Who remembers when we could hit the streets at a moment’s notice to hand out vegan flyers and talk to people about the rights of animals? Or rustle up some signs and hold a demonstration without fear of getting too close to anyone. One year after the first recorded case of Covid-19 in the UK, we discuss the state of grassroots activism today, how things have changed for us here at Surge, and a message of hope for the future.

Up until this time last year, animal rights campaigning at the grassroots level was at something of a high point. In five or six short years, we saw street activism, in particular, grow in popularity with numerous groups across the country engaging in outreach multiple times throughout the week. We owed much to the power of social media in spreading pictures and videos of campaigners working to change hearts and minds.

We’ve always had a grassroots animal rights movement in the UK, even before chapter networks like Animal Save Movement and Anonymous for the Voiceless came to these shores from Canada and Australia respectively, and some would say those independent or more loosely associated and less centrally governed groups, like the hunt sabs, for example, represent the core grassroots with ties to our history harking back to the direct action movements of the 80s and 90s, and further back still.

Whatever your definition of activism at the most fundamental and decentralised level, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on our campaigning, forcing us to let go of tactics we knew so well and adapt our approaches. But this is true of every aspect of our lives, not just our activism.

Writing for Surge last month, Dr Alex Lockwood in his article called Beyond Covid-19: get read to end animal exploitation, covered higher-level strategic approaches to take as we prepare to exit lockdown hopefully for good, depending on the success of the current vaccination roll-out. While many of these were applicable to larger organisations, with recommendations such as building alliances between groups, gathering and presenting evidence on zoonotic diseases, testing messaging and pushing the Overton Window on key issues, it is the job of the grassroots activist to be part of that and take all of it to the people. So what does that mean for local groups?

For Surge, our own outreach programmes - Down with Dairy and Campus Rep - had to be placed on hold indefinitely at a time when we were on the cusp of expanding them. The Official Animal Rights March, a highlight of many people’s activism calendar, also had to be put on the back burner. We still don’t know when these can come back, and thinking back to them now feels like a distant dream. To think that we used to gather in the thousands on the streets of London and other major cities across the world, blocking roads and raising our voices for the rights of our fellow sentient beings to live in peace. One day we will be able to once again, but the removal of our personal freedom to campaign as we once did pre-lockdown has given rise to new approaches, not least of all for us at Surge.

Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention, and for us that has meant something of a re-invention. Just like more traditional local grassroots groups, we’ve had to adapt our advocacy to forgo the face-to-face and actual social interactions. Instead, we’ve all had to use the tools available to us to get the message across in different ways.

Sabbing, covert investigations and direct action groups, all of which have traditionally held less regard for restrictions imposed by law and enforced by authorities, have continued throughout lockdown to a degree. By the very nature of these groups, there is no centralised governance and so no way to say for sure whether groups have stopped or not. However, more overt activism - the outreach and the tabling and even the protests outside shops selling fur - where there is a greater inherent risk of catching and spreading coronavirus among the public, have all but stopped and for good reason. While no one would ever say that the reason for activism has disappeared - animals are still being slaughtered, baby male chicks are still being macerated and calves are still being taken away from their mothers - it is almost universally understood that we must keep ourselves and our friends and families safe until a time when we can campaign in those ways again.

However, we know investigations have continued with major releases from groups including Animal Justice Project, Viva, Surge and an upcoming expose from Wake Activism in Ireland, but investigators in these situations can be said to be acting as journalists and are effectively engaging in work activities. The BBC hasn’t ground to a halt, its journalists still conduct their interviews and go out to film, so why not too undercover investigators who work tirelessly to shine a light on the ongoing and ever-present exploitation of non-human animals?

Most of us have switched to social media messaging, to content creation be it articles, videos or graphics. Meme activism is bigger than ever, as is taking to platforms such as TikTok and IG Reels. Animal Justice Project has done fantastic work leveraging social media with Twitter storms and bold visuals, while our own output of written articles has increased to almost daily throughout the week.

Will we and other groups at the national and local levels switch back to activism as it once was? For some, undoubtedly. When people can gather in large groups once again, we can’t wait to see all the energy you’ve been accumulating over the last year being used in positive ways that will make a real difference. We hope strategies along the lines of the ones suggested by Alex Lockwood, learning from the lessons of the past and adjusting for a post-covid world, will ride the wave of that energy, that passion. However dark it seems right now, we will get back out there and we will see you there, though we must learn from the experiences and indeed the changes we’ve had to make during lockdown. Take for example the SCRAP Factory Farming campaign from Humane Being, a group that is very much from the grassroots yet are incorporating pandemic prevention on the national and international levels in their core messaging, even enlisting the help of high-profile human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield QC.

At Surge, we’ll probably primarily stick with our new focus on content. Lockdown served to remind us of where we came from and where our strengths lie in creating compelling, educational videos and content. That is no bad thing, and we expect other groups will have also honed their online strategies. The everyday activist who works within a local group, they too, whether they like to admit it or not, will have a better appreciation of the technology available to them.

So come the spring of this year when the schools reopen, immunity takes hold and we can emerge blinking into the light from our covid-secure caves, let us not forget all we have learned during these dark times. Look back and reflect on all the work we were able to do together, despite not being able to actually be together. We have all continued to do amazing things, to create, to expose, to share and engage, and all that just with our phones and computers. Imagine what we’ll be able to do with bold new strategies and a deeper understanding of how to communicate in a world that is more aware of the role of animal agriculture in zoonotic diseases and new pandemics. More and more institutions are saying the same thing - just last week, Chatham House released its report that said we must move away from animal agriculture not just for the environment, but for public health and the avoidance of pandemics.

As street activists once again, you’ll be able to talk to people about not just covid, but impending swine flu, avian flu and other deadly zooneses that could mutate at any time and plunge us back into lockdown. Nobody wants that. Get ready to engage on these issues. Get ready to end animal exploitation.

Andrew Gough is Media & Investigations Manager for Surge.

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