Photo: PETA protest outside the London store earlier last week (PETA, via standard.co.uk)

Published on 14/11/2017

Last Saturday, crowds of animal rights activists gathered outside a high-end clothing store in central London to protest their alleged mistreatment of coyotes and geese used to make their products. Canada Goose opened a new store in a popular shopping area in England’s capital, causing animal rights activists to go demonstrate.

The fashion brand had received global criticism, as Coyotes are caught for their fur in the wild in steel traps and then shot or bludgeoned to death, according to animal rights group PETA. The rights group also claims that the geese used for downs are mistreated in the making. Canada Goose previously responded to the allegations by stating that “’Surge, PETA and other activist groups misrepresent the facts and use sensational tactics to try to illicit a reaction and mislead consumers… They ignore the strict government regulation and standards that are in place, as well as our commitment to ethical sourcing practices and responsible use of fur and down’”, wrote the EveningStandard. During the nine-hour protest, demonstrators held up signs reading “fur is murder” or recited chants like “fur trade, torture trade”, among other things.

Earlier in September, several thousand activists protested during a march in London to end animal cruelty, as did others in various cities worldwide. Reports even claimed that some 30,000 activists had come to the streets in Tel Aviv which marked the largest animal rights march in Israel’s history. PETA reported on its President Ingrid Newkirk highlighting “the point that powerful marches like this one lead to impactful change” and that “[t]he world is waking up thanks to activism.”

However, animal rights activism has sometimes faced criticism, not only from their ‘opponents’ as in the London Canada Goose case. And neglecting the ethical and ideological dispute behind some of the criticism, the animal rights movement could reflect on some of its critique to think about improvement of their campaigns. As becomes apparent in an article about activists protesting in front of a small butcher selling “‘locally sourced, sustainably raised’ meat” in Berkeley, forcing the owners to put up an animal rights sign in the shop window, animal rights activists sometimes could (re-)consider their chosen tactics, strategies and goals.

In their actions, activists were perceived to be bullying and threatening the shop owners who claimed “’[t]heir tactics are really extremist’”, wrote the Guardian. The newspaper further stated that the Berkeley case as well as the “threat of similar protests have sparked backlash across the state.” Some have voiced their lack of understanding for why the activists had targeted such a shop instead of big ‘animal factories and meatpackers responsible for brutality on an unimaginably greater scale’, suggesting that the total abolition of meat-consumption could be unrealistic. Another article also reflected on the “Five fatal flaws of animal activism” already in 2010, though arguing from a more pro-animal rights perspective. Disregarding the points made in favor of being possibly more ‘radical’ in their claims and agenda, the author made valuable comments on the movement.

Reading the criticism of the Berkeley case and animal activism in general could then lead us to some questions to generally keep in mind when planning campaigns and movements:

• Can our vision of tomorrow and objectives attract a wide base of support, and are they reasonably attainable?
• Do we have a clear message and how do we communicate it?
• Are the tactics we are using helping our overall strategy and thus, to achieve our vision of the future?
• Are the tactics we are using attracting more people to our cause or could they possibly push away potential allies?
• Which other groups and agendas could we cooperate with to make the movement stronger and help achieve our goals?

So no matter what your stance on the issue of animal rights is or which other cause you support, keep in mind these points when planning your actions and evaluating past operations. What else to consider, and to learn more about planning nonviolent movements, you can also consult our online publications for free.

For reading more about what the above thoughts on animal rights are based on, read the article on last week’s protest in London here, find the reflections on the case of animal rights protests in Berkeley here and read the 2010 article on flaws of animal activism here.

Photograph: Workers prepare to tow the protesters’ car from the tracks at Ascot Vale. Photo: Jason South/ The Age.com

Published on 10/11/2017

Evacuate Manus now! This week, several protests were staged throughout Australia, by social groups who condemn the inhumane treatment of refugees at Manus Island. On Tuesday, WACA-activists climbed to the top of the Sydney Opera House to protest against the treatment of refugees on Manus. Also on Tuesday, surrounding the world famous annual Melbourne Cup horse races, protesters climbed a crane and unfurled a banner above the racecourse calling for Manus Island refugees to be evacuated. Several hours earlier, a different group of protesters drove a Ford Laser onto the train-tracks at Ascot Vale, deflated the car’s tires and bolted a woman to the steering wheel. When police arrived at the scene about 20 protesters fled, leaving the woman in the car to be extracted by firefighters. The car was removed but passengers heading for the races were delayed for up to an hour, according to The Guardian.  

Protesters did not target the Melbourne Cup-event without a reason. “We are really appalled at the situation on Manus Island and we think it’s really inappropriate for people to be celebrating when there are individuals with no water and no security,” one activist said. Charlotte Lynch from the Whistleblowers, Activists and Citizens Alliance (WACA), a grassroots community that mobilizes for change from the local to the global level, said the organization will be escalating their actions and civil disobedience throughout the week “and if takes breaking the law to get these men off Manus we’ll do it.” 

The Manus- struggle revolves around a refugee detention center on Manus Island, in northern Papua New Guinea. Annually, thousands of people attempt to reach Australia on boats from Indonesia, looking for a better life there. Australian leading political parties say the journey asylum seekers make is dangerous and controlled by criminal gangs, and claim they have a duty to stop it. In 2013, the Australian government toughened their stance even further and put the military in control of asylum operations, now claiming that their policies have restored the integrity of its borders, and helped prevent deaths at sea. 

However, since the reopening of the detention center on Manus Island in 2012, it has seen nothing but scandals and human rights violations. In 2014, escalating protests at the center resulted in 77 people injured, one fatally. In May this year, PNG immigration officials confirmed the centre will close on 31 October, and told detainees that over the following months basic services were shut down, to encourage them to leave. This is how the situation remains until this day. Amir Taghinia, a refugee from Iran who was transferred to Canada only recently, claimed that although he was grateful to be in Canada, he could not forget about his friends. “They are starving, they have no water to drink. It is very, very likely we will have more deaths in the next coming days,” Taghinia told the Guardian on Monday.

Australian activist have been fighting for the closure of Manus and two other offshore island detention camps for the last year. In December, protesters abseiled down Parliament House in Canberra, unfurling a banner saying “close the bloody camps now”, while 13 more demonstrators held placards in a pond they dyed red to symbolize blood. By organizing a boycott against Australian security company Wilson, who provides security services on Australia’s offshore detention centers, the activists tackle another pillar upholding the human rights violating practices.  

Read more about the Manus- Island protests here, here and here.  

Photograph: South Korean antiwar protesters at a rally for peace in Seoul, South Korea, November 7, 2017. (Sipa via AP Images)

Published on 08/11/2017

Less than a year ago, South-Koreans stood united in their call for the impeachment of their leader Park Geun-hye. Several weeks of massive protests against Park and the political scandal she was involved in led to the resignation of the former President. With new President Moon Jae-in pursuing a more liberal course, South-Koreans are mobilizing again, and this time Donald Trump is their target. 

The American President, on a 12-day Asia tour, landed in South-Korea on Monday, while a coalition of antiwar, trade-union, and civil-society groups organized a “No Trump, No War National Rally”. On Saturday, days ahead of President Trump’s visit, hundreds of South Koreans took over their capital in protest. Just a few days later on Tuesday, thousands of Koreans flooded the streets in eight Korean cities to tell the militaristic president to go home. The core of their message is that, while South Korea is not seeking a conflict, Trump’s outspoken and sometimes aggressive tone does the situation on the Korean peninsula more bad than good! “He could be welcomed here, if he was the messenger of peace,” one activist told CNN. “But he is the messenger of war […], and he is not afraid of war again in this world.” 

Activists also protest a hidden agenda they seem to see underlying Trump’s tough stance against the North-Korean regime. According to ABC-news, demonstrators accused the outspoken president of not only raising tensions with North Korea but also “pressuring Seoul to buy more U.S. weapons. They also criticized him for pressing Seoul to re-do a bilateral free trade deal between the countries so that it’s more favorable to the United States.”   

However, not all South-Koreans stand united in their resistance against the US-President. Across the street of the anti-Trump protests on Tuesday, hundreds of Trump supporters waved the U.S. and South Korean flags and held signs that read ‘Blood Allies Korea US’. Mainly the older Korean generations, who tend to be more conservative, are supportive of Trump’s tough stance against the North. They accuse liberal South Korean President Moon of being too soft on Pyongyang. 

Read more about the South-Korean protests, the chances of a US – North Korea war, and the reasons for many Moon Jae-in followers to be disappointed in their President in this article by the Nation.  

Photo: Cartoon by Ramón Nsé Esono Ebalé featured in the VQR article

Published on 04/11/2017

When Equatoguinean cartoonist Ramón Nsé Esono Ebalé returned to his home country this September to renew his passport, he was arrested. Since then, he has been kept in detention in a notorious prison in the capital Malabo, and Equatoguinean authorities might be preparing a criminal defamation case against Esono. Public Radio International (PRI) writes: “Moore Gerety [see below] says Esono is not likely to see a courtroom. It’s a political case.“ Human Rights Watch reports that it had documented an increase of incidents “in which the government has retaliated against artists and cultural groups”, and that art has been used for independent voices to provoke public debate on social issues in Equatorial Guinea where political dissent is met with little tolerance. “Dictators aren’t known for their sense of humor. At least when the jokes are about them” commented PRI. This reminds us of the power of humor in nonviolent struggle.

What initially brought us to the cartoons of Ramón Nsé Esono Ebalé alias “Jamón y Queso” (Ham and Cheese), was this in-depth article about Esono’s work in criticism of (political) life in Equatorial Guinea and especially its longstanding President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. In his article “Comics without Captions: Can a cartoonist help unseat a dictator?”, Rowan Moore Gerety recounts how Esono came to draw cartoons, how he started his “career” when such was not really possible from within Equatorial Guinea, and what the cartoonist had to tell about his work. But Gerety also includes accounts from other African countries, such as Nigeria or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which he describes as “the closest thing there is to a continental comic book hub”, with the exception of South Africa, mainly owing its legacy to the famous Tintin au Congo comic and the former colonial power Belgium.

Esono told Gerety, that he got his first comic book from his father, who worked as a civil servant for many years returning from travels to Spain on government business. After discovering his own talent, what brought him to go beyond the Superheroes he had been drawing before and to become more political himself, was an encounter with political cartoonist Pahé in Gabon. Since then, he has been using “his drawings to expose the gross inequality in Equatorial Guinea”, focusing mostly on the country’s president and his repressive leadership, and in his style, Esono is “often crude and outrageous”, as PRI describes it.

In 2014, Esono illustrated the book La Pesadilla de Obi (Obi’s nightmare), written by an anonymous collaborator. It sets President Obiang who has tightly ruled Equatorial Guinea as Africa’s longest-serving dictator since independence in 1979, waking up to be just a ‘regular’ citizen as the piece’s main character. The cartoonist had distributed copies at the US-Africa Leaders Summit in 2014, “hoping to push conversations about authoritarianism and human-rights abuses above the din of billion-dollar investment initiatives and strategic partnerships”, wrote Gerety. It was Esono’s plan to clandestinely distribute several thousand copies within his home country as well. Until 2011, he had produced his cartoons from within Equatorial Guinea. But as his work became more dangerous, increasingly receiving international attention, he took the chance to go to Paraguay where he has been living in exile.

What happens to Esono after his detention, remains to be seen. Human rights organizations and activists have urged for the cartoonist to be released, have created the hashtag #FreeNseRamon and are collecting signatures for a petition to President Obiang.

To learn more about Esono, his stories about his work and life in and beyond Equatorial Guinea, as well as some background information on the role of comics on the African continent and the situation in Equatorial Guinea, read Rowan Moore Gerety’s 2016 article for the Virginia Quarterly Review (VQR) online.

For more information about the detention, consult these Human Rights Watch and PRI articles.

Photo: This is a snippet from one of Sujatro Ghosh’s photos. He told France24 this picture in front of the meat shop is one of his two favorites from the project (Sujatro Ghosh / via theweek.in)

Published on 02/11/2017

Earlier this year, the photographer Sujatro Ghosh started a photo project on Instagram, receiving widespread (social) media attention for addressing the status of women in India. In a contribution for “The 51% – A show about women reshaping our world”, France24 talked to him about his photo project.

Sujatro took pictures of women from different parts of society, sometimes posing in front of known monuments, other times simply in everyday situations – always wearing cow masks! Sujatro Ghosh stated that for him, this photo project was a silent form of protest and that he wanted to raise awareness for the issue. On his pictures on Instagram he writes: “In my country Cows are more important than a woman’s life with more security”.

Sujatro refers to the current social and political situation in India. An ongoing debate addresses the status of cows in India, where a lot of Hindus worship the animals while Muslims would eat their meat. Following the photographer’s statement, sexual assault and abuse of women on the other hand, are a severe problem, but should receive more attention. Though a rape is reported every 15 minutes (according to France24), waiting times for convictions are long and conviction rates remain low.

The photographer has not only received praise, but people have also sent him threats. Sujatro recognizes that such a deep-rooted problem “cannot change overnight” and points out that implementation of existing laws is difficult. But through his photos, he hopes to make people think about the issue and eventually contribute to change in India, in this generation or the next.

For more information and pictures, watch the whole interview (first half of the video) on YouTube or go to @sujatroghosh on Instagram.

Photo: Celebrations of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, were also held during the month of protest (Hindustan Times)

Published on 01/11/2017

On Tuesday, hundreds of farmers who had been protesting in Nindar village in Rajasthan, Northwestern India, ended their monthlong strike. What was special, was their unusual form of protest which they called zameen samandhi satyagraha, which translates to Burial Satyagraha* (for more information see below). At the occasion of Gandhi’s birthday on October 2, men and women buried themselves until their waist or neck, going on a hunger strike.

They did so in protest against acquisition of their land for a housing project, refusing to accept the proposed compensation. Different claims estimated the number of families who would be affected, leaving them homeless, between 1000 and 5000 (see Al Jazeerah). Since 2010, the Rajasthan government has involved itself in the process of acquiring an area of about 540 acres of land (according to Vice), a majority of which is privately owned. A group called Neendar Bachao Yuava Kisan Sangharsh (NBYKS) led the protest to gain the government’s attention and initiate talks addressing a proposal of a new land survey. Besides claims of inadequate compensation, they accused the former survey of falsely marking the land. A state official, on the other hand, declared “that people with ‘vested interests’ were behind the agitation” and “accused protest leaders of playing politics over the issue of development”, reported Al Jazeerah.

After about a month of deadlock, the protest ended when representatives from NBYKS and the Rajasthan government met on Tuesday. The government assured in written to conduct a new survey, while the village agreed to give part of the land for construction to start, awaiting the survey to re-evaluate the rest of the area, wrote The Logical Indian. The Hindu reported the farmers to be hopeful for the new survey to “reflect the ground situation and ensure a better compensation.”

Nevertheless, a video on Vice dating back two weeks, painted a more drastic picture of the situation. It reported that people were largely dependent on the land, being their only source of income. Two women said in an interview that they would not leave their home and surrender their land. “They can take it after we die”, one stated.

 

*The Satyagrahic fast is an example of the 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action, more specifically, it is a nonviolent (psychological) intervention. Robert L. Helvey described the concept of Satyagraha (meaning something like “truth-force” or “holding onto truth”) as “a type of principled civil disobedience against unjust laws that included the concept of ahimsa, the notion that no harm should be done to any living thing” (2004, p. 97). Rather than being just a strategy in conducting nonviolent struggle, Satyagraha is more of a philosophy. Gandhi incorporated this as a means to include many in his acts of noncooperation and civil disobedience throughout his nonviolent struggle in the 20th Century.

 

You can watch the video on Vice from earlier this month, or read these articles by Al Jazeerah, The Hindu and The Logical Indian, for more information about the strike in Rajasthan.

To read more about Nonviolent Action by Robert L. Helvey, you can consult his work On Strategic Nonviolent Conflict: Thinking About The Fundamentals from 2004. For the 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action by Gene Sharp, see our Must Read page.

Yesterday, a group of activists blocked the road crossing Tower Bridge, halting traffic in England’s capital to protest air pollution. The blockade on Monday was only the first of several to come this week by “Stop Killing Londoners”. An interview showed people in London agreeing with the importance of the issue and supported the agenda of the group.

“Stop Killing Londoners” certainly caught attention and caused disruption in the form of traffic jam in London. However, some have criticized the group for missing its point. Critics pointed out that causing traffic to stand still, the group might have caused even more pollution. Whether one agrees or not, this supports one important lesson to remember when planning nonviolent action, which is to be clear about your message and “evaluate how the methods you are considering relate to the goals of your overall movement or your campaign” (CANVAS Core Curriculum, p. 76).

Read more about the blockade and some reactions here, and here.

Photo: Stop Killing Londoners, via getwestlondon.co.uk

On the 31st of October, Halloween is an occasion for many people around the world to dress up in costumes, eat candy and go to Halloween parties. For the organization “Pregnant then Screwed”, it was an occasion to organize the demonstration “March of the Mummies” to advocate for parent’s rights.

The organization invites families to join their protest on Halloween, dress up as bandaged-wrapped mummies and make a statement for the rights of working mothers as well as fathers in several cities throughout the UK. “Pregnant then Screwed” offers a platform for those who have faced discrimination related to their pregnancy, offers help in various ways and stands up for the rights of (to be) mothers and fathers. Among other things, their specific demands address parental leave options and flexible working arrangements.

We think, that their humorous approach of organizing a protest and making use of the popular day of Halloween to create awareness for their cause through the “March of the Mummies”, deserves some attention. To read more on challenges some women have faced and what “Pregnant Then Screwed” advocates for, you can read this blog article on the Guardian, or visit the March’s website.

Photo: A poster advertising the March (via viewdigital.org)

Late on Thursday, the water in Rome’s famous Trevi-fountain turned red. It wasn’t just a mistake which drew big crowds to one of the Italian capital’s best known tourist hotspots. Protesting against Rome’s “corruption and filth”, Italian activist Graziano Cecchini managed to climb onto the side of the fountain and pour the dye in. According to the Guardian, Cecchini said the protest was a “cry that Rome isn’t dead, that it’s alive and ready to return to be the capital of art, life and Renaissance.”

The stunt performed at the fountain was not Cecchini’s first public performance. His first red Trevi-protest dates back to 2007. After the act was initially considered some kind of hooligan prank, Cecchini told the New York Times that “if it had been me, wink wink, I’d say that this had been a media-savvy operation in the face of a very gray society.”

Early 2008, half a million multi-colored plastic balls bounced down Rome’s famed Spanish Steps, in another self-styled protests at on of the city’s landmarks. “Italians’ balls are broken,” was written on leaflets distributed at the time. Talking to Reuters, the Italian artist said his protest was “an artistic operation which shows, through art, the problems we have here in Italy”.

This work reminds us of the power of ‘Guerilla-art‘, or artwork which has no external boundary between the image and the environment, as a form of protest. Cecchini’s protests, or works of art, have also been conceptualized under the name of ‘vandalism-art’, which makes us think about these performances: While acts of civil disobedience might include aspects with are technically a crime, should they be judged in the same light?

Read more about Cecchini’s latest protest here. Want to see some more positive acts of vandalism-art? Check this link.

Picture: Antonio-Masiello/Getty-Images