the old Holy Roman Empire, dissolved by Francis II (Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz-Joseph’s grandfather) in 1806. With the Austro-Germans already fracturing, the Russian, British, and French empires saw the Serbian crisis as a way to attack a weak competitor.

What ended the senseless and prolonged slaughter of the war was not some wonderful tactical cleverness by generals. It was the fact that ordinary people were reaching the limit of their acceptance of their exploitation. Three years after the start of the war, the Russian Empire was overthrown by the people. The Kaiser’s navy had rebelled and also raised the socialist flag in Wilhelmshaven, calling for “peace and bread”, and by Nov 7 1918, Bavaria had rebelled and become a socialist region. In the US, Gene Debs leader of the American Socialist Party had been imprisoned for opposing the war.

His party was fighting for economic equity successfully enough that the US imposed the Espionage Act (1917) to limit free speech, the Sedition Act (1918) made statements considered “disloyal” a federal crime, and with the Palmer Raids (1920), the idea of “un-American activities” became a reason to prosecute and oppress socialist dissent. In the UK, Socialists and thinkers like Bertrand Russell were also fighting against the war. Effectively, WW I was ended by agreement, so the various aristocracies could fight the wave of peoples revolutions.

The ending of the war didn’t prevent the operation of greed by the winning aristocrats. The Austro-Hungarian and German empires were shattered into numerous smaller nations, and the victors split up the colonies. Their “terms of surrender” included massive reparations even though most of what was left of the economy was based on cheap colonial imports. Not content with that, the victors maintained blockades preventing imports to Germany even after the war was over.

The result was a major cause of the depression which lead to many Germans becoming desperate. For example, in 1914, 50 million DM (Deutschmarks) was worth about US$12 million. Nine years later, it was worth a dollar. A wheelbarrow of Deutschmarks would buy a loaf of bread. Within a few months it was worthless. People used 1 million DM bills as notepaper, since it was cheaper than blank paper. And yet, assistance was given to suppress the socialist revolutions.

The point of this historical diversion is to say that if people acted from a sense of justice and respect for others, the situation in Germany is not likely ever to have arisen. When a situation like fascism is created through poverty, awfulness, greed, exploitation of others, it is easy to justify violence against those who are committing genocide. We say “This is so bad we have to do something” (violent). Ahimsa would say that the need to act is earlier, before fascism arises, when vengeance and greed impose depression, economic collapse and hopelessness within a nation like Germany, and a breeding ground is created for the mindless anger that becomes fascism.

In the US right there is now a similar situation occurring where there is great inequality and economic poverty. This hasn’t happened overnight, it’s been brewing for decades. The situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan with the hopelessness, poverty and oppression likewise creates situations which are fertile ground for people who preach anger and hatred. The disenfranchised look for a leader/s who personifies and articulates that anger, and they almost always look for a target — e.g sometimes a marginalised group– glbti, women, Muslims, etc; sometimes a group of oppressors.

Mahatma Gandhi said: “Poverty is the worst kind of violence,”

The US defense forces spend 1.75 billion dollars per day in spreading the US empire. With every country the US gov invades and occupies, that nation continues to create great poverty and desperation. That in turn becomes a breeding ground for violence and so on it goes. Imagine if that 1.75 billion dollars/day were spent on wages for workers, US and foreign, diplomatic efforts, to fix the destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan, build hospitals etc. It would improve so many facets of life there, and not only do what is just, but to create fertile ground for future peace, not only there in war-torn countries, but to address the resentment against the US and probably significantly reduce threats to the US.

Here’s an essay by Noam Chomsky people might like to view: Remembering Fascism: Learning From the Past

Finally, here’s a few quotes I like:
“Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.” — Mahatma Gandhi

“Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.” Gandhi

“Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Of course, animal use is violence, and I believe it is at the core of all the violence we see unfolding. Where we have one kind of discrimination, we will have all kinds — speciesism = sexism= heterosexism = racism = classism and so forth. Veganism is the cornerstone of nonviolence.

When we persecute the vulnerable, we have become completely dysfunctional. I see our species as animals who are pathological, dysfunctional and completely caught up in our “sacredness” and delusions of supremacy and nothing good can ever come of that. With this destructive attitude, selfishness and our complete love of, and addition to, violence, we will probably be extinct in a century or so. I’m not being pessimistic here, I’m being realistic.

Here’s a couple of excellent quotes about anger:“Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up.” Gandhi “You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.” Buddha

[a blog by Trish Roberts Oct 31, 2010 ]

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Filed under nonviolence