A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #369 - Politics - Debate: Class Struggle and Alliance with Animals (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

In our December 2025 issue, we published a text criticizing the notion 
of anti-speciesism. This article seeks to address some of these 
criticisms, particularly through the concept of alliance and by 
exploring a nuanced form of anti-speciesism, especially concerning the 
issue of animal farming. ---- In his article "Beyond Speciesism and 
Anti-speciesism"[1], Thomas Wendelin critiques the limitations of the 
conceptual tools used by the anti-speciesist movement, such as the 
notions of "animal class" and "human class." To address the question of 
animals, the author rightly recalls the compass of materialism and 
proposes alternative avenues for political development to anti-speciesism.

For libertarian communists, materialism remains an essential tool and 
must be used to analyze the animal question and attempt to integrate it 
into a coherent political platform. As the article mentions, 
ethology[2]has, for example, made it possible to scientifically confirm 
the empirical observations made throughout history by those who live 
with domestic animals. This applies both to their sentience and their 
capacity to develop individual personalities based on their life 
experiences. This contribution has thus made it possible to 
scientifically challenge the Cartesian theory of the "animal-machine," a 
harmful theory that has justified the denial of the value of animal 
lives, even within the progressive camp.

But science also allows us to refute many other misconceptions about the 
supposed "human exceptionalism" (see sidebar below), which Thomas 
Wendelin's article nevertheless relies on and which are still widespread 
in the labor movement: it is on this principle that the definition of 
"work" as it is taught within the CGT (General Confederation of Labour) 
in the induction programs for new members is still based today.

Political ecology has made a decisive contribution to the progressive 
camp by raising the question of coexistence between humans and other 
species within ecosystems that we are forced to share in a context of 
planetary boundaries. The essential contribution of anti-speciesists is 
to highlight what we have in common with animals on an ontological 
level[3]and to position our questions at the level of the individual 
animal. The libertarian communist movement has incorporated the 
achievements of political ecology; why shouldn't it now incorporate the 
positive achievements of the anti-speciesist movement? But how? While we 
share common traits with animals, justifying our considering them as 
political subjects, we also have differences that invalidate the 
critical tools we usually use to characterize oppression within the 
human species alone. Yet it is often in attempting to extend these 
critical tools to the question of animals that we stumble, as Thomas 
Wendelin aptly demonstrates in his article.

For example, does sheep farming constitute a form of "exploitation"? If 
we consider a sheep as we consider a wage laborer in capitalist society, 
sheep farming is certainly one of the most atrocious forms of 
exploitation. But sheep are not wage laborers, and the rich and profound 
social relationships they build among themselves do not fall under the 
capitalist system. Our worlds intersect, but they are distinct. The 
concept of "alliance," originating in scientific ecology and adopted by 
political ecology, can be a key to extending beyond humanity what class 
unity allows us to characterize within it.

Once reconsidered as an alliance between humans and mouflon (the wild 
species from which all domestic sheep breeds are descended), livestock 
farming can then be described as a relationship that has enabled the 
mutual evolutionary success of both humans and mouflon, whose 
descendants have thrived together across the planet, far beyond their 
original ecological niches, thanks to the mutual benefits derived from 
their coexistence. By considering the individual value of the life of 
each sentient being, anti-speciesism can help us deepen this alliance 
beyond its purely ecological dimension, by positing as a progressive 
perspective the evolution of current farming systems towards a new form 
of relationship based on the full consideration of the individual 
well-being of sheep and, reciprocally, the well-being of the humans who 
live with them. Such a perspective of transcendence, making 
anti-speciesism and animal husbandry compatible but incompatible with a 
competitive economy, could allow for the use of wool for clothing and 
building insulation, the abandonment of slaughter, milk production 
limited to the surplus not consumed by lambs, and the use of leather and 
meat from animals that die naturally.

Capitalism prevents us from conceiving of a healthy relationship with 
animals and encourages the development of only an industrial vision of 
animal husbandry.

Unsplash/Taylor Brandon
The animal cause holds a unifying potential for our class, as Thomas 
Wendelin mentions. It also holds revolutionary potential: within the 
human species, private property and social classes emerged with the 
appearance of animal husbandry in the Neolithic period; modern 
capitalism, however, rests on the excessive exploitation of the 
ecosystems in which wild animals live and results in an intensification 
of violence against domestic animals to an unprecedented level in the 
history of humankind. Developing a revolutionary strategy based on a 
dialectic between class struggle and alliance with animals can be a 
relevant political framework for libertarian communists, as well as a 
path of convergence for anti-speciesists: it will never be possible to 
organize the overcoming of capitalism without questioning our 
relationship with animals, and it will never be possible to abolish 
violence against animals without dismantling capitalism.

Felis Nigra (UCL Montreuil)

A "HUMAN EXCEPTION"?

Is the human species the only one capable of transforming its 
environment and influencing its living conditions? The knowledge 
acquired through zoology and ecology demonstrates the contrary. The 
examples are countless: beavers, capable of transforming river systems 
on a large scale; moles, experts in shaping the subsoil; and cnidarians, 
builders of coral reefs.

Is human exceptionalism found in the capacity to think about the world 
and to base all actions on a critical perspective? Science, on the 
contrary, demonstrates the capacity for abstraction in many animal 
species, from insects to mammals, and the importance of aesthetic tastes 
in many bird species.

Is human exceptionalism found in its social structures? Animals, too, 
build societies-diverse societies with complex, stratified 
organizations, governed by rules, and evolving dynamically. Primatology, 
based on the study of species closely related to humans, provides 
essential data. Far from being human exceptions, patriarchy and 
xenophobia are documented in chimpanzees, as are behaviors we consider 
anti-social, such as murder and war, or, conversely, altruism and 
friendship.

Validate

[1]Thomas Wendelin, "Debates: Beyond Speciesism and Anti-Speciesism," 
Alternative libertaire no. 366, December 2025.

[2]Ethology is the scientific study of animal behavior.

[3]Ontology is a branch of philosophy that seeks to define what being is.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Debat-Lutte-des-classes-et-alliance-avec-les-animaux
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