The network “Gemeinsam gegen die Tierindustrie”, is a cross-movement, Germany-wide alliance that was founded at an activists gathering in July 2019. Together we are calling for the abolition of the animal industry. We are convinced that we ourselves must take action to promote a process of social change because corporations and governments will not take the steps we believe are necessary. We need an agricultural shift towards a solidarity-based, ecological production and organization that neither harms others nor is geared to profit.
We are mobilising around a plan to send a clear signal for the abolition of the animal industry with a publicly announced mass action of civil disobedience. We are consciously targeting key players and profiteers in the animal industry, for example corporations like the PHW Group, the Tönnies Holding, Vion Food and Westfleisch which have enormous economic power and are a major influence on the entire animal industry. At the same time, our protest is not only against these corporations, but against the whole system of oppression and exploitation of people, animals and the environment.
Our alliance is open for groups and people from different movements and a wide political spectrum. In particular:
- the animal rights and animal liberation movement, which fights against the animal industry and all other forms of animal exploitation and for an end to the devaluation of non-human animals;
- the climate protection and climate justice movement, which criticizes the animal industry for its enormous climate damage, and calls for solidarity with the global consequences of climate change;
- the movements for smallholder and self-determined agriculture, which support the struggle of small farmers against the animal industry and demand agroecology and food sovereignty;
- the environmental protection movement, which fights against the diverse environmental impacts of the animal industry and for ecological agriculture;
- trade unionists and labour law initiatives that fight to end miserable working conditions and exploitation in the animal industry and for the strengthening of the rights of workers, especially migrants;
- citizens’ initiatives fighting locally against the construction and expansion of animal industry facilities.
We are combining our strength to act against the animal industry. We are combining and networking the various struggles in a spirit of solidarity, and we respect that our motives may not be identical in every point. In addition to the common network demands, alliance members will bring their own additional demands with the campaign.
As part of the left-wing, we understand our struggle to be feminist, anti-fascist, anti-racist and anti-capitalist. In this context, we are in solidarity with everyone who resists the destruction of the climate and the environment, the exploitation of humans and animals. We are aware of everyday and structural discrimination against each other, including discrimination based on social origin and social status, and we want to actively fight against it.
We are an open alliance, to which interested parties are welcome to join. We make decisions democratically and we always strive for consensus. We are currently preparing a joint campaign against the animal industry in 2021.