Hope all you Midlands lot can make it to ledbury!

As I understand it, grassroots AR activists have agreed to all get behind the World Day March and Rally in London on Sat 25th April. See  http://www.wdail.org

Neither SPEAK or SHAC, or other groups such as the Wickham/Covance campaigns have organised anything this year, so that as many people as possible will get to London.

The London event is a chance for all groups, campaigns and individuals to join forces in a show of strength against the vivisection industry and the Labour governments continued support for scientifically fraudulent animal torture. It`s also a chance to highlight the governments ongoing crackdown on peaceful animal rights campaigners, including Sean Kirtley, SHAC and others. It is widely felt that numbers in London will be huge, on a scale not seen in the UK for many years.

There will be Midlands activists that can`t do both the Sequani demo and the London demo, so some will naturally decide to support the demo against their local lab.

By organising something the week before the march in London, you are taking numbers away from that event, when the whole idea is to get as many people there as possible!

Please won`t you re-think this demo and instead encourage as many Midlands people as possible to get to London???

Thats why we thought the 18th! I am going to London on the 25th, It is also why we have said it is a regional demo (Midlands) so local activists can make a quick journey down for a couple of hours.

You`re right that some people will do both, but others will have to choose because:

1. They can only afford to travel to one event or they can only afford to have one Saturday off work.

2. Their work will only let them have one Saturday off, so they`ll have to choose which.

3. Their wife/husband/partner is not into AR and it would be unfair on them to go to a demo 2 Saturday`s running.


There will be many other reasons why some campaigners are unable to do a demo 2 Saturday`s running. Over the years, there has often been World Day demos on 2 consecutive weekends. SHAC and Newchurch for instance. Many people that would have liked to attend both were unable to, so they had to choose.

Yes, you`ve only called a `regional` World Day demo, but that means that many Midlands people who would otherwise have gone to London, will not be able to.

This is precisely why other campaigns have decided not to organise their own event this year, but to all support the London event in order to get as many people there as possible and make it absolutely huge!!

Look i wouldn't worry, everyone I know is going to London except for 1 or 2 that do not EVER go on demos outside their area, whether they can afford it or not, they just don't! So why not give them the opp to commemorate World Day!

And I agree it's great to pull together at one big demo to show strength etc! But I guarantee no one will choose Sequani over London, it's difficult to get numbers down there at the best of times!

i didnt know that you had to get permission from some sort of committee to organise and advertise your own demonstration????.... why not worry about your own protest instead of trying to push a small regional campaign around?.... i CAN NOT GET OVER the cheek of you actually asking someone to CANCEL a demonstration - I have been involved in the anti vivisection movement for over 10 years and time and time again its this sort of attitude that has done so much damage, egos getting in the way of speaking out for the animals - i HATE going to London full stop and won't be attending the world day demo there - it is nice that should I choose to do something for world day there is an alternative event two hours closer to where I live and I for one will NOT be told where and when to protest, all the best with BOTH protests, I'm sure a huge number will turn up to the London one and I'm sure that however many turn up to Sequani it will not detract from the main event a week after, I do feel it sad that Gemma has to justify and explain herself for organising a protest against animal cruelty to anyone, let alone someone on the same side of the argument

Looking forward to attending both demos!

Tony, I don't think your arguments against the Ledbury demo are very convincing...

If there is one thing the recent animal rights repression has told us it is that decentralisation would be a good tactic. The more regional World Day for Lab Animals demos there are, the better.

I don`t believe I asked for the event to be cancelled (it`s not for me to ask this). As facts emerged which Gemma didn`t previously seem to be aware of, it was only sensible to have a re-think, even if she still came to the same conclusion. I merely wanted to point out the reasons why other campaigns had decided not to organise World Day demos and also emphasise the reasons why some people would be unable to attend both Sequani and London.

You mistakenly assume I am somehow involved with the organisation of the London event. This is not the case.

Whether or not it is more effective to have a huge World Day demo in London or several smaller World Day demos round the country is not the issue here. That decision has long since been made at National ARC Meetings. I would suggest that if you want to influence decisions like this in the future, that you attend these meetings. The next is in Bristol on Sunday 5 April, see  http://www.veggies.org.uk/event.php?ref=1251

ARC is not some kind of national management meeting for AR. AR is non-hierarchical - groups and individuals make there own choices. ARC doesn’t make ‘rules’ for the movement. That said I understand the point you were trying to make.

Fair point ARUK. I didn`t mean to sound like that, but understand that it did. Sorry to Gemma and others concerned.

It is great that this discussion has given an opportunity to stress the vital importance of the National Rally for Animals in Laboratories in London on Saturday April 25th.

Campaigning organisations in the UK and across the globe, have for many years marked World Day for Laboratory Animals in many ways. It is a United Nations recognized day of international commemoration of the suffering and killing of millions of innocent sentient beings in laboratories throughout the world; an opportunity to reflect upon the pain and suffering caused in the name of a fraudulent scientific practice - a practice that is not only is so cruel to the animals so horribly abused and killed by vivisectors, but a practice that so cruelly gives false hope to those with illness and disease.

Yes, everyone should make every effort to get to the London Rally.
Part of that process may be to hold vigils to highlight local connections with the global vivisection industry, to publicise and mobilize for April 25th.

The week that surrounds April 24th every year sees street stalls, media events and protests at laboratories to stop testing and research on animals, with many opportunities for local campaigning across the UK.

For example, Loughborough Animal Rights have for many years held World Day vigils outside the gates of Hillcrest Ltd (formerly Harlan UK) - animal breeders for the vivisection industry at Dodgeford Lane, Belton, Leicestershire, this year on April 22nd (see  http://www.veggies.org.uk/event.php?ref=1196) - as well as attending national rallies at both ends of World Week for Animals in Laboratories.

There will also be a vigil at Nottingham University's Medical School on Friday 17th April ( http://www.veggies.org.uk/event.php?ref=53).

We believe that local people will be motivated to support the national rally when they hear about the cruelty inflicted at Nottingham University;
"In a collaborative behaviour study with the University of Ireland, male rats were injected with formalin - a toxic chemical that causes considerable and lasting pain. They were then put inside a perspex chamber that administered repeated electric shocks to their feet. A microphone was placed above the chamber to record the rats' cries of pain, communicated in ultrasound."

A vigil like this would usually involve about a dozen people. A similar number sometimes make it to 'national' demos away from Nottingham. However it is confidently expected to bring 50 or more people to the London Rally. Intense locally campaigning will be an important part of that process.

Gosh has it really been 5 hours since I began drafting this comment! Since then there have been many other comments, and a posting at  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/03/425589.html confirming the Sequani event, which I hope will also motivate event more people to get to London.

This also gives an opportunity to remind readers about the Animal Rights Coalition Meeting in Bristol on April 5th. See details at  http://www.veggies.org.uk/event.php?ref=1251 and read the Indymedia feature from the January meeting at  http://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/01/420462.html

Whilst the strength of the movement is the autonomous actions of many groups and individuals throughout the UK, ARC meetings are a great opportunity to meet up with other activists from all over the country, to catch up on the latest news about the current campaigns, and to swap ideas, tactics, skills and information, providing an forum to discuss movement-wide issues and to plan events such as the World Day Rally.

I look forward to seeing you on April 5th, 17nd, 22nd AND 25th, but sorry I won't get to Sequani on the 18th!