![OS POSITIVOS](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zKKfxaIfpU8/Wv1aApfmmBI/AAAAAAAARbk/X7F-ldyPjjE3TCXHeH3HZ2xeVNDugZDCgCKgBGAs/s1600/x_header-200.png")
When Last Hours zine attempted to compile a ‘Punk Rock Census’ in 2006 they found that 54.6 percent of respondents were either vegan or vegetarian, compared with less than 3 percent of the general population.
Um raro e muito breve regresso à comunidade, portanto.
Entre aqueles que alimentam os mainstream media, coloca-se a questão:
I’m not sure how to put this one, but here goes: Journalists need to think politically about journalism itself, which does not mean to politicize it.
in "Prospects for the American press under Trump, part two" 30 dez 2016
Uma nuance que não nos é estranha.
What I mean by "think politically" involves basic questions: What do we stand for that others also believe in? Who is aligned against us? Where are we most vulnerable? What are our opponents’ strengths? How can we broaden our base? Who are our natural allies? What can we unite around, despite our internal differences? What are the overlapping interests that might permit us to make common cause with people who are not journalists?
in "Prospects for the American press under Trump, part two" 30 dez 2016
Familiar? Substitui o "who are not journalists" por "who are not anti-nazi veggie anarcho punks" e este é um debate que nos persegue a cada passo que damos. Às vezes, é mesmo um debate que nos impede de dar qualquer outro passo sequer. We are not an easy bunch. E este "nós" estende-se muito além dOS POSITIVOS: inclui alguns dos seus leitores e outras almas gémeas que partilham da afiliação a temas maiores mas que não nos lêem - quiçá porque entre a já de si imensa minoria, quando triangulamos sobre punk em banda desenhada damos por nós sem muitos zines para troca. Falemos então do "politizar" da cena. No espírito do abrir excepções (*) com que começamos este post socorremo-nos de um artigo de 2014 (**) entitulado "‘Nailing Descartes to the Wall’: animal rights, veganism and punk culture".
'Nailing Descartes to the Wall': Animal Rights, Veganism and Punk Culture 2014
Punk and veganism/animal rights are undoubtedly connected. This is expressed through the lyrics and imagery of punk bands, the editorial and interview content of zines, numerous benefit gigs and record releases for animal activist causes, and in the overlap between punk and veganism in cafés, social centres, Food Not Bombs chapters, and hunt saboteur (hunt sab) groups. This is not to say that all punks are vegan, or that all vegans are punks – but the prevalence of this connection cannot be ignored and is particularly striking when considered in conjunction with anarchist and intersectional politics. (…) The connection between punk and animal rights is also recognised by animal rights activists who are not punks.
Literature dealing with punk pays scant attention to vegan/animal rights issues in general. The majority of books written about punk follow very narrow, singular narratives which consider punk as a brief moment of the late 1970s, and even within that time period only focus on commercially successful bands. There is some truth in a view of early punk as a rhetorically anti-hippie, leather jacket wearing scene, but such a focus ignores the emergence of animal rights in punk (…) The anarcho-punk scene held animal rights as a central theme, so those accounts of punk that get beyond 1979 do frequently mention veganism and animal rights, but even here it is often as a brief mention within a list of other political engagements. This understanding of veganism and animal rights in conjunction with other radical politics is valid and useful. However (…) ‘animal rights was always a very very key type of thing’.
Sobre o artigo, publicado na forma de zine:
This zine examines the frequent overlap between punk culture and animal rights activism/vegan consumption habits. It is argued that this relationship is most strongly and consistently expressed, and most sensibly understood, in connection with anarchism.
IE, us punx. Per punx. Viramos o espelho de volta à nossa gente e à falta de outra amostragem, é esta a base que usaremos para primeiras premissas. E, infelizmente, bastante bem conseguidas e é delas que nos ocuparemos. Da apresentação:
The theme of politicisation will be raised, examining the link between people’s exposure to animal rights/veganism through punk, and the adoption of vegan consumption habits or involvement in animal rights activism.
The tension between individual choice and subcultural expectation will be explored, followed by an examination of the supposed dichotomy between consumption and activist politics in animal rights.
Mandatory disclaimer porque fica bem ao contraditório:
There are anarchists who deny that animal rights has anything to do with their politics.
We call them assholes mas name calling é feio e razão deste post. Na sua totalidade o zine merece a leitura e recomendamos, ainda que recaia numa categoria algo difícil: não é a entrada certa para curiosos sem conhecimento de causa, é um muito bem conseguido passeio por memórias idas e sem soluções ou direcções. E nessas chegamos ao artigo per se com a zine a ser chutada para canto: terminas a leitura com aquele travo amargo que te recorda o fucked up que enrola a cena no seu todo e porque alguns -hint hint- escolhem seguir caminhos menos óbvios (***).
[! wink wink u-fanboy-u]
Impossível de resumir num só excerto e reconhecerás rapidamente quando leres o artigo: onde falhamos, vezes sem conta.
The link between dietary habits and activism separates veganism in the punk scene from the growing international trend. Another key difference is the tendency of punks to combine veganism with a critique of capitalism and – most significantly – with an anarchist engagement. (…) Some anarchists reject veganism as a consumer activity: every vegan (...) is actively supporting capitalism by participating in a great smoke screen which hides the true nature of how the present economic system actually functions.’
Entre o "vegan police" -aquilo do elitismo- e o sistemático anti-sistema, o anarko-punk-veggie way of life tem as suas tribulações internas, e as duas preposições são puro veneno entre a rapaziada anti-autoritária.
Rather than providing an insightful anarchist perspective, these criticisms of the ‘naïve vegan novice out to change the world’ are often patronising and offer no solutions to creating the better world their authors claim to seek.
Cada um tem opiniões férreas sobre o assunto e não somos diferentes: pregamos para dentro, desprezamos para fora, mas somos verdadeiramente sensíveis ao abrir de portas a quem vem por bem. Como, aliás, deveria ser óbvio pelo sentido subjacente às nossas teses: somos "inclusivistas", quando a intenção está lá. Não nos alongamos mais sobre o tema, é mais divertido partir pedra para cima dos cómicos e dos media, temos menos investido. Num resumo limpo e sucinto: us, them punx, politics & politization:
Punk has a clear politicising role, and many people exposed to animal rights and veganism continue their activism after ending their involvement in punk scenes. This suggests that whilst punk has a politicising role for young activists, working as their first point of contact with radical activism, it is not regarded as a significant end in itself.
E se estamos a abrir excepções, no próximo post:
Zines are another excellent organ through which punks express opinions and political ideas.
* O autocorrect corrigiu para "decepções", goes to show.
** Mantemo-nos fiéis ao princípio de apenas usar fontes efémeras recolhidas online no calor do momento, mas os autores -themselfs punks- tiveram o cuidado de se alongar sobre o método para encaixar algum indeferimento à academia. Citamos:
Interviewees, and the data they offer, are given primacy over imposed theoretical abstractions (…) theory also acknowledges that ‘[t]he touchstone of one’s own experience might be a more valuable indicator of a potentially successful research endeavour than another more abstract source’ which is important for two authors writing this zine from the impetus of their own life experiences
Notamos que, a contradizer a contradição, se se escusam a qualquer bias no método:
...against the foisting of ideological preconceptions onto a research topic, or the warping and misrepresentation of interviewees’ testimony to suit particular biases, while valuing the critical analyses generated from immersed and insider perspectives.
- logo acrescentam que afinal as intenções -nada contra, note-se- não são assim tão isentas:
The research also draws on the principles (...) which promotes collaborative work that rejects ‘pseudo-objective academic analysis’ and instead aims to produce work that links theory to practice and the university to the community, whilst advancing a ‘holistic understanding of the commonality of oppressions’ and championing a politics of total liberation. This commitment to avoid exploitation of interviewees and an emphasis on bottom-up theory construction makes this approach highly compatible with an anarchist studies position.
*** E aquilo do anti-social, talvez: "too punk for punk"
