Original Article – Resistance Ecology
In 2012, a coalition of animal advocates and social justice organizers in the Pacific Northwest committed to reframing the animal liberation movement. Frustrated, stagnant, isolated, and largely neutralized, the movement for animals in the United States was–and still is–in a state of ambivalence that threatens the possibility of substantive change for animals in captivity and on the land. It seemed an overhaul was needed to shift the discourse and organizing towards a new framework, one in which the situation of animal oppression is located in the histories and logic of larger structures of power.
For us, this shift was the emergence of Resistance Ecology. Resistance Ecology started as a project to better understand the “ecology” of power and how to organize more effectively through an “ecology” of resistance. In our initial formulation, Resistance Ecology was intended to build a grassroots network of animal liberation advocates, to tour as means of establishing and sustaining this network, to organize campaigns that would flow from this network, to produce a movement publication in the tradition of No Compromise as a medium for discourse, and to organize an annual conference as a face-to-face forum to center and assess this work in a concerted way. Although we have followed through to varying extents on all of these fronts, our annual conference has come to occupy a unique place in our history, and has since become tantamount to the work of Resistance Ecology itself.
Our friends and supporters have no doubt noticed a lack of activity since our 3rd annual conference in June of 2015. We have made no mention of future plans or current organizing activity, nor have we made any announcements of a 4th annual conference for 2016. This is not due to an absence of diligence or any growing political lethargy. The stillness of the last ten months should not be mistaken for idleness – we are advancing towards different and exciting horizons.
Francisco Aguirre is a day labor leader from Portland who is being prosecuted by the federal government for fleeing probable death in El Salvador after being deported more than fifteen years ago. This prosecution came directly after he publicly sought sanctuary in Augustana Lutheran Church after ICE tried to take him away from his family without a warrant.
On February 2nd, Francisco’s teenage son Moises was murdered in El Salvador after he left Oregon due to fear of being abused in DHS custody again like he had been when he first sought asylum as a seventeen-year-old.
Yet, the Department of Justice is still prosecuting Francisco for not staying to be murdered like so many members of his family have been.
Please sign this petition to tell the Department of Justice to drop the reentry charge and let Francisco grieve in peace and to tell the White House and DHS to grant Temporary Protected Status to Central American refugees like Moises: unidosconfrancisco.com/sign-the-petition/
#UnidosConFrancisco #DropTheCharge
On January 15-17, people from all across the country swarmed New York, headquarters and home turf of Skanska USA. Hundreds of people took it to the streets, their flagship offices in the Empire State Building, the CEO’s front yard in Huntington, NY, and to the top executives of their largest U.S. investor–Vanguard Group. Coordinated by No New Animal Lab and New York City Animal Defense League, this mobilization was only possible because of grassroots organizing and cross-country networking. We know we are getting to them like we never have before. We are having an impact. We can storm Skanska, we can swarm their most important US figures, we can threaten their finances, and we can and will stop this lab.
No New Animal Lab #MarchonUW on Friday, 10/2. Hundreds of activists flooded UW campus and the streets of Seattle in an effort to bring attention to the campaign to stop the Animal Research & Care Facility, a large underground lab proposed for the purpose of housing and experimenting on thousands of animals–dogs, cats, mice, rats, monkeys, Guinea pigs, rabbits, pigs, and more. No New Animal Lab is a pressure campaign designed to stop it. The #marchonuw is one aspect. #WeWillStopThisLab
