For your information

[Guest guest]

I have no quarrel with any socialist who is a vegan too and is aware of cruelty

and wishes to see it ended. I am a socialist too. My quarrel has always been

with those in the socialist movement who deliberately mock animal rights and

animal welfare and consider it to be irrelevant. Their socialism is extremely

limited to the strictly " political " and they lack the holistic understanding of

politics that I have. I am already fully aware that most who campaign for animal

welfare are not socialists. But I say that the movement for animal

welfare/animal rights is part of becoming the new humanity which will make

socialism. I can be friends with animal rights campaigners who are not

socialists, but I cannot be the friend of a socialist who despises animal

rights. S/he should know better.

The abuse and ill-treatment, joshery and baiting I have received on the

socialist chatgroups has been unbelievable to me: ranging from Party members

blasting paedophiles to blasting animals and animal rights! Blasting Shelley,

Godwin and Ashley Montagu too! These are not socialists. They are narrow

politicos who have no or little humanity. And, if they do in fact care about

suffering, why mock it, and why bait someone who loathes suffering? It goes

against everything socialism represents, to take the side of pro-bullfighters,

cynics and Leninists.

I am fully aware of the necessity for socialism. I am fully aware that the means

of production have to be wrested from the hands of the capitalists. But not by

the types I have come across here!

Animal rights campaigners are sincere and genuine people. Not able to answer

you? I think their reply much better than your letter! But they are not

socialists, I know. Why would they be, when faced with you lot? I`ve left the

party because of you lot! It doesn`t mean I`ve ceased being a socialist. I`m a

real socialist! I don`t mock suffering! As for your ludicrous questions about

parasites such as the Tsetse fly, etc. that is sophistry and verbiage:

balderdash to hide your smirks! You know full well (or maybe you don`t) in what

human responsibility consists. Socialist morality is this:

TO REFRAIN FROM HARMING WHAT IS NOT HARMFUL TO US!

So, why are YOU a vegan, if you mock animal rights?

 

Robert Stafford <r.stafford wrote:

Comrades!

 

Essays from the latest Socialist Standard are forwarded, shortly after each new

edition of our journal comes on line, to most groups or people mentioned

therein. A minority of recipients choose to respond to this propaganda

exercise, including, after several attempts, PETA. Clearly, this group has no

adequate reply to our case....

 

 

Hi!

 

I thought you might like to know that PETA is mentioned in the revised

essay below (the original can be seen in the August 2003 Socialist

Standard):

 

" ..Unsurprisingly, some organisations recognise this legal approach is

frustratingly slow. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA),

the largest group of its kind in the world with over 350 000 members and

a multi-million dollar yearly budget, has undertaken a variety of propaganda

activities that its older cousins would be unlikely to consider - one

campaign involved nude women - but it is still on the reformist

misery-go-round: writing, for instance, to the Ministry of Defence (Orwell

again) with the suggestion that the Grenadier Guards use fake fur in their

helmets!

 

However, more worryingly, PETA's co-founder and president, Ingrid

Newkirk, is on record as stating " mankind is the biggest blight on the face

of the earth " , " ..there will always be cruelty and war.. " , and that " ..Ned

Ludd had the right idea and we should have stopped all the machinery way

back when and learned to live simple lives. " Remarkably, too, she

envisages, if PETA's aim of putting all " ..animal exploiters out of

business.. " is achieved, she " ..would go into prison reform.. " ! Such

misanthropy, Luddism and myopia is not uncommon amongst animal 'rights'

activists. Indeed, Griswold of Howard University has remarked that " the

animal rights position is, essentially, that nature is good, man and

technology are evil. "

 

Needless to say, any feedback would be appreciated.

 

Yours for socialism,

 

R

 

(socialist & vegan)

 

enquiries

 

www.worldsocialism.org/spgb

 

ANIMALS FOR PROFIT

[snip]

 

 

 

Hi Robert,

 

Regarding the use of nudity in our campaigns (I'm assuming that's what you

meant by the " critical comment directed at PETA " ): Our “naked”

demonstrators and billboard models choose to participate in our campaigns

because they want to do something to make people stop and pay attention to

animal abuse. Take Ms. Traci Bingham, for example, who recently posed for

our “All Animals Have the Same Parts” ad campaign, which you may have seen

in our magazine. She is a deeply committed vegetarian who is known to

millions for her television work, recently beating out a platoon of men to

excel in an endurance test called “Boot Camp.” She is strong-natured, and

she has chosen to use her body as a political tool to grab public attention

for serious animal issues. In this case, Ms. Bingham felt offended by the

traditional “meat” posters that treat animals as “parts,” and she wanted to

make the point that neither they nor women should be viewed as parts—we are

all precious.

 

As you know, billions of animals are bred every year for the sole purpose

of having their bodies chopped up, stamped with the label “USDA meat,” and

stuck into tidy packages on supermarket shelves. Like us, animals raised for

their flesh have personalities and feelings, and they form families and

friendships if given the chance. But factory farms deny animals everything

that is natural and enjoyable to them, condemning them to tortured lives in

filthy, cramped cages, stalls, and sheds, where only a steady diet of drugs

keeps them alive long enough to be prodded to the slaughterhouse.

 

Our purpose is to stop animal suffering like this, and we use all

available opportunities to reach millions of people with powerful messages.

We have found that people do pay more attention to our racier actions, and

we consider the public’s attention to be extremely important. Sometimes this

requires tactics—like naked marches and colorful ad campaigns—that some

people find outrageous or even “rude,” but part of our job is to shake

people up and even shock them in order to initiate discussion, debate,

questioning of the status quo, and of course, action. The current situation

is critical for billions of animals, and our goal is to make the public

think about the issues. Although some consider our projects that include

nudity to be controversial, many express support for these tactics.

 

However, PETA does make a point of having something for all tastes, from

the most conservative to the most radical and from the most tasteless to the

most refined, and this approach has proved amazingly successful—in the more

than two decades since PETA was first founded, it has grown into the largest

animal rights group in the world, with over 800,000 members and supporters

(far more than the piece you sent stated) worldwide. For more information

about PETA’s vital work for animals, please visit

 

http://www.peta.org/feat/ar2001/index.html

 

http://www.peta.org/feat/ar2001/index.html> .

 

I also recommend visiting our FAQ section, as most comments that are

circluating online about PETA are addressed here:

 

http://www.peta.org/about/faq.asp.

 

Thanks again for your e-mail, I hope this is helpful to you.

 

Best,

 

Shelly

 

 

 

Dear Shelly,

 

How would you reply to the following charges?

 

" However, more worryingly, PETA's co-founder and president, Ingrid Newkirk

[snip]

 

Yours for an end to exploitation,

 

R

 

 

 

Again, PETA , as an organization, has no official position on any issue other

than animal rights.

 

 

Dear Shelly,

 

Do you mind if we try another approach? Given my views, as developed in

'Animals for profit', how would you try to recruit me? I have been Vegan

since 1989, so we should have something in common...

 

Yours for putting all exploiters out of business,

 

R

 

Dear Shelly,

 

Again, PETA , as an organization, has no official position on any issue other

than animal rights.

 

 

Do all animals have rights and how were they acquired? If not all animals,

which ones and why? Would you extend 'rights' to such creatures as the Bot &

Tsetse flies, certain mites, ticks, worms and the Human Liver Fluke?

 

Yours for an end to exploitation,

 

R

 

Dear Shelly,

 

Thanks. Sorry to say that the FAQ does not answer my questions. I have read

it at least twice, the first time when I was researching 'Animals for profit.'

I am surprised and saddened by your seemingly inability or reluctance to respond

in any detail to the issues I have raised. You have used the excuse that " PETA

, as an organization, has no official position on any issue other than animal

rights, " but others in PETA are not so reticent...The theory of animal rights

simply is not consistent with the theory of animal welfare…Animal rights means

dramatic social changes for humans and non-humans alike; if our bourgeois values

prevent us from accepting those changes, then we have no right to call ourselves

advocates of animal rights. " -Gary Francione, former general council, People for

the ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA)... " I don’t believe that people have the

right to life. That’s a supremacist perversion. A rat is a pig is a dog is a

boy. " -Ingrid Newkirk, co-founder and

national director of PeTA..We have a lazy, sick society. People bring diseases

on themselves. People should avoid getting diseases in the first place. " (Dan

Mathews, PeTA Spokesman, New York Magazine, November 7, 1994.).. " Don't get

diseases in the first place, schmo. " (Dan Mathews, PeTA Spokesman, USA Today,

July 27, 1994.).. " We cannot condemn the Animal Liberation Front. They act

courageously, risking their freedom and their careers to stop the terror

inflicted every day on animals in the labs. ALF's activities comprise an

important part of today's animal protection movement. " (PeTA statement in

response to ALF terrorism in the Pacific Northwest, June 19,

1991.)... " Homelessness drives me crazy! I have more sympathy for animals because

they don't deserve anything that happens to them. They're innocent. " (PeTA

Member, GQ Magazine, November 1993.)

 

Yours for an end to exploitation,

 

R

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BOYCOTT KOREA AND EAST ASIA! THOUSANDS OF DOGS PER DAY HAVE THEIR BONES BROKEN

WITH HAMMERS & CLUBS WHILST ALIVE, & ARE ALSO BLOWTORCHED TO MAXIMISE THEIR

AGONY. www.koreananimals.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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