The George Jackson Brigade has been around for more than two years now, and we have not as yet issued an overall statement of our political philosophy and principles. There have been three issues of The Angry Turkey, but these have been written by individual Brigade members reflecting their individual political development and were never intended to represent the unity of the Brigade as a whole. We think The Angry Turkey is extremely valuable as a basis for discussion and struggle on the questions raised in armed work and we urge people to use them for that purpose. But, people have correctly criticized us for failing to make a clear statement of our political unity as a group, and we hope that this document will provide that.

It is hard, if not impossible, to say when the Animal/Earth Liberation movement first started. A study of the subject literally takes you back thousands of years to 200 B.C. when people like Pythagoras advocated vegetarianism & animal compassion on spiritual grounds, and to the 1st century A.D. when Plutarch wrote what is widely regarded as the first animal rights literature.

However, the reader will be delighted to know that I am not going to bore you to death with 2000 years of waffle. Instead, I merely intend to look at what occurred 30 years ago this year. But first, to fully understand the events of 30 years ago, we must look slightly further back than that, to the events of 1964.

The bourgeois institutions of the State's cultural apparatus will always attempt to control and exploit the historical record for their own benefit, covering up, ignoring or misrepresenting facts that place a question over or cast doubts upon the class rule which academics and professional historians, with but a few rare and honourable exceptions, accept with alacrity. The publication of Elorza and Bizcarrondo's Queridos Camaradas, the chapters by Casanova, Sole i Sabate and Villarroya in the book Victimas de la Guerra Civil, compiled by Santos Juli... (himself the author of an introductory anthology), or the ineffable course of the civil war offered last March-May by the slavish Museo de Historia de Cataluña, are the most recent examples of the Official History mentioned in this manifesto.

Author's Foreword
I consider anarchism the most rational and practical conception of a social life in freedom and harmony. I am convinced that its realization is a certainty in the course of human development.

The time of that realization will depend on two factors: first, on how soon existing conditions will grow spiritually and physically unbearable to considerable portions of mankind, particularly to the labouring classes; and, secondly, on the degree in which Anarchist views will become understood and accepted.

What is anarcho-primitivism?
Anarcho-primitivism (a.k.a. radical primitivism, anti-authoritarian primitivism, the anti-civilization movement, or just, primitivism) is a shorthand term for a radical current that critiques the totality of civilization from an anarchist perspective, and seeks to initiate a comprehensive transformation of human life. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as anarcho-primitivism or anarcho-primitivists. Fredy Perlman, a major voice in this current, once said, 'The only -ist name I respond to is 'cellist'.' Individuals associated with this current do not wish to be adherents of an ideology, merely people who seek to become free individuals in free communities in harmony with one another and with the biosphere, and may therefore refuse to be limited by the term 'anarcho-primitivist' or any other ideological tagging.

This pamphlet briefly looks at many of the reasons that Christianity is undesirable from both a personal and a social point of view. All of the matters discussed here have been dealt with elsewhere at greater length, but that's beside the point: the purpose of 20 Reasons to Abandon Christianity is to list the most outstanding misery-producing and socially destructive qualities of Christianity in one place. When considered in toto, they lead to an irresistible conclusion: that Christianity must be abandoned, for the sake of both personal happiness and social progress.

As regards the title, 'abandon'-rather than 'suppress' or 'do away with'-was chosen deliberately. Attempts to coercively suppress beliefs are not only ethically wrong, but in the long run they are often ineffective-as the recent resurgence of religion in the former Soviet Union demonstrates. If Christianity is ever to disappear, it will be because individual human beings wake up, abandon their destructive, repressive beliefs, and choose life, choose to be here now.

The government assumes the business of protecting, more or less vigilantly, the life of citizens against direct or brutal attacks; acknowledges and legalizes a certain number of rights and primitive usages and customs, without which it is impossible to live in society. It organizes and directs certain public services, such as the post, preservation of the public health, benevolent institutions, workhouses, etc., and poses as the protector and benefactor of the poor and weak. But to prove our point it is sufficient to notice how and why it fulfills these functions. The fact is that everything the government undertakes is always inspired with the spirit of domination and intended to defend, enlarge, and perpetuate the privileges of property and of those classes of which the government is representative and defender.

A government cannot rule for any length of time without hiding its true nature behind the pretense of general utility. It cannot respect the lives of the privileged without assuming the air of wishing to respect the lives of all. It cannot cause the privileges of some to be tolerated without appearing as the custodian of the rights of everyone. 'The law' (and, of course, those who have made the law, i.e., the government) 'has utilized,' says Kropotkin, 'the social sentiments of man, working into them those precepts of morality, which man has accepted, together with arrangements useful to the minority - the exploiters - and opposed to the interests of those who might have rebelled, had it not been for this show of a moral ground.'

Cars are often seen as liberating, the symbol of freedom and prosperity. They are a social custom that designates coming of age. They are also one of the greatest threats to the well being of the earth, social equality, and human health.

ECOLOGICAL COSTS OF THE CAR
Motor vehicles are the single biggest source of atmospheric pollution, contributing an estimated 14% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning, a proportion that is steadily rising. Add the emissions from exploration, transportation, refining and distribution of fuel, and this figure is 15 to 20 percent of world emissions.

The average American car releases 300 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from a full, 15-gallon tank of gasoline.

To 'live free' means to be able to control your own life and to avoid violence, or the threat of violence, by others. What you do and how you do it will almost always determine whether or not freedom will be yours. But YOU must take the responsibility for creating your own freedom. No one, especially the 'government' will do it for you.

To 'disappear' means to make it impossible for other people to invade your personal world of freedom. Since most of such invasion is by means of electronic data gathering and cross-referencing, you must be able to short-circuit these procedures effectively.

Clearly the United States Prison Systems are at the greatest level of oppression and abuse against women. Women prisoners are the fastest growing population in jail/prison. in 1970, 5,600 women were incarcerated in federal and state prison. At year end 2000, 91,612 women were in state and federal prison, making up 6.6% of the total prison population.