Unite all Workers
Strike ~ at the Root of All Oppression
We in ROAR! believe that all cruelty, exploitation and oppression is wrong (no matter who is the victim). We see all types of oppression as being rooted in a social system that values profit over people, capital over community and wealth over the welfare of all.
In this system (corporate capitalist), a relatively small class of wealthy corporate elite, rule over, dominate and exploit the majority of us working people. We make everything. They take it, sell it for a profit and, in return, give us a little wage, just enough to feed, clothe and house us so we can come back the next day and make them more profit.
Though all working people (both employed and unemployed) are exploited, there are certain categories of people (animals included) who are super exploited). Among these groups are people of color, immigrants, women, LGBT people, children, elders and (non human) animals.
This system, with its periodic recessions and depressions, its wars for empire and world domination, its IMF and WTO induced poverty, hunger and starvation, its robbing of oil, water, land and other natural resources from other nations ~ all this is based on inequality and injustice.
Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men, for the nastiest of reasons, will somehow work for the benefit of us all.
~ John Maynard Keynes
It is maintained through various methods of repression and violence. Outright violence is wielded through the tools of the state (police, jails, prisons, the death penalty, army, navy, private guards, etc) and through more subtle means (the (corporate) media, schools and bribes of government officials (otherwise known as campaign contributions and “gifts”)).
It’s true that whole groups of us humans are forced to work for a wage, often doing dull, repetitive and dangerous work. Tens of thousands of us get sick, injured and die from these conditions; however, it doesn’t take much insight to see that nonhuman animals, through sheer numbers alone, have it far worse than any of us humans.
In fact, if one person is unkind to an animal it is considered to be cruelty, but where a
lot of people are unkind to animals, especially in the name of commerce, the cruelty is condoned and,
once large sums of money are at stake, will be defended to the last by otherwise intelligent people.
~ Ruth Harrison, author of Animal Machines
We believe that all exploitation (for the greed and profit of another) is wrong. We believe that is true for (non human) animals as well and that they are not here to be used for entertainment, experimentation, clothes or food.
We judge it immoral, for example, that some animals are exploited by making them perform under constant threat and actual punishment (in circuses and rodeos); some by carrying out cruel, painful and unnecessary experimentation on them; some by being skinned alive for their fur; some, as in the case of silkworms, by being boiled alive for the silk threads of their cocoons; some, by being tortured and slaughtered for their hides, as is the case of cows for leather; and some by being mutilated with huge chunks of skin painfully removed as in the case of sheep for wool.
All these realities of brutal and cruel treatment, exploitation and killing are indeed horrible and wrong. By far, however, the most extensive exploitation and suffering perpetrated against animals happens in the confining, mutilating, torturing and slaughtering of them for meat, dairy and eggs. (Read more here: http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming.asp)
It’s true that whole groups of us humans are forced to work for a wage, often doing dull, repetitive and dangerous work. Tens of thousands of us get sick, are injured and die from these conditions; however, it doesn’t take much insight to see that nonhuman animals, through mere quantity, have it far worse than any of us humans. Amongst this large category of animals who have it worse than human animals, it is also not hard to see that the animals farmed in concentration camp-like factories (“factory farms”) are the most extensively and cruelly abused.
These innocent beings are confined in small barred cells from birth to death, never seeing the light of day, unable to perform the most natural functions such as turning around, making contact with another, smelling fresh air, seeing sunlight or walking on grass. At the end of their shortened lives, they are transported often through burning hot and bitter cold weather, without food or water to a frightening, slow and painful slaughter, during which, often while still conscious, they are hacked to pieces and their limbs are sawed off.
We in ROAR! believe that the commodification of sentient beings and the treating of them as if they were mere objects without feelings and consciousness is contrary to the values that most in society hold dear.
The capitalist system treats this planet, living creatures, plants, and minerals as coldly as it
treats human beings--as nothing more than a means to accumulate wealth.
Draft Programme RCP 2001
Not surprisingly, the workers who carry out these acts of violence against factory-farmed animals are the most exploited workers of all and are injured and killed on the job more than any other workers.
As PeTA’s website goVeg.com says:
Human Rights Watch has declared that slaughterhouse workers have “the most dangerous factory job in America.” The industry has refused to do what’s necessary to create safe working conditions for its employees, such as slowing down slaughter lines and supplying workers with appropriate safety gear, because these changes could cut into companies’ bottom lines.
To learn more, please read their article “Killing for a Living: How the Meat Industry Exploits Workers” at http://www.goveg.com/workerrights.asp
We at ROAR! believe that this common root of exploitation, this system of capitalism, the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few must be ended in order for any and all beings on the planet to be free and able to live lives of joy, community and well-being.
We affirm that capitalism hasn’t always existed and doesn’t have to continue to exist. There is a science to changing all this and uprooting this barbaric form of social and economic relations which destroys the lives of millions of humans, (non human) animals and our planet.
Instead of arguing for bigger cages or more pasture, we're ready for a holistic understanding of our role in creating a genuinely better society. Lee Hall (Friends of Animals)
By learning this science, the science of revolution, by uniting with all working people and those who are most exploited and oppressed by this system, we can bring about a whole new day for all.
Towards a Liberated, Egalitarian, Communally Shared, Just, Vegan and Sustainable World!
The oppressed peoples and nations must not pin their hopes for liberation on the "sensibleness" of imperialism and its lackeys. They will only triumph by strengthening their unity and persevering in their struggle. Mao Tse Tung