All posts filed under: social justice/interconnections

About animal resistance and human saviourism. Presentation at IARC 2021, Geertrui Cazaux

Stories of animal resistance. About human saviourism and not so-voiceless animals – Geertrui Cazaux Other animals resist their oppression, by escaping, retaliating, and acts of everyday resistance. Centering other animals and sharing their stories helps us move away from a human saviourist framing and is an expression of solidarity with them. They are not voiceless and we are not their saviours but their allies.In this presentation, I will document stories of animal resistance.

New Platform: Crip HumAnimal: about ableism and speciesism

I have created a new space Crip HumAnimal, to specifically address the interconnections between ableism and speciesism. A place to highlight stories of disabled vegans, a place to address the ableism in the vegan and animal rights movement. Some of the topics that I want to address on Crip HumAnimal are mentionned here. Where you can also find an explanation on why I choose the name Crip HumAnimal. Any help with spreading the word is really appreciated. Also, if you have any recommendations, input, suggestions, I’d love to hear! website: https://criphumanimal.org/ facebookpage: https://www.facebook.com/criphumanimal/

VIDEO Ableism, ageism and speciesism, presentation IARC 2018, Geertrui Cazaux

I attended the 8th International Animal Rights Conference in Luxembourg at the beginning of September. A very inspirational weekend, being together with activists from many different countries and attending many presentations on a broad variety of topics (program here). I gave a presentation about ableism, ageism and speciesism. The presentation is now up on Youtube on VeganKanal. The slides from the presentation are inlcuded. I added English subtitles to the video. Interested in hearing your feedback! The video does not include the introduction. In which I gave (among other things) an overview of the presentation: Intro: definitions and examples 1) intersections and interconnections between ableism, ageism and speciesism 2) how to reach disabled, older people 3) points to take into account to be an inclusive movement   View this post on Instagram Arrived at the International Animal Rights Conference! #luxemburg #iarc #iarc2018 #animalrights #speciesism #veganism #luxembourg @internationalarconference A post shared by trudi_brugesvegan (@trudi_brugesvegan) on Sep 6, 2018 at 11:06am PDT        

VIDEO – Ableism in the vegan movement. Intro to my talk at VegfestUK – Geertrui Cazaux

Why do we need to address ableism in the vegan and animal rights movement? This is an introduction to my talk at VegfestUK, in London, Oct 27 – 28: Ableism, bodyshaming and healthshaming, Geertrui Cazaux Transcript below. Transcript. Hello, I am Geertrui. Or, that’s Trudi in English. And I will be presenting a talk at the upcoming VegfestUK festival in London. And my talk will be about ableism in the movement. Now ableism is discrimination or prejudice against people with physical or mental disabilities. So against disabled people. Now, I can immediately hear some of you think: oh, ableism what does that have to do with veganism? Why should we be discussing this at a vegan festival? It should be about tackling speciesism. About fighting for animal rights. We shouldn’t be talking about ableism or other forms of discrimination like racism and sexism, but only focus on the animals, because it’s about the animals, right? yes, of course veganism is about tackling speciesism and about the animals, but how we deal with each other as …

Sexism and male privelege in the movement, Lisa Kemmerer at IARC

I attended the 8th International Animal Rights Conference in Luxembourg at the beginning of September. A very inspirational weekend, being together with activists from many different countries and attending many presentations on a broad variety of topics (program here). View this post on Instagram Great vegan sandwiches (and plenty of other stuff for breakfast, lunch and dinner) at the @internationalarconference in luxembourg last weekend. 👍 🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿 #iarc #iarc2018 #vegantshirt #animalrights #animalrightstshirt #onestruggleonefight #vegan #veganfood A post shared by trudi_brugesvegan (@trudi_brugesvegan) on Sep 10, 2018 at 6:11am PDT View this post on Instagram Arrived at the International Animal Rights Conference! #luxemburg #iarc #iarc2018 #animalrights #speciesism #veganism #luxembourg @internationalarconference A post shared by trudi_brugesvegan (@trudi_brugesvegan) on Sep 6, 2018 at 11:06am PDT I found the presentation by Lisa Kemmerer on ‘Sexism and Male Pivilege among vegan activists‘ the highlight of the Conference. Lisa Kemmerer is a philosopher-activist working on behalf of nonhuman animals, the environment, and disempowered human beings. I first got to know of her work through the book ‘Sister Species. Women, animals and social justice‘. This …

Recommended literature: Animal Rights, Human Rights (David Nibert)

I recently read ‘Animal Rights. Human Rights. Entanglements of Oppression and Liberation‘ by David Nibert (2002) and found it truly inspiring. The thesis of the book is that human oppression of other animals is primarily motivated by economic interests, and is profoundly and permanently intertwined with oppression of other humans. The economic forces fueling oppression have intensified with the development of capitalism. The oppression of humans and other animals developed in tandem, each fueling the other. Nibert uses a three fold theory of oppression. This theory explains how oppressions takes place through mutually reinforcing social and economic mechanisms. There are three interactive forces: Economic exploitation, competition. The exploitation of other animals (and humans) is driven by economic forces. The motivation for the development and institutionalization of oppressive practices is primarly material, not attitudinal. Prejudice is the product of these arangements. Not the cause. The importance of power. A powerful elite (pivileged humans) uses political force over the oppressed, and they wield the power of the state. Ideological control. Oppression requires rationalisation and legitimation. Ideologies like …

Why some of us cannot (simply) educate ourselves

Misogyny. Ableism. Ageism. Vystopia. Health-shaming. These are some of the words that I have come to learn more about in recent years. After a long period in which I hardly found the time nor had the energy to follow up any literature closely, I have recently refound a drive and eagerness to pick up some ‘more serious’ stuff again. I have been reading about vegan activism, the sociology of human-animal relations, intersectionality and the entanglement of the oppression of humans with that of other animals. I am also picking up information from discussions in facebook groups, blogs and other online articles. I have looked up terminology that was new to me, discovered new authors, and am trying to work my head around theories and hypotheses. I still have many questions, but I am learning (aren’t we all, always?), helped with feedback provided on online platforms. View this post on Instagram I feel this is a must read for anyone in the animal rights movement, ànd those fighting for human rights. Truly inspirational. It seemed like so …

Staring at humans: Les Zoos Humains, exhibition in Liège

The exhibition  Zoo Humains. L’invention du sauvage  (Human Zoos. The invention of the savage) ran from September 2016 til the end of February 2017. We visited a week before it closed. It was in La Cité Miroir in Liège, a nicely renovated building, that used to house a swimming pool. Before our visit to the exhibition, we had lunch at Como en Casa, a nice vegetarian restaurant, and we also visited the GoVeg Vegan shop. The website of the exhibition Zoos Humains, gave this introduction (my translation from French): “One isn’t born racist, one becomes racist  For more than five centuries, the industry of human exhibitions fascinated more than 1 billion 400 million visitors and put on display between 30.000 en 35.000 figurantes in spectacle shows, all around the world. These spectacles, being the first visual contact between cultures, have drawn a divide and a hierarchy between the so called “civilised” and the “savages” in the minds of westerners. At Zoos Humains, visitors learn how racist prejudices became installed during the times of the great …