Ronnie Lee

Ronnie Lee (born 1951) "Quotes", Animalliberationfront.com. is a British animal rights activist. He is known primarily for having founded the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) in 1976. He also founded the magazine Arkangel in 1989."Ronnie Lee Fighting Talk: an interview with Arkangel", Arkangel, issue 25.
==Founding the ALF==
Lee was a member of the Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) in the 1970s, and formed an offshoot of it, which he called the Band of Mercy. The original Band of Mercy was started by a group of activists in England in 1824 to thwart fox hunting by laying false scents and blowing hunting horns. Lee and another activist, Cliff Goodman, revived the name in 1972, and set about attacking hunters' vehicles. They progressed to attacking pharmaceutical laboratories and seal-hunting boats, and on November 10, 1973, they set fire to a building in Milton Keynes with the aim of making insurance prohibitive for what they saw as industries that exploit animals, a strategy the ALF continues to pursue.Best, Steven. Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? Lantern Books, 2004, ISBN 1-59056-054-X, p. 20.
In August 1974, Lee and Goodman were arrested for taking part in a raid on Oxford Laboratory Animal Colonies in Bicester, which earned them the name the "Bicester Two". Daily demonstrations took place outside the court during their trial, with Lee's local Labour MP, Ivor Clemitson among the demonstrators. They were sentenced to three years in prison, during which Lee went on the movement's first hunger strike to obtain vegan food and clothing. Paroled after 12 months, Lee emerged more militant than before, and organized 30 activists to set up a new liberation campaign.Monaghan, Rachael. "Terrorism in the Name of Animal Rights," in Taylor, Maxwell and Horgan, John. The Future of Terrorism. Routledge 2000, pp. 160-161. Seeking a campaign named that would "haunt" those who used animals, he chose the Animal Liberation Front.Molland, Neil. "Thirty Years of Direct Action" in Best & Nocella (eds), Terrorists or Freedom Fighters, Lantern Books, 2004, p. 68.
=="Valerie's" story==
In Free the Animals (2000), Ingrid Newkirk, the president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), tells what purports to be the true story of one of the first ALF activists to set up a cell in the United States, and how she was helped by Lee.Newkirk, Ingrid. Free the animals. Lantern Books, 2000. ISBN 1-930051-22-0 The activist, named "Valerie" by Newkirk, flew to London in the early 1980s to seek Lee's help. She made contact with him by making an appointment to interview Kim Stallwood, then the executive director of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV), and later executive director of PETA.Newkirk 2000, p. 37. Valerie pretended she was writing an article about animal rights, and asked Stallwood whether he knew how to contact Lee, as she wanted to interview him too. Stallwood told her BUAV allowed Lee's "volunteers" to use an office in the BUAV building, because Lee had just been released from prison. Stallwood made it clear that Lee and the BUAV did not agree on the merits of direct action.Newkirk 2000, p. 39.
Newkirk describes how Stallwood introduced Valerie to Lee in a nearby pub. Before agreeing to speak to her, Lee asked Valerie to hand over her wallet, the contents of which he checked, take off her jacket, stand up, and lift her shirt over her stomach.Newkirk 2000, p. 41. When he was satisfied that she was not recording the conversation, he told her he could arrange for her to join an ALF activist training course in the north of England. When they parted, he declined to shake hands with her, because he said he couldn't afford to be seen doing anything that looked as though he was sealing a deal. "What you do is our handshake," he told Valerie.Newkirk 2000, p. 42. Newkirk describes how the participants in the training course did not know each other's real names, using code names throughout, with Lee being the only person who knew everyone's identity.
==Imprisonment==
Lee became the ALF's full-time press officer in the 1980s, and was sentenced in connection with this to ten years imprisonment in 1986. While in prison, he founded Arkangel, the animal liberation magazine. He was released in 1992 after serving six years and eight months.
==Beliefs==
Lee has written that animal liberation requires widespread, radical changes in the way human beings live.
==Current activism==
Lee is reported to maintain a low profile in England."Ronnie Lee", MIPT Terrorism Database. His participation in the animal liberation movement appears limited to making public statements in response to news stories about ALF actions, expressing views that are frequently more militant than those expressed officially by the Animal Liberation Press Office. For example, he issued a statement in 2001 openly condoning an armed assault on an executive of Huntingdon Life Sciences, the subject of an international animal-rights campaign called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), which ALF activists are believed to be involved in. In 2008 he expressed regret that when active he had sought to the target properties and institutions involved in animal abuse rather than the individuals. He stated that had he had his time again he would now target individuals he perceived as animal abusers, in their own homes as opposed to their places of work.http://www.abolitionist-online.com/_07lee.shtml Lee also put in an appearance in disguise in the 2006 documentary about the ALF 'Behind the Mask' where he again expressed radical views about violence towards people he perceived as animal abusers.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgXo_lbRs08
===Vegan advocacy===
Ronnie Lee was a guest of Animal Rights Zone (ARZone), appearing as a live guest on the global animal rights social network, which is transcribedhttp://arzone.ning.com/profiles/blogs/transcript-of-ronnie-lees-live on the online site.
==See also==
*Animal Liberation Front Supporters Group (ALFSG)
*Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA)
*Animal testing
==Notes==
Category:Animal Liberation Front
Category:British criminals
Category:British activists
Category:British anarchists
Category:British vegans
Category:Living people
Category:Place of birth missing (living people)
Category:1951 births
Category:Prisoners and detainees of England and Wales
Category:Animal rights advocates
da:Ronnie Lee
sv:Ronnie Lee
Category:Animal Liberation Front
Category:British criminals
Category:British activists
Category:British anarchists
Category:British vegans
Category:Living people
Category:Place of birth missing (living people)
Category:1951 births
Category:Prisoners and detainees of England and Wales
Category:Animal rights advocates