Chapter Sections
1. Introduction
2. Campaigning
3. Civil Disobedience
4. Direct Action
5. Action Planning
6. Lobbying
7. Picketing
8. Starting a Group
9. Publicity
10. Leafleting
11. News Media
12. Internet
How to Do Animal Rights - and Win the War on Animals
"So the point isn't to have a victory over somebody else but rather to effect change. And change is a lot more rapid and a lot more enduring if you get the cooperation of what would otherwise be your adversary." Henry Spira (1)
What Is Civil Disobedience
Civil disobedience usually entails non-violent actions, such as marches, demonstrations, strikes, sit-ins or occupation of buildings. Civil disobedience is a form of protest. The reason for being a civil resister or dissenter is to act on your moral right and correct an injustice you perceive. Your are trying to reverse or stop some process or make an appeal to correct or revoke a law. You are a dissenter every time you deliberately disobey the law or a demand by government, believing that your action is just and the law or government is unfair or harmful.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), American philosopher, naturalist and writer, is often cited as articulating the belief that people have a duty not to take part in a perceived injustice and to resist any government or its agent forcing people to participate. Thoreau based his claim on his assertion that it is the citizen who grants the state its authority and the citizen can oppose unjust authority if compelled by conscience.
Among the biggest and best known practitioners of civil disobedience are the Indian Mohandas Gandhi (1869 - 1948) and the American civil-rights leader Martin Luther King jr (1929 - 1968). Gandhi practised civil disobedience as a weapon in his struggle for independence for India from British rule. King fought peacefully for black-American civil rights. Both men were beaten and jailed - even non-violent acts of civil disobedience risk retaliation and verbal or physical attack by opponents, beatings by police, and arrest and imprisonment - but attracted huge numbers of supporters and co-civil rights rebels.
Gandhi outlined some key rules when carrying out civil disobedience that give the flavour of this form of campaigning:
Dissenters from all kinds of background, including suffragists, feminists, anti-war demonstrators and nuclear bomb protesters, have engaged in civil disobedience. Among the animal rights issues attracting civil disobedience actions are:
Hunt Sabbing
Hunt saboteurs are a good example of animal rights civil disobedience. Hunt sabotage began in 1960's Britain and was the first methodical non-violent action to confront organised hunting of animals for sport. The hunt saboteurs (or 'sabs') engaged hunters with hounds (or 'hunts'). The job of the sabs was to make hunting impractical by delaying or confusing the hounds to give the quarry (usually foxes and sometimes deer) a chance to escape. Two sab techniques are blowing hunting horns and covering a quarry's sent with pungent sprays to mislead the hounds.
Sabs were not kindly tolerated by the hunts. Hunts reacted to sabotage by employing private security firms and their own supporters to take on the sabs, sometimes violently. Police at hunts became a common sight and policing and public order problems emerged. Police sometimes pretended not to notice when hunts attacked sabs, possibly partly because they were unsure of what powers hunts could legally use. The Conservative government, numbering many hunters in their membership, also came down on the sabs by enacting laws specifically obstructing sab action. The sabs replied by disobeying the laws in the field and disputing them the courts. Eventually, a sympathetic (Labour) government pushed through an Act of Parliament banning hunting with dogs. The sabs had pulled through and won. Even so, the hunts continue to engage in superficially outwardly legal activities and the hunt sabs continue to engage them.
Arguments For & Against Civil Disobedience
Some people have certain misconceptions and criticisms of civil disobedience. Here are some of the claims and counter claims.
Democracy
(1) Spira, Henry. The Vegan.com Interview, by Erik Marcus. 1998. (Accessed March 2007.)
| How to Do Animal Rights - and Win the War on Animals. © Roger (Ben) Panaman, April 2008. All rights reserved. |