Our Hen House
Our Hen House
  • Home
  • Podcasts
    • Our Hen House Podcast
    • Animal Law Podcast
    • Antiracism Audio Series
    • Limited Series: Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan
  • About
    • About Our Hen House
    • Inside the Coop – Bios
    • Join the Flock
    • Suggest a Guest
    • Press Coverage
    • Policies
    • Contact
  • Learn More
    • Videos
    • Blog
      • Book Reviews
    • Hen Press
    • Why Animal Rights?
      • Animal Testing and Research
      • Clothing
      • Companion Animals
      • Dairy
      • Eggs
      • Entertainment
      • Fishes
      • Meat
      • Veganism
      • Wildlife
      • What to do?
  • Donate
BlogNewsletter — DailyNewsletter — WeeklyReviews

Book Review: “Socialists and Animal Rights” by Jon Hochschartner

by August 12, 2014
written by

I’ve written before — both here on Our Hen House and on my own blog, Farmers Market Vegan — about the importance of intersectional activism: social advocacy informed by an understanding that various aspects of identity, and the ways beings are treated by the world because of such aspects, intersect in complex ways. For me, an important part of intersectional activism involves appreciating the significance of different social justice issues in and of themselves, not just how they relate to the one in which we’re most involved.81AKUBZvgEL__SL1500_
In volumes one and two of the series of short eBooks Socialists and Animal Rights (2014), author Jon Hochschartner connects socialism and animal rights in a manner indicative of the tenets of intersectional activism. While occasionally disorganized, Hochschartner’s first two eBooks clearly demonstrate that he understands both socialism and animal rights each as valuable in their own right, while illuminating the ways they inform and work with one another in the struggle for a more just society.
Based on an ideal of an economic and social system characterized by a cooperative management of the economy, socialism is diametrically opposed to the dominant economic mode of privatized, profit-centric, and hopelessly exploitative capitalism. As Hochschartner notes, socialists believe that we cannot dismantle racism, sexism, queerphobia, and other forms of oppression without also overthrowing the capitalist system. Hochschartner expands upon the existing socialist discourse by introducing speciesism into the mix of oppressions that require an anti-capitalist economic and social structure — a valuable endeavor considering his observation that “the socialist left remains particularly inhospitable for those concerned with animal rights.”
The crux of Hochschartner’s argument for the connectedness of the animal rights and socialist movements concerns the historical phenomenon in which dominant human groups linked subordinate groups to animals in popular imagination, thus justifying their oppressive position “by tapping into society’s widespread speciesism, which views the exploitation or oppression of animals as legitimate.” In Hochschartner’s view, challenging this speciesism in a large-scale manner will have two important effects: the dominant groups in our capitalist system will lose a tool for propagating the exploitation of subordinate groups, and society as a whole will understand non-human animals as a legitimate subordinate group worthy of including in the anti-capitalist struggle.
Alongside his own contentions regarding the intersections of animal rights and socialism, Hochschartner relays the claims of prominent contemporary socialist vegans, most notably celebrated activist and scholar Angela Davis, and International Socialist Organization member Alan Peck. For Davis, our blindness to the exploitation — of both humans and non-humans — inherent in the capitalist production of goods signifies “how capitalism has colonized our minds” by conditioning us to “look no further than the commodity itself.” She asks enticingly, “[W]hat is it like to sit down and eat that food that is generated only for the purposes of profit and creates so much suffering?” Peck echoes Davis’ assertion of capitalism’s psychological infiltration in his assertion that an overthrow of capitalism would be incomplete without also dismantling speciesism: “[T]he ideologies that support the infliction of unnecessary suffering on non-human animals in the interest of profit are the same ideologies that must be confronted and undone in the process of ending capitalism and building a better world.”
In the words of Hochschartner, Davis, and Peck, we can see an appreciation of animal rights and socialism each in their own right, as well as a helpful linking of the two important movements.
In addition to decrying the modern socialist movement in its failure to consider speciesism as a legitimate issue, Hochschartner offers a critical analysis of the current animal rights movement and its strategies, based upon the efficacy of past socialist-inspired movements. Hochschartner draws upon the free produce movement of the 1790s to 1860s, in which abolitionists boycotted good produced by slave labor…to little effect: “The institution of slavery was not threatened by this individualistic, consumer-based strategy.” Citing abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, Hochschartner notes that unethical goods “are so mixed in with the commerce, manufactures, and agriculture of the world” that to attempt to combat exploitation (slavery, the commodification of animals) by refusing to use such goods does little more than attach moral guilt to the consumer.
As I’ve noted before, no, personal consumer choices alone won’t significantly threaten the economic success of exploitative industries, but they still comprise an important aspect of a larger movement, whether socialism, veganism, or others. Hochshartner seems to agree with this notion, citing Marxist animal liberationist Susann Witt-Stahl, who notes that personal veganism is primarily necessary not to end animal exploitation, but for “unbiased thinking” — for understanding animals not as objects but as “beings that strive for happiness,” which proves impossible for those who eat them.
With this quote, Witt-Stahl points to the imperative of shifting institutional and societal attitudes toward animals. Considering the ineffectiveness of past movements that have focused on private morality, as showcased in Hocschartner’s works, the animal rights movement would do well to accompany its powerful vegan advocacy with a strong push for change in public policy.
In Socialists and Animal Rights, Hochschartner connects the animal rights and socialist movements in a helpful, intersectional manner, while offering fair critiques of each of the movements — and that’s only in his first two volumes! Four more eBooks follow in the series, and it doesn’t look like Hochschartner has any intention of stopping there. I look forward to seeing his additional work regarding these two imperative topics.
Each eBook costs only $2.99, and you can purchase all six volumes on Amazon.

Share 0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
previous post
Episode 22 of the Our Hen House TV Show is Now Viewable Online!
next post
Eating at Burger Joints Is Good for Veganism

You may also like

Here’s How You Do It…

Listen

The Sanctuary in Your Backyard: A New Model for Rescuing Farmed Animals

Going to a Conference This Year? Try One Online.

Episode 247: “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability,...

Let’s SING About Pit Bull Bans! (No, Seriously!)

Flock Only: “The only feasible way forward is veganism.” PART II of...

Episode 540: Josh Berson on “The Meat Question”

Episode 537: Seth Tibbott on His Search for the Wild Tofurky

Scholarships Available for Veg High School Students

Search Episodes

Subscribe to our Shows

Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSpotifyStitcherCastBoxPocketCasts
More
  • Apple PodcastsApple Podcasts
  • RSSRSS
  • SpotifySpotify
  • Google PodcastsGoogle Podcasts
  • StitcherStitcher
  • PocketCastsPocketCasts
  • CastBoxCastBox
Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSpotifyStitcherCastBoxPocketCasts
More
  • RSSRSS
  • Apple PodcastsApple Podcasts
  • Google PodcastsGoogle Podcasts
  • SpotifySpotify
  • StitcherStitcher
  • CastBoxCastBox
  • Player.fmPlayer.fm
  • TuneInTuneIn
  • PocketCastsPocketCasts

Subscribe to OHH Emails

We don’t spam or share your email with others. Privacy policy.

Please Check Your Email to Confirm Your Subscription!

Instagram

Latest Tweets

Ugandan activist @MeizlerDash joins co-hosts @jasmin_singer & @marisul on the new ep of the #OurHenHouse podcast to… https://t.co/sGPd6BY0Ij

21-May-2022

Reply Retweet Favorite
"Consider the Anchovy: On the Fantasies and Lies of Tinned Fish" https://t.co/ntSGUktdSR

20-May-2022

Reply Retweet Favorite
This would put an end to the shipment of US horses to Canadian and Mexican slaughterhouses. https://t.co/92bEjSJiqH

19-May-2022

Reply Retweet Favorite
Great news for circus lovers (who are also animal lovers) https://t.co/RJJL9oxsUF

19-May-2022

Reply Retweet Favorite
Amazingly useful resource! https://t.co/9nbseK5dIV

18-May-2022

Reply Retweet Favorite

Join us On Facebook

Join us On Facebook

Keep in touch

Facebook Twitter Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

@2021 - Our Hen House


Back To Top
Our Hen House
  • Home
  • Podcasts
    • Our Hen House Podcast
    • Animal Law Podcast
    • Antiracism Audio Series
    • Limited Series: Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan
  • About
    • About Our Hen House
    • Inside the Coop – Bios
    • Join the Flock
    • Suggest a Guest
    • Press Coverage
    • Policies
    • Contact
  • Learn More
    • Videos
    • Blog
      • Book Reviews
    • Hen Press
    • Why Animal Rights?
      • Animal Testing and Research
      • Clothing
      • Companion Animals
      • Dairy
      • Eggs
      • Entertainment
      • Fishes
      • Meat
      • Veganism
      • Wildlife
      • What to do?
  • Donate
Our Hen House
Search Podcasts
  • Home
  • Podcasts
    • Our Hen House Podcast
    • Animal Law Podcast
    • Antiracism Audio Series
    • Limited Series: Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan
  • About
    • About Our Hen House
    • Inside the Coop – Bios
    • Join the Flock
    • Suggest a Guest
    • Press Coverage
    • Policies
    • Contact
  • Learn More
    • Videos
    • Blog
      • Book Reviews
    • Hen Press
    • Why Animal Rights?
      • Animal Testing and Research
      • Clothing
      • Companion Animals
      • Dairy
      • Eggs
      • Entertainment
      • Fishes
      • Meat
      • Veganism
      • Wildlife
      • What to do?
  • Donate

Subscribe

Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSpotifyStitcher
More
  • Apple PodcastsApple Podcasts
  • RSSRSS
  • SpotifySpotify
  • Google PodcastsGoogle Podcasts
  • StitcherStitcher
  • PocketCastsPocketCasts
  • CastBoxCastBox
Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSpotifyStitcher
More
  • RSSRSS
  • Apple PodcastsApple Podcasts
  • Google PodcastsGoogle Podcasts
  • SpotifySpotify
  • StitcherStitcher
  • CastBoxCastBox
  • Player.fmPlayer.fm
  • TuneInTuneIn
  • PocketCastsPocketCasts

OHH NEWSLETTER

We don’t spam or share your email with others. Privacy policy.

Please Check Your Email to Confirm Your Subscription!

 
Sign In

Keep me signed in until I sign out

Forgot your password?

Password Recovery

A new password will be emailed to you.

Have received a new password? Login here