Animal Liberation and Social Justice – Theory and Testimony
LEFT FORUM Saturday May 31 in New York City Noon-1:50pm
An animal revolution is underway, yet the vast majority of leftists seem indifferent to it. Why? Nearly everything the left fights for is undermined by
systemic animal abuse. What is it to be human? What is it to be animal?
Every morally relevant proof of human superiority—reason, language, moral awareness, self-awareness, future awareness, social laws—is proven
groundless. Yet distortions persist claiming to justify crimes against animals. Marx's vision of a classless society looks toward a time when all
alienation—between humans and the natural world, humans and the social world, a person and himself or herself—is overcome.
Yet the anthropocentrism of many on the left who share that vision—and of Marx himself—obstructs progress toward it. For to ignore the cries of
animals is to be complicit in their enslavement, an enslavement that is destroying the Earth and ravaging human life—much of it, moreover, typifying
colonists' enslaving of the colonized, the degraded, alienated consciousness of the enslaver in each case differing scarcely at all. Sifting theoretical
insights—while at the same time offering personal testimony—this panel shows why the liberating of animals is always also about human
liberation, and why justice for animals is always also about human justice.
Speakers
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KAREN DAVIS, President and Founder of United Poultry Concerns and author of Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs, among many other publications
JOHN SANBONMATSU, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and author of The Postmodern Prince: Critical Theory, Left Strategy, and the Making of a New Political Subject
PATTRICE JONES, Co-founder of VINE Sanctuary in Vermont and author of Aftershock: Confronting Trauma in a Violent World, a Guide for Activists and their Allies
JOAN HARRISON, Independent advocate for animals, homeless advocate, author of many poems, essays, letters, blogs, and chair of this panel
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Karen Davis, PhD
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Where and When
DATE:
Saturday May 31, 2014
TIME:
Session 2 from Noon to 1:50pm
PLACE:
Room 3.8 John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, 524 West 59th Street, New York, NY 10019
REGISTRATION:
Left Forum, John Jay College of Criminal Justice - The City University of New York
Also coming up in NYC
Thursday, June 12 Animal Sacrifice, Religion and the Law. The Practice of Using Chickens as Kaporos: A Forum Free & Open to the Public
