Manifesto – English Version

Leggi il manifesto in italiano

Organisation

The structure of the Insectionals collective is based on:

1) Horizontality and mutual support between radical and intersectional antispeciesist volunteers.
Since we support the fight against all forms of oppression, we believe that the cooperation and union between individuals are the only valid forms of collective support that are able to carry out radical and intersectional antispeciesist policies, theories, and practices.

2) The de-normalisation and linguistic deconstruction of speciesism.
The prevailing speciesist linguistic structures, and their normalisation, automatically lead to the division of non-human animals into “useful” and “useless”, “worthy” and “worthless”. In fact, certain words and terms perpetuate a discriminatory stigma and, therefore, empower their speciesist root and its own binarism. In turn, that justifies a culture based on the “absent referent” – the transformation of an individual into a commodity. By stripping someone of their dignity, their inviolable freedom becomes property.

Consequently, this leads up to the normalisation of problematic relations between human and non-human animals. These aspects, often underestimated by the very same members of the animal liberation movement, cannot be ignored any longer, and call for a radical demolition, comprehensible and accessible for all.

3) Supporting intersectional information.
Today’s means of information, built around an oppressive culture, promote a communication based on dualisms and exclusivisms. Dismantling such a language is only possible when one is fully conscious and aware of the social, cultural and economic system they live in.

Furthermore, we support an informative praxis, opposed to the mainstream, misleading, and anthropocentric methods of raising awareness – those focused on pity, compassion, empathy, etc.

4) Recognition of the political resistance of non-human animal people through sanctuaries.
The resistance of all non-humans has always been dismissed, ignored and considered an exceptionality to be repressed. As radical antispeciesists we support non-human animal individuals as political agents of resistance; our position is that of allies and accomplices.

Farms are non-places where non-human animals are considered commodities; sanctuaries, therefore, are the only political places where they can gain their individuality back. We recognise sanctuaries as a necessary and temporary compromise, and not as a definitive solution. We believe that every antispeciesist militant must fully commit themselves, so that shelters, in a desirable future society, will no longer be needed.

5) Supporting direct action as active co-resitance.
Recognising non-humans as the focus of the antispeciesist movement, we consider direct action as a form of active resistance that allows us, as allies and accomplices, to support their struggles. We therefore reject any approach that refers to non-humans as “voiceless” and/or to activists as “their voice”.

Radical Antispeciesism

Politics

Insectionals is a nonpartisan political collective that distances itself from all forms of hierarchy and centralised power, carrying out an anarchic practice that looks towards the use of individual freedom as a tool for the achievement of a social order.

We recognise Antispecesism as a movement of radical criticism of the Existent and its political role. We reject all apolitical groups and instances, as we believe they are agents of confusion and division.

The Antispeciesist movement fights against Speciesism: a form of discrimination which is systematic, widespread, and deeply rooted; focused on undeniable biological differences between species, hence used to legitimise oppression. This gives rise to the “Speciesist Machine” – as described by Massimo Filippi in his book “Questioni di specie” (Species troubles).

We believe in a logic of deconstruction of all social and economic speciesist norms; moreover, we encourage people to adhere to “The Liberation Pledge“.

Economy

Insectionals recognises the economy as the result and fusion of social relations, perpetually evolving in today’s liquid, neoliberal, capitalist society. We therefore take part in anti-capitalist demands, condemning all forms of green-capitalism and green-washing. We do not support “vegan options” promoted by multinationals that profit – even minimally – from the exploitation of human and non-human animal individuals, because it would imply legitimising, financing, and supporting them in their entirety.

We do not support a “system-change” program, because it is illusory and harmful, but rather, a whole new paradigm, based on ecotransfeminist ecology. Our collective is for a Total Liberation, and therefore, also for the liberation of the Earth; we therefore promote local fair trade initiatives, a slow economy, and low/zero waste consumption styles. The concept of economy that we support is a horizontal one, since all individuals themselves embody those same economic, personal and interpersonal relationships; the means of consumption cannot ignore their needs. Antispeciesism, therefore, cannot afford to ignore anti-capitalism, as, in reality, it already embodies it.

We support an inclusive and accessible veganism, rejecting “carnist”, flexitarian and reducitarian styles of consumption. We believe, in fact, that this is the only non-ableist, non-classist and non-speciesist option that is truly possible for all.

Radical intersectionalism

We will now clarify our position on the following issues:

Speciesism

We believe that Speciesism is the root cause of all interspecific discriminations; however, we do so without declaring a hierarchy of oppression whatsoever. In fact, there are no A-grade victims and B-grade victims. We therefore reject epithets such as “What if they were dogs/cats?” or “Why love one [“pets”] and eat the other [“slaughter animals”]?“, because we believe that non-human “pet” animals are to be considered equal victims of speciesism, as they don’t benefit from a privileged treatment.

We assert that the antispeciesist movement must include all non-human individuals, and therefore not only mammals and those that are socially and culturally close to humans, but also invertebrates and vertebrates. In fact, Insectionals intends to deconstruct every kind of anthropocentric and anthropomorphic logic, as humanist utilitarian heritage.

As members of the human species, over the millennia, we have honed our techniques of domination and subjugation of our conspecifics (fellow humans) through their refinement on the bodies of non-human people. Our collective therefore promotes an antispeciesism that aims to dismantle the prejudice of human superiority over other species, with an eco-centric and bio-centric attitude. Consequently, we condemn “vegan influencers”, and any promoted instance of hero-worshipping and paternalistic saviourism, as they tend to focus on human activists rather than non-human people.

Sexism

In regards to today’s feminist movement, Insectionals takes a queer, ecotransfeminist stance. We therefore condemn the patriarchy and all forms of violence linked to it (either physical, verbal, psychological, cultural, social, religious, economic) as forced and coercive, as well as the consequent culture of rape through our commodifying capitalist system.

Our group supports intersectional feminism, and does so in an antispeciesist way. Because of that, we remain inclusive and support all women – AFAB (i.e. people whose sex assignment at birth resulted in a declaration of “female”) and not – and all those who do not identify themselves / do not feel represented by the gender binary (including intersex, agender, genderqueer, genderfluid, queer, etc people).

We also support people of any non-heterosexual and/or non-heteroromantic orientation, as well as being in favour of sexworkers, being pro-choice/supporters, and advocates of the right to abortion. As antispeciesists we cannot deny the full bodily autonomy of each individual, regardless of their species, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, social class, physical and mental condition, etc. We radically condemn sexism, and therefore all instances of heterosexism, cis-sexism, whorephobia, weightism / lookism / sizeism.

LGBTQIA+ Movement

We support the LGBTQIA+ fight, deconstructing cis-heteronormativity in the same way. We also offer an anti-dyadist vision (i.e. against the sociobiological gender binarism).

Ableism

We condemn every type of ableist discrimination, as it oppresses individuals of different mental and physical conditions, marginalising and stigmatising them (e.g. mental disorders, cognitive deficits, disabilities, etc.).

Other

We are strongly opposed to antisemitism, xenophobia, racism; we also condemn nativism, colonialism, imperialism, and European and/or Western ethnocentrism, as well as cultural appropriation. Insectionals fights against ageist, religious, fascist, authoritarian and ecocidal discriminations, and votes against the prison and class system.