Beasts of Burden is a pamphlet published in 1999 by anti-state Communist groups Antagonism and Practical History. Quoting from the introduction:
This is a text which, we hope, faces in two directions. On the one hand we hope that it will be read by people interested in animal liberation who want to consider why animal exploitation exists, as well as how. On the other hand, by those who define themselves as anarchists or communists who either dismiss animal liberation altogether or personally sympathise with it but don’t see how it relates to their broader political stance.
While there have always been groups and individuals with feet in both camps, for the most part discussion between those involved in animal liberation and communists has been at a derisory level. ‘Debate,’ in so far as it exists, consists mainly of abuse and rarely moves beyond the level of comments like ‘wasn’t Hitler a vegetarian’ (actually not – he injected ‘bulls blood’ into his testicles, and does this mean you can’t be a communist and a house painter or an Austrian?).
We hope to prompt the beginnings of a real debate about the relationship between the ‘animal question’ and the ‘social question’. This text does not claim to have all the answers or to be the ‘communist manifesto’ for animals, but we think that it does pose some of the key questions. Over to you…
The pamphlet is well-written and makes a convincing case. As such, we’ve decided to format it and put it online for everyone to enjoy, download it here.
Two prominent critiques/reviews have been published, one by Undercurrent and one by Gilles Dauve. Antagonism and Practical History wrote replies to both of them, found here and here respectively.
