Many reactions to the current fires that are burning through forests, mountains and townships in southeast Australia provide illustration of the persistence of not just anthropocentric attitudes in contemporary society. Sadly, they are also ripe with examples of what some may consider bushism’s, the rhetoric of us v them, with them being the environment. Nature positioned as other, an enemy that we must fight against, apparently possesses a pervasive quality that lingers amongst what many hope are changing attitudes—attitudes essential to alter the current path of the often-untold and non-cons…

I have been working through Peter Gelderloos’ How nonviolence protects the state for the last few weeks. During that time I have had the opportunity to discuss many of the challenges he puts forward as well as some underlying assumptions and non-stated premises. Whilst I think significant amounts of what he has produced provide valuable points for discussion, I also have a number of issues with it. As my comments and reflections on this will be substantial, this will be my first installment, in engaging with this work. My aim here is not to summarise the arguments he has put forward – you can …

I presented a paper at a conference at Brock University in March – “Thinking About Animals: Domination, Captivity, Liberation”. Whilst my paper was directed at animal activists, it had a broader undercurrent. Much of what I was raising I have seen widespread in activist circles. My paper was titled Animal Liberation: symbolic action, un/civil disobedience & the use of fear. In this paper I was commenting on tactics adopted actions across the board – as I think the title indicates. The immediate context of this was the publishing if Lee Hall’s Capers in the Churchyard – animal rights advoca…