"Greater London Action for Animals" was sussed pretty quickly as a money making front by those of us active in London and yes you are right about the penguins, the Born Free Foundation did all that and then Steele tried to grab the glory at the end. He was told where to get off.
The AR movement and Veganism are growing in Britain, slowly it's true but growing all the same and organisations such as SHAC and individuals such as Steele are not a part of either. We don't need them and we don't want them.
The damage done by SHAC to the bigger cause of closing HLS is probably incalcuable. I don't know if that was deliberate, I hope not, I prefer to think it was just enthusiasm that become incompetence. After 15 years in the movement I am convinced that direct action does not work is counter productive and certainly alienates the public whose support we need. Without the SHAC campaign I fully believe HLS would have closed by now, before SHAC started HLS was in a terrible financial state but the attacks on it have allowed it to get preferential funding, government support and to play the victim. A terrible result of 10 years work. The last set of financial information showed that HLS is growing !
History shows that all changes to unjust laws have come about through popular support driving legislation, the direct action element in fact slows the changes that are needed. Votes for woman is an obvious example, the laws abolishing slavery another. These campaigns were won by changing public opinion not by direct action and most of all not by drunken louts with an eye on a money making opportunity.
Best wishes on SHACWATCH
For the animals
10 comments:
I suppose the irony is now that when a new animal rights group is formed people quickly assume it's just another name for the same faces asking for more donations.
SHAC may well have once been important in the fight against Huntingdon Life Sciences but no longer. A few loonies shouting at their staff has a zero effect. Compare this to the work done recently to change legislation over the transport of live animals or the new EU legislation regarding testing. These were achieved by people who understand political process. They made a real difference, SHAC have achieved nothing.
The leaders of SHAC all going to prison meant a new generation coming forward and that generation has been lacking in so many ways. SHAC is a shadow of what it once was and like SPEAK is doomed to wither down to five or six losers unable to see that the world has moved on and left them behind.
Nice article, I came to Veganism and AR involvement through university and it did not take long to realise that while the scene is full of committed, loving, hard working people who are devoted to our non human animal brothers and sisters SHAC is just a money making scam. Luke Steele wants to be the new Greg Avery, he saw how well Greg lived on donations from people who thought their money was going to animal welfare and he wants that as well. The trouble is he has competition, with Greg and Natasha out of the picture there is an ongoing power struggle to take over. I bet Greg is pleased he set up that overseas bank account or all the cash would be gone by now !
Meanwhile others get recognised for their work...
Bob Edwards wins 2010 Nobel Prize for developing IVF: Thank the mice, rabbits, hamsters...
Professor Robert G. Edwards of the University of Cambridge has long been recognized as one of the pioneers of reproductive medicine. His most famous accomplishment, along with surgeon Patrick Steptoe*, came in 1978 with the birth of Louise Joy Brown, the first baby born through in-vitro fertilization. This achievement has now been recognized by the Nobel Assembly who awarded him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2010 for “the development of in vitro fertilization”.
The development of IVF by Bob Edwards depended on basic and applied research undertaken in rabbits and hamsters by pioneers including Gregory Pincus and Min Chueh Chang, who identified the essential conditions required for IVF.
In advanced information accompanying today’s announcement the Nobel Assembly notes the importance of this research in laying the foundations for the development of human IVF by Bob Edwards and Patrick Steptoe, and also discusses how Bob Edwards' own extensive research on the reproductive biology of mice - and animal research he and his colleagues conducted in a variety of species while working on IVF - aided progress. In particular the Nobel Assembly highlights how his experience with mice in enabled Bob Edwards to solve a critical problem that was preventing successful IVF, by developing a way to harvest human egg cells at the optimal stage of their maturation prior to in vitro fertilization.
Without the decades of careful animal research undertaken by Bob Edwards, Gregory Pincus, Min Chueh Chang, and scores of their colleagues it is unlikely that IVF would ever have become a reality.
We heartily congratulate Professor Edwards on his Nobel Prize, an award that recognizes his outstanding contribution to a medical advance that has brought joy to hundreds of thousands of families around the world.
* Sadly Patrick Steptoe died in 1988 and therefore could not share the Nobel Prize with Robert Edwards.
Greater London Action for Animals in a spectacular own goal has decided to mount a demo outside the London Institute of Neurology.
The Institute conducts research into a wide range of neurological diseases, including movement disorders, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, brain cancer, stroke and brain injury, muscle and nerve disorders, cognitive dysfunction and dementia. It's world leading centre and in the 2009 Research Assessment Exercise almost 100 staff were submitted for evaluation and 70% of research was deemed to be internationally competitive or world leading.
Only Steele could have thought this institution was a worthy target. Rumours that it was chosen because it's only a short walk from his new boyfriend's house are I'm sure unfounded.
Regreting his actions now is Tom Harris. Sentenced at Winchester Crown Court to 4 years on the 25th of October for conspiracy to blackmail HLS Tom has told friends he now wishes he had never got involved with SHAC and the ALF. In a letter to a friend Tom has said he felt pressured by others and wished he had had the strength to say no.
Another low-rent rockstar decides that animal rights are a good form of free (to him) publicity.
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=3450
Note: his "reasoning" is: this whale has killed three people, so it should be released to cruise the holiday beaches of the Gulf of Mexico.
Won't be long before he's out there with Morrisey, vandalizing German dance schools because one little girl who goes there has parents who work in a company making medicines.
Steele gets bum's rush from student campaign.
Trying to cash in on the current student protests around the country Luke has been trying to get involved with groups in Yorkshire but has been recognised as a chancer interested only in their fighting fund. Student organisers quickly realised who he was when his first two question were about why there was no vegan food at the meeting and how much money they had. A number of students helped him find the door.
Sawyer - at it again.
As the delusional Sawyer is still allowed near a keyboard we sadly have to put up with her rants from time to time. She's now on Indymedia London commenting on a demo yesterday at Scotland Yard where she claims they had it easy because 1000 AR activists have died in police custody !
What an embarrassment to SHAC she is.
When is shacwatch going to expose Donal O'Driscoll AKA Max Gastone? He has been working quietly behind the scenes for years in both the AR and Green movements planning illegal activities. He was one of the main players in SHAC for years but somehow slipped the net when Greg and the others were all rounded up. Perhaps he sold them out to the police? He hasn't had a job for over a decade yet somehow always has plenty of cash. Anyone with more information about this please post!
Max is known to SHACWATCH - we have been told he was made bankrupt by HLS - since then he doesn't get his hands dirty. You are right though people seem to get nicked all around him!
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