Saving banks, cutting
welfare, de-democratisation. The measures taken to overcome the global
economic crisis are the attempt to avert the collapse of the capitalist
economic system. Yet there is no reason to save an economic system that
is neither willing nor able to find solutions to the social and
ecological catastrophes of our time. However, the exploitation of people
and the destruction of natural foundations of life are not the only
expressions of the destructive violence of capitalist society. The
imprisonment of animals that is ever-present in our society, their
merciless exploitation and seemingly perpetual slaughter are also linked
inseparably to an economic system that is aimed solely at use and
profit. Capitalism has to be abolished, not saved, if we want to put an
end to this misery.
No hope for capitalism
The capitalist economy is
crumbling. What is portrayed as a state debt crisis is actually a real
global economic crisis, which emerged from the property and financial
crises. The measures taken to deal with it are not aimed at rescuing
national state economies, but are the attempt to prevent the collapse of
the capitalist economy itself. Banks and companies are supported to the
tune of hundreds of billions of Euros whilst many countries have been
forced to implement massive cuts to their social security systems by the
troika of the EU, IMF and the ECB. The impoverishment of large parts of
the population is knowingly taken into account to create
“competitiveness” and “credit worthiness”, which mean nothing other than
upholding the conditions of capitalist exploitation. There is no good
reason to leap to the rescue of an economic system that produces misery
on a daily basis and ignores the needs of people and animals.
The so-called saviours of
capitalism have proved that they are willing to defend the prevailing
conditions to the bitter end. Social attacks in the form of wage
reductions, privatisation and welfare cuts are all aimed at securing the
interests of finance and recasting more and more areas of life along
economic lines. These measures are accompanied by the dismantling of
workers’ rights, the expansion of the security services and the
militarisation of foreign policies, so that any resistance can be
quelled before it erupts. These policies subject all social relations to
the creed of profit-maximisation that cements the relations of violence
between humans and animals.
Fukushima, climate change, industrialised animal murder: Nature domination in capitalism
In capitalist economics,
animals, like nature in general, are merely commodities, means of
production or resources that may be exploited. The domination of nature
is the basis of human society – as humans need to produce in order to
reproduce themselves, they have always needed to alter and use nature.
But the establishment of capitalist production methods has triggered
fatal dynamics that are literally murderous. Capitalist economics
require not only competition but also permanent expansion in the form of
advancing valorisation of all natural foundations for life.
Unbridled growth therefore
necessarily results in not only social but also ecological crises.
Fukushima, the global effects of climate change and the industrialised
killing of animals are some examples of the devastating consequences of
capitalist appropriation of nature. A critique of the systematic
destruction of nature is expressed by the social struggles of
environment movements, e.g. against coal-fired power stations, or
genetic engineering. Protest movements against the privatisation of
water or against land-grabbing are also fighting for a collective and
sustainable use of nature based on need and against the
profit-orientated destruction of capital.
The destruction of nature
and with it the destruction of the basis of human society are immediate
consequences of production relations that do not serve our needs but
those of capitalist accumulation. That fact that capitalist
appropriation of nature does not follow the principles of
sustainability, conservation or care is not the result of
“environmentally unfriendly attitudes” but is actually the logical
consequence of turning nature into capital.
Factory farms, vivisection labs, slaughterhouses: Animals as victims of capitalist nature domination
Animals are the main
victims of nature domination. Considered to be nature, they are encaged
and murdered in their billions, so their labour power can be exploited
and their dead bodies exchanged as commodities. Animals are
systematically made victims of socially organised violence. Their bodies
suffer injuries en masse – in slaughterhouses, laboratories,
or on factory farms. A liberated society that really intends to overcome
all relations based on exploitation or servitude cannot ignore animals.
No victim of socially-caused violence is a legitimate one. With our
current state of productive forces – the technological and social
possibilities at our disposal – there is no need for violence against
animals.
The exploitation of animals
is legitimised backed up by a complex ideology which has come to be
known as speciesism. This means a way of thinking about animals that
results from the supposed necessity of their exploitation. A type of
false consciousness about animals, speciesism helps make the
exploitation of animals seem to be natural and unchangeable, obscuring
the historical development and social creation of the exploitation. This
obscuring of human domination of animals is expressed in various ways:
From the retort that “it’s always been this way, it can’t be changed.”,
the trivialisation of violence against animals and the playing-down of
any criticism of animal exploitation to attempts to deny animals any
consciousness, sentience or individuality. The idea that animals can be
used legitimately by people must be countered with a critique that
refutes the myths of animal exploitation. Animals are not there for
people, people have appropriated their bodies and their labour power by
force! Animals cannot be kept “humanely”, any form of exploitation –
whether in free-range or factory farms – is against their needs and
interests. It is not the meaning of animal lives to land on a plate!
Animals are not something, they are someone! Current human-animal
relations are the result of human actions and are historic. Therefore
they can also be changed by humans!
The fact that animals are
not recognised as being victim to social relations of exploitation and
domination cements their catastrophic situation. Largely ignored, the
system of industrial and institutionalized murder of animals carries on.
The slaughterhouse can be taken as a place where capitalist principles
of production are realised. Under enormous time pressure, animals are
killed almost by the second, after being fattened up to their maximum
weight. Fully technically rationalised, animals’ bodies are sectioned
and processed. Even the smallest scraps of flesh are used to generate
capital. The meat industry’s path to big business is strewn with
corpses. The human side of meat production also has its victims:
abattoir workers on minimum wages labour under precarious conditions and
at constant risk to their health. This show how humans and animals
necessarily fall victim to exploitation under the rule of capitalism.
End capitalism and animal exploitation: Together against all domination
If social relations are to
be guided by principles other than just maximising profit, all people
must be able to participate in those areas of life that concern them.
Overcoming economic relations of dependence is the basis of
participatory processes of negotiation in which the needs of animals as
well as all humans can be considered. The authoritarian politics of the
crisis regimes throughout Europe are the opposite of any sort of freer
society. Therefore it is not only necessary to show active resistance
against these world-wide de-democratizing processes, but also to fight
to regain the control over our own lives.
The immediate collectivisation of key
industries like the finance industry, housing and not least food
production is needed in order to stop the blind destruction of
capitalist exploitation interests. The expropriation of agro-companies
could be a first step to overcoming the current order in the areas of
production and distribution of food, in which property rights and profit
interests of concerns have more value than social and ecological
justice. There is no right to profit, especially when it means that
through completely destructive technologies and farming methods, people
die of hunger and animals die in abattoirs. It’s not private economic
appropriation of social wealth by companies, but the participation of
people in decision-making processes that are actually democratic that
could put an end to the daily barbarity of capitalism.
The exploitation of animals
is part of this barbarity. Criticism of animal exploitation must not
just limit itself to particular forms or areas of violence against
animals. Violence itself must be at the centre of this criticism because
there is no use of animals that doesn’t involve violence; there is no
violence that is better or worse. Anyone who really wants to fight
against animal exploitation cannot use animals for their own purposes.
Anyone who wants to act in solidarity with animals has to be vegan,
because violence against animals is not a private matter! Of course
there could still be violence against animals in a non-capitalist
society, but only that sort of society offers any basis for realising
the social project of animal liberation.
One thing is clear: single
political movements will not be able to do away with capitalism by
themselves. Social struggles can only be successful when they don’t
remain constricted to single issues, but instead aim to deprive the
various relations of domination and oppression their mutual economic
basis. The unified resistance against de-democratizing processes, as
well as the reclamation and socialisation of central areas of life is a
concrete perspective for various political movements to be able to
overcome their organisational individualisation and to follow shared
goals and strategies.
So let’s not lose any time
and create a strong resistance against the attempts to rescue an
economic system that is only geared towards exploitation and is not
based around needs. Every day in which people are in servitude, animals
are taken to the slaughterhouse and the natural resources are depleted
is barbaric in the face of the possibilities of the here and now:
Creating a society beyond the production of commodities, exploitation
and oppression.
