For the Liberation of the Animal Nations: Examining Activist Framing of the Radical Animal Liberation Movement in North America

Abstract

This qualitative content analysis of documents gleaned from the Animal Liberation Front, Earthling Liberation Kollective, and Grassroots Ontario Animal Liberation network websites and Facebook pages explores how the frames of activists in the North American radical animal liberation movement (RALM) intersect with other radical social movements. Drawing on collective action framing, I investigate how RALM activists portray diagnostic, prognostic and motivational social movement frames. The ecofeminist concept of intersectionality is highly influential in RALM frames, depicting common roots of oppression between animals, the earth, and humans, particularly Indigenous peoples, prisoners, and women. Activist critiques of hierarchy, state power, capitalism and the prison industrial complex reflect anarchistic movement frames. Despite such broad understandings, some activists express misogynistic and racist views, contributing to the ongoing isolation of the movement. My research suggests that although some barriers exist, the RALM has the potential to join with other movements to achieve common goals.