Losers indeed, at the weekend we had the pitiful site of Lynn Sawyer now having to attend Hunt meetings to try and get some supporters now that SHAC is being increasingly ignored by people who care about animal welfare rather than getting their pictures and write-ups in the media.
Lynn made a general nuisance of herself until some copper took pity on her and arrested her before she was too much of an irritation with her constant whinning about SHAC and how she was hard done by. Other animal rights activists were happy to see her gone. The situation for Lynn got somewhat worse when her stroppy, "I know my rights" act was of course ignored by the cops and security at the local station, they offered her a quick process and release but her whinning annoyed the custody suite officer so much he banged her up for six hours until she stopped bleating.
As SHAC disintigrates and previous supporters come to terms with its betrayal of their hopes, wishes and money only the unimportant dreggs of the organisation now remain and have rapidly become a sideshow.
I don't think that Lyn Sawyer really matters much these days. Most of the hardcore shac/alf people thought she was always more interested in the publicity rather than the cause anyway.
shac has now more or less disintegrated since the recent jailings. Those involved didn't realise just how much evidence the police had until they got to court and now that a lot of supporters realised where their money was going funding is drying up.
An interesting comment to an Indymedia post here by long time shac activist Alan Forrest, the irony is that some thought that Forrest himself was a police informer.
START QUOTE
" SHAC was infiltrated by a number of people who were either linked to or in the direct employ of the police. The arrests and prosecutions were a result of this. The guilty pleas were because those arrested were overwhelmed by the details the police had about us, operations, financing and future plans. There are still some who are involved with SHAC at the highest level who I am absolutely convinced are grasses for the police. They will get theirs one day.
Some individuals are still away with the faryies trying to maintain that everything is fine, SHAC is getting stronger, HLS is collapsing blah blah blah but in reality SHAC is a spent force as far as UK animal rights are concerned. The money has nearly all gone, the leadership is in prison and only a small rump remains.
I hope one day we can rebuild but it is time to face reality. If some individuals think that the way to achieve this is post after post to Indymedia making comments that are so far detached from reality I question their sanity then so be it. I for one am finished. SHAC was seven years of my life and I am bitter about how the money was spent and how little we achieved with the goodwill and support we had at one point. I will work for the cause of animal rights back how I started with sabbing but SHAC and I have parted ways for ever.
Some people, including those who are contributors to Indymedia and other places need to remember we started this to prevent animal suffering and to change the attitudes of the wider public about the issue. Personal financial gain and building a media profile were not in the plan. "
END QUOTE
This seems to confirm what others in SHAC have been saying, that all the money that had been raised has now gone. When we remember just how big a war chest SHAC had at one point I wonder if some SHAC people are questioning where all that money has gone ? I doubt if even all of the car hire and hotel bills could have accounted for everything.
Does anybody know more about Mr Forrest? (Is he the farmer-hating nutter who lives almost behind the Engineer pub in Henlow?) Some of what he calls "sabbing" has involved disabled anglers being beaten with metal bars, so it's not harmless or lawful, even if it's not a government priority to stop it.
Ronnie Lee started off as a Sab, in Luton, so it may be that Mr Forrest is actually "The Founder's" eyes and ears in SHAC.
(They probably can't stand the thought of money outside their control, Medawar has seen ALF-junkie types loitering near Gillian Langley's house, which is on an unadopted lane on the very edge of Hitchin, so they can't have been there by accident. The charity she runs, the Dr Hadwen Trust, may be a bit deluded, but it has money and that money should be spent on the charity's objectives and not looted by ALF fanatics.)
As I understand it Alan Forrest was involved with shac right from the start, he was a teacher in London but quit to work full time for shac, it cost him his marriage and his relationship with his sister who at one point even claimed he was dead.
Forrest was one of those who unlike the senior leadership made a big financial sacrifice to work full time for shac. What made him further different to the rest was his unwillingness to be involved in anything illegal, he is a committed pacifist and it was this wish to see all shac campaigns have an ethical element that made some within the ALF think him a police informer. He is I think a reflection of the grass root element of shac that want to see an end to all vivisection but understand that violence, intimidation and the rest is not the way to achieve it.
His experiences with shac were at one stage documented on Indymedia Oxford but this post has since been removed, I have been unable to find it again.
He has now left the UK and is in France staying with old university friends. I doubt we will see him back in the AR scene anytime soon.
5 comments:
Losers indeed, at the weekend we had the pitiful site of Lynn Sawyer now having to attend Hunt meetings to try and get some supporters now that SHAC is being increasingly ignored by people who care about animal welfare rather than getting their pictures and write-ups in the media.
Lynn made a general nuisance of herself until some copper took pity on her and arrested her before she was too much of an irritation with her constant whinning about SHAC and how she was hard done by. Other animal rights activists were happy to see her gone. The situation for Lynn got somewhat worse when her stroppy, "I know my rights" act was of course ignored by the cops and security at the local station, they offered her a quick process and release but her whinning annoyed the custody suite officer so much he banged her up for six hours until she stopped bleating.
As SHAC disintigrates and previous supporters come to terms with its betrayal of their hopes, wishes and money only the unimportant dreggs of the organisation now remain and have rapidly become a sideshow.
I don't think that Lyn Sawyer really matters much these days. Most of the hardcore shac/alf people thought she was always more interested in the publicity rather than the cause anyway.
shac has now more or less disintegrated since the recent jailings. Those involved didn't realise just how much evidence the police had until they got to court and now that a lot of supporters realised where their money was going funding is drying up.
An interesting comment to an Indymedia post here by long time shac activist Alan Forrest, the irony is that some thought that Forrest himself was a police informer.
START QUOTE
" SHAC was infiltrated by a number of people who were either linked to or in the direct employ of the police. The arrests and prosecutions were a result of this. The guilty pleas were because those arrested were overwhelmed by the details the police had about us, operations, financing and future plans. There are still some who are involved with SHAC at the highest level who I am absolutely convinced are grasses for the police. They will get theirs one day.
Some individuals are still away with the faryies trying to maintain that everything is fine, SHAC is getting stronger, HLS is collapsing blah blah blah but in reality SHAC is a spent force as far as UK animal rights are concerned. The money has nearly all gone, the leadership is in prison and only a small rump remains.
I hope one day we can rebuild but it is time to face reality. If some individuals think that the way to achieve this is post after post to Indymedia making comments that are so far detached from reality I question their sanity then so be it. I for one am finished. SHAC was seven years of my life and I am bitter about how the money was spent and how little we achieved with the goodwill and support we had at one point. I will work for the cause of animal rights back how I started with sabbing but SHAC and I have parted ways for ever.
Some people, including those who are contributors to Indymedia and other places need to remember we started this to prevent animal suffering and to change the attitudes of the wider public about the issue. Personal financial gain and building a media profile were not in the plan. "
END QUOTE
This seems to confirm what others in SHAC have been saying, that all the money that had been raised has now gone. When we remember just how big a war chest SHAC had at one point I wonder if some SHAC people are questioning where all that money has gone ? I doubt if even all of the car hire and hotel bills could have accounted for everything.
Does anybody know more about Mr Forrest?
(Is he the farmer-hating nutter who lives almost behind the Engineer pub in Henlow?)
Some of what he calls "sabbing" has involved disabled anglers being beaten with metal bars, so it's not harmless or lawful, even if it's not a government priority to stop it.
Ronnie Lee started off as a Sab, in Luton, so it may be that Mr Forrest is actually "The Founder's" eyes and ears in SHAC.
(They probably can't stand the thought of money outside their control, Medawar has seen ALF-junkie types loitering near Gillian Langley's house, which is on an unadopted lane on the very edge of Hitchin, so they can't have been there by accident. The charity she runs, the Dr Hadwen Trust, may be a bit deluded, but it has money and that money should be spent on the charity's objectives and not looted by ALF fanatics.)
As I understand it Alan Forrest was involved with shac right from the start, he was a teacher in London but quit to work full time for shac, it cost him his marriage and his relationship with his sister who at one point even claimed he was dead.
Forrest was one of those who unlike the senior leadership made a big financial sacrifice to work full time for shac. What made him further different to the rest was his unwillingness to be involved in anything illegal, he is a committed pacifist and it was this wish to see all shac campaigns have an ethical element that made some within the ALF think him a police informer. He is I think a reflection of the grass root element of shac that want to see an end to all vivisection but understand that violence, intimidation and the rest is not the way to achieve it.
His experiences with shac were at one stage documented on Indymedia Oxford but this post has since been removed, I have been unable to find it again.
He has now left the UK and is in France staying with old university friends. I doubt we will see him back in the AR scene anytime soon.
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