>From a webpg. on communism and animal rights.
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/beasts/beast3.html
>...Radicals who scorn the notion of animal liberation have a long
tradition to draw upon. Marxist political economy adopted the
enlightenment project of the domination of nature in its entirety with
the natural world being perceived as an unlimited raw material for
industrial progress. Faced with the disastrous ecological consequences
of industrial development on the one hand, and the challenge of
radical ecological groups on the other, some communists have begun to
criticise this model. But few of them have been prepared to extend
this critique to the notion of human beings as the only creatures
worthy of consideration. To them we say: enemies of civilisation and
progress, one step further.
2.1 The secret history of animal liberation
We have our own hidden tradition to inspire us. We may not be able to turn to the 'founding fathers of communism inc.' for legitimisation, but over the centuries there have been plenty of rebels and revolutionaries who have fought for their own liberation and that of other human beings whilst also denouncing the abuse of animals.
As Colin Spencer demonstrates in The Heretic's Feast: A history of vegetarianism, arguments against eating animals have been put forward for at least as far back as written records stretch. While many have eschewed meat for health reasons, or as part of an ascetic package of self-denial and sacrifice, it has often been concern for animals that has been the key factor. In ancient Greece for instance, the Orphic mystery religion held animal sacrifice and meat eating to be equivalent to murder. Similar views were apparently held by Pythagorus and his followers. Many of the arguments still used today for and against eating animals have been rehearsed for thousands of years. For instance, the Greek writer Plutarch (AD 46-120) wrote that 'We can claim no great right over land animals which are nourished with the same food, inspire the same air, wash in and drink the same water that we do ourselves; and when they are slaughtered they make us ashamed'. He called on carnivores to try meat raw and not to 'disguise the murdered animal by the use of ten thousand sweet herbs and spices'.
Then as now, vegetarianism was not simply a dietary choice, but had wider implications in view of the social/symbolic power associated with meat: 'To change one's diet is to throw into doubt the relationship between gods, men and beasts upon which the whole politico-religious system of the city rests... To abstain from eating meat in the Greek city-state is a highly subversive act' (Detienne).
In some areas of the world, whole communities have been primarily vegetarian. This may be associated with the influence of Buddhist or Hindu ideas, but it may also be the case that religious ideas simply reflected the existing social practices. The anti-British Indian Mutiny of 1857 was sparked by British ignorance of the importance of vegetarianism. The immediate cause of the Mutiny was the refusal of Indian troops to use rifle cartridges greased with animal fat (since pig fat was used this also offended the Muslim troops).
Vegetarianism has often been associated with religious heresies, a fact adding to their persecution. Cathar heretics brought before the Emperor Henry III in 1052 were accused of having 'condemned all eating of animals, and with the agreement of everybody present he ordered them to be hanged' (cited in Spencer). In China, an 1141 edict declared: 'All vegetarian demon worshippers... shall be strangulated'.
It was amongst such heretic tendencies that radical communistic ideas often flourished, circulating amongst the poor and providing inspiration for 'millenarian' revolts. In this context the refusal of meat may have had a class dimension: 'another thing about not eating meat which gave it a social power as a spiritual message, and it was a message which was preached not only by the Cathars but by other religions which opposed Catholic orthodoxy in this period, was that meat was the food of the hunters, of the dominators, of the people who rode horses, the people who exploited the cultivators of the land, most of whose life was singularly meatless' (Moore).
During and after the English Civil War, vegetarianism was advocated by some Ranters like John Robins; by a Hackney bricklayer called Marshall who argued that it was 'unlawful to kill any creature that had life' and by Thomas Tryon, who condemned 'killing and oppressing his fellow creatures' as well as slavery, war and the treatment of the insane (Thomas).
Concern about the treatment of animals, and in some cases, vegetarianism was found amongst eighteenth century radicals like William Blake who wrote that 'Each outcry of the hunted hare/ A fibre from the brain does tear'; the atheist John Ritson; and John Oswald (1730-93), English Jacobin and author of Cry of Nature. Early in the next century the poet Shelley advocated vegetarianism in his work Queen Mab, which also denounced war and the rule of kings and commerce.
Later in the 19th century the anarchist and Paris communard Louise Michel declared 'The origin of my revolt against the powerful was my horror at the tortures inflicted on animals'. Michel's fellow Paris Communard Elisée Reclus, the anarchist communist and geographer, was a vegetarian who opposed the slaughter of animals for food.
Occasionally, opposition to animal abuse was taken up by wider sections of the working class. In Battersea, south London, there were riots on the working class Latchmere Estate in 1906 as locals defended the 'Brown Dog' anti-vivisection statue from attack by doctors and medical students.
2.2 The modern animal liberation movement <SNIP>
-- Michael Pugliese