Worlds Apart? The Unity of Liberation.

[Recommended reading/Book reviews]

Worlds Apart? The Unity of Liberation

John Sanbonmatsu, ed. Critical Theory and Animal Liberation, Plymouth, UK: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. 376 pp. $90, ₤57.95.

Animal exploitation is a complex process that plays out in various interlinked and mutually reinforcing ways, from ethics and values, cultural dispositions and habits, to ingrained concepts of who — or what — we are. Much attention has been given to its philosophical, ethical and cultural aspects, resulting in volume upon volume of valuable critical literature. However, other aspects, like its politics, have gone underappreciated. In its concrete, real-world expression, the now global behemoth which enslaves, tortures and kills billions of other animals a year, is a profoundly political phenomenon, in which questions of cultural values and individual attitudes are interwoven with those of power structures, resource distribution, and institutional hierarchy, i.e. with the capitalist world system itself. With some exceptions, this fact is still largely unnoticed and undertheorized. That it remains so is due to the divorce between two promising foci of oppositional forces: the animal protection movement and the radical Left. The former's lack of critical political consciousness and the latter's speciesist outlook go hand in hand in obstructing the efficacious grappling with animal exploitation. This is whereCritical Theory and Animal Liberation comes in. 

FULL LINK.

[olly stearn]

breakfast reading me thinks!

[Kath Worsfold]

Not available at our library (the largest in the country). At USD $90, I think I will be waiting until, or if, they get it at the library.

[olly stearn]

Looks very interesting but much monies needed which are unfortunately lacking.

as a general thought about the left and animal liberation/animal rights/veganism I do worry that we will be regarded in a similar way to other social justice movements. there appears to me, and is reported by feminists active in the left (predominantly socialist/communist organisations) that feminist issues are regarded as a secondary consideration to class struggle as it is thought that capitalism is the underlying thing that these oppressions are built on (I partly agree) and so once the capitalism has been abolished in favour of a more egalitarian system then these issues can be addressed.

I worry that this sort of secondary consideration will be extended to non-human issues as well. Also worrying is (only in my personal experience) the thinking by some that concern for non-human is somehow bourgeois, but I think this quite clearly just relies on speciesism and if the left did embrace veganism/animal rights this presumably would not be a problem. But having said all that if they are correct in that to abolish these oppressions we need to abolish capitalism then there argument has some validity. But I think this is only partly true.

hmm, to be honest it would be rather nice if the left just embraced veganism/ animal rights. :)