Activism is usually thought of as the actions we take and the words that come out of our mouths, but can it also be the things we put into our bodies as well? The green anarchist and social ecology movements are among the youngest movements of anarchist expression, but they provide powerful tools for direct action in our lives. By extending our actions towards removing hierarchical systems of oppression from our communities and lives to the way we interact with animals living a vegan lifestyle becomes common sense.
But how can it be “common sense” to worry about what ends up on your plate or how a shirt is made? Anarchism is revolutionary, its about systems of organization that free the individual and humanity as a whole, how can anarchists pretend to be so lofty and important when they worry about such trivialities? As Tolstoy and Gandhi remind us, means are ends, and what exists in the means of how we get to revolution (whether that be the dictatorship of the proletariat, the reformism of modern politics, or the direct action of building within the shell of a capitalist world, etc.) manifests itself in the revolutionary end itself. The two are inseparably intertwined. Veganarchism is the extension of the revolutionary respect we give to all our comrades to the animals, which any honest observer of capitalism will admit share an undue burden through which we profit. Vegan anarchism is the conscious choice to not profit from this hierarchical relation when possible, and to be aware that this relationship is unnecessary and contrary to anarchism as a whole.
“There is no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism.” We hear this mantra continuously, and with good reason. As a tool to prevent ourselves from moralizing against the choices of our comrades it can be instrumental in maintaining solidarity, but sometimes you hear it as a means to support the status quo. The argument can be made that using the most straightforward definition of veganism there is no contradiction to considering oneself to be living a vegan lifestyle and simultaneously using products that caused some harm to animals or humans at some point in their production. By understanding this broadness of veganism—that is, the intent to reduce harm where possible—that allows one to reconcile the lack of ethical consumption with the decision to make the most ethical choice, of those available. Only the most pessimistic determinist would argue that as anarchists there is nothing we can do to bring about the revolution. Where possible, we attempt to counteract, or act wholly outside of, capitalism; where we cannot, we act as we must under the circumstances.
This is not a call to action to remove ourselves from civilization in an attempt to better the lives of those we may be exploiting today, though that choice, if made, may well mean all the difference to those who feel that exploitation today. This is definitely not a call to condemn a person who does not live or care to live a vegan life. What this is, is a call to examine each of our choices within the context of our anarchist thought, and upon doing so to make the decisions today that lay the foundations for anarchism tomorrow.