The Animal Rights movement is the most ambitious movement in history.

Ambitious because it seeks to change the very character of the human race.
It seeks to end thousands of years of human self-interest, bigotry, cruelty and indifference.
It offers humanity redemption not contemplated by any religion.
It proposes human liberation as well as animal liberation.
It rejects religious myth, intolerance, and superstition.
It provides the human race with a vision of sharing the Earth rather than destroying it and our fellow Earthlings.

And our opposition is most of humanity. The odds against us are long at best

Those who believe animals should have the same rights to life and freedom from explitation as we humans claim for ourselves are a distinct minority.

And we are not growing as fast as the human population is increasing.

Which means we are losing.

Our current efforts are doomed to failure. For every vegan we convert, two or three children are born to carnists.

Clearly, a new paradigm is in order. A radical departure from one-on-one proselytizing is necessary if the Animal Rights movement is to ever succeed. That new paradigm must be coalition building, outreach, and partnerships with allies on the Left. We must amplify our influence, secure political power and build philosophically based alliances.

We begin with single issue campaigns. Narrowly focused tools to reach those with whom we have a modicum of commonality. Single issue campaigns are the building blocks of alliances, coalitions, and majorities.

Unfortunately there are those in the movement who reject single issue campaigns. The anti-speciesists (they call themselves Abolitionists – as if all of us are not) consider single issue campaigns to promote speciesism. They reject campaigns against whaling, sealing, horse slaughter, dog-eating, bullfighting, elephant poaching, etc, as somehow denigrating the plight of cattle, pigs and chickens who die in the slaughter industry.

Incredibly, they also reject any effort to alleviate the suffering of slaughter-bound animals as taking away from efforts to end slaughter. The sheer idiocy of such a position is realized when one understands the enormity of the Animal Holocaust and that it will not end until the financial incentives that drive it are eliminated: Profits. And profits won’t end until the Capitalist system ends, decades or centuries in the future.

Those who call themselves Abolitionists are the biggest impediment we face. They are fighting against what others in the movement are doing. They are likely sincere, but are politically and organizationally unsophisticated. And their philosophical grasp on Animal Rights is tenuous.

While we call ourselves the Animal Rights movement, almost nothing we do addresses Animal Rights. We are all animal welfarists and protectionists, from rescuing dogs to liberating mink, hunt sabateuring to disrupting whaling, protesting, emailing, demonstrating – All is animal welfare.

Animal Rights will only occur when government bans animal exploitation and murder, animal consumption and profits.

And that government will be a Socialist government, built by a coalition of Leftists, including the Animal Rights movement.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Roland Vincent is an animal rights and social justice activist. He studies possible tactics and strategies that could help the animal defense movement.