Report of the Animal Rights National Conference 2007, Los Angeles, USA

George Guimarães, president VEDDAS - Ethical Vegetarianism, Defense of Animals and Society

An event such as Animal Rights Conference - That, in five days, performed 120 lectures and offices, addition to providing access to materials over 70 entities represented there - is a rare opportunity to learn about facts and strategies that can boost our work as activists.

In addition to the lecture halls, há corridors where, circulated over 1.000 participants. In my experience this year, this was the site of greatest learning. It is here that we meet the people who are behind the speaker, and individual activists, are behind the movement.

As in all previous years, was a glorious experience to be among so many activists, from the legendary figure to that time there were few chegaram, but have amassed many achievements and difficulties overcome, people who fully commit themselves to the cause and are making a difference for animals. When we dedicate ourselves to a battle embraced by relatively few in our society, we are able to find the learning in each experience and shared history, from small to large personal dilemmas experienced by heroics comrades engaged in the same battle that we dedicate.

The question I had myself, while interacting with my colleagues from other continents, era: how to understand the current situation of the animal rights movement in the U.S.? For this, I sought to understand who are the people who are making a difference for animals and how they are dealing with the conflicts that arise as inevitable at this historic moment in the struggle for animal liberation.

In theory, I was already known to the increasing repression activists in Europe and the U.S., of which, Not Last, this organized repression materialized in the form of the AETA, a law passed last year by Congress that classifies animal rights activists as terrorists, granting authorities the same freedom of action, including violation of privacy rights and other constitutional, which is already granted when the fighting actions truly terrorists. This is a good starting point to begin to think about how they are the minds and hearts of activists in the U.S., an important consideration for us here in Brazil, that we may also, in a not too distant future, find ourselves in the same situation.

It is not uncommon for speakers approaching, sarcastically during a lecture, FBI agents in the audience. Now, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is considered by the FBI Domestic Threat number 1 (just above the Al Queda), would be naive at best to think that such an event would not be being monitored by the authorities. Stories federal agents were discovered infiltrated the movement are not uncommon. And in practice, Activists have many friends who are arrested for simply spoken against companies that exploit animals. We are referring to the prosecution and imprisonment of activists, not to have engaged in actions that could be classified as criminal acts, but the persecution of activists who are campaigning peaceful and informative against companies that profit from animal exploitation.

The climate of repression, however, does not seem to intimidate activists. The fact that some prisoners are obviously limits its presence in motion, but there is a remarkable intimidation of those who are free and active. What you see, yes, is a voltage, and this is evidenced in most everyday actions. Late at night, the mesa to the bar com Jerry Vlasak (spokesman for ALF) and other activists who take actions for greater impact, between sessions of jokes and remembering memorable moments which I did not attend, It also speaks of the new software that erases all data from the hard drive in case the password is not reported correctly. That in case the equipment is seized by authorities, what, after AETA, can happen more easily than before. Other things are not spoken, simply. Subjects that do not usually talk to colleagues temeríamos same ideal in the bar table 2 am, but it is known to others who are in trouble because an act so innocent and safe as this was being written by another alleged colleague.

On the bus that addresses a rally whose fate has not been previously reported, is not allowed to take photographs. This is because many of the activists allow themselves to participate in protests only faces covered. A few minutes after the start of protest, Police are wool, Armed with a camera that films carefully the faces of each of the activists who chose not to cover it. It seems almost impossible to make a protest in the U.S. without the presence of a lawyer. In this particular manifestation there were two, properly identified as such. In this neighborhood we can use the megaphone, not in the other. Past the time five o'clock, we must derive the volume of noise that we are doing so that it does not exceed the allowed, because the police are doing the same with your equipment. In some cities is permitted to stand in front of the residence where he lives the target of protest, already in Los Angeles protesters have to hang around the block (this specific protest visited four homes in different neighborhoods in one afternoon only).

It's a real battle technique, organized to restrict, with legal bases, the right to freedom of expression guaranteed in the Constitution of that country. And why the authorities would want to do this? Why the crackdown on a movement that does not want to conquer anything beyond what is fair? Because the work of animal rights activists in the U.S. have already conquered a force large enough to hurt the interests of powerful industries (such as pharmaceuticals and livestock) who base their activities on the farm of innocent animals.

To the extent that the tension grows in the face of repression, grows also the determination to organize and want to do more, grows sure to be fighting on the right side of the battle. Peter Young, you just serving a two years in a federal prison for being convicted of plotting to release chinchillas of different fur farms, still fulfilling the six remaining months of his year probation. And he was there to talk to other activists that the idea of ​​prison is not as bad as you think, the importance of the support he received while in prison and his plans for the future. He told me that, while in prison, did not count how many hours was fulfilling for each animal which freed: are few hours for each animal, he says they are a great sacrifice in the face of torture and misery that these animals would face if he had not released. Kevin Kjoonas, sentenced last year to six years in prison for leading an information campaign against the laboratory Huntingdon Life Sciences, who tortures and kills 500 animals every day in experiments commissioned by industry, was honored during the closing session of the event.

While activists who are living under pressure does not stop talking and fight for what they believe in., pressure seems only to. With this, we can not expect anything less than more pressure and more enforcement in the future and as it seems to be more outgoing. The animal rights movement in the U.S. and also in Europe is already configured as a true social justice movement, as indeed it always was and that we should not think that it is not, this also holds true for Brazil! The movement for animal liberation is a movement that directly affects the economic interests of the industries that dominate the economy worldwide and organized system will do anything to turn their weapons against those who seek to change the status quo.

Observe the force of the movement out of our country, evidenced by repression declared and organized to defeat him, is like looking into the future of our own local movement. We should not be naive in thinking that this will be an easier fight than were the struggles of other social movements. We want to believe that the world and society conspire to victory is our, simply because our fight is a fair fight. However, know that fights for women's rights, children, blacks and workers were also fights fair, but by no means been easy or free of sacrifices and casualties. The stories of these struggles we know, because they are written in the past and we enjoy their achievements in this.

If we want, no future, those who stand to find a better gift, we should (while activists fighting for ideals that are, in essence, common ideals of those other fights) be prepared and strengthened to fight against what is present among us and this future we desire. History proves to us that the struggle for rights always win. With regard to animal rights, is only a matter of time until victory, and the distance between now and the best time is determined by the dedication, commitment and sincerity with which each of us embraces this fight.

* Those who wish to empower themselves and become more involved with the struggle for animal rights, VEDDAS promote the National Meeting on Animal Rights 2008 - More information on the website www.veddas.org.br