“PHW ade!”: camp and mass action of civil disobedience of the alliance “Gemeinsam gegen die Tierindustrie” in July 2021

Climate change is advancing at an alarming rate, the Amazon rainforest is burning continuously, the workers in the animal factories, slaughterhouses and meat processing plants have to work under inhumane conditions and undercover research in animal factories reveals horrific conditions time and again. With corona, a worldwide pandemic is raging, which as a zoonotic disease has its origin in the destruction of our natural foundations of life. And the animal industry responsible for this is achieving record sales and growth rates – this is a scandal!

We want to counter this. In July, we will demonstrate in Lower Saxony with an action camp for agriculture that is not based on the exploitation of people, other animals and nature. We will also protest protest against the animal industry with a mass action targeted at the PHW-Wiesenhof Group, the largest corporation in the German poultry industry.

Read more about our plans and goals in our Call for action.

We from the Alliance Gemeinsam gegen die Tierindustrie have decided to sign the “Pacto Ecosocial del Sur”. It stands for a social, ecological, economic and intercultural pact for Latin America and we share several values aiming at profound social and economic change for a better world. The whole text from the “Pacto Ecosocial del Sur” and all signees can be found here.

The 2020 virus pandemic exposed how global social inequalities further disenfranchise the most vulnerable people. Care work is routinely performed by women without adequate recognition, very often unpaid. Refugees are held in dreadful conditions overseas and in border camps while seasonal workers are flown to Europe to harvest asparagus. Indigenous populations struggle since centuries against diseases and predatory extractivism in their own territories brought by white settlers and modern economic practices, such as mining and soy monoculture production. In the German context, low-paid immigrants and irregularized people are subject to terrible working conditions in slaughterhouses, sanctioned by precarious and exploitative sub-contracts.

In addition to all these exploiting relations sanctioned by capitalism, environmental limits are being reached. An economy oriented towards the greedy extraction of natural resources is fostered by Global North actors, whose effects in the Global South include deterritorialization of local populations, outspread pollution and ecosystems destruction, increase in food insecurity and deepening of social inequalities.

Therefore, we from the Alliance Gemeinsam gegen die Tierindustrie sign the pact in solidarity, working for and supporting climate and social justice movements regionally and internationally. We understand that global solidarity is the first tool when working for dismantling structural power asymmetries. This fight includes post-colonial and racial struggles, gender equality as well as animal liberation and climate justice. It is our view that a pro-intersectional approach is crucial to work for a more just world.

Building upon the points outlined by the “Pacto Ecosocial del Sur”, an agricultural shift towards a solidary, ecological and plant-based production is critical, to be organized in a way that neither harms others nor is oriented on profit. Stopping the animal industry is in our view a crucial move when fighting against climate change and a global capitalism exploiting people, animals and nature. More information about us and our values can be found here.

Call from the Alliance Gemeinsam gegen die Tierindustrie for nationwide action days from 28-31 May

From Thursday 28th to Sunday 31st May we are setting a sign. A sign of solidarity with the slaughterhouse workers, but also with all the other workers who have to work under the most adverse conditions for the profits of a few. And we are setting a sign of protest against the unrestrained exploitation of animals and nature in the name of profit.

With creative actions in front of slaughterhouses and in public places we will draw attention for the situation of the workers. We will respect the health of all of us and observe hygiene measures, but we will nevertheless leave our mark in public places.

Our demands
With our actions we make it clear that the following immediate measures are urgently needed now:

• The animal industry must be shut down to prevent further corona infections
• The workers must be financially, socially and healthily safeguarded in the event of plant closures – at the expense of the corporations
• The workers must be provided with housing that allows for dignified accommodation that meets the requirements of the corona situation, e.g. in hotels, holiday homes or vacant apartments. And this not only in this situation.

But the workers are not only exposed to harsh conditions in times of Corona. Rather, the workers are exploited to the extreme by the animal industry in the sense of profit maximization. An end of the precarious employment of the workers is needed and with it an abolition of contract and temporary work!

In addition, a comprehensive agricultural turn towards a solidary and ecological way of production and organisation is long overdue.

Let’s take our protest to the public

Show your solidarity and draw attention to the exploitation of workers in the meat industry in various places: by hanging up signs and banners, by demonstrations in places of exploitation (slaughterhouses and fattening factories, supermarkets, etc.), bicycle demonstrations or by chalk marks in the city. Let your ideas run free!

You can tell us your planned actions in advance, and we will draw attention to them. And please post on your channels under the hashtags #GemeinsamGegenTierindustrie, #SolidaritätStattFleischindustrie oder #PeopleOverProfits about your action! Pictures, videos or written reports can be sent to our e-mail address mail@gemeinsam-gegen-die-tierindustrie.org after the action, then we will publish it on our channels

Until our demands are fullfilled, we will not rest.
Together we are many!

Ideas and materials for your actions

Here are some suggestions for slogans:

• Shut down Tierindustrie
• Solidarity with the Workers in the Meat Industry

Flyer templates in several languages will follow.

The situation of the workers
As in almost every social crisis, the Corona crisis affects especially the people who are at the bottom of this society – like the migrant workers in the slaughterhouses and meat processing plants of the meat industry.

At the same time, the groups of the animal industry are classified as systemically important, even though the food supply would be able to survive without them. And they also benefit from additional government support. This is a scandal!

The workers, on the other hand, cannot even protect themselves from the virus because of the exploitative working conditions: Lack of protective equipment, which is denied to them not only during corona times, the non-compliance of distance rules, health-endangering hard work with 12-hour shifts 6 days a week. In the same way, they are exposed to an increased risk of infection in the overcrowded collective accommodation and the overcrowded collective transport vehicles that bring them to work.

Working conditions in the animal industry are worsened by corona and also in precarious jobs in general. Labour laws are being eroded more and more, existing rights are effectively even harder to fight for.

Appeals by trade unions and labour rights initiatives demanding the adoption of measures to protect migrant workers from corona infections were ignored and the inevitable happened: In slaughter factories, among others of Vion, Westfleisch, Müller-Fleisch and PHW/Wiesenhof, thousands of workers have already been infected with corona. As long as appropriate protective measures are not taken, further outbreaks can be expected. According to the authorities, however, the companies have the situation under control and the slaughtering can continue. And that all for the profit of a few. Only after a public outcry actions was taken and slaughterhouses were temporarily closed where there was no other option. As always in the capitalist system, the needs of people, animals and the environment are irrelevant as long as they stand in the way of profit.

Our comrade Laura was interviewed yesterday by “Arbeitsunrecht TV”. She reported about our work, our motivation and planned actions. She also mobilized for days of action on the occasion of the corona outbreaks in the slaughterhouses and processing factories, which will take place on the weekend of Pentecost. We will publish the call for action days shortly. Many thanks to aktion./. arbeitsunrecht for the interview.