{"id":1939,"date":"2015-01-27T19:04:59","date_gmt":"2015-01-27T18:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.simorgh.de\/objects\/?p=1939"},"modified":"2020-08-24T16:34:49","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T15:34:49","slug":"filip-about-about-animal-liberation-and-veganism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.simorgh.de\/objects\/filip-about-about-animal-liberation-and-veganism\/","title":{"rendered":"We asked Avvika’s Filip about animal liberation and veganism"},"content":{"rendered":"

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We asked Filip, guitarist of the czech-swedish vegan anarchist band Avvika, about the ethical frames of vegan intersectionality and how to politically navigate veganism as an activist praxis and tool for liberation. In the lyrics of their song “Eternal Treblinka”\u00a0Avvika speak about the correlation of totalitarian genocide and the taboo of speciesism as the totalitarian zoocide rooted in the epistemics of human hierarchical\u00a0“objectivity”.<\/p>\n

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Filip:<\/strong> Personally, veganism is an important commitment in my life. I am happy every time I see new people turning vegan and honestly a bit sad when people turning back to this way of living. As well, people like to say that \u201cit’s everyone’s choice\u201d, but is it everyone\u2019s choice to have a slave or beat their wife? I will still be on the side of the oppressed rather than fully respect the choice of somebody taking control over someone elses life. Yes, it might sound overexaggerated, but that\u2019s a problem of those who read it, not mine. That\u2019s the whole problem coming from speciesism \u2013 to see some beings as \u201cjust\u201d animals and peoples choices as a principle with higher value.<\/p>\n

Though, I find veganism as a path rather than a solution. It\u2019s a choice how to live in the place and the time I\/we live in. For me it\u2019s a way, not a goal at all. It\u2019s the least, the most passive act and basic ground of what each of us can do or choose. It\u2019s just a start within the long run for animal liberation. I consider human beings as animals too, so for me it goes hand in hand with anarchist revolution, whatever that means. Veganism is also an act of solidarity.<\/p>\n

Veganism got a bit trendy in some circles, which I can\u2019t say I am a big fan of. I think, that to realize something shall come through (self) education or more sources of information rather than from fashion. Because what happens is that people quickly become vegans without really knowing why and then they conclude that it doesn\u2019t make any sense to them, so they stop. But still I obviously welcome this trend much more than if it was trendy wearing fur, or go hunting, you know.<\/p>\n

I think it is a mistake to think that nowadays you can boycott anything by just choosing a different product. Let me show some examples of what I mean: Most known vegan milk companies are owned by the biggest dairy corporations of the world. I heard there is some (anti)social media page called something like \u201ccompassion pizza\u201d and there is list of places where you can get pizza with vegan cheese. These sellers never wanted to make a vegan restaurant or even don\u2019t care, they just realized that they can sell a bit more if they include vegan cheese to the menu, so \u201ccompassion blog\u201d actually made free advertisement to all the restaurants which mostly profit from selling meat and dairy products. That\u2019s what I find dangerous about this trend.<\/p>\n

Many people think that the choice of vegan cheese and soy cappuccino makes some change. All the food industry is a greedy monster (actually not just the food one, any industry is evil to all life). And especially so called green capitalism is a great example of how this system takes whatever comes from people who have some potential to question or critique inequalities and power structures. The system takes it, absorbs it, turns it into some product and sells it back to you. That\u2019s why capitalism is more efficient than any dictatorships. It makes almost everything possible if you can afford it and people believe that that\u2019s the freedom, just to get\u00a0higher in this competition to be able to pay for it. It’s \u201edemocracy\u201c when you can have nearly everything if you have enough money, and it\u2019s even easier if you are white and \u201cat best\u201d male. Then you have an \u201eequal way\u201c to power.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not freedom! We live in a \u201eman made hell\u201c!<\/p>\n

We created a mantra which is now much bigger than us, than any each of us. The most of people\u2019s values and relationships are capitalist ones; to see something or somebody else valuable according their social status or profit potential. The animal industry\u00a0with vivisection is just a peak of insanity and ignorance of this society. And it is a big example. I don’t believe in liberty and harmony within capitalism. Capitalism with it\u2019s own stupidity like economical competition, global \u201cfree\u201d markets, the prison system, national states, police and more and more … . All of that is not gonna change by buying vegan coffee. That\u2019s why I wouldn’t call veganism (without anticapitalist critique) as ethical.<\/p>\n

I see the way to animal liberation through abolishing \u00a0thedomestication of animals (including us people). Domestication by work, money, industry, church, alcohol, social (gender, sexual) norms, etc. All of it just creates an alienation. Yes, I know that many could oppose these opinions and say that people with these ideas can just move to the forest and shut up. But I am\u00a0talking about abolishing domestication, not hiding from it. Last, but not least, in a region where I am from, or even country (probably like in the most of Europe) there is not much natural (not man-made) forest which is not considered as private or state property where one could stay and live wildly without further repressions anyway.<\/p>\n

We have to strike back, not hide or escape!<\/p>\n

No one is free, untill all are free.<\/p>\n

GO VEGAN! GO FURTHER!<\/p>\n

Filip\/\/AVVIKA<\/p>\n

Avvika – Eternal Treblinka<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n