{"id":770480,"date":"2022-11-01T08:53:42","date_gmt":"2022-11-01T12:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=770480"},"modified":"2022-11-01T09:17:23","modified_gmt":"2022-11-01T13:17:23","slug":"raging-over-spilt-milk-behind-the-scenes-of-animal-rebellion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=770480","title":{"rendered":"Raging Over Spilt Milk: Behind the scenes of Animal Rebellion"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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It\u2019s like there\u2019s a brick wall in front of us... And that brick wall is the system that\u2019s killing us by being so inflexible to change. Day after day after day we\u2019re trying to weaken the wall. That\u2019s why we continue\u2026 because you never know which stone will be the one to break through.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

TOM ELLEN:<\/strong> People were shocked, and understandably so,\u2019 says Steve Bone, a 40-year-old photographer from Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. \u2018I mean \u2014 you walk into a shop and all of a sudden there\u2019s a tall, ginger-bearded man pouring milk all over the cheese display. You\u2019d think: \u201cMy God, what\u2019s going on?\u201d\u2019 Bone, the tall, ginger-bearded man in question, is a member of Animal Rebellion, the animal and climate justice group that dominated headlines last week after several of their direct action protests went viral. You will have seen the clips: activists entering high-end food stores such as Fortnum & Mason, Selfridges and Waitrose, and proceeding to binge-dump dairy products across the floor.<\/em><\/p>\n

To say that these antics divided opinion would be something of an understatement. Depending on where you go for your news, you\u2019ll either find passionate voices of support for Animal Rebellion\u2019s cause, or (and due to the nature of online commentary, this one\u2019s probably more likely) splenetic, expletive-filled rants about \u2018entitled lefties\u2019 wasting food. But more on all that noise in a moment: during the protest itself, Bone says, things felt far less hostile.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018There were a few derogatory terms thrown at us,\u2019 he tells ES Magazine of the actions he took part in at Fortnum & Mason and Selfridges. \u2018But we were expecting to be roughly frog-marched out, and that didn\u2019t happen [Bone and fellow protester Sofia Fernandes Pontes were arrested the next day: both appear in court on 7 November]. I go into this kind of Zen mode during these acts of civil resistance,\u2019 he adds. \u2018At one point, there was a gentleman stood next to me as I was pouring the milk and I was concerned he would get splashed. I was already prepared to smell like milk all day, but I didn\u2019t want him to have to as well. So I just said, \u201cExcuse me, sir, would you mind moving over, please?\u201d It was all totally non-violent….<\/em><\/p>\n

These episodes don\u2019t always proceed quite so peacefully. At Animal Rebellion\u2019s previous campaign in September in which holes were drilled into delivery truck tyres at dairy production sites, Bone was \u2018struck in the chest\u2019 by a less-than-impressed onlooker. \u2018I just took it and moved away,\u2019 he says, diplomatically. \u2018I\u2019m quite a calm person anyway, but when you\u2019ve got people shouting at you or hitting you, you just have to keep telling yourself why you\u2019re there. You\u2019re fighting for a better future.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

It won\u2019t have escaped you that lately, the sight of people such as Bone being shouted at or hit as they fight for the future has become an almost daily occurrence. Whether it\u2019s protesters super-gluing themselves to roads, activists hurling soup cans at a Van Gogh painting or tall, ginger-bearded men redecorating the Fortnum & Mason carpet, groups including Animal Rebellion and Just Stop Oil have been consistently engaging in non-violent disruption across the UK for months. Their actions represent an attempt to draw the Government\u2019s focus to the climate crisis and, in Bone\u2019s words, \u2018start a national conversation\u2019. In this, there can be no doubt that they\u2019ve succeeded…<\/em><\/p>\n

In typically measured fashion, Piers Morgan branded Animal Rebellion\u2019s milk-pourers \u2018pathetic, attention-seeking morons\u2019 on Twitter. Just prior to her resignation, the UK\u2019s shortest-serving home secretary, Suella Braverman, placed the blame for the disruption squarely on \u2018The Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati\u2019 (didn\u2019t they do a John Peel session in 1986?). These are extreme examples, of course. But no matter where you stand on the political spectrum, you will undoubtedly have come across people (online or off) who share the protesters\u2019 concerns but are sceptical about their methods of expression. Were there any worries on Animal Rebellion\u2019s part about throwing away food during a cost-of-living crisis?…<\/em><\/p>\n

Animal Rebellion\u2019s proposed solution to this wastage is for the Government to support farmers to transition away from animal farming to a plant-based food system. \u2018That would free up so much land, which can then be rewilded, bringing down greenhouse gases and bringing back our beautiful British countryside,\u2019 says Bone. \u2018I\u2019ve got a six-year-old girl \u2014 I don\u2019t want her growing up in a country that\u2019s brown and barren…<\/em><\/p>\n

Appropriate or not, the protesters remain adamant that their actions are getting results, and not only in raising the blood pressure of Daily Mail readers… A YouGov poll, taken after a blockade she was involved in outside an oil terminal, that showed \u2018a small increase\u2019 in people willing to take direct action on the climate. Bone, too, talks of the lengthy historical success rate that non-violent civil disobedience has enjoyed…<\/em><\/p>\n

Consensus on these demonstrations is still a long way off, so don\u2019t expect the protests to stop any time soon. Animal Rebellion is planning various outreach events in the run-up to its next campaign in spring next year… \u2018It\u2019s like there\u2019s a brick wall in front of us… And that brick wall is the system that\u2019s killing us by being so inflexible to change. People have been throwing stones at this wall for years and now we\u2019re doing it, too, with these protests. Day after day after day we\u2019re trying to weaken the wall. That\u2019s why we continue\u2026 because you never know which stone will be the one to break through.\u2019 <\/em>SOURCE…<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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