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Tag: SHAC

0 Profane Existence PRINT Edition #64 Ships 6/7

June 4, 2013
by PE Admin
· News · PE Web Zine · Radness

We’ll be picking up PE #64 from the printers on Friday, June 7, 2013. This massive 36-page newspaper-type issues compiles reprints from PE’s blog from 2012 and 2013.

Includes interviews / features on:

ANTISECT
Walter Bond
Jake Conroy (Of the SHAC Campaign)
DEADLY REIGN
Adam DeGross
DESPISE
Luk Haas
Gord Hill
KRUM BUMS
MISERY
Nesha
NEUROSIS
Chris Parry
PUTREFACTION
Rural punks
THE SHAME
SUFFERING LUNA
Vaudie Va-Boom
VARIX
WARTORN
Mike XvX

The expected ship date is on or shortly after June 7, 2013

DOWNLOAD PDF

ORDER PRINT COPY

WARNING: There is virtually nothing new in this issue that has not been previously published on our web blog. There is no cover price and money being charged here is to nominally cover printing, shipping and bank fees. You may be able to get a copy for free or small donation from touring bands or at Extreme Noise Records, Long Haul Info Shop and other cool DIY places

0 One Down – Racist Lawyer Doug Christie Dies of Cancer

March 12, 2013
by Comrade Black
· Columns · News · PE Web Zine

By Comrade Black

Hate speech proponent Doug Christie has passed away. Finally.

Most of the mainstream media articles refer to Christie as a ‘controversial lawyer‘ and some even refer to him as a ‘defender of free speech,’ saying he defended holocaust deniers and anti-semites. I find this toned down revision as sickening as the historical revisionists he defended; so I want to say this loud and clear -no bullshit- for those who appear to be tone deaf. Doug Christie was one of this colonial nation state’s most well notorious racists; known as the lawyer who has defended numerous well known neo-nazi organizers, as well as holocaust deniers, homophobes, and other anti-semites. It only seems fitting that Christie died of terminal cancer, since he himself was a cancerous creep, and an important player in an even more sick movement.

For years Christie has tried to ‘white-wash’ himself as being a ‘defender of free speech.’ Of course like most nazis who try to veil their racism to create a more socially acceptable image the only speech Christie has ever concerned himself with is that of racist who have been charged with hate speech. Christie’s dance card was full of big names in the wild wild world of white power – oh sorry I mean white pride, see that’s the term racists prefer to use when speaking to ‘the public’ so they won’t

look like racists. But as I was saying, Christie has defended such prominent hatemongers as Wolfgang Droege of the Heritage Front, Terry Long, former leader of the Aryan Nations, John Ross Taylor of the Western Guard Party and Aryan Nations, three leaders of the Ku Klux Klan in Manitoba, and Rudy Stanko of the World Church of the Creator. Christie tries to hide his hatred behind the rhetoric of ‘free speech,’ yet maintained an ad on Stormfront, the most notorious white supremacist neo-nazi website and main recruiting vehicle for vulnerable 12 year olds.

Christie also founded the so called Canadian Free Speech League, which every year would give out an award to people charged with spreading racial hatred, holocaust denial, and homophobia; dubbed the George Orwell Award. The appropriation of Orwell’s name and image for the celebration of racism is mind numbing. Orwell, an anarchist well known for his books such as 1984, Animal Farm, and Homage to Catalonia; having gone to Spain to fight the fascists during the Spanish civil war and was about as opposite of Christie’s ideology as humanly possible. Vancouver Lawyer Gary Botting worked for Christie for many years, and developed a close personal relationship to him; Botting has since severed ties with Christie and went to great lengths to distance himself from the well known racist. “it is clear to me that your Canadian Free Speech League is merely a front for an anti-semitic, Pro-Nazi agenda.” Botting wrote in a publi c letter to Christie, continuing “In the Canadian Free Speech League, the only opinions truly allowed are those which conform to your own. And those opinions, as you well know, are antisemitic and almost blatantly pro-Nazi. It is no coincidence that both you and Ernst Zundel usually celebrate your birthdays on April 20, Hitler’s Birthday. It is no coincidence that most of the Canadian Free Speech League annual awards ceremonies have been held as close to that date as possible.”

In a recent CBC radio interview, Christie claims he only defended white supremacists cause they were the only people facing government repression for what they believed. This is a sad attempt to cast himself the hero, the defender of the people; and is also simply and utterly confusing. The only people? Really? Is he that stupid and unaware of what’s going on in the world around us, or dose he just think everyone else is? When the Canadian chapter of Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty was dealing with intense police harassment and repeated arrests, as well as private security hired by corporations, I did not hear Mr Christie offering to help. How do I know? well when SHAC was in Victoria I was volunteering with them. They instead retained the services of Vancouver lawyer Peter Edelmann. If that’s not close enough to home, where was Dougie Boy when the Victoria Tent City was fighting for the Right To Sleep; as homeless activists were challenging the constitutionality of anti-camping laws in the Supreme court after a 31 day camp at Cridge Park, only about 5 blocks away from his law office. How do I know he didn’t offer to help? Again, I was one of the campers, and my legal name is on the court docs. Nor did he speak a word against the massive police/state repression of activists at the Toronto G20, many of which were arrested before the G20 even occurred! Same with the repression of activists in Vancouver at the Anti-Olympics Convergence. When the Joint Terrorism task Force showed up at my door, and I was interviewed on CBC, Christie again didn’t say a word. We could even go further back to the legendary struggles between feminist bookstore Little Sisters in vancouver and the state who was confiscating their shipments of lesbian erotica books, once again Christie didn’t offer to help. But when holocaust denier Jim Keegstra was fired for teaching his high school students that the holocaust was just a Jewish Conspiracy, Christie phoned him up to say “Hey, don’t be down-hearted.” and became his lawyer. And when George Burdi, vocalist of the white power band RaHoWa (Racial Holy War), and founder of Resistance Records – The largest white power record company in the world – was arrested, Christie “was ready to give up three months of his time away from home, and do it pro bono,” urging Burdi to let the charges go to court rather than plead guilty. So it seems clear that he was only interested in helping other racists.

Christie was also the head of the Western Canadian Concept party and later founded the Western Bloc Party, 2 far right political parties with anti-immigrant and homophobic stances as well as colonial assimilation views. The WCC website described it’s mission in part as the development of a “genuine national culture true to our existing European heritage and values.” And of course English speaking only. Another prominent nazi and former client of Christie’s Paul Fromm, ran along side him for the Western Block Party. Fromm was a one time member of the Conservative Party, until he was kicked out after comments about racial purity and immigration. Fromm who hosts a radio show on Stormfront, is a self described “Nazi Sympathizer” and “anti-immigration activist.”

Since his diagnosis with terminal cancer, Doug Christie has tried to convince the world even more that he did not share the views of his clients, but only wanted to defend free speech. I want to ensure that Christie is remembered for the racist he truly was. No ‘white’-washing.

Good bye Doug Christie, you will not be forgotten. And you will not be missed.

One less racist.

19 Calling bullshit – John Roderick doesn’t know shit about Punk

March 7, 2013
by Comrade Black
· Columns · PE Web Zine

by Comrade Black

In his March 6 article entitled, “Punk Rock Is Bullshit: How a toxic social movement poisoned our culture” blogger John Roderick attempts to analyze the political beliefs and practices of the punk scene, a group he characterizes as a disease of the soul.

Put simply, the guy has no clue what the actual punk scene is. This is apparent by a number of factors; such as he actually mentions Cortney Love, Sex Pistols and Ramones as ‘punk bands’ where as no one active in the underground scene gives a shit about any of those bands and most would laugh at the very idea of Courtney Love being thought of as punk. The only actually punk band mentioned in the article I could see was Fugazi, and even they are pretty mainstream compared to the bands who most diy kids wear patches of (Aus-Rotten, Amebix, Zounds, Discharge, Nausea, MDC, etc). One must wonder if he would even know the difference between Crust and OI!, or would have even heard of genres like D-Beat and Powerviolence. Yet he thinks presents himself as an expert in position to publish extreme condemnations.

through most of the diatribe he seems to be saying everyone should give up on punk and become a good capitalist and share in the materialistic dream (american dream) and that if you don’t, your just being immature. It is like he watched that terrible MTV Movie SLC Punk and decided to write an article parroting the subtext.

Throughout the article he makes strange constant references to Marxist imagery and ideas. I have met about 4 punks ever that were in support of the Sandanistas or thought Che, Stalin, and Mao were cool. They are all in the same band. all 4 of them… His constant attempts to connect punk wth Marxist Communism is really odd and seems totally out of left field (pun intended)

The section on Seattle is particularly out of touch.
How someone could write an article on Punk and have an entire section on Seattle and the pacific north west, without mentioning the massive anarchist crust bands (Seattle use to be the hot bed for big crust bands like Consume and Skarp) is kinda confusing. But farm more confusing is how you could write about punk and Seattle/PNW without mentioning the legendary ‘Battle of Seattle‘ (WTO riots that shook the USA and made news internationally, including the rise of the Black Bloc in North America), nor mentioning the notorious “Eugene Anarchists” is beyond me. It would be like writing an article about the economy of Alberta and Texas over the last 4 decades, without mentioning OIL!
The North West was not only huge for bands and DIY scenes, but also for actual physical action. The rise of Earth First! (eco-defense), the anti-globalization movement, and more extreme the Earth Liberation Front, Animal Liberation Front, all of which punks played part in. There was also of course the Riot Grrl movement, much of which centered on Seattle bands, only mentioned in passing as a slag by this writer. John Roderick clearly has no clue what the actual underground punk scene is, nor probably that it still is very active today. Big distros, zines, and well known underground labels, like Maximum Rock’n Roll, or Profane Existence, or event Havoc Records, are not even mentioned. In fact nothing of importance to the DIY punk scene is mentioned in this article at all. It would be like me writing an article saying why the rave scene was bullshit… Or like a Liberal writing an article on the black bloc without even doing any research.

There is a ton of other issues here, his repeated use of the term ‘primitive’ as a derogatory, which i find utterly racist. Or how he misreprestens DIY, as if hand making your demo tapes with hand drawn art, and black and white photocopied liner notes so they can be sold cheap enough that street kids and other poor folks can afford them, is the equivalent of selling tupperware. In the punk underground, DIY is about empowering people to realize we artists, we are all musicians, we all can do it. Or as Crass put it, There Is No Authority But Yourself! You don’t need to wait some big promoter; rent the hall yourself and borrow or rent a PA, make a poster and grab the tape. Kids creating art and recording their own bands or setting up $5 All Ages shows for free clearly not at all the same as vacuum salesmen or Mary Kay. I speak from experience here as someone who set up these types of shows for years working with bands from all over the world like Sweedish hardcore band Regulations, or Imperial Leather,legendary bands like Resist and Exist, Conlict, and a whole host of amazing Canadian bands like Leper, Mechanichal Separation and Mass Grave, Iskra, Self Rule, Eleutheros. All of which highly doubt John Roderick has ever even heard of.

It seems like he’s just another a mainstream individualistic guy who thinks he is alternative, whining about people he doesn’t understand who have ethics he doesn’t understand, who look down on him for being materialistic.Not all of us want big screen TV’s and 13 yr old groupies following us. Not all of us want to be rock stars. Many of us have our own visions, our own desires outside of the scripted grey future we are told we are suppose to want. If you don’t think punk has accomplished anything, you need to get your head out of your ass. Look to the Gaian Mind Institute in LA, or Dial House, to the tons of projects and ecovillages, communiy houses, and venues run by punks. Look to stuff like the SHAC Campaign, who nearly took down a horrible multinational animal testing laboratory; getting them dropped from the NY Stock Exchange, causing over 500 businesses to cut ties with them putting them nearly $90 million in debt. Most of the key organizers in SHAC – both in Turtle Island and the UK – have been punks. In fact, one of the UK Shactivists was a member of the UK punk band Active Slaughter. AK Press, the largest anarchist publisher in the world, and PM Press, were also both started by Ramsey Kanaan, who sang in the Scottish band Political Asylum, as well many other publishers like Combustion Books and Crimethinc were also started by punks.
For all your criticisms, what the hell have you done?

Ian McKaye was once asked about selling out as a way to get his message out so more people could hear their music. He replied by stating he didn’t care about making it so everyone could hear their music. It was about making it so the kids who wanted to hear their music could. Well John Rodernick, maybe you should listen – by which I mean don’t… That’s the point really, if you don’t want to hear it, fuck off. We don’t want or need your opinion. We’re too busy building the world we want to see in the ashes of this one. And as Mike XvX said, this town isn’t going to burn itself down!

If you want to read informed opinions on punk, I would suggest following the old slogan, buy books buy us, not about us. Penny Rimbaud’s book Shibboleth: My Revolting Life is a great start. Can’t get much better. The Philosophy Of Punk by Craig O’ Hara, The Day The Country Died, and Sober Living For The Revolution are also great. But of course the best way to learn the reality of what punk has to offer is to take part; go to a show, not some Bad Religion or Warp Tour kinda crap, but an actual show, in some kids basement, with bands who actually have something to say. Bands who play for nothing more than gas money so that the kids who have nothing, who could never afford a Death Cab For Cutie, or Long Winters show.

It is better to make a piece of music than to perform one, better to perform one than to listen to one, better to listen to one than to misuse it as a means of distraction, entertainment, or acquisition of “culture.”

— John Cage

0 Book Review of Green Is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege.

March 3, 2013
by Comrade Black
· Reviews

I like books a lot, yet it is rare that I find a book that brings together so many of the elements I look for. Green Is the New Red documents the criminalization of activists, and the history of various struggles for liberation in the face of state repression.

Will Potter is an wonderful writer, and this book is absolutely necessary. His book reads in a highly accessible language, yet asks challenging questions and tackles difficult subject matter. Will Potter is a professional writer, and it really shows. At times highly poetic, at times very personal with narratives from his own life experiences, breaking between analysis, documenting history, and then back to personal anecdotes and stories of listening to punk rock albums with Jake Conroy (SHAC 7), or walking through the forest with Daniel McGowen the day before he was to go to jail as a ‘terrorist’.

His story begins with the FBI coming to Potter’s door and threatening to place him on a terrorist list after he goes leafleting with some friends in a campaign against a multinational animal testing lab, HLS. Potter deals with his fears

and mistakes with a striking honesty and humility that allows you to relate to his experience, rather than the macho posturing typical of many activists. Potter uses his own story as a jumping off point to bring the reader on a journey that will introduce them to the struggles of many of his friends and other activists as they go through court battles, police raids, and prison. He places all of this in a historical context by showing t

flyer from a talk given by Will Potter and Jake Conroy

he connection to McCarthy era repression, as well as the earlier criminalization faced by anarchists and socialists during the turn of the century. This book contains so much excellent history that it would be worth reading it for that alone; from the beginning of one of the most effective animal rights campaigns ever (SHAC), stories of activists shutting down breeders who supply animals for labs, to the founding of the ALF and ELF, and activists like Judi Bari who was car bombed by the FBI. Will exposes how industry controls the development of legislation that will be used to imprison activists organizing against them, making the complex workings of the judicial and legislative systems easy to understand.

Green Is the New Red has quickly become one of my favorite books, and easy yet worthwhile read that you will learn so much from. Even better, you can get the first chapter for free as a sample simply by clicking on the link on the top of his website Green Is The New Red. Trust me, you won’t regret it.

book review by Comrade Black

Sea Shepherds Activists reading Green Is The New Red

9 Effective Activism & State Repression: An Interview with Jake Conroy on how the SHAC Campaign nearly bankrupt one of the largest animal testing labs in the world

February 7, 2013
by Comrade Black
· Interviews

Interview by Comrade Black

How do we shut down a multinational corporation?

500 animals per day die in the labs of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), one of the largest contract testing companies in the world. Beagles, primates, rabbits, mice, rats, cats and other species are burned, cut open, or injected with poisons all while alive to ensure products like Viagra and diet pills will make it to the shelves of stores around the world; as well as GMO crops, pesticides, fertilizers and house hold cleaners. A small handful of dedicated activists started a campaign that nearly brought the giant to its knees as over 500 companies quit doing business with HLS, including their insurance company. Activists also managed to get HLS dropped from the New York Stock Exchange, eventually stopping their stocks from being publicly traded altogether.

Jake Conroy was one of the activists involved in Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty campaign (SHAC) in the USA, helping to run the website, and lead demos. For this, Jake was sentenced to 4 years in jail.

PE: How did you get involved with animal activism, and more specially the SHAC campaign?

JAKE: I’ve always had strong feelings for the underdog throughout my life. It didn’t really occur to me until I was 19 that some of the biggest underdogs in the world were non-human animals. I had spent a long time thinking about the issues and reading books and pamphlets I picked up at hardcore/punk shows, and watching videos wherever I could find them (which actually was pretty hard to do in a pre-YouTube era). But I was somewhat on the fence about making that leap to get involved.

I was living in Seattle at the time, walking downtown to school, when I passed some folks protesting against the circus as they paraded the elephants for miles through the city. I passed them and didn’t say a word but it sat heavily in my mind that I should. So I turned around and walked back and asked what they were doing and who they were and how I could get in touch with them. They simply replied, “We’re in the Yellow Pages”. Sure enough, under Animal Rights, there was one listing – The Northwest Animal Rights Network. I called the number and listened to the info about the upcoming circus protests, and I went down that weekend by myself to join in.

The next 5 years I would participate in civil disobediences, run successful campaigns to close fur salons, help transform Seattle into one of the most animal-friendly cities in the country, and be arrested (with my current co-defendant Josh Harper) for engaging in the first whale hunt sabotage in US coastal waters by piloting a boat between whales and hunters.

In 2001 I had been working locally on the anti-HLS campaign in the Seattle area, when I got a call from a friend asking if I wanted to move out east for a few months to help start the office for this group, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty USA. I had nothing else to do, so I packed up my belongings, put them in storage, and headed out to Philadelphia. I became so excited and inspired by our first 3 months that I never went back. I would spend the next 5 years helping run one of the most exciting campaigns of my life.

PE: What can people learn from SHAC, and from the repression you faced?

JAKE: I think the most important thing people can learn is that their activism needs to be strategic, smart, and creative, while being thoughtful, careful, and calculated. We shouldn’t rush in head first because that’s the way it’s always been done; rather prepare for all outcomes, be ready to accept them, and not fear them. We need to realize that we are under a microscope, so our actions need to be significant and have a focus on duration and long term strategy.

PE: What do you think made SHAC so successful?

JAKE: Bobby Seale, the co-founder of the Black Panther Party, once said that in order to be successful you have to capture the imagination of the people, and the anti-Huntingdon Life Sciences campaign and SHAC USA did just that. It began in North America at a time when national welfare organizations started to dangle paychecks in front of grassroots organizers, when they began shifting the debate away from liberation to welfarism, and when they made you feel like you were doing your part by voting every couple of years and sending in your donations to cover their expanding paychecks. They were disenfranchising the animal rights movement and getting folks to fall into line. But deep inside, we all wanted more.

SHAC USA sprang into action quickly and furiously. It said loudly and proudly that we weren’t going to sit back and accept bigger cages, and we were going to hold everyone and anyone accountable for their actions and support of animal cruelty, no matter when or where. We were happy to push the envelope and support radical ideas and tactics when others wouldn’t. We believed in people power, horizontal and autonomous organizing, and supporting and using every tool in the toolbox to enact change. Within months, we managed to gain victories as an all-volunteer organization of 4 where huge national organizations couldn’t. We captured the hearts and minds of activist communities and the general public, and we were off and running, bulldozing anyone that got in our way.

Full page ad that appeared in New York Times during the time of the SHAC 7 trial and amendments to the AETA was being discussed in congress

PE: SHAC centers on vivisection, specifically contract testing for consumer products like viagra and diet pills. Why focus on vivisection rather than fur, circuses, or the horrors of the pet industries, food/meat, or other areas of animal exploitation?

JAKE: There are so many atrocities perpetrated against the earth, and the animals, both human and non-human, that live on it. It’s very easy to fall into a pattern of trying to save the entire planet all at once. But we need to be strategic about our campaigns and smart about how we go about them. There had been a campaign against HLS since the late 80’s, with some amazing actions, but it just wasn’t getting the job done. But the late 90s saw a perfect storm of sorts in England. Activists had closed Consort Beagle Breeder, Hillgrove Cat Farm, Regal Rabbits and they were closing in on Shamrock Primate Farm and Newchurch Guinea Pig Farm. Energy was extremely high and victories were coming in swiftly. Meanwhile, Huntingdon had two undercover investigations released against them in the UK and the US, and it had almost bankrupt them. They were a huge target, teetering on the brink of foreclosure, and they needed a firm kick to push them over the edge. It would be a gamble, but it was part of a larger overall campaign strategy that was proving to be successful. HLS is the third largest contract research organization in the world and they were on the brink of being brought to their knees by grassroots activists. The time was just right.

PE: Do you still think that the SHAC Campaign can succeed at this point? What is the relevance of the campaign today?

JAKE: Martin Luther King Jr said that the arc of the universe is long and bends towards justice. And to add a footnote by Becky Tarbotton, “sometimes we don’t see it bend, sometimes it feels like it flattening out. And other times we can see that arc perceptively bending towards justice.” We didn’t close down Huntingdon Life Sciences according to our timeline, but I still believe the campaign can and will be successful. It’s suffered some major blows to it’s infrastructure, but like all good things, it keeps moving forward, it continues to bend towards justice. People are still active all over the world in the quest to shut it down for good and HLS is still financially hemorrhaging.

I think the relevance of the campaign is that it represents the tenacity, passion, and drive we as a global movement has to see justice served, no matter how long that might take. The tactics the SHAC campaign used were innovative and powerful, and they continue to be replicated by a broad spectrum of movements around the world to fight back. That alone is a testament to the relevance of the campaign and how successful it was and continues to be, regardless of the outcome of our explicit goals.

PE: How can activists today become more effective?

JAKE: Effectiveness and success is going to come by studying our collective histories, working hard and being creative today, while keeping long term future strategies in mind.

As activists today we have a unique opportunity to still talk to and learn from some of the greatest revolutionaries of decades past. These folks are still involved decades later and they want to sit with you, to have you learn from their mistakes, and understand their successes. We need to take advantage of these opportunities any chance we get before it’s too late.

We need to recognize that we are living in one of the most oppressive times to be an activist. Our targets wield more power than ever before and are getting away with using every tool in the toolbox to silence and imprison us. We need to take their lead and fight back in kind. We as activists need to realize that perhaps our old ways and tactics aren’t going to work anymore and we need to start thinking outside the box; to be more creative and look for other ways around the blockades before us in order to reach our desired goal.

Finally, we need to be smart. We can no longer rush in head down, into brick walls. We need to pick our heads up and look forward and see how we can strategically plan not just for this year but the next generation. We need to look deeper and with more thoughtfulness into how we are making change and how we can make it lasting.

PE: Are you still involved with animal activism now that you are out of prison?

JAKE: I’m involved with animal activism as much as I can be. I am currently finishing my third year of probation (out of 3), which puts restrictive conditions on you and your actions. Your whereabouts, employment status and financial records are all monitored by the federal government. I have a list of 30 or so rules, some very specific, some very broad, that I am required to live by. If I violate any of these rules, the probation office has the right to yank me off of probation and put me back in prison. So while they can be lax about certain things, getting in trouble doing animal activism is a sure way to end back in prison.

However, I still do as much animal activism, prisoner support, and outreach that I can. I am also employed by a non-profit environmental organization that uses non-violent direct action and pressure campaigns against global corporate targets to affect change. In a sense it’s much like SHAC, minus the radical aggressiveness that landed us in prison.

PE: If we truly want to be effective in our activism, it seems like in today’s atmosphere we should get prepared for the very real possibility of prison. Do you have any advice on how to prepare or was there anything that helped you get trough it?

JAKE: While I think activists today need to be very aware of the repression going on around the globe and learn how they can fight back, I wouldn’t say that prison is a very real possibility for a large majority of us. In the grand scheme of things, very few of us have actually been imprisoned for the amount of actions and campaigns that have been going on. Unfortunately, while the number of folks in prison right now is rising, it doesn’t mean that we all are going to end up there some day.

The SHAC7 case was a perfect example of that. Thousands of people in North America alone participated in the campaign in their own way and it came down to a half dozen of us in court. The odds are in your favor.

If you are in the small minority of people facing prison time, I would highly suggest turning to those who have been or are currently incarcerated, for advice and counsel. Prison is a place like no other; nothing can possibly compare to it. It’s a place filled with bizarre rules and expectations and nothing can really prepare you for it outside of the experience of others. I spent a lot of time leading up to my incarceration writing friends that were serving time as political prisoners, asking them every thing I could possibly think of. We would write tomes back and forth. But ultimately nothing can fully prepare you for the experience.

Ultimately, prison is a dark and lonely and depressing place. And one of the few things that can put a smile on an inmate’s face is a letter. It is what makes the experience survivable. So I would encourage everyone to look through the lists of political prisoners and find a couple that resonate with you, and write them. It doesn’t have to be a lengthy diatribe on your political beliefs (its better that it’s not), rather, write them about your day, the last back packing trip you took, the last meal you made. Send a photo or a postcard. Anything will brighten their day. Take the time to foster a relationship with them and help them get through their experience. What may seem like an insignificant 20 minutes to you writing a letter, it can be a total life saver when on the receiving end while in prison.

PE: How much dose having a terrorist enhancement effect your life? And how do you feel about being considered a terrorist in the eyes of the government?

JAKE: Just to be clear, none of the SHAC 7 received a terrorist enhancement during sentencing. We were, however, classified by the Bureau of Prisons as domestic terrorists. This meant that during our stay in prison and our time on probation (and I’m sure afterwards), that label followed us around wherever we went. In prison, for me, that meant all of my phone calls were monitored and recorded, all of my incoming and outgoing mail was opened, read, and photocopied if they desired, and my ability to have my friends come visit me was drastically reduced. It also meant that I was put onto a ‘high visibility inmate’ watch list inside of the prison. I was one of 10 to 15 inmates that the administration said posed the biggest security threat to the institution, in a population of around 1300 inmates incarcerated for murder, rape, bank robbery, high-level gang activity, etc..

PE: Could you please recap what the charges against you were, and what you were accused of doing?

JAKE: Kevin Kjonaas, Lauren Gazolla and I were found guilty of 6 charges based on our direct involvement and so-called “leadership” roles with SHAC USA. They were one count of conspiracy to violate the 1934 Telecommunications Harrassment Act, one count of conspiracy to violate the Animal Enterprise Protection Act (now called the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act), one count of conspiring to commit interstate stalking, and 3 counts of interstate stalking.

Essentially we were found guilty of running a webpage that advertised and editorialized events, actions, and strategy; that published write-ups of those events and actions after the fact (much like an online newspaper); that shared ideas, and supported the thinking of controversial ideologies. By doing all of this online, we crossed state lines to enter into a conspiracy with essentially anyone who had ever used the internet. By simply publishing and editorializing ideas and actions, we were encouraging anyone who accessed our webpage to go out and do the same things.

It was a far-fetched (yet successful) attempt at criminalizing controversial, yet legal, forms of demonstrations, supporting radical and controversial ideologies like non-violent direct action, and the sharing of ideas.

PE: Can you talk about the role music & subcultures can play in Animal Liberation and other activism?

JAKE: Subcultures and music has played a very influential role in grassroots and radical movements. The first time I was introduced to the idea of black power and the Black Panther Movement was after buying the album Fight The Power by Public Enemy when I was in junior high. As a white, suburban kid growing up in New England, those radical ideas didn’t make it into our classrooms. Soon after I would be introduced to hardcore and punk rock, which would open the doors to a do-it-yourself subculture, the straightedge philosophy, and veganism. Bands, ‘zines, and literature acquired at record stores and shows filled my imagination and passion with big ideas about grassroots organizing and direct action; the idea that we didn’t need large organizations and governments to enact the change we wanted to see in the world. That change was something we could bring about on our own and on our own terms. This idea wasn’t just mine – this self-empowerment and introduction to direct action through music communities was shared by 5 of the 6 individuals in the SHAC7 case, and direct action legends like Rod Coronado and Keith Mann. It introduced a whole generation of young people in the mid 90’s to veganism, activism, and direct action, that would eventually shape the entire animal rights movement.

Jake Conroy is available to speak at public events and will be speaking at Camas Books in Victoria BC (Via skype) Feb 16. To contact Jake about speaking in your community go to http://aidandabet.org/roster/from-activist-to-terrorist/

To learn about the ongoing campaign to shut down HLS today check out the SHAC website (includes videos, lists of companies doing business with HLS, and other campaign materials)

http://shac.net/

To learn more about the repression of activism and the SHAC 7

http://www.greenisthenewred.com/

http://www.shac7.com/

0 Buy Nothing Day? Do you buy into it?

November 17, 2012
by Comrade Black
· Columns · PE Web Zine

by Comrade Black

So were at that time of year where the stores are preparing for xmass, their number one sales time of the year, and in response many people are planning on taking part in the annual Buy Nothing Day promoted by Adbusters.

When I first came across BND, a few years ago it seamed like a great idea, but now I am not so sure I buy it. I feel I have to question the tactics effectiveness. How much difference will it really make, the majority of people I know of that are excited to be taking part in BND are either people that already don’t buy almost anything anyways, who scavenge and live a freegan lifestyle, or people that will simply end up buying more in the days leading up to or directly following BND. In short both groups will likely end up buying the exact same amount this season as they would have bought anyways, just not on November 25/26. It seams to me that this action is more a symbolic gesture than a real strategy to empower people and/or challenge capitalism.

Some others have taken this further in an attempt to get past this problem but suggesting Steal Something Day! at least here we have a strategy attempting to cost the corporations money, although I must admit I am skeptical to whether a few pseudo-militant hippies and dirty squatters, travelers etc; all shoplifting on one particular day will even cost enough for the companies to bother hiring extra security that day. As much as I wish it would. However once again I doubt this will be any more than another symbolic gesture.

What we actually need to do is start thinking strategically. Capitalism is about the hording and exchange of personal property and resources, to an end of unlimited expediential growth, so how do we challenge capitalism? By affecting their income, and making it cost more money to do business, then they are making, thus removing the primary incentive.

So perhaps instead of celebrating Buy Nothing Day — which should really be called do nothing day — we could have Fuck With Business As Usual Day! 24 hrs of actions designed to cost corporations their profits,[i] from gluing locks, to sending solid black faxes[ii], sending 10000 emails to a bank so they can’t possibly receive their business emails and crashing their computers [iii], hacking, setting off smoke bombs in stores, talking loudly in the NIKE shop about child labor, phoney (or real) bomb threats at shopping malls,[iv] stealing, breaking windows,[v] paint-bombing or glitter-bombing,[vi] making large meal orders and not showing up for them at Mc-Restaurants, calling in sick for work, putting out of order signs on pop machines,[vii] arson,[viii] roadblocks,[ix] and anything else you can conceive of that would cost a business money!

However the big issue with this strategy would be promotions, I have to admit Fuck With Business As Usual Day does not have as nice of a ring to it, nor a good acronym, and without a glossy full color magazine in every 7-11 and Chapters to promote it, who would participate? As well you would have every liberal out there condemning the day and the coppers would be out in full force to “keep the peace” AKA protect corporate property, and business as usual. Hell if history is any indicator you would have many of the liberal pacifists not only condemning you but even working with the police to protect the property, and helping to catch anyone daring to partake. [x] Maybe Joe Foy of WCWC would even put up a bounty on us like he did to the tree spikers years ago! [xi]And in the USA under the Animal Enterprises Protection Act, people attacking any animal related industries could get up to 22 yrs in prison and be tried as a terrorist[xii] (child rapists often get 5-10 yrs, sometimes less [xiii]). Hell I could probably go to jail for even suggesting in a hypothetical that we consider any of these things, that is strategies that actually affect things. See the unfortunate truth is that whenever we actually become a threat they will use violence, fear, and threats to stop us, and as long as we are not of any real consequence to them they will be happy to continue to ignore us.

So even though Buy nothing day will really turnout to be Accomplish Nothing Day, the reality is in the end I will probably end up taking part in Buy Nothing Day, sad but true, cause honestly it’s the “least” I can do.

Currently the volunteer run non-profit infoshop I work at is planning our third annual Buy Nothing Day Sale! As a small business selling local or independent stuff, it wouldn’t make any sense for us to close down for the day, so instead we have fun with it. Anyways, they always say doing something is always better than doing nothing. All used books are 20% off and Marx is 1/2 off! Yet every year when we have the sale some folks completely freak out that we would dare mock the sacred Buy Nothing Day symbolic action.

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Footnotes

[i] A similar idea was done years ago in the UK and was organized in part by the anarchist punk bands Crass and Chumbawamba. These actions were called Stop the City demonstrations.

[ii] A Black fax is a tactic where a piece of paper that is black is fed half way through a fax machine and then the other end is taped together in a loop so it will keep sending continuously. The tactic serves to both freeze up the targets fax machine and modem so other incoming messages won’t be able to be received, while also costing them a lot of money in toner and paper.

in 2006, members of the above ground animal rights and anti-vivisection campaign known as Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty campaign (SHAC) were charged with conspiracy to harass using a telecommunications device for sending back faxes, as well as other charges. For more information look up the SHAC 7

[iii] In October 2005, Dylan Barr was arrested after he sent out flood of emails to Washington Mutual Bank with messages saying “This is what happens to companies that invest in HLS.” This is what is called a denial of service” attack… Barr sent so many large documents to the employees that their inboxes became full and refused emails from actual bank patrons. Washington Mutual dropped HLS as a client. Bar served 29 days in jail, and was fined $25000, which is only a tiny fraction of the $1000000 estimated in loss from the bank dropping it’s shares.

[iv] A few years ago when I worked for Public Outreach as a street fundraiser,. a couple of my co-workers had to move where they were canvassing because some random guy came up to them and told them quietly they should leave cause he had left a bomb in the garbage can of the bay center mall. The mall had to evacuate, and a lot of money was lost in revenue, while they searched for the bomb that didn’t exist. The guy was never caught.

However, there is a real danger in crying wolf, as Ann Hansen once pointed out.

“in fact, we oppose the use of fake bomb threats precisely because they do cause the authorities to be skeptical of the authenticity of real bomb attacks”

[v] Common tactic used by Blac Bloc’s is to smash windows of corporations, cause they can be easy to break quickly, and expensive. As well, I have heard that often contrary to general public opinion, that many companies don’t report the broken windows to their insurance companies because it may be cheaper to fix a few broken windows than to pay an annual increase in the cost of insurance.

[vi] Glitter Bombs or Glamdalizim is a tactic used by radical queers where they mix glitter into a regular paint bomb to make the attack that much more fierce and fabulous!

[vii] I got this one from the classic Crimethinc book recipes For Disaster

[viii] I want to be clear I am not advocating or counseling here, I am talking in the hypothetical. As Ted Kaczynski stated in Hit Them Where It Hurts;

“The engine, for example, can be ruined with very little expenditure of time and effort by means well known to many radicals.

At this point I must make clear that I am not recommending that anyone should damage a bulldozer (unless it is his own property). Nor should anything in this article be interpreted as recommending illegal activity of any kind. I am a prisoner, and if I were to encourage illegal activity this article would not even be allowed to leave the prison. I use the bulldozer analogy only because it is clear and vivid and will be appreciated by radicals.”

an even better disclaimer can be found in the cover of one of my favorite zines Bloodlust: A Feminist Against Civilization, which reads;

All contents of this zine are for purely entertainment purposes. No one involved in the writing or constructing of this zine advocates or condones any sort of illegal activity. Please ignore the screams of a dying world and passively consume this as you would a television sitcom.

[ix] Roadblocks have become a tactic often used by indigenous sovereigntists when fighting against the corporations and the state. This tactic was used at Oka, as well is in 6 nations, and I believe the longest was the road block at Grassy narrows, although there is really too many to cite them all. Currently the warriors of the Wet’suwet’en are refusing entry to their traditional territories by anyone who doesn’t ask consent, as part of their assertion of their traditional rights, and resistance to the pipelines the corporations & government are trying to force through their territories. This tactic involves blocking a major road with something like logs, human bodies, trucks, overturned cop cars, or other such items, so no traffic can pass through. It has been shown to be an effective tactic.

[x] There have been many examples of this, basically any time a black bloc action has occurred, such as the toronto G20 and No-2010 anti-olympics actions. However, I think the clearest example was in the WTO protests in Seattle in 99 where white liberal middle class activists actually physically restrained young local people of color to stop them from looting stores that had been smashed and held them until the police could arrive to take them into custody. These liberals also physically blocked people from smashing windows.

In a non anarchist context, after the recent Vancouver hockey riots some people reportedly took it 10 steps further by attacking people and their homes who had been photographed at the riots, as well as tracking them down to turn into the cops. Scary shit.

[xi] On more than one occasion “WCWC offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any tree spiker in B.C. This offer still stands today” (Big Trees, Not Big Stumps: 25 years of campaigning to save wilderness with the Wilderness Committee, by Paul George). This has lead to some people referring to West Coast Wilderness Committee as WCSnitch

[xii] Marie Mason in 2009 was sentenced to 22 years after pleading guilty to arson attacks for a 1999 attack on a building at Michigan State University that caused more than US$1 million in damages, undertaken as a protest against research into genetically modified crops, as well as attacks on the property of a Mink farm owner.

Jeff (Free) Luers was initially sentenced to 22 years, 8 months in prison, but had his sentence reduced to 10 years on appeal after a large campaign to support him. He had been convicted in 2000 he set fire to three light trucks at Romania Chevrolet dealership in Eugene as a protest against excessive consumption and global warming

Also Walter Bond is currently serving 12 yrs for his 3 arsons as part of the ALF.

The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) is a United States federal law that makes it a mandatory minimum sentence for every conviction in relation to animal rights charges. So even if the defendant had gone out of their way to guarantee that no one would be hurt, their actions will be considered terrorism if they cost the corporation money through illegal means.

[xiii] In December 2003, Matin Tremblay was convicted for five counts of sexual assault against young Aboriginal teenage girls. However, he was released from custody the following year, after serving only a fraction of his three-and-a-half year sentence. Tremblay had originally been charged with 18 counts of sexual assault and administering a noxious substance to five Aboriginal girls between the ages of 13 and 15. Then 38 years old, Tremblay admitted to sexually assaulting and videotaping the girls while they were unconscious in his home. Feb 15, 2011, Tremblay was sentenced to 11 months in prison (one year minus time served) for two counts of drug-related charges. There are numerous new allegations by other young native womyn of waking up naked after her drugged them, and reportedly he often also would video tape himself sexually assaulting them while they were passed out.

There is also a history in BC (as well as other places) of native womyn going missing or being raped and/or murdered, and the police doing fuck all about it.

In the 2010 Victoria city council election a candidate named Pedro Mora admitted he had been previously convicted, after he plead guilty for the sexual assault of a 15 year old in Burnaby and he claims he served only 40 days in a “rehabilitation centre” in the Lower Mainland.

The legendary crust classic is now available once again!

We are happy to announce our next new release

WILT – “Self Titled”

Here is a track from the upcoming LP

“Sermon for the Bootlickers”