by Walter Bond
3-15-2011

Many of us that take a militant or hard stance on the issue of Animal Liberation have been approached at one time or another and asked by other so-called activists why we don’t spend more time people-pleasing and politicking. The general idea is that if you appeal to people’s conscience instead of their outrage, you will win more people over to “the cause.” Perhaps you can attract more flies with sugar than vinegar. However, like most welfarist ideology, there is a lot of oversimplification and faulty logic to contend with.

First off, large numbers of apathetic people are not a victory for Animals. I would rather have ten Vegan warriors by my side than 100 or 1000 keyboard commandos that won’t so much as show up to a demo and hold a sign. More importantly, ten Vegan warriors can make a huge difference for Animals now.

I get mail from activists from all over the country. I see the successes from the accounts and media that they send me. And the success stories are always the same. They protest passionately, they put the pressure on the abusers be they puppy mills or vivisectors, they refuse to be intimidated by the authorities and, because of their passion and actual resistance, the media begins to pick up the story. The businesses shut down or have to move their operations.

This is moral. This is the correct path of action.

The idea that tactics are right or wrong is an elitist and cowardly approach. It is only the ends that are right or wrong. If yelling and protesting angrily work, then they are moral because the end goal is to be effective against animal abuse. But, if your end goal is for everyone to think you are a nice person, then yelling and aggressive protest are clearly wrong. And this is the line between those that truly care, the above ground, and those that are simply posturing, albeit compassionately.

Another untruth is that “by being aggressive you will turn others off to the cause.” The truth is, like attracts like. If you promote Animal Liberation with militancy and fanaticism, then that is the type of person you will attract. And that is what this so-called above ground movement needs. Lukewarm activists are turning veganism into a diet fad and animal rights into a philosophy. Well diets and interesting conversations are not saving Animals. On the contrary, they condemn Animals to die by the billions while those that claim to be their protectors play games with words and remain “passive fellow travelers.”

It’s time for this movement to be effective instead of affected. I am unimpressed with how much you identify with the Animals’ pain and suffering or how you’re “crying all the time for the Animals.” I’m unimpressed for two extremely important reasons.

First, how you feel doesn’t matter to an Animal doomed to death. You could feel happy and excited that they are going to die or sad to the point of a nervous breakdown. Either way, your feelings have zero effect on an Animal in a cage.

Second, I doubt the sincerity of such statements when they are made by those not actively engaged in the fight against animal exploitation. If you care, then you act! If you hear of or witness Animal abuse and your reaction is to weep and wail and then continue to bury your head in the sand, you are overly affected.

My advice to you would be to continue to view the gore and exploitation until you work through your ultra sensitivity and begin to get angry about it.

As I have said before, the proper response to evil is outrage! The reason that it’s a proper response is because outrage fuels physical resistance whereas fear, sentimentality, and tolerance do not. In our above ground — and by “above ground,” I mean ferociously legal Animal Liberation movement — the individual must take the initiative. The individual must be motivated! Because, ultimately, it’s pro-activity that makes you an activist.

Surfing the internet and commenting on Animal Rights websites is not activism. Thinking about the issues and formulating opinions is not activism. True activism resembles work because that’s what pro-activity is. Time, energy, and self-sacrifice add up to results.

If your idea of Animal Rights is hobbylike in nature, then please find another hobby. If your idea of activism is being Vegan and nothing more, do not call yourself an activist. While I’m very glad to hear whenever anyone goes Vegan, simply not participating in an evil is not the same as actively opposing it.

Any form of evil or oppression is incredibly active and working hard at subjugating. Non-participation does not stop it any more than war stops because you don’t join the army. And this IS a war — a war with more casualties than any other before it! How many billions of gallons of blood must spill before we act? How many more atrocities have to occur to the most defenseless of us before there is a sense of urgency in the here and now? Apparently for most, no amount of suffering can call them to action, no amount of the suffering of others that is.

What is this compassionate apathy? This caring laziness? It makes about as much sense as “humane slaughter.” I call out this welfarist, hippie-crit nonsense for what it is because it is turning a resistance movement into a consumer product and image, an empty shell. I also defend militancy and direct activism strongly because, for decades, we have been under attack by groups and individuals too numerous to list here. As we press forward, speaking truth, saving Animals, and bringing the fight to the doorsteps, office buildings, and pocketbooks of Animal exploiters and profiteers, we not only face scrutiny from the media, but also cling-ons and do-nothings of our own “movement” that seek to hide their own inaction by tearing down another’s hard work and sacrifices.

It ends NOW!

There is only one movement — the one that moves! You want to partake in it? Then get active, get passionate and confront, agitate and educate. Study other social justice movements before us that have had levels of success that we have yet to reach. Groups such as the Black Panthers, John Africa’s MOVE!, American Indian Movement, and Suffragettes all employed winning tactics — tactics that work when employed by any group, no matter what the cause. The words of Malcolm X, Screaming Wolf, and Sitting Bull are timeless and just waiting for us to rediscover and apply them to today’s liberation struggles.

It’s time to not only embrace “security culture,” but also reject “paranoia culture.” The Animal Liberation Movement has so much in common with so many other struggles past and present. I want to see us united in a struggle for the total liberation of earth, animals and humans. But before we will ever be taken seriously by others, we must take ourselves seriously. Real recognizes real. And, until we quit begging for care and understanding like supplicants, we will never attain the warrior element that it takes to not only win battles and save our animal sisters and brothers, but also attain a truly revolutionary status which we must because a change as radical as freeing the enslaved only happens by force of will.

Those who profit from slavery and death only stop when they are made to. And so, it is time for us to draw that line amongst our own — a line between those of us that would see this filth and gore end now, by any means necessary, and those that want to look good and do nothing. You’re either part of the solution or part of the problem.

Animal Liberation, Whatever It May Take!

Walter Bond is in prison until the year 2021 and cannot use Facebook or the internet.  The website supportwalter.org and the Walter Bond Facebook page were set up to support him.

Walter Bond is in need of donations to enable him to buy vegan items from the prison commissary.  For more info on sending funds to him in prison, please visit this page on the support site: https://supportwalter.org/SW/index.php/donate/  

Here is his mailing address (he can only reply to letters that include a full name and address):

Walter Bond

37096-013

USP Marion CMU

PO Box 1000

Marion IL 62959