MICROEDITORIALS

ROLAND VINCENT
Special Editor, Ecoanimal & Socialism Questions

Except for token measures, expect no real relief for animals from the GOP.

Animal Rights is ALL about politics!

Just as slavery was all about politics!

The same political, social,  religious and economic issues drove slavery as now drive animal exploitation. Slavery was defended as commanded by God from pulpits across the country. It was defended by Conservatives (then the Democrats) in state legislatures in the North and South. Powerful agricultural interests predicted economic collapse is slavery were to be abolished!

It is absurd to suggest that slavery would have been defeated by ignoring politics! It took politics, riots and war —with the clash of massive armies—to bring an end to slavery.

It will require more to establish Animal Rights!

Animal Rights is not compatible with politics as usual. We cannot  bring about Animal Rights by supporting this Democrat or that Republican!  Ridiculously unimportant issues cannot drive our votes or divert our attention.

Stunned hog on the conveyor of death. Who gave us the right? 

Animal Rights will require the end of capitalism as we know it. Hardly a conservative position! You won’t  find a single Republican who will agree! Nor will most Democrats. But those that will agree are ALL radicals and liberals!

Both Democrats and Republicans can be sell-outs to corporate lobbyists and their bagmen. The difference between the Democratic and Republican parties is simple: Republicans don’t have Liberals!*

And you don’t think Animal Rights is a political issue? If you vote for a Republican you are placing an enemy of animals in a position of power over them! You may be doing the same voting Democrat, but there is an excellent chance you will not be! Read on.

For several years I have made it my mission to expose Conservative legislators for the enemies of animals that they are.
The task is not difficult. Their record of acting as enablers and apologists for the animal exploitation industries is public.
Conservative legislators are the mouthpieces for Big Ag, Big Pharma, and Big Oil, which murder billions of animals each year.

Democrat leadership: not the answer

Curiously, there are animal activists who consider themselves to be Conservatives. They may be Conservatives for any number of reasons: Don’t like to pay taxes? Don’t like people of color? Don’t like gay people? Want to carry their guns around? Don’t like abortion? Etc?

Whatever the reasons, they are more important to them than are the animals, because the party and politicians they support are working to hurt animals and to protect those who hurt animals.

A common retort I hear when pointing out these truths, is that Democrats do it, too. And that is their defense? Others are equally reprehensible?

Democrats can be as heartless as Republicans, true.
But Democrats have Liberals, whereas the Republican Party does not.

And it is Liberals, at least those on the Far Left, the real left, who are most likely to oppose business influence in government, business money in politics, business control of regulatory agencies, and business profiting on the exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals.

The Democratic Party is not the answer for animals.
The Left Wing of the Democratic Party —and the Left, in general—is the answer.

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* Broadly understood, meaning people who genuinely abhor conservative positions.

OpEds

By Roland Windsor Vincent
Editor, Eco-Socialism, The Environment, and Animal Rights

There are no shortages of pundits and prognosticators with opinions on the future of mankind.
Most focus on technology and scientific breakthroughs in manufacturing, communications, transportation, and energy production.
I am not a futurist, and have no credentials except those of an historian. My observations and speculations are made from an historical perspective and logically follow from recent and current political, social, and economic trends.
That said, I believe they are as valid as any and more valid than most.
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My basic premise is that humanity will act too little and too late to avert the catastrophe of global warming (and its natural and much fiercer continuation, global heating). The usual head-in-the-sand reaction of governments and their leaders is being further exacerbated by capitalists and their climate denying puppets.
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Nature will deliver a very severe blow to the human race.

The parade of horribles has been well publicized: melting polar regions, rising ocean levels, inundated coasts, desertification, deforestation, warming seas, massive extinctions, devastated societal infrastructures, blighted agricultural areas, crop failures, economic crises, and possibly economic collapse.

Not optimistic prospects.

The good news is that none of us will be alive to witness the damage.

The bad news is that our grandkids will be.

Up to this point, my speculations do not markedly differ from those of most pessimistic climatologists.

Looking beyond the disasters I perceive a silver lining.

In the wake of radical depopulation, mankind will have the opportunity to reinvent civilization.

The tools of communication, energy, transportation, and archived knowledge will be available.

And the political will to reshape the economic and political landscapes will be profound. The scourge of human-caused climate disasters will be laid at the feet of capitalism.

It’s quite possible that the world will see small regional socialist societies coalescing into larger and more structured ones, likely in response to the need to eliminate pockets of fascism and corporate power.

The dystopian Brave New World (apologies to Huxley) which will emerge from the rubble will be one that could embrace human and animal rights, ecosocialism, and freedom for all.

And the irony of it being brought about by corporate greed will be lost on dead Capitalists and dead Conservatives.

ROLAND VINCENT, an attorney, political strategist, and former stockbroker, is an animal liberationist and social justice activist. He is dedicated to formulating and advancing tactics and strategies that make sense in a complex and distracted world.  He currently serves as The Greanville Post’s Special Editor for Animal Rights, the Environment, and Socialism. 

By  Roland Windsor Vincent
Editor, Eco-Socialism, the Environment, and Animal Rights

A protest against seal slaughter organized by Friends of Animals (FoA). The organization was founded by Alice Herrington who, like most of her generation and social class, was basically clueless and indifferent about the political roots of animal exploitation. Unfortunately, the next generation has not proved a marked improvement in that regard.

_The paucity of involvement by animal activists in the political arena, in general, and in the politics of the real Left, in particular, is explainable if not excusable.

Early animal activists were mostly comfortable suburbanites, the products of middle class backgrounds and Conservative political philosophy.  Their experience in political struggles was virtually non-existent, and certainly did not extend to radical social issues of the day, ie, civil rights, integration, and voting rights.

In seeking political support to end the more egregious abuses of animals with which they became familiar, they turned to those with whom they were familiar, their Conservative elected officials. The issues that primarily concerned those early activists regarded dogs, cats, and vivisection of laboratory animals.

It should have been immediately apparent to those early activists that they were imploring the enemy for help. Of course, they had no clue.

Even then Conservative politicians were firmly in the grasp of Big Pharm and the medical lobby, and concerns about abuse and torture of animals in medical research fell upon deaf ears. Activists were placated with lip service about stray dogs and cats, and they went away feeling they had impacted those in positions to help.

No such help was ever received. Then, the enactment of the Animal Protection Act in 1966, engineered by Republican Robert Dole and signed into law by Democrat Lyndon Johnson, convinced the rather naive activists that animal issues transcended partisan political agendas, and that the plights of animals, and the solutions to those plights were totally apolitical or at least non-partisan.

Almost 50 years later the damage done by that misguided notion is only beginning to be recognized.

Since those early years of the animal movement the country has come under the growing influence of Big Business, Wall Street, the Banks, Big Oil, and Big Agriculture. Their power is based upon the politicians whose campaigns they finance and upon whom they bestow contributions and gifts. They are rewarded with the passage of legislation they favor and with the appointments of industry insiders and lobbyists to position of authority in agencies regulating those very industries. The result is as predictable as it is pernicious: Industries are running the government, at least insofar as legislation and regulatory oversight is concerned.

And it is just that legislation and oversight which operates against the interests of animals where they conflict with the interests of business.

The result is Big Oil destroying wildlife habitats, Big Pharm is killing millions of laboratory animals each year, Big Ag is opposing any relief to the suffering of animals trapped in the food system, Conservative politicians are defending puppy mills, circuses, and aquatic parks, etc, as free enterprise.

Even with the mountain of evidence that Conservative politicians are the mouthpieces for business, apologists for the exploitation of animals, and defenders of animal cruelty, there are still animal activists who refuse to look at the evidence and who defend the Conservatives’ records.

Fortunately, those activists are advancing in years and giving way to a younger, more politically astute crop of animal defenders and movement leaders.

This next generation of activists is better educated, more Liberal,
familiar with history, and possessed of worldviews that embrace universal rights and the struggle for both human and animal liberation.

The Animal Rights moment has its dinosaurs. They are older, politically unsophisticated, philosophically adrift, and clutching feverishly to the notion that somehow Republicans and Conservative Democrats share their interests. They have to believe it, lest their whole world crumbles around them.

They will have been proven to have been wrong for the entirety of their lives.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Roland Windsor Vincent is an Animal Rights activist, political strategist, attorney, public speaker, and writer. He is now TGP’s Special Editor for Socialism, Environment & Animal Rights.

Friend him on Facebook: www.facebook.com/RolandWindsorVincent
Follow his blog:
www.ArmoryOfTheRevolution.com

By Roland Windsor Vincent
Editor, Eco-Socialism, The Environment, and Animal Rights
The cause is urgent, but it’s a long journey

A raccoon dog, recently skinned alive for his fur. This is still regarded as legitimate and normal around much of the world, and the fur trade enjoys the status of a legitimate commercial occupation. Isaac Bashevis Singer was right in saying that, in a world dominated by humans, “each day was a Treblinka for the animals.”

_Reaction to my contention that Animal Rights will only be won through Socialist revolution has been mixed, but much more positive than I had expected.

This is indicative of either a growing sophistication of Animal Rights activists or that the ranks of activists are swelling with those possessed of political acumen. Making my assertions even a few years ago would have elicited far different comments.

Negative criticism was dwarfed by positive responses, although that is hardly a scientific measure. Of the negative remarks a common theme emerged: Current and recent Socialist societies were as brutal to animals as any Capitalist ones, the logical conclusion then drawn being that the problem is people, or technology, or civilization, or something other than an economic system.

This is also the general rationale proffered by those Animal Rights activists who choose to remain apolitical. The usual canned response is that there is no difference between Liberals and Conservatives on animal issues.

I believe Socialism to be the only economic system that has a chance of embracing Animal Rights. And that is because Socialism offers no incentives to exploit, enslave, or murder animals. Unlike Capitalism, Socialism embraces a moral worldview. A moral compass suggests that the potential to extend compassion to animals is much more likely under Socialism than it would be under a system which is amoral to its core.

Those on the political Left have championed every advance in education, in democracy and freedom, in human rights. They have fought for the poor, the disenfranchised, and the exploited. In opposition to them on all these concerns have been Conservatives, who always defend the status quo.

The Liberals of 200 years ago fought against slavery but they were not ready to embrace racial equality. One planning on ending segregation would have found little support for the idea amongst 19th Century Liberals. But it is quite obvious that Liberals would have been the target audience for integration long before they embraced the cause, as it was a position naturally growing out of their social worldview.

Similarly, while it is true that today’s Socialists and Liberals have abysmal records on animal issues, we should not extrapolate those positions into the future. They are much more likely to embrace Animal Rights in the future than are Conservatives.

Evolving standards of decency, senses of compassion, and perceptions of justice all drive society to embrace an expanding circle of concerns about oppression, inequities, intolerance and exploitation.

Over time, the entire body politic moves ever to the Left. Today’s Conservatives are more Liberal than were the Liberals who ended slavery. Tomorrow’s Conservatives will be Left of today’s Liberals.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Roland Windsor Vincent is an Animal Rights activist, political strategist, attorney, public speaker, and writer. He is now TGP’s Special Editor for Socialism, Environment & Animal Rights.

Friend him on Facebook: www.facebook.com/RolandWindsorVincent
Follow his blog:
www.ArmoryOfTheRevolution.com