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JUNE 25 / 11: Not Nameless, Not Faceless.
[jose valle carries a video camera as he works documenting a dairy / veal farm. rural spain, 2010.] This is my typical morning routine: I wake up, I stretch a bit, I make some coffee, and I reply to emails with my cat on my lap. Most mornings are pretty mundane that way, and I often scope facebook for any news stories that might be worth checking out. This past Wednesday, when I saw my friend Laurita’s status say something about 12 activists in Spain, but not followed by a link to any news story or investigation materials or footage, I instantly felt something was wrong. After fumbling my way through translating the Spanish, my heart sank. On the morning of June 22nd, 12 animal rights activists were arrested in Spain. The arrests are supposedly linked to a mink liberation from 2007, but the charges stretch further into the Orwellian territory of “unlawful association” as well. The arrests were targeted at the leaders of Igualdad Animal and Equanimal, two prominent animal rights organizations in Spain. Considering who was arrested, it’s hard not to see it as a decapitation attempt by the authorities, meant not only to directly disrupt antispeciesist organizing and put a chill into activism, but to try to irreparably damage the organizations in question. In my guts when I heard the news, though, it wasn’t the long term political consequences that I was worried about (that would come in the following days). In those first moments, I was just viscerally worried about my friends.
[rabbits wait in plastic trays for their fate as meat and fur. rural spain, 2010.] I met Sharon, Jose, and Javi (and so many other amazing activists) last year during a working trip to Spain. Jo-Anne McArthur and I had traveled there to document what the group was doing, and to make ourselves available to them to help in documenting their relentless work for animals. And work we did. During an intensive three week period, we attended and documented several days of bullfights, visited and documented rabbit killing at a small-scale local slaughterhouse, conducted investigations and executed an open rescue of six hens from an egg farm, and more. They were long days and even longer nights, and the activists that we worked with were some of the hardest working people I’ve ever met. Sharon, Jose and Javi, the founders of Igualdad Animal, have built a community that is tight and tireless; as we traveled around Spain doing the work, we were never more than a couple of hours away from a welcoming place to stay, a lovingly prepared meal, and more strong and supportive activists. As news continued to spread that morning of the details of the arrests, I couldn’t stop thinking about the things I had learned on that trip, and the precious insights that I gained from being around Sharon, Jose, and Javi, and the rest of the Igualdad activists: insight from Sharon, who works incredibly hard behind the scenes, who rarely steps in front of a camera unless it is necessary, allowing the work to speak for itself while she does hours of organizing at the group’s office, who always has encouraging words for those around her, who knows how to motivate and keep the energy of the group going; insight from Jose, who is an investigator down to the bone, who knows that wherever there is a door, that means there is a way inside and a way to expose the horror, who is always reading, researching, and engaging with the issues facing the AR movements today, who has the most hilarious one-liners that come out of nowhere, because he is always paying attention, even when he seems like he’s not; insight from Javi, who has been beat up so many times by police after jumping into bullfight rings or onto fashion show catwalks that it has become an annual inside joke, who is a patient and endless spokesperson, whether he is in front of a national TV news camera or talking to someone one-on-one doing vegan outreach in downtown Madrid, who often takes some extra part-time work to help support the group financially, who knows how to dance as hard as he works.
[javi and friends dance on a night off. madrid, 2010.] But beyond “the work”, there is something else, because we didn’t just work together. It would be impossible to work together under those circumstances and not become friends. In the off hours, when we weren’t doing “the work”, we swam together, watched ridiculous movies together, talked politics with each other, made meals together, drank energy drinks together, joked around with each other, bridged the language barrier together, drove countless hours together, went dancing together… That’s the thing about the media. It so often robs you of the little details, the fine grain and texture of daily life. People get slotted into neat little categories. In the case of Sharon, Jose, Javi, and the others arrestees, they have already been branded “eco-terrorists” in the mainstream Spanish media (with the help of Spanish law-enforcement). Outside of Spain, they and their co-accused have come to be known as “The Spanish 12.” In reality, they are neither. Like the animals they have rescued openly from places of exploitation, they are individuals. It’s a simple fact that they try to communicate over and over again through their activism: They are individuals. And as they now find themselves in cages, like the animals they’ve rescued and worked for, they each have their own experience, and they will all experience this next phase of their struggle for a better world differently. They are not, as the animal exploitation industries want us to believe about the billions of non-humans they abuse and kill every year, a stupid mass of eyes and moving parts following each other to their doom. Jose, Javi, and Sharon are thinking, feeling, loving individuals, not caricatures of “eco-terrorists” or faceless activists too far for us to care. As I and so many others mobilize to get “The Spanish 12” out of prison and back into the sunlight, I think of each of them, and how each one will enjoy their freedom in their own particular and beautiful way.
[toronto animal rights activists protest outside of the spanish consulate in solidarity with the “Spanish 12”.] To find out more about the case of the “Spanish 12” and get ongoing coverage: Coverage from Green is the New Red Coverage from the Vegan Police To donate to the legal defense of the Igualdad Animal activists, paypal funds to: ACTIVISMO [AT] IGUALDADANIMAL [DOT] ORG (or click the link above) Sign the official petition in support of the accused |
