On Saturday 25th April, over two thousand anti-vivisectionists marched through London to mark World Day for Animals in Laboratories as part of a Week of Action. The day is an internationally recognised, UN sanctioned event for reflection and remembrance of the countless millions of animals that suffer and die in vivisection laboratories around the world each year in the name of science.
The march was organised to call for an end to vivisection both in the UK and elsewhere, in response to Labour’s abandoned pre-election promise for an official inquiry into animal experimentation. It has been over 15 years since the anti-vivisection movement marched in London to mark World Day, successfully uniting, mobilising and attracting new activists to the movement. Campaigners in attendance included Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), SPEAK Campaigns, Stop Wickham Animal Testing (SWAT), vpsg.org">prisoner support groups, as well as Animal Liberation Front (ALF) supporters and green anarchists.
Pictures: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Fitwatching | Videos: 1 | 2 | 3 | Speeches: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Highlights | World Week Reports: Hull | Sheffield | Carlisle | Birmingham | Oxford | Nottingham | Sweden | Finland | London: 1 | 2 | USA: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Chile: 1 | 2 | Videos: 1 | 2 | 3
Months of planning and discussion had gone into staging the event, both at grassroots level and discussion at the ARC meetings, a forum set up to allow better dialogue between the various groups which have dedicated themselves to Animal Liberation. The overall attendance reflected this hard work, showing a movement that many had thought to be in decline following recent high profile arrests and imprisonments to be as strong and united as ever, both in numbers and resolve.
By midday, thousands of activists had gathered at the designated meeting point in Hyde Park, where a series of speeches set the tone for the rally which included Keith Mann, author of From Dusk til Dawn. Keith talked of the clamp down on legal protest, the imprisonment of 20 campaigners and the need to respect the activists. Furthermore, working to unite the struggle with those affected by vivisection who have been fed media lies, whilst looking at the bigger picture; that government are deliberately destroying the planet and life on it. (1 | 2)
A good mixture of new and seasoned activists took the opportunity to build new links and friendships, and strengthen existing bonds. The sunshine on the day ensured a buoyant mood despite the understandable anger and frustration which was targeted at all those involved with vivisection and animal exploitation. By the end of the march, the Met confirmed that not a single arrest or incident had occured throughout the entire day, negating the necessity they felt to line each side of the march with baton-armed officers and the ever intrusive Forward Intelligence Team (FIT) squads
At approximately 2pm the demonstrators began to line up near to the memorial in Hyde Park for animals killed by war and set off behind a banner proclaiming “No more torture, no more lies!”. The flow of people filing around the corner stretched as far as the eye could see and drums, whistles and megaphones kept a steadily chanting crowd moving along as one. The police, clearly nervous at first were later seen reading campaign leaflets given to them by protestors and discussing animal rights issues amongst themselves. As the protest filtered through towards the city centre, the numbers were swelled by unconnected passers by who spontaneously joined the march in a show of disgust with the practice of vivisection.
Rounding the corner into Trafalgar Square, a call went out from the front of the demonstration for silence which, owing to the length of the procession, took several minutes to filter through to the back. There was then a moment of quiet refelection and a slow, sombre march which emphasised the serious nature of the event and horrific atrocities commited in the name of science. This presented an eerie sight to the tourists and residents of this part of London, no doubt used to reading in the mainstream press stories of undisciplined, foaming at the mouth anarchists who only ever campaign using violence and threats. The positive, focused attitude and approachability of everyone involved in the march was fundamentally important in showing the true face of animal activism, and thousands of unconnected people will have left the city with an enlightened understanding of why opposing vivisection is such a huge issue for so many. As the crowd left the square, a huge spontaneous cheer and round of applause broke out amongst both the activists and the watching public, showing that attitudes can change and the time is right for these issues to take centre stage once more.
After a short but noisy walk through one of the busiest streets on Earth, the demonstrators then began to slowly file into the location for the rally, ironically held in front of the boarded up Ministry for Agriculture and Fisheries building. Food was available for a donation towards costs by the renowned Nottingham based Veggies Catering Campaign, who were more than happy to share the street with two superb new vegan catering collectives, Fair Foods and Green Garden Cafe.
After a pause for reflection and refreshments, another set of speeches began in earnest:
Caroline Lucas, Green Party leader and MEP, was the first speaker at the rally, hitting out at the Labour government for reneging on their pre-election promise to hold a full review of testing on animals in the UK, and pointed out the fallacy of vivisection as a scientific practice.
Daniel, an anti-vivisection activist from Sweden, spoke of his experiences going undercover in three animal experimentation laboratories in Stockholm.
John Carmody, founder of the Irish group Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN), spoke of ARAN’s recent successes in staging publicity stunts to attract the mainstream media, thereby bringing the cause to the attention of thousands of people who wouldn’t otherwise take any notice.
Richard Deboo spoke of his political party Animals Count, and reminded us that Parliament belongs to us, and the power to bring about a change in policy also belongs to us.
Debbie, an activist from Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), stressed the need to keep up the pressure on Huntingdon Life Sciences and their suppliers and clients, and reminded us that vivisection has resulted in the deaths of many humans as well as many non-human animals.
Finally the compere of the rally said that the anti-vivisection movement had three fronts to campaign on; ethical, scientific and legal, and that the legal side was likely to throw up some unpleasant results for animal experimenters, and sooner than they expect. He gave some careers advice for people currently working in vivisection labs. Joking that there was a shortage of plumbers at the moment, he advised them to leave their current jobs and either become plumbers or retrain and start doing some real science.
Related Features: SHAC Shakedown City Investors | Top HLS Investors Dump Shares | HLS Exposed – Yet Again! SHAC To Shakedown Financial Investors In The City | 50 Years For The UK SHAC 7 | Anti-vivisection campaigners convicted of blackmail | Solidarity For Political Prisoner Sean Kirtley | Carnival Against Vivisection | Largest HLS Investor Dumps All Shares | SHAC Prepares For National March & Rally
Related Newswires: Animal Liberation | SHAC | Stop Sequani Animal Testing
|
Report is looking good, sums up the day well. I moved a paragraph around to create a two paragraph summary (with the picture as the end of the summary) – leaving the rest of the report as it is. Made a couple of edits to the summary though, and added related feature/newswires. Looks good to go :) |
|
|
…after you finish the report ;) |
|
|
hehe Cool. I’m always doing that! I tend t set up a blank page early so I can get a preview of how it will look in the Mir stylesheet but being knackered I ticked UK by mistake. How embarrasing. I think I’ve got a better picture of G with the alf flag and two FIT’s peering over his shoulder. I’ll try and dig it out. I was helping out with Veggies at the back when the speeches were going on so I missed them. Any chance of doing a summary? |
|
|
OK or we could nick some of this from the picture 5 link and reword it. Sure he won’t mind :-) Caroline Lucas, Green Party leader and MEP, was the first speaker at the rally, hitting out at the Labour government for reneging on their pre-election promise to hold a full review of testing on animals in the UK, and pointed out the fallacy of vivisection as a scientific practice. www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlYaUUwxWTU Daniel, an anti-vivisection activist from Sweden, spoke of his experiences going undercover in three animal experimentation laboratories in Stockholm. www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbhAF-6dLL4 John Carmody, founder of the Irish group Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN), spoke of ARAN’s recent successes in staging publicity stunts to attract the mainstream media, thereby bringing the cause to the attention of thousands of people who wouldn’t otherwise take any notice. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NTwzTg2O6c Richard Deboo spoke of his political party Animals Count, and reminded us that Parliament belongs to us, and the power to bring about a change in policy also belongs to us. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGbCeFEMDqw Debbie, an activist from Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), stressed the need to keep up the pressure on Huntingdon Life Sciences and their suppliers and clients, and reminded us that vivisection has resulted in the deaths of many humans as well as many non-human animals. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7imQZEYBPyw Finally the compere of the rally said that the anti-vivisection movement had three fronts to campaign on; ethical, scientific and legal, and that the legal side was likely to throw up some unpleasant results for animal experimenters, and sooner than they expect. He gave some careers advice for people currently working in vivisection labs. Joking that there was a shortage of plumbers at the moment, he advised them to leave their current jobs and either become plumbers or retrain and start doing some real science. www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBnlv-uDFrY |
|
|
Another pic of the ALF flag in front of FIT would be TOP! The above is ideal…can’t say I was there for the speeches, not a big fan of ’em myself (would of liked to heard the 2nd and 5th I realise now though!) That’s what youtube’s there for though! Just adding in another video link so I’ll put in the speeches summaries, including the youtube links into the text. PS; check the scuttling article, have included an extra paragraph (not sure if you realised but its a documentary series that’s starting ‘tonight’, not just a one off!) |
|
|
image 428612 to put in the header has been resized to 160 :-) Plus we need to put in a mention for the caterers at the rally. I can get on and do this first thing in the morning. Got to get some sleep now though as I’m up for work again in an hour and a half. |
|
|
Do you mean the speak banner as the thumbnail, as I was thinking the first pic would be best for this, so as to not divert attention towards one campaign or another? Or maybe this picture perhaps? Features the banner a bit better. By the way, I changed the shac/speak pics around (as there are more activists behind the shac banner to be honest) and will try and get a bit more detail on the 2nd speech, as it’s looking a bit brief atm. Sorry that I helped to keep you up, I know how you feel, although I have work in a few hours yet :-) |
|
|
Rounding the corner into Trafalgar Square, a call went out from the front of the demonstration for silence which, owing to the length of the procession, took several minutes to filter through to the back. There was then a moment of quiet refelection and a slow, sombre march which emphasised the serious nature of the event and horrific atrocities commited in the name of science. This presented an eerie sight to the tourists and residents of this part of London, no doubt used to reading in the mainstream press stories of undisciplined, foaming at the mouth anarchists who only ever campaign using violence and threats. The positive, focused attitude and approachability of everyone involved in the march was fundamentally important in showing the true face of animal activism, and thousands of unconnected people will have left the city with an enlightened understanding of why opposing vivisection is such a huge issue for so many. As the crowd left the square, a huge spontaneous cheer and round of applause broke out amongst both the activists and the watching public, showing that attitudes can change and the time is right for these issues to take centre stage once more. |
|
|
Go to bed already! :p |
|
|
After a short but noisy walk through one of the busiest streets on earth, the demonstrators then began to slowly file into the location for the rally, ironically held in front of the boarded up Ministry for Agriculture and Fisheries building. Food was available for a donation towards costs by the renowned Nottingham based Veggies Catering Campaign, who were more than happy to share the street with two superb new vegan catering collectives, Fair Foods and Green Garden Cafe. After a pause for reflection and refreshments, the speeches began in earnest: |
|
|
Sorry, am doing minor edits, I must be quite annoying I realise… FYI: Changed a sentence minorly in your report; “following recent high profile arrests” to include “and imprisonments”, as well as FIT to Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT), as not all ARA’s will recognise what this means. |
|
|
ok if we can get this in in next 10 mins I’ll put it up live and we can prettify it a bit tomorrow. This is good enough to go I reckon (then I can sleep lol) |
|
|
Sounds good to be :) Top job. |
|
|
cool. Done. You are a fooking star! I’m too tired to resize another pic for now so I’m going to go with the speak one and then change it to your suggestion tomorrow or dig out another one (I got about 500 pictures and only published 80 so far :-) if that’s cool? Definately were more people behind the SHAC banner lol |
|
|
Seems cool, got no problem with picture flicking to draw more attention to the article lol. I’m a star? Didn’t really do much – congrats on the report though looks great. |
|
|
Ok it’s up now so just a case of waiting for the mirrors to sync and it’ll be up. Sllllleeeeeeeeeeeepppppppppppp!!!!!!!!! haven’t actually slept since I got back you see :-) catch you tomorrow hopefully and I’ll help with Whalers. |
|
|
Nice one! Not slept since Saturday though? Nasty!! Will talk tomorrow on the scuttling feature :) |
|
|
PS – When you edit the broken thumbnail link, tick the health & SHAC topic if you can :) I’m sure the SHAC pic/speech is more than enough for it to go in there. Again – nice one! |
|
|
Lastly, the link to ‘prisoner support groups’ was incorrect (missing the "> at the end) – so it isn’t showing and breaks the ALF link as well. I corrected it above and now looks broken on here, but should work if edited in on Indymedia? Seems a bit strange.. |
|
|
Brief foray into world of awakeness and have fixed them directly so the mirrors should sync in next 5 mins, I plead sleep deprivation your honour :-) zzzzzzzzzzzzz |
|
|
extra pic link (no.6) – also, this might seem petty, but earth should be Earth ;) |
|
|
extra vid link (no.2) – changed the 2nd to 3rd as it is only short a bit poor. |
|
|
extra pic link (fitwatching) – always good to see! |
|
|
report links added (london + chile) |
|
|
report link added (oxford) |
|
|
more usa report links & london action hope you’ve got the time to update the summary :) |
|
|
*speech links added (keith mann part 1 + 2). hope this can be sorted! |
|
|
added in the nyc videos (missed them before i think) and changed the layout a bit so it reads a bit better i think. |
|
|
cool. I’m not at my computer tonight but will get on it tomorrow. Well done! Fantastic contribution! I’m going to be putting a new feature proposal in after the weekend about the success of the cruise anti fur campaign if you’d like to help with that. Covered it last month just before the arc meeting and after it yen’t up on the site the company have backed down and introduced a fur free policy. Reckon it could be really inspiring for other grass roots campaigns and we could link in other similar successes, talk about the significance and there is quite a bit of footage i have still from the bristol anti cruise campaign that i have on my computer but didn’t use in my two initial reports. You in? By the way i’ve mentioned to chris about this group and will let wietse and pat know when i next speak to them. Jimdog* |
|
|
Yeh I’m definitely up for that! I’m away for the weekend and back monday evening/tuesday so will help out when back. Feel free to start it off though if I’m back a bit late, I’ll just try and put in a few final touches for you if so. You’re right though, it’s always inspiring when grassroots campaigns get victories. Also, most activists don’t realise they’re part of a wider campaign across the country so will be a good feature for all, along with previous victories etc. I sent invities to chris and wietse so they might realise soon, but mentioning will probably help as well :) All the best, Shactivist. |
|
