Monday 2 August 2010

Autonomist Issue 1 Version 2...

Seems the Monogamy article from the first issue was getting a very negative reception, so we've replaced it with one about Noah's Ark Zoo Farm for the print run.

Autonomist August 2010 Print Version (PDF)

And here's the new article for those of you who're allergic to PDF:

Activists “Determined to Close” Noah's Ark Zoo


On Monday 26th July, three members of BARC attended Noah's Ark Zoo Farm for a tour of the zoo. In an attempt to win over the protestors, who have been staging regular pickets of the zoo over the treatment of the animals inside, the small group were shown around half of the site.

The activists described themselves as “distressed and saddened” by what they saw. During the visit they witnessed vultures injuring themselves by” flying repeatedly into the walls and roof of [the] aviary”.

Noah's Ark Zoo Farm have recently gained notoriety after reports of the mistreatment of their animals, including rare tigers, caused inspectors to review their license. They have also come under fire for their promotion of Creationism – which hasn't stopped them recently winning an award from the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom. It's an odd world...

3 comments:

  1. Seems like a good idea. This is a decent story. The other one though.. It's one sort of thing to say the English have daft hang-ups about sex, or to criticise religious abstinence, or comment that we shouldn't depend on only one friend, or mourn the violent loss of life and a prison system not taking kids into account (in this case maybe?). But to talk about monopolising and controlling partners when it sounds like it was a male who did the cheating because he wanted to be "free" - come on! Perhaps half your readers gone, informal hierarchies maintained within activist groups, male anti-patriarchy meeting announced two stories down kinda loses it's punch. Discuss open relationships but recognise that they can serve as a handy mask for already-desired male wants.

    (Apologies if I misinterpreted/wrongly assumed any facts in the story. But I think the point stands anyway.)

    Sorry if this has all already been said, but also for the record, I don't think deleting comments (unless there was a good reason) is a smart move, particularly when blogspot leaves a record of it.

    That said, genuine good luck with the paper. Sounds like Bristol kicks arse!

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  2. On a personal level I didn't like the Monogamy article. I feel there is almost a level of peer pressure to be polygamous if you want to be "A fine upstanding Anarchist of the Community". That's rubbish. As an anarchist I do what I want and for me that involves being monogamous.

    On the other hand, removing the article opens up a whole new debate on self censorship.

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  3. I'm the author of the monogamy article, and also the person who made the final decision to pull it after discussion with the rest of the editors and several readers. I'd intended to start debate and discussion, but sadly the article ended up being so badly written - sadly I failed to realise this until re-reading a few days after the fact - that the point I was trying to make seems to have escaped conpletely. Thus I view the removal of the article not as censorhip, self- or otherwise, but as an opportunity to come back to the point fresh when I have more time and more than 200 words to give it.

    Fortunately, none of this should be an issue next month, as we've had a fantastic number of people offering to write for us, so I can just focus on getting the events in order.

    Factually, I understand it was the woman involved who was accused of cheating. I'm not sure if this is an important point or not, though.

    I do however reject the idea of there being peer preassure towards polyarmory in anarchist cicles. I've experienced none of this, and indeed feel some preassure towards monogamy remains, but have heard a lot of people complain about being preassured towards polyamory. My motivation for writing the article was certainly not an attempt to impose my lifestyle choices upon others, nor an abstract ideological argument for an ideal I view as intellectually cooler than the alternative.

    I personally spent three years in a violent relationship, and I feel societal preassures towards monogamy, and the emotional fallout created when monogamy failed, were a significant contributing factor. Having lived through these issues, I often perceive them at work in the world around me, often to greatly detrimental effect.

    The comment on the original posting of issue 1 was deleted by the author. None of us actually checked the blog before that happened, so we don't know what it said.

    -Dave

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