NZ Vegan Podcast

LISTEN HERE This week I talk about how important it is that we recognise and help others to recognise that our abolitionist movement for nonviolence is still an abolitionist anti-slavery movement, and our practical focus right now with regard to addressing this problem of violence and animal use has the primary goal, initially, of creating a society in which we can address the abolition of the property status of animals, because that is still where we are at. We haven't even begun to address that! The animal movement still doesn't even have veganism as the moral baseline! But the abolitionist movement does :) By promoting veganism we will create an environment in which we can actually address that, finally! Welfare reforms are useless and do not address the property paradigm. Vegan education does. As Gary Francione said in his latest interview, part of which you can read HERE: ‎"At this point, it makes no sense to focus on the law, because as long as we regard animals as things, as a moral matter, the laws will necessarily reflect that absence of moral value and continue to do nothing to protect animals. We need to change social and moral thinking about animals before the law is going to do anything more." Let's not allow people, neither other vegans nor anti-vegans, to shift our focus to the defeatist, overwhelmingly negative attitudes, which seem to be fixated on all the things still currently out of our control as individuals (the majority of food production, sidewalks, tyres etc) and which prompt the vegans to identify their reason for opposing vegan education as being "too pure" or "unrealistic" (which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever) and anti-vegans to make absurd claims that animal use is an action that is equal in morality to veganism. I want us to remind people what being vegan really means, and what our abolitionist movement really means, especially at this point in history, where we are still in this incredibly non vegan world, in which chattel slavery of sentient beings is still very much accepted as the norm and in which new welfarism is the dominant paradigm and therefore welfarism is still provided and marketed by the majority of vegans as the correct response to the issue of animal use. Wrong answer! Veganism is the correct response, as we know. We just have to continue to be a clear voice, and our voice is growing. Thank you all so much, for being such wonderful, clear voices. Please read Gary Francione's work to learn about the importance of the abolition of the property status of animals and why veganism and the promotion of veganism is the correct response, the only response to that immoral status which still exists in our world today.http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/books/http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/category/podcast/ I mention Randy W. Sandberg and his wonderful advice about not feeding trolls (I am still trying to find the article he shared, will post when I find it..) I mention Trisha Roberts from LiveVegan and her wonderful messages about insects, and I mention her organisation lobsa.org I mentioned a video about nuclear pollution, posted by Renata Peters from The Alice Springs Vegan Society which you can also check out here at the latest article on Myl ène Ouellet's blog My Face is on Fire Thanks for listening :)

LISTEN HERE Here is the link to the Shirtless Dancing Guy video I mentioned: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ This is the link to the Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals episode about the Oprah Show that I mentioned: Episode 46 - Oprah Goes... Vegan, "Veg*n","veganish"... Here is the link to the latest Abolitionist Approach Commentary Number 24, an interview by Gary L. Francione with Rob Johnson creator of the blog Animal Rights UK and founding member of Grampion Animal Rights (which in typical me fashion I accidentally called Aberdeen Animal Rights, all my friends ought to be used to my getting things all mixed up by now, but I again apologise for mis-naming another organisation/website etc) and Vegan UK:Commentary 24: Vegan Advocacy in the UK Thanks for listening!

LISTEN HERE This is the article about China's factory conditions I mentioned: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/china/news/article.cfm?l_id=28&objectid=10722773 Here is a link to the YouTube channel for Paola Aldana that I mentioned: http://www.youtube.com/user/porolita22 (English) http://www.youtube.com/user/porolita (Español) Here is a quote from Gary Francione on the word "compassion" (in relation to what I talk about at the very end of the podcast): "Is our obligation not to be racist or sexist a matter of "compassion"? No. it's a matter of justice. Same with nonhuman animals"

LISTEN HERE Thanks for listening!  :)

LISTEN HERE This week I am very pleased to welcome back William Paul who tells us his latest good news and we discuss some experiences we have at with religious advocates while doing our street stall, and also I recount a couple of personal experiences I have had related to that. Thanks for listening and thank you William for coming on the show!

Listen HERE What are we afraid of? It's not like we are being arrested by the KGB: BBC outlook: Belarus Free Theatre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus_Free_Theatre And if people stopped doing violent things and stupid things we won't have to worry about anything like that, now would we? Please promote veganism!  Peacefully! more to come....

LISTEN HERE In part two of the interview we discuss single issue campaigns, in relation to the recent debate that Professor Francione took part in with Dario Ringach which was partly the inspiration of the blog essay: Why Veganism Must Be the Baseline which I recommend as a must read for all advocates. We also discuss the latest Abolitionist Approach blog essay: Nothing to Do with Science in which the latest attempt at using the age old "plant question" is addressed. Thank you, Professor Francione!

LISTEN HERE This week it is my absolute pleasure to welcome back to the podcast Professor Gary L. Francione. In part one of the interview we discuss his new book: The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition or Regulation? which was co-authored with  Robert Garner. Enjoy and stay tuned for part two!

LISTEN HERE Relevant links to this podcast: Veganism as a Minimum Standard of Decency by Dan Cudahy from Unpopular Vegan Essays The articles about the Vegan Society's advertising of non vegan establishments, inluding a pdf of a thread on facebook that was deleted after they shamefully deleted Gary Francione from the page: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/i-wonder-what-donald-watson-founder-of-the-vegan-society-would-think/ http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/its-not-1946/ http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/the-need-for-a-vegan-society/ http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/media/pdf/why-are-non-vegan-restaurants-advertised-in-the-vegan.pdf The article on John Robbins I mentioned, by Mylène Ouellet: http://my-face-is-on-fire.blogspot.com/2010/07/animal-advocacy-leaders-hall-of-fail.html And finally, a response to the latest claims by welfare advocates pointing to the same study each time it seems: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/science-weighs-in-animal-welfare-reform-is-useless/ Thanks for listening

LISTEN HERE This week I am very pleased to have as my special guest Niilo Van Steinburg who is the founder and one of the directors of the very successful abolitionist vegan university group at the University of Victoria, Canada, the UVic Vegan Association. If you live in British Columbia you can subscribe to the UVic Vegan Association by emailing them at: uvacontact@gmail.com You can also join their facebook fan page at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11596410542 Also check out Niilo's blog Seeking Non-Specisism from where he will be soon producing his very own abolitionist vegan podcast!!!  We can't wait to hear it! The forum we mentioned is http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/forum/ where you can find Niilo's "abolitionist mom" Joe and other great advocates, discussing abolitionist veganism and all kinds of other things. Thanks for coming on the show Niilo!

LISTEN HERE A thought for the future; not knowing is a wiser way to live in a lot of ways. Those who say, do not know; those who know, do not say. ~ Lao Tzu And don't be overwhelmed by those darn animal product use diagrams making the rounds, you know the ones I mean, they are very "popular" amongst poverty of ambition advocates as another excuse for despairing!  Let them spur you on to be even more active and even more determined.

LISTEN HERE (Huge apologies for the terrible audio quality, I hit record without first verifying the input, so instead of my logitech headphones it was set to the inbuilt mic, which is why there is all that noise and stuff.  It happens sometimes lol ) Here is the article of the interview with Gary Francione that I mentioned: http://www.free.org.il/english/articles/gary.html (What he says is about "passivity" and exactly is not necessarily what I paraphrased, but it certainly made me understand that the "pacifist" claim made against us is trying to insinuate "passivity" and that is not true). Here is another quote from Gary Francione about this subject: "Those who claim that the abolitionist approach [to animal rights] advises inactivity misunderstand that the idea is to engage in *effective* advocacy rather than in wheel-spinning and counterproductive activity that generates donations and bequests for large groups." Here is the article by Randy Sandberg on his Vegans for Peace website that I mentioned: http://vegansforpeace.org/2010/03/13/why-are-you-a-vegetarian/ Here is the article by Emmy James that I mentioned: Facebook link (you will probably only be able to see it if you are a facebook contact of Emmy's) Here is the quote by Mylène Ouellet that I mentioned: http://quotesonslavery.org/whats-hard-about-veganism-isnt-being-vegan/ Here is the must read article Why Veganism by Eva Batt: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/text/why-veganism-by-eva-batt/ Also available HERE

LISTEN HERE This week I speak with William Paul my fellow abolitionist street staller and vegan advocate from Auckland.  We discuss the NZ Vegetarian Society Festival that was held in October, our future plans for advocacy and we also discuss the Auckland Abolitionist Vegans Association, which we will be launching soon! Congratulations to Jordan Wyatt from Coexisting with Nonhuman Animals for creating the Invercargill Vegan Society! Become a member if you live nearby, or become an honorary member by going to this blog entry and leaving a comment: http://coexistingwithnonhumananimals.blogspot.com/2010/12/invercargill-vegan-society-business.html

LISTEN HERE This is the link to the thread on the abolitionist approach forum I was talking about: "Fears" Here are the new photos of the stall now that Aotea Square is renovated, the square is behind us we are on the footpath next to the main entrance side.

LISTEN HERE Revelations!   Now I am wondering if that WAS indeed my first exposure to a video showing animal use, or have I repressed other memories from my specieisist past...? Here is a link to the article I mentioned from the UK abolitionists that made the Aberdeen Voice Here is a link to the article I mentioned on the Vegan Salt blog: Guest Post Thanks for listening!