It’s that time of year again when we have to get some cash together to pay for servers, domains, and other tech maintenance. If you value the work we do, then show us some support and keep things ticking over. We’re all volunteers; none of us are ever paid for the work we do, from providing prisoner support to writing articles, keeping folks informed about various campaigns, and providing a safe place where people can send word of their actions anonymously and get them published. We even spend hours translating many reports.
There’s constant work behind the scenes to keep things as safe as possible and prisoner info up-to-date. We dealt with a hack on the website only recently and have been working to get everything cleaned up but we might want a fresh start with a new website at some point.
Drop us some coins via PayPal or even better, set up a regular donation by supporting us on Patreon. You can find links to both here:
Coins aren’t the only way you can support us (though they are needed and appreciated), we’re also open to submissions. Are you involved in a campaign or project you want to talk about? Some banging art to share? Or have something else to say? Drop us a message via email or our ‘contact us’ form on our website.
PS: We have a sick design ready and might do a pre-order only T-shirt for Lado who is in need of funds after a long stint in prison. Are folks interested?
What?: March and protest against vivisection When?: 27th April, 12pm – 5pm. Where?: Liverpool UK.
World Day for Animals in Laboratories is over 40 years old. The day was founded by the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) in 1979. Throughout the 1980s there were demonstrations and protests to mark World Day by anti-vivisection organizations in the UK and overseas. Among the targets were the Ministry of Defence’s Porton Down laboratory, Cambridge University and Shamrock Farm primate breeder.
Over the years WDAIL has been a day to fight against the torture of animals in labs. This year, the main national demo in UK is in Liverpool. Joi thousands of others and fight back against vivisection!
Via WDAIL UK:
“Come and join us for the 2024 march through Liverpool.
Meet in St John`s Gardens 12pm. The first speech will be at 1pm, with the march starting at 13:30pm. There will be speeches and stops en route. Veggies will be there to keep you filled with fabulous food (and there are amazing veggie/vegan restaurants in Liverpool).
If you cant attend the march we hope you can demonstrate outside your local labs, or shops with links to vivisection. Tag #wdail2024 in your social media posts so we get to see you in action. Lets make it the biggest range of demonstrations against animal testing held in one day!”
“What does it mean to be a militant? Being part of the Rojava Revolution
“95% of our struggle is that against ourselves. Only the other 5% are against the enemy” Abdullah Ocalan
The last weeks have been my toughest here so far. I have been unable to contribute much and continue working on my projects here, due to poor health. The perfect time for some self-reflection and introducing one of the core pillars of the Kurdistan Freedom Movement. Many great revolutionaries have contributed to the idea of self-reflection and militancy.
When I first came across the word militancy, I imagined somehow becoming hard: always working, never complaining. In short, becoming a revolutionary robot, able to surpass the mental, physical and emotional ‘constraints’ of being human. In Europe – even though I had slowly widened my understanding a bit more – I still somehow held to this ideal of a revolutionary. Someone who is young, fit, able-bodied and smart. Indeed, I have pushed myself more than I thought I could do, stayed up longer than I thought I could and achieved things I never thought possible. However, while this can be part of being a militant, it is not the whole story.
Coming here, the militancy of the comrades you meet is undeniable. There are heroic resistance stories, people sacrificing their life to save that of their comrades or to prevent themselves falling in the hands of the enemies. These include that of Sehid Berxwedan, or Ryan Lock, who instead of falling in the hands of ISIS, ended his own life. These stories and examples are invaluable for us, and yet this is only one part of a much broader understanding of militancy here. Soon after arriving, I realized the broadness of who is a Kurdish revolutionary. I sat together with comrades in their 70’s, sick and worn down from 20 years fighting as a Guerilla, joking how I have become a “terrorist” alongside them simply for being here. Sharing stories of undeniable love and care for the people of the world. For weeks, another comrade gave us dance lessons. She was a ballet dancer before she joined the struggle. She fought with the Guerilla for 14 years and got severely wounded. She is in constant pain, until she forgets it through her much beloved dancing. Yesterday evening, we sat together with an older comrade. She is fifty and was born in Rojava. Her brother was killed in Bakur (North Kurdistan) only two years ago. She was describing to us how she followed the front lines in Raqqa together with other comrades from Kongra Star (the women’s umbrella organization), founding and building up people’s councils in every newly-liberated village.
These efforts to cultivate a mentality and practice of grass-roots democracy are as much a part of militancy as the military battles are. The constant drive to build up alternatives: dreaming about them, realizing them, having many hard conversations, making many mistakes, learning from them and not giving up hope. Mariame Kaba, a black abolitionist from New York once said hope is a constant discipline – here I see this coming true.
Things are hard here. Things are far from perfect. Many women still live in incredibly difficult situations, the spiralling economy is crushing household finances and most people with essential qualifications – such as doctors and engineers – have left for Europe. Several rounds of systematic Turkish airstrikes on power stations and oil infrastructure have shattered the already-frail energy sector in Rojava, making electricity, gas and fuel even more expensive and scarce for the population. Meanwhile, Turkey continues to assassinate scores of top YPG and YPJ commanders, as well as those working as society organizers and women’s activists, through targeted drone strikes.
Yet despite all this, the comrades manage to keep alive within themselves an unparalleled energy, will to continue and spirit of optimism. When setbacks occur, when problems emerge (and of these there is no scarcity), when the circumstances make it seem like there is no way forward, still the comrades – and the people of Rojava – continue to push forwards. Of course, there are not many options other than to continue to struggle, given the situation. Yet as described before the deep culture that the Kurdish movement has built around their martyrs – the immense value given to those who gave their lives in the fight for freedom and their constant presence in our daily life through photos, memorials and stories – also offers the strength and will needed to renew a spirit of hope each day. To not just move, but move with momentum.
One rainy March day, I meet some comrades from Kobane (the place made famous in 2015, when a Kurdish-led resistance effort handed ISIS their first major loss and kick-started the liberation campaign that would result in the territorial defeat of the so-called caliphate in 2019) in the city’s large martyr’s graveyard. When countless childhood friends, family members, neighbours, loved ones and strangers have given their life for a cause that you believe in, to not try to carry on their struggle, channel their determination and passion and pursue their dreams of a better world in their place amounts to betraying them, they say.
This is the discipline Kaba speaks of: every day choosing to renew your will to hope, to dream and to continue to believe that against all the odds, it is possible to succeed. This is a kind of militancy that requires a strength that is not confined to the physically strong, young and able-bodied figure. A ‘robot revolutionary’ could never achieve this kind of militancy, because it is built on a deep emotional connection with your own spirit, your comrades, the path you have chosen to take together and the life around you. For me, this has meant to except my physical boundaries the last weeks, rely on my comrades support, listen to their harsh criticisms when I tried to move too much and reflect how I too, can expand my idea of militancy.”
Writing a letter in solidarity to a political prisoner is not complicated. You don’t have to write a long letter, nor do you have to know the person you are writing to. There are however some things that are important to think about.
Don’t write anything incriminating, or about the person’s case. Your letter could be monitored by the guards.
In your first letter you can write a little introduction of yourself, and your intentions to stay in correspondence.
Include a name and return address, both at the back of your letter, and the envelope. You don’t necessarily have to put your own legal name as recipient.
Check what rules the prison have regarding mail to the prisoners. If the prisoner has s support crew, also check with them if there are certain things the prisoner needs, that you maybe can help with, like sending books.
Check the list of political prisoners at our web site, for more info and details about which prisoners you can write to
{editor’s note: David Agranoff collaborated with the cops during the green scare investigation and subsequent wave of repression. He received an incredibly lenient sentence because of it. Slowly during the trial’s David’s lies about who he had snitched on were uncovered, starting with having talked “only about Marius because he is already in prison” and realising that he had been collaborating with investigators for at least three years.
The movement does not forget about snitches, and both old and new activists should understand this and re-refresh it in their day to day life. If you collaborate with the police, you are an enemy of the animals, you are an enemy of the earth, you are an enemy of the struggle, and should be treated accordingly. There is a zine worth reading (thankfully preserved by The Talon Conspiracy) called “GOT THE HOLLOWPOINTS FOR THE SNITCHES”, which analyses how other revolutionary groups have historically handled snitch culture.
“Green Scare snitch David Agranoff was shouted down at the beginning of his book talk in Bloomington, IN on April 7th, 2024. We distributed fliers with his picture and information to the event attendees, and we called him out for the coward and snitch that he is. He and an event organizer quickly took it upon themselves to collect the fliers and physically usher us out of the event. He replied with some retorts about how “we weren’t there”, asking “what have you done for the movement?”
David seems to believe enough time has passed, and that he should be able to move in spaces without consequence. He wants to claim positive contributions towards the struggle for animal and earth liberation, despite the reality that he is a part of its undoing. David might be on the periphery of vegan, straightedge punk scenes, where people are perhaps not familiar with his past. David will always be a threat to those around him, especially as the State is ramping up its use of social associations as grounds for investigation. Once someone has cooperated, they can be called on to do so again.
Look for him around his home (San Diego, CA as cited on his blog on 1/21/24), and perhaps giving a talk on one of his corny-looking books in a town near you! David runs a blog (https://davidagranoff.blogspot.com), has an instagram (Count.Agranoff), and has another book coming out soon from Anti-Oedipus Press (@antioedipuspress).
“Sunday morning the A.L.F visited Lake Colac in Victoria, so-called Australia to let hunters know they aren’t welcome to shoot innocent animals on these wetlands. We put a lock and chain on a gate at one of the entrances into the wetlands preventing hunters getting into the wetlands and preventing the hunters who camped from leaving. A slight disturbance to their day and we hope it ruined it for them! We also put up a little home-made banner at another entrance for them to see on their way out of the wetlands as the opening week of shooting ends.
We will be back in full force with some more creative ideas in the weeks to come. To anyone that can get out to a wetland, please do. Make these hunters don’t come back. Ruin their day, destroy their vehicles, just be a general nuisance!”
“A TRIBUTE TO VIOLETTE” (OPERATION CUORE LIBERI ACT II): TWO PIGS LIBERATED FROM A SLAUGHTERHOUSE ON THE 9TH OF APRIL 2024 !
it calls us, it gives us a duty, it makes us rise. It brings us, relentlessly, in front of the same doors.
Violette was liberated last November, during the first “CUORE LIBERI” operation. She was already weak when she arrived at the place that welcomed her. She got taken away shortly after by a pulmonary infection.
“The slaughterhouse” isn’t just a place. It’s also the factory ground for an exploitation that digs down to the bone.
A poison attacking animals and infiltrating their body. It sneaks in and grabs back those who it could not tear appart and dooms the ones who made it out. Slowly devouring them from the inside.
But we promised Violette that her name wouldn’t get to fade away.
Direct action as a way to fix those lives, slashed by slaughterhouses. As a way to never forget.
Scars only heal once you took revenge, at last.
Actions only stick when they are aimed at the power. So we put together another story, written with those at the bottom of the ladder. All those worthless and invisible bodies, dying at rates so high we can’t even count them.
Violette’s lifeless body says it all, crudely. And here we are, once again, meeting up to punch back.
We went in a forest, to slide into our second skin. To turn our flashlights back on, providing us with this soft red light that makes our faces glow at night.
This time, we took revenge in a slaughterhouse.
The back door finally broke apart, as a gun going off in the dark, and we screamed. Maybe a little too much, but it made us happy.
A slaughterhouse isn’t just four walls and a roof, it’s someone. A border patrol guard standing in our way with it’s smell, straight out of a graveyard, and it’s captive bolt gun. It’s watching for the world to stay splitted between night and day, the ones who live and the ones who died, suburbs and towns, animals and us, victims and abusers, the exploited and the ones who profit.
The animal question stands here, between red, white and black. Pigs dont have words coming out of their mouth. Instead, they look at you. They talk with their face, and we get it all.
It’s our burden because it makes us responsible. When we get in, tired eyes and broken bodies immediately stand out.
Them and those cracks in the concrete flour, as a breach between what animals are forced to be and what’s forbidden to them.
A place to eradicate.
And that one pig, in the left corner of the first box, understood it.
That there’s nothing to understand no more. That there’s no outside. That his world stops, at the end of this corridor, tomorrow, at dusk.
So he’s drowning his eyes in the holes in the ground As if this ground would suddenly break open. Ending it all, now.
An animal who’s taking refuge in solitude, self mutilation or depression, is everything but a victim who consents and accepts the injustice done to them.
For those postures are still ways to resist, to try and bear the unimaginable. And for there is, in each attempt at resignation something that shows you as the actual looser of the fight.
We decide to carry this pig, because you cannot allow yourself to take the time to choose, or the memory of those left behind comes to chew at your head forever after. As it’s time to get the hell out of there, we notice, in another dimly lit corner, another pig, smaller than the others. He’s isolated and has a tumor as big as a football. How could we leave without him ?
We carry him out too and decide that we’ll just figure things out later.
We each went our ways in the early morning, knowing that we’ll see each other again, soon.
After our last slaughterhouse blockade, local newspapers wrote this about us : “we dont know who they are, or when they’ll strike next”.
Ain’t gonna lie, we actually like this.
After this 27th liberation, we keep in our minds yet another unforgettable heritage. At the end of the day it’s there, in those very moments, that life and death look at each other without hatred. And between us remains light. The same light that emerges when a cage pops open.
To my comrades who keep hitting the road each week to write this story with me, alongside animals <3”
“We came in the dark so these innocent animals would see the light the next morning. They did.
We have already been in the exact same egg farm 4 times before and liberated 36 hens from this place in total in 2023. We never claimed these actions until now because we hope the more actions are reported, the more people will be inspired to take action on behalf of the animals
This time on April the second 2024 we liberated 11 hens. from this filthy, horrible place.
They are crowded by the thousands in a concrete building wiht no windows.
No fresh air, no sundlight, no grass, so space just noise, bad smell, fecies, pain and death.
These poor animals are bred to lay an unnatural amount of eggs. They are only seen as egg laying machines and are sent to slaughterhouse as soon as the egg laying declines and the farmer makes less profit with them.
So if you are reading this we ask you to take action. Do some research , locate the farms in you area and go out at night and take as many animals as you caan carry. Make sure to find good homes where they can live in freedom and peace.
The 11 hens we liberated were brought to a secure , caring home where they have a lot of space to run around, they can now spent their days outside on grass, breathing fresh air and bathing in the sun. We want to use this moment now to express our gratitude to all those who offer a home for liberated animals. Thank you so much. We appreaciate everyone who takes action for these who have no chance but us. lets destroy the infrastructure of this slavery. While liberations, make sure the animals are safe and then destroy as much as possible.
We took dozens of eggs from the farm and fed them to the liberated animals. The eggs belong to them not to humans. If you cant carry loads of eggs just break them in the farm. This means financial loss for the farmer.
“Earlier this year Jacinta Allen’s office was paid a visit by the A.L.F for her decision to go against her own governments recommendation to ban duck shooting. This is likely due to her personal ties with hunters, and the fair share of hunter population in her electorate. The A.L.F vowed to show up on the wetlands to disrupt and sabotage hunting activity. Here we are.
In the early morning of open day (10th April), the A.L.F paid a visit to Lake Colac and disrupted the sleep of hunters camped out on the lake by playing loud metal music and screaming out the windows. Song of choice for this fine morning was Deadbringer by Aborted.
Meanwhile down in Geelong near Lake Connewarre, on the morning of opening, a hunter broke shooting laws by opening fire at a swamp hen out of frustration. He opened fire at a pair of ducks flying overhead and when his shot missed, proceeded to shoot an illegal to shoot bird, a swamp hen. Further rules broken on the wetlands included a shooter carrying his gun unbroken, two wounded ducks not even attempted to be retrieved by the shooter who shot them and the flying of a drone. All illegal activities and the Game Management Authority were nowhere to be seen.
The duck shooting season will be active up until June 5th, we will be there day and night, ensuring hunters have as little joy as possible and we will bring you updates as they come. We vow to fight for the innocent ducks that have been slaughtered over the years and the ducks that are yet to be murdered.
Hunters will be hunted this duck shooting season.
We acknowledge the First Nations people whose land this action took place on. We stand in solidarity with their fight for freedom and liberation from the oppressive forces of colonialism.”
Max Mara has been a target by anti fur activists for decades, but has truly seen a relentless campaign against them over the past couple of years. Only two months ago there was yet another push to contact Max Mara and ask them to join competitors on signing a fur free policy, which was ignored.
Next weekend, Max Mara is the target of a global weekend of action. Folks are asked to use whatever means they deem logical in order to send a clear message that Max Mara will lose money for as long as they continue torturing animals for their fur.
Many local grassroots groups will be organising their own demos throughout the weekend, but remember that you have the agency to organise yourself too.
If by any chance you don’t have any Max Mara locations nearby, here are a few brands owned by Max Mara Group that you might have nearby, just make sure you make the message clear:
