If you listen to the words of a couple of these songs, you may sense that there's a real problem in the relationship between humyns and other-than-human animals. And it's a social justice issue, as real as racism, sexism and homophobia. In fact, it's the same problem. Oppressive power structures and the institutions and people that control them disenfranchise and exploit vulnerable individuals. The exploited lose their inherent value; they become of value only so far as they are of value to the dominant group. Their right to choice and self-determination are ridiculed, dismissed and subordinated to the wants and whims of the dominators. So what are we talking about? We're talking about women (wimmin!), workers, people of colour, gays, lesbians, children- and animals. Exploitation and disrespect us the same tools to turn individuals into commodities: in the sex trade, child-labour, wage-labour, slavery and the meat/dairy industry.

A lot of us make up rules of dealing with the world and with others: we set up arbitrary moral boundaries. Some exclude wimmin; some draw lines that exclude gays and lesbians; some draw lines around anyone who's not familiar. Most of us draw lines between us and animals. So their lives and needs, their loves and fears all become slabs of meat on the table. Or a "medical" tool. Or a pair of shoes. Or a "pet". BUT IT'S ONLY CONVENTION THAT TELLS US TO EAT AND USE ANIMALS. It's not reason, or need, or anything but outright greed. We have to challenge these customs just as we challenge discrimination based on gender, race, age or sexual orientation. Because it's all the same bill of goods that the power elite want us to accept. Put it this way: if you can make a case for eating a hamburger, you can make a case to defend rape, gay-bashing and white supremacy. Arbitrary ethical boundaries don't work for the individuals on the other side. Social justice is about stopping brutality and extending consideration to the inherent value of others.

By not eating meat and dairy, and not wearing animals for clothing, you acknowledge that animals are complex, thinking, feeling individuals who are denied choices and fundamental freedoms just to feed the greed of human beings. And you deny the system that tells you everything's value is in whether it can be bought or sold. You can strike back even more deeply: by joining or forming an animal-liberation organization, you're throwing the garbage that society calls "decency" and "respectable morals" right back in its' fucking face. And even if some twisted chunks of tortured muscle still swing over a slaughterhouse killing floor, your voice on the streets is a voice that animals didn't have before. Beacuse society doesn't listen to the voices of the oppressed- unless someone stands up and shouts back!