Ive went back and forth for weeks on whether or not to comment on Gary Francione speaking in Niagara. Simply running out of time to write something comprehensive I am going to post some bullet point things here that I want people in the community to keep in mind. All of this comes with the caveat that Brock Critical Animal Studies (CAS) does great work and was only possible through decades of institutional attrition that most would have given up on and that I am not in any way (nor have I) called for this event to be cancelled, postponed, etc. - The talk Gary will give centres upon his abolitionist approach. This multi millionaire white male academic will come to the place where Harriet Tubman and so many other former slaves took refuge to claim that his animal abolitionist approach is a direct lineage of the anti-slavery movement and that his use of that historical trauma is assumed as legitimate or respectful. Straight faced. I am writing this now mostly because of this specific point as it makes my skin crawl. This critique has been brought to Gary (personally) for years and he still continues on and still continues to ignore or make invisible black movements actually borne out of the anti slavery movement - i.e. prison abolition. Garys knowledge of the anti slavery movement is as non existent as his work to combat white supremacy both in larger society or in the animal advocacy movement. This is perhaps best understood as he makes arguments for tactics that were considered to be complete failures of that movement - moral suasion, non resistance (the precursor to non violence), the free produce movement. Critical Animal Studies claims to be borne out of the ideas and theories of folks like Derrick Bell, Angela Davis and critical race theory. The idea that someone of this social position can continually mine and leverage this historical trauma without question is absurd and, in my opinion, is one of the largest failures of Critical Animal Studies as a whole. - Gary has a long history of calling those who oppose his approach violent or criminal. This has included actively arguing against prisoner support for animal liberationists and has put (myself included) several people on the radar of industry/govt repression watch dogs. One of the groups organizing this event carries the title Liberation in its name. Gary himself is found of arguing moral baselines - Id like to argue that using those terms should come with the moral baseline of full support for the animal liberation front, direct action, movement prisoners and economic sabotage. There have been numerous underground actions in the Niagara Region in recent years to liberate animals including fur farm raids and economic sabotage of slaughterhouses and slaughter trucks. I do not like the idea of someone coming to this area, gaining a platform in spaces of Critical Animal Studies or Animal Liberation who will actively dismiss those tactics and/or cheerlead repression of folks who have used these tactics. This point again ties into the point above - the abolitionist movement which Gary claims to be inspired by including large scale property destruction, rampant law breaking, liberation and even death. If people dont want to honour the history of these words they should stop using them. - Aside from this, it is extremely dangerous and ineffective to promote an idea or approach that positions settlers on stolen land as peaceful compassionate or non violent merely because they do not eat or wear other animal species. Doing so makes the violence and genocide inherent in our society invisible and negates the active responsibilities we share to decolonize and physically return land. This is further a problem as Gary has no critique of the state, the prison industrial complex, or even the concept of property outside of just animals as property. - Much as Gary has been told for years how much of his approach is offensive he has long known of substantive critiques of positioning animal use as moral schizophrenia. Doing so furthers stigma and ableism. All critiques have been ignored. - Gary and his partner are wealthy and although it has been pointed out numerous times to Gary that his idea of veganism as easy may be influenced by his vast privilege in society he refuses to reframe the issue or stop using language that ignores this position. - Gary has actively encouraged people to pull donations from farm animal sanctuary organizations that do not adopt his approach. - Gary claims that single issue campaigns are ineffective - including local campaigns I am involved with like Marineland Animal Defense. He actively encourages people to pull support from such campaigns as they do not follow his approach. In 2011 Brock Critical Animal Studies hosted the Institute for Critical Animal Studies Conference. As one of the organizers I was involved in discussions over whether or not Gary should be invited to the Conference. All of these concerns were raised and he did not come. The Conference was instead started with a surprise introduction written by Ronnie Lee and delivered by Prof. John Sorenson. In my history of animal advocacy in Niagara it was one of my favourite moments and a time where I actually felt supported and my views respected. I write this as someone concerned about all of the things which Gary ignores/makes invisible and the impact his words will have on people in a community who are young and impressionable. All of the points above are points where Gary has been challenged on and should continue to be challenged on and I hope that this can potentially add some more critical context for those who actively want it. For those coming to this who actively support Garys brand (because lets be honest that is what his approach is) please dont take this as a critique of your attempts to bring change for other animal species. I hope you can read it and maybe be shaped by it a little and ask some more questions of this man and of his ideas. Thats it - I got a ferry to catch!
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 15:45:45 +0000
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