MAY 2008 CHICAGO ANIMAL DEFENSE LEAGUE CALENDAR

MENDING THE HEARTLAND: Building a Unified Midwestern Animal Liberation Movement
"Sharkwater" Film Showing
Prisoner Writing Night
Non-ADL Event: Protest The Seal Hunt
Our Wishlist

MENDING THE HEARTLAND: Building a Unified Midwestern Animal Liberation Movement

A call out for organizers, workshop proposals and attendees.

This summer, Animal Defense League Chicago, in conjunction with the Activist Alliance at Roosevelt University, will be hosting MENDING THE HEARTLAND: Building A Unified Midwestern Animal Liberation Movement. We are calling for all interested animal rights organizers and activists to come to Chicago, July 25th through 27th, 2008 to come together and brainstorm, learn, discuss, and create.

What do we need in order for this to happen?

We need you!

The first open planning meeting for the conference will be announced soon. We invite all individuals and groups interested in organizing for the conference to attend this open meeting to help with the every day details of the conference, along with approving workshops, getting sponsors, etc. While we at ADL Chicago hope the conference will be a melding of organizations and individuals, we are organizing this conference along 4 main principles, outlined and explained below in our mission statement.

Additionally, we are looking for workshop presenters! Proposal submissions will be due in June, more information will be posted soon.

Website and mailing list coming soon!

Mending the Heartland Mission Statement:

The purpose of Mending the Heartland: Building a Unified Midwestern Animal Liberation Movement is to attempt to build bridges between grassroots activist groups around the Midwest so that we can begin to work together more closely on animal rights issues. We in Chicago have noticed that on the coasts there seems to be much more interaction between groups from various cities to combine their efforts, help support each others' actions and generally offer more support to one and other as animal rights activists. While this is harder to do in the Midwest, due to the distances between cities, we feel it is both possible and necessary for activists in this region to come together and network so that we can learn from each other and become more effective in our activism, both as individual activists and as a more united animal rights movement.

The hope is that by building more solidarity amongst the various groups scattered across the Midwest, we will be able to help strengthen our movement and more effectively fight for animal liberation. Be that by refining our own regular events to be more effective, or by coming together more often for large scale, multi-group sponsored events.

We at ADL Chicago wanted this conference to be shaped and organized by a variety of organizations and people around the Midwest so as to include voices other then our own. However, we also don't want the organizational process to be crippled by infighting. For that reason and in an attempt to avoid infighting in the organization of this conference, we at ADL Chicago have written up a mission statement to outline the ethics and tactics this conference supports and what issues will be discussed at the event. It is not mandatory that everyone organizing for this conference be in lock step agreement on every issue raised, but it is necessary that all organizing groups, workshop presenters, sponsors or whoever else are aware that these issues will be being discussed at the conference and at the very least are willing and comfortable to be a part of the conference knowing that the following issues will be raised over the course of the weekend:

* A dedication to liberation, not welfarism:

This conference stands for complete animal liberation, not "bigger cages, longer chains" and the workshops, sponsors and presenters must reflect that ethic. We feel that many of the national animal rights organizations have started down a road that only reinforces the property status of animals and does nothing to challenge the industries we are opposing or the mindsets we are attempting to change. Topics such as these and critiques of the larger animal rights movement will be present at this conference as we feel that combating tactics that we feel are harmful to the furtherance of animal rights is just as important as implementing the tactics we feel are effective.

* A commitment to ending all forms of oppressions:

While this may be first and foremost an animal rights conference, we believe all forms of oppression to be interlinked. Many people believe that other issues (such as racism, sexism, homophobia, etc) should be put aside when fighting for the rights of animals. We believe that far too often issues such as these are ignored by our movement in an attempt to appear more "unified" and that this single-mindedness is not only unethical and short sighted, but also corrosive to our movement. We are specifically inviting and preparing for populations that are not often included (or assimilated and therefore, in a way, silenced) in the larger animal rights movements, especially in the Midwest: women; people of color; transgender and gender variant people; queer people/people of varying sexual preferences and orientation; and parents and other guardians of children. As such, we seek to have workshops highlighting the connections between all forms of oppression and putting our movements shortcomings on these issues under the magnifying glass. We believe that criticism and reflection on oppressive behaviors within our movement is essential in order to combat those problems. In keeping with this ethic, oppressive behavior will not be tolerated at the conference. Any conference attendees who behave in oppressive manners towards others will be asked to leave.

* An Open Support For Direct Action And The Animal Liberation Front:

This conference will stand up openly in support of the Animal Liberation Front. It is our belief that the actions of the ALF are essential elements of the fight for animal liberation and this conference will feature workshops and presenters that reflect that belief.

* Law Enforcement/Government Officials Are Not Welcome/Implementing Security Culture:

We understand this is a hard one to enforce, but felt it necessary to point out that we want to do everything we can to implement security culture at this event. As such, no police officers, FBI agents or any other such government official is welcome at the event. Please note however, that this is nearly impossible to enforce and with the scrutiny placed on the animal rights movement by the government, they are almost certain to be there. Keep this in mind and remember that loose lips sink ships.



"SHARKWATER" FILM SCREENING

When: Tuesday, May 20th at 6:30 PM

Where: New World Resource Center
1300 N Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60622
(773) 227-4011

Filmed in visually stunning, high definition video, Sharkwater takes you into the most shark rich waters of the world, exposing the exploitation and corruption surrounding the world's shark populations in the marine reserves of Cocos Island, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.

n an effort to protect sharks, Stewart teams up with renegade conservationist Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Their unbelievable adventure together starts with a battle between the Sea Shepherd and shark poachers in Guatemala, resulting in pirate boat rammings, gunboat chases, mafia espionage, corrupt court systems and attempted murder charges, forcing them to flee for their lives.

Through it all, Stewart discovers these magnificent creatures have gone from predator to prey, and how despite surviving the earth's history of mass
extinctions, they could easily be wiped out within a few years due to human greed.

Stewart's remarkable journey of courage and determination changes from a mission to save the world's sharks, into a fight for his life, and that of
humankind.



PRISONER WRITING NIGHT

This month's combined our monthly prisoner writing nights with another Chicago Anarchist Black Cross will be held the 3rd Thursday of the month, as always. Write letters to prisoners and help Chicago ABC fill literature requests. We supply paper, pens, stamps and addresses- new comers always welcome!

Time: May 15th (the third Thursday of every month), from 6 - 8 pm.

Place: the lowercase collective, please email us for directions and the
exact address.



NON-ADL EVENT: PROTEST THE SEAL HUNT IN CANADA!

Friday, May 9th
3:30-4:30

Canadian Consulate
Two Prudential Plaza
130 E. Randolph <<<==== new location (just around the the old location, 180 Stetson)

Despite global opposition, Canada continues to urge its off-season fishermen to kill seal pups for their pelts. This practice is brutally inhumane, ecologically destructive and economically gratuitous.

To learn more about why we need to do all we can to stop this barbaric practice, visit: www.hsus.org/protect_seals.html

Please join us and bring your friends. This is too brutal to ignore.



CHICAGO ADL'S WISH LIST

-Go vegan! (If you aren't already, this is the best thing you can do for
us and the animals)

-Staples Gift Cards

-Bullhorns (the louder the better)

-Whole Foods gift cards (for bake sales and the likes, not to feed activists, we swear!)

-Gas cards for our new video van!

-Van repairs/paint job

-Button parts for 1 1/4" button maker

-Battery recharger for C batteries (for bullhorns)

-Cash (always helpful!)


See you in the streets,
-ADL Chicago



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The Animal Defense League (ADL) is a grassroots animal rights/liberation organization fighting to put an end to animal exploitation and abuse. Through community outreach, networking, public education, vocal demonstrations and civil disobedience we speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.

To subscribe to the ADL Chicago announcement email list, please visit:
lists.riseup.net/www/subrequest/adlchicago