{"id":318,"date":"2009-12-28T11:26:46","date_gmt":"2009-12-28T19:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/?p=318"},"modified":"2012-07-01T11:27:28","modified_gmt":"2012-07-01T19:27:28","slug":"words-without-action-are-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/2009\/12\/28\/words-without-action-are-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Words Without Action Are Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"
Camille Marino
\nNegotiation Is Over<\/p>\n

“Let’s face facts : After decades of environmental struggles, we are nevertheless losing ground in the battle to preserve species, ecosystems, and wilderness. Increasingly, calls for moderation, compromise, and the slow march through institutions can be seen as treacherous and grotesquely inadequate. In the midst of predatory global capitalism and biological meltdown , ‘reasonableness’ and ‘moderation’ seem to be entirely unreasonable and immoderate, as ‘extreme’ and ‘radical’ actions appear simply as necessary and appropriate .”<\/em> (Steven Best, Igniting a Revolution: Voices in Defense of The Earth <\/a>)<\/p>\n

Negotiation is Over has a new tagline:\u00a0 “Words Without Actions Are Wrong.”\u00a0 I heard this statement recently, uttered by true revolutionaries who were willing to die for their values.\u00a0 Empathizing with the struggle of the oppressed is insufficient; we must be willing to die for their freedom. otherwise we need to find a hobby.\u00a0 These ideas resonated with me.\u00a0 They are the lens through which my own inadequacies become magnified and glaring.\u00a0 Animal terrorists demand an equal and opposite response from animal liberationists and, thus far, I have not – we have not – delivered. The extreme violence systematically visited upon nonhumans cannot be addressed with moderation and civility.<\/p>\n

We have no revolution.\u00a0 We have no movement.\u00a0 We have welfarists and pacifists – equally complicit in the holocaust by virtue of their unconscionable tolerance, timidity, and tacit approval; “abolitionists” who have co-opted a term, eradicated the spirit of revolution, and armed themselves with spatulas and aprons.\u00a0 And here I am, as culpable as the weakest activist, but naked with no rationalizations to defend myself.\u00a0I know that vegan cupcakes do nothing for the animals confined in bloody misery. I understand that sadists will not become decent human beings if we simply ask them nicely enough. So if I do nothing to stop the abusers, then I am guilty.\u00a0 And if we as a movement fail to take decisive action, then everyone shares this guilt.\u00a0 If the innocent could defend themselves, their tormentors would be dead. \u00a0Animals are terrorized, mutilated, and murdered on an incomprehensible scale and with exquisite precision in far greater numbers than the humans who succumbed to the Rwandan death squads and the RUF in Sierra Leone combined.\u00a0 Yet we do nothing.<\/p>\n

I have difficulty understanding why some people tell me I inspire them.\u00a0 I have done nothing remarkable and have only just begun to clear my own path. some rescues, some fostering & re-homing, a few adoptions, and a ton of impotent campaigns.\u00a0 Protests do nothing.\u00a0 Letters do nothing.\u00a0 Words do nothing – but they are all I have for now.\u00a0 The abusers still have free reign to torment and torture at will.\u00a0 My disgust is palpable and my rage is seething.\u00a0 But I have stopped no one.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Let’s face it.\u00a0 I have no desire to go to prison.\u00a0 One armed activist is a terrorist; dozens of armed activists is a revolution.\u00a0 And we need a revolution.<\/p>\n

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\n“Politics as usual won’t cut it anymore. We will always lose if we play by their rules rather than cast a pox on their house and invent new forms of struggle, new social movements, and new sensibilities. Causes require decisive and direct action : logging roads need to be blocked, driftnets need to be cut, and cages need to be emptied. But these are defensive actions; new social movements must be built , ones that incorporate both social and ecological issues in multiracial and global alliances. <\/em><\/p>\n

How much more corruption, violence, repression, and exploitation is necessary before people wake up and begin to act? How many more species have to pass into oblivion? How many more rainforests have to fall? How many more polar bears have to washed up drowned on the shores? How much more must the planet heat up?”<\/em> – Steven Best
\n********************
\nI am not delusional and I am not calling for armed revolt – necessary and inevitable as it may be.\u00a0 I do want every single one of us, however, to look in the mirror and, as we enter 2010, acknowledge that there needs to be a correlation between our words and actions.\u00a0 When we look into the face of a vivisector, imagine that it is our parent, child, sibling or companion animal being obscenely tortured for fun and profit.\u00a0 What is the appropriate response?\u00a0 We all need to answer this question for ourselves.\u00a0 But before any real change can be effected, we need to assess ourselves in the context of the war for animal liberation.<\/p>\n

Fear is a tool that the state uses to control us and contain the potential threat.\u00a0 And a movement of above-ground activists that cowers before the oppressors is a disgrace.\u00a0 Let’s get passed this simple obstacle and reclaim our voices and power.\u00a0 Last month, we launched a Facebook group <\/a> with the subtitle, “Total Liberation By Any Means Necessary.”\u00a0 While the new visions, possibilities, and discussions revolving around Dr. Best’s Manifesto for Radical Abolitionism <\/a> excited many of us, I was appalled at the overwhelming number of people who were openly afraid to be associated with this group – AFRAID OF THE TERM “BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY”!!! While nonhumans are being chopped up with ruthless efficiency, their defenders are too fearful to take a public stand.\u00a0 This utter weakness is intolerable and inexcusable.\u00a0 Newsflash:\u00a0 if you are an animal rights activist, your name is probably already in a file maintained by the police state.\u00a0 Who are we hiding from?\u00a0 We MUST be louder, more visible and infinitely more abrasive – not pathetic, cowardly, and timid. This mentality is embarrassing.<\/p>\n

Some people in this movement compromise professional glory to remain true to their ideals and champion the interests of nonhuman victims.\u00a0 Others become more militant and relentless with each visit from the FBI. And still more have realized that exposure and the inevitable knock on the door are the price of effectiveness.\u00a0 The enslaved animals we fight for cannot escape their terror and, therefore, we are not allowed the luxury of fear and indecision.<\/p>\n

While there are activists who contribute impotent blogs to the struggle, the trail of reference letters littering the path to their professional aspirations belies a sickening opportunism absent from those engaged in the struggle.\u00a0 Animal liberationists are routinely penalized – financially, professionally, and socially – because we fight for the victims who’s only value is measured in their commodified corpses.\u00a0 Pacifists and opportunists need to stop criticizing welfarists and militant direct activists as their exclusive fetishized problems.\u00a0 Their tolerance and\u00a0 sterile debate are the antithesis of revolution.\u00a0 They are a part of the problem hiding under a thinly-veiled disguise.<\/p>\n

As 2009 comes to a close, the animal liberation movement needs to bury its own inconsistencies and come to terms with the fact that this is a war – a bloody, violent, and disturbing landscape that we did not create,\u00a0 but it is up to us to navigate.\u00a0 The ruthless sadists and the corporate-state complex that protects them depend on our fear and they laugh every time one of us submits. just like animal terrorists who are amused by their victims’ agony.\u00a0 We have finished tolerating the degenerate abusers.\u00a0 We will go forward defiant and unafraid.\u00a0 And, together, we can ignite this revolution.<\/p>\n

****************************************************************<\/p>\n

Camille Marino<\/strong>, Founder & Publisher, Negotiation is Over. Negotiating with abusers is an exercise in futility and veganism is essential.\u00a0 The only action that matters to the imprisoned is the one that imparts freedom.\u00a0 It is a moral obligation to protect the innocent whenever we can – and direct action, sabotage, or subduing the violent with violence is a acceptable and effective.\u00a0 Free speech must be exercised or it shrivels up and dies.\u00a0 Oppression needs to be resisted. If the nonhumans could fight back, their tormentors would have expired long ago. We have an obligation to expose the abusers. It is the LEAST we can do! I welcome your emails & contributions.<\/p>\n

If you have a Facebook account, join the extended Negotiation Is Over <\/a>network.”.<\/p>\n

To submit work to NIO for consideration and publication, please send an email to camille@negotationisover.com <\/a> with the subject “submission”.<\/p>\n

To receive NIO updates, please send an email to camille@negotiationisover.com <\/a> with the subject “subscriptions”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Camille Marino Negotiation Is Over “Let’s face facts : After decades of environmental struggles, we are nevertheless losing ground in the battle to preserve species, ecosystems, and wilderness. Increasingly, calls for moderation, compromise, and the slow march through institutions can be seen as treacherous and grotesquely inadequate. In the midst of predatory global capitalism and … <\/p>\n

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