Liberation! An introduction
A gathering aimed at rebuilding and progressing the animal liberation movement. It will be coming from an anarchist perspective and will especially focus on animal exploitation as a result of capitalism and domestication and how best to challenge it in this context.
We would like to avoid getting distracted with discussions around the pros and cons of reformism, vegan outreach or other liberal, animal rights concerns. While we think it is useful for these conversations to take place we want this weekend to be about coming up with an action plan, between us, to move things forward.
If this something you are interested in being part of we would love to hear from you. We are really hoping that this gathering will be a collective project and if anyone wants to be part of organising beforehand or during the weekend that would be amazing.
We are keen for the gathering not to be purely theoretical and want definite plans to come out of it. We hope for there to be a mix of practical, theoretical and strategic workshops and discussions, all of which will be as participatory as possible. If you have a workshop or discussion that you would like to see happen or that you can offer, let us know.
Practicalities
We can provide sleeping space for the Friday and Saturday nights and longer if you let us know in advance. We can provide some bedding but if you can bring a sleeping bag and mat that would be helpful. If you require something more comfortable than floor space let us know and we’ll see what we can do.
Meals will be provided from Friday evening until Sunday evening, if you have specific dietary requirements please give us as much notice as you can.
Please don’t bring dogs to the gathering unless you really need to. While we don’t wish to discriminate against anyone because of their species, we feel the space may be crowded at times and there is no outside space. We also feel that dogs can be distracting in workshops if they become bored and agitated.
We won’t be releasing the venue of the gathering so you will need to let us know by email in advance if you are coming. We don’t need a name, but we do need to know numbers.
Safer spaces policy
While we don’t feel that having a document on a wall or website is enough to challenge the oppressive behaviour that often exists within activist communities we feel it is a good start.
We want everyone attending liberation gathering to feel as safe as possible. Liberation is about respecting and valuing each other, no speciesist, racist, sexist, classist, ableist or other oppressive behaviour will be tolerated at the gathering.
We would ask that anyone challenged for using problematic language listens and changes their language accordingly. We would hope that any issues can be resolved by talking to each other but in extreme cases people may be asked to leave the space.
Programme
Although we have a few ideas for discussions and workshops we would like to keep the programme quite open so that people can bring their own discussion ideas with them. If you have an idea for a discussion or workshop please let us know. The programme is now available online here: https://bristolliberationgathering.wordpress.com/programme/
We look forward to hearing from you
Liberation! collective
Bristol
UK
https://bristolliberationgathering.wordpress.com
liberation.gathering@riseup.net
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