9 minute read
AxR: Alison Plaumer Reports
YOU’VE BEEN VEGAN A WHILE?
I’ve been vegan for almost 30 years after seeing a small black and white leaflet about calves and dairy. It made me weep. I had no idea that dairy was so cruel. It was given to me by a fabulous woman in Animal Rights, who ran a small sanctuary from her home. I did voluntary work for the sanctuary, taking in and helping rehabilitate abused and abandoned dogs. She was my first contact with the whole philosophy of Animal rights. I’d been veggie for 10 years before that, but had no idea how abusive the whole animal agriculture machine is, before then. I’ve been an avid supporter and proponent of Animal Rights since then.
CAMPAIGNING FOR A LONG TIME?
I’ve been campaigning since my mid 20’s, starting with Greenpeace when they had a very small office in Islington. My first campaign was trying to save the Antarctic as the last wild place on earth. At the time, this was simply done using street stalls, leafleting, lobbying politicians, writing letters and some direct action too. In order to become a volunteer at Greenpeace, you had to prove you were trustworthy, for a whole year, before being allowed to go out on the boats. So volunteers like me ran support groups, and did some direct actions too e.g. stickering whale produce in supermarkets. We used to run in, sticker all the whale products in the freezer, then make a mad dash so we didn’t get caught. (I had my landline tapped by the police and all my post opened during that time)
I’ve done masses of animal rights demos, including 10 years of anti-vivisection demos, with Hillgrove cats in Oxford, Shamrock farm in Brighton, SHAC and others too. Both of these “farms”, Hillgrove and Shamrock, closed down as a result. I’ve also been involved with environmental campaigns too, the most recent was when we set up Brighton XR in October 2018, and I participated in all the rebellions.
HOW DID YOU GET STARTED WITH AXR?
I got involved with Animal Rebellion during autumn 2020, initially becoming part of the Facebook admin team. I started the schools plant based council campaign here in Brighton where I live, in January 2021. It’s an ideal campaign to run during a pandemic, because most of it can be done from a home computer, and it’s a fantastic opportunity to help create plant based foods as the new norm from the ground up. I am now part of the National campaign team on this, and help run talks and support the activists involved. We are active in more than 40 UK councils and growing all the time. We work closely with ProVeg https://proveg. com/uk/ This fabulous organisation goes into schools, works with chefs, organises fun events for children, helps those delivering more plant based meals with the importance of messaging, and much more. They can provide menu consultation packages to suit the needs of each council. This includes menu planning, recipe ideas, chef training, impact assessments, parent communications, and PR support. Given that animal “products” within our toxic consumerist culture are considered “natural normal and nutritious” by many cultures and societies, we have much work to do, de -conditioning people that this is not the case.
WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO AXR ORIGINALLY?
Animal Rebellion is a sister group of XR, and was launched during 2019. I was attracted to AxR because we share all of XR’s principals and values, but also include anti speciecism, aiming to create a world that protects beings of all species. We use nonviolent civil disobedience to bring about a transition to a just and sustainable plant-based food system, as an attempt to halt mass extinction, alleviate the worst effects of climate breakdown and ensure justice for animals. All this sits completely with my own principals and values, and I love it that the context of XR and Animal Rebellion, bring out the best in people. We have a deeply embedded no-blame, no-shame culture, and welcome everyone, and every part of everyone provided they agree with, and abide by our principles and values.
We live in a toxic culture in the west, that relies on a system of judging others and therefore creating hierarchy and competition and we want no part of this. Animal rebellion is a decentralised movement; everyone has a voice and everyone is important.
WHAT ABOUT THE CURRENT CAMPAIGNS?
Our Plant based councils campaign is running currently, and is likely to do so for some time. We are going to G7 in June, and have a summer camp with several talks and trainings planned. We will also be going to Cop26 in November in Glasgow, alongside many other direct action groups, who are concerned about our crumbling climate. We have a variety of different autonomous, self organising teams in animal rebellion, who have their own plans for other actions in the pipeline, particularly now we are coming out of lockdown and able to go back on the streets. Our website, Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram, are regularly updated with actions and campaigns, so please do watch this space.
TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR RECENT MEDIA SUCCESS.
My “Media success” happened by accident. A journalist from Brighton picked up my request to have 2 plant based days at schools in Brighton, from the council website, and several National, and international online papers took it on. It even got into the Jeremy Vine show, but sadly it was only the ridiculous headline made up by the press “Cheese is racist, says XR chief” that panellists discussed.
HOW DID THE ‘CHEESE IS RACIST’ HEADLINE EMERGE?
To strengthen the case to have more plant based meals in schools, and as part of my deputation, after citing all the climate emissions arguments, I said the following:
This morphed into
IS THE CAMPAIGN CARRYING WITH THE HUGE MEDIA COVERAGE?
The media has a habit of landing on something simply to gain a quick, easy and often uncomfortable reaction. They did this with our schools campaign, and the oversimplification of my words. Like any group taking a stand against oppression Animal Rebellion was given a moment of time and space in the press and then they leap onto something else. But interestingly enough we then see, as we did a couple of weeks ago, the headline that animals are sentient beings and have feelings and emotions. When many groups speak up about the same issue, the press have to respond. It may not seem immediately connected, but it is.
Animal agriculture is an intersectional issue, the media highlighted this in a very simplistic way, it may not be in the news every day but the campaign continues and any coverage around human rights, animal rights and climate justice are connected to this campaign. For people in or out of the media who want to find out more about the many issues surrounding the use of animals in agriculture and the benefits of a plant based food system, Animal Rebellion has a blog on its website full of articles and information.
WHAT ABOUT BACKLASH?
As a result of the daft headlines, I got loads of online abuse. There were thousands of comments in the press, which I didn’t read after the first 3, but also 50 – 60 truly awful comments personally attacking me on my FB page, because of the ‘cheese is racist’ headline. I now have privacy settings I didn’t know existed... I do think though, this is all part of the right wing press agenda to take every opportunity to ridicule any dissent from their Capitalist Exploitative money making business ventures, at the expense of us all, not least those poor animals suffering in animal agriculture, and people of the global south.
WOULD YOU DO IT AGAIN?
Yes I would.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM THE MEDIA COVERAGE – IT CAN BE A DOUBLE EDGED SWORD SOMETIMES, AS WE’VE SEEN.
Daft headlines can also get by default information to sections of the population we might not necessarily reach. All the science was included after the headline, and I would imagine there’s all sorts of nice quiet families and households, who discussed it, and might have thought more deeply about animal agriculture, so there was a positive side.
WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING WITH AXR THIS SUMMER – BACK TO ‘LIVE’ PROTESTS?
We have the G7 8th – 14th June in Devon, August 12th - 16th Vegan organic festival in Cornwall, XR Rebellion starting on 23rd August, who we’ll be joining up with. August 28th The Animal Rights march in London, and of course Cop26 in Glasgow Nov 1st which many groups will be attending. We also have several actions planned or ones being planned by activists.
ARE YOU IN TOUCH WITH ANY OF THE GLOBAL AXR GROUPS?
We have many groups in a variety of countries and towns across the world. Groups can be active for a while, then activists rest up, do more actions, rest up. We see regeneration as important otherwise people can burn out. Groups tend to be self-organising and so we may not know at any one time, who is active and who is currently not. We have the following countries/places listed in our communications board. Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Toulouse, Georgia, Bayreuth, Berlin, Cologne, Erlangen, Leipzig, Mainz, Munich Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Cork, Dublin...
WHAT ABOUT PLANS FOR THE WINTER OF 21?
None as yet, we might simply rest up for a while.
ARE YOU CONFIDENT WE CAN TURN THINGS AROUND WHEN IT COMES TO CLIMATE CHANGE?
Most people know politicians around the world are still paying lip service to the climate breaking down, with no or very little real action. However increasingly chaotic world weather events cannot be ignored. The more people who know the truth, the more people act, the more hope we have to alleviate some of the most damaging and fatal effects. This is the reason Animal Rebellion and XR will be protesting at G7. Time to act is so rapidly running out, and experts need to be listened to. Seven representatives from the wealthy Global North is not good enough. We must protect the earth and its inhabitants together across the world, and all of us alive today must fight and speak up for future generations.
To answer this question directly, I have radical hope and love.
TIPS FOR UP AND COMING ACTIVISTS?
Seek support and help from others. It could be us, it could be another organisation. Animal Rebellion offers a supportive and friendly crew. We have many talks and trainings available to anyone who is interested. A great start would be our ‘Plant Based Future Talk’, which highlights all the issues surrounding animal agriculture and the climate emergency and how to get involved with Animal Rebellion.
You don’t need to be an activist to join, there are many roles that are necessary that don’t involve any risk and can be done remotely such as the arts team, the talks and trainings team, the social media team, or the editorial team to name a few. Anything at all can be a great help to an organization. All contributions are welcome.
