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Radical solidarity - an artist's statement

By Ari | Dec 11, 08 01:05 PM

It looks like Socialist Party USA is going to publish some of my more activisty artwork in the upcoming International Women's Day edition of Socialist Women. I've done some custom illustration for them and even laid out the whole magazine several times, but this is the first time they'll be publishing the art I make for my own activist purposes. Since it's heavy on animal rights and sustainability and the issue (like most issues...) didn't have any content along those lines, the editorial collective asked me to write an artist's statement to go with the work. I sometimes have a hard time asserting myself as an earthy-crunchy animal-loving hippie in the socialist community, and people have a tendency to get pissed when one draws connections between the oppression of humans and animals, so writing this was a challenge! I really welcome comments from folks - let me know what you think.

In progressive activist circles we often talk of solidarity, and with good reason - unexamined privilege and blindness to the oppression of others makes social change difficult. If we come to activism with open minds and open hearts, we'll find allies everywhere, and our unity will advance the causes of peace and social justice. Fortunately, over time, the circle of compassion has widened further and further. People really seem to be learning to look beyond our differences and understand and identify with each other's struggles on an international level. And finally, activists working in all areas are realizing that this compassion needs to be extended not only to all humans but to the home we all share, our earth.

However, many people are still reluctant to open the circle of compassion to non-human animals. Even in the most radical queer or feminist or socialist spaces, mentions of animal rights are often met with ridicule or patronizing requests that we stick to "real issues" like human rights. Though animals feel pain and pleasure, are sentient enough to have families and desires and agendas of their own, and there are vegan alternatives aplenty to their exploitation, animal rights, we are told, will have to wait until after the revolution.

This pattern is an old one, repeated time after time throughout history. Sojourner Truth was told that black women's rights had to wait until after white women's suffrage had been secured. Bayard Rustin was denied credit for organizing the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom because he was queer. Every time we disregard one person's rights to advance someone else's rights, we may think we're being strategic, but we're also oppressing someone and holding back their struggle.

The means are the ends. We need to be the change we wish to see. It's time for a radical new solidarity that acknowledges all oppressions and all struggles as interconnected. Believe it or not, there are no limits to compassion. Perfection might not be attainable, but it is entirely possible for each of us to begin to abstain not only from the oppression of other humans, but from exploiting animals as well.

Animals may not be able to communicate in a language we can understand, but they have many allies in their struggle: vegans, finally coming to accept and move beyond our species privilege. We may be part of the "circle of life" but our species is capable of great things, including forging new paths that don't include the strong preying on the weak.

I'm an activist / artist living in a progressive town where my partner and I are organizing a back-to-the-land vegan housing collective. I work with local groups and folks online to do community organizing and create art and outreach materials around issues of sustainability, radical solidarity, nonviolence, and economic justice. You can see my work, find out about my current projects, and check out our blog and podcast at shirari.com.

More: Activism | Animals | Art and Design | Books and Writing | Human Rights | Oppression | Politics | Queer | Work

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