Funders begin to pull out

Last year, Oxford University sought and were granted an injunction against the SPEAK campaign in an attempt to restrict our legal and democratic right to peacefully protest, and - as we argued at the time - to suppress our right to Free Speech. The action was quite clearly motivated by the embarrassment that had been caused to the University by our successful and regular highlighting of their lies and misinformation disseminated to the British Public regarding the Oxford laboratory expansion.

This misuse of the legal system to silence an individual's democratic right to protest shows the increasingly desperate measures being resorted to by the pharmaceuticals with the collusion of the state to save a dying monster. SPEAK's response has been to continue its campaign, frankly unruffled by the terms of the injunction.

The vivisection industry's miserable failure at silencing its opponents has increased their efforts to put pressure on the Government to implement further laws to oppress us. The Labour Government are obsessed with introducing yet further regulations on already bulging statute books. Perhaps the socialist past they have tried to discard is coming back to haunt them; perhaps they have never been able to get away from the socialist dogma of control by the state of the means of production. Substitute "means of production", with "people's lives", and not much has really changed!

So what is the latest law designed to restrict our legal activities? Well, on the 1st July a law was introduced under the banner 'Economic Sabotage', and promoted as the saviour of the vivisection industry. What this law entails is anyone's guess. Even the top lawyers can't come up with a definitive answer. But at SPEAK, we believe it was the intention of the government to introduce a law that is so ambiguous that it is open to interpretation - the hope being presumably to catch people by default, because no one knows what the hell they are allowed and not allowed to do.

In a recent Times newspaper article on the new Economic Sabotage laws, which alluded to SPEAK's recent request for supporters to contact University funders, Timothy Lawson-Cruttenden (legal representative extraordinaire of the vivisection industry), was quoted as saying: "They've stuck two fingers up but no one has done anything about it."

To put the record straight, SPEAK asked supporters to write courteous letters to those donating monies to Oxford, until such time as the University permanently cancels its vivisection expansion project. We also asked supporters to inform these companies of the criminal behaviour of some University employees - that is: those working in the animal abuse departments.

SPEAK has maintained that companies funding the University have a right to know the truth, so that they can make an informed decision about whether they wish to continue funding an institution that is hell-bent on upholding and refining its ugly tradition of cruelty to sentient creatures. From the outset, we have been clear about this, and our refusal to buck to the intimidatory tactics used to silence us has begun to reap its rewards.

Since SPEAK asked its supporters to contact funders of the University, we have received a number of calls from the companies named. Some have clarified their position, others have asked us for more information regarding what exactly is going on behind the closed doors of the University's laboratories. All the companies have - without fail - said that the correspondence has been civil and polite.

We see these developments as positive vindication of our tactics; most notably to date, a letter received today from Bertram Rota - a previous funder to the University - states that the company will no longer be funding the university. The letter goes on to say: "though I cannot imagine a situation where we would provide funding, we would not consider doing so whilst there is any prospect of the appalling plans for a new vivisection laboratory remaining in place".

From the outset of our campaign to inform the funders at SPEAK, we have maintained that many of them would be appalled to learn what is going on inside the walls of Oxford University's laboratories. Today's letter from Bertram Rota serves to highlight we were right in that assessment. At SPEAK we would like to applaud the company's ethical stand. On the basis of other correspondence received from other funders, we anticipate that SPEAK will announce more good news soon.

The overwhelmingly positive response we have had from funders illustrates that the University's attempts to muzzle us has acted as reverse therapy, invigorating campaigning efforts to stop the systematic abuse of animals in our society, and attracting genuine interest for our cause from a public that is increasingly sceptical and uncomfortable about the 'need' for vivisection.

Meanwhile, 10 months after the injunction, the University's methodology appears to have been a complete waste of time. A testament to the success of SPEAK's ongoing campaigning strategy is the empty shell of a partially built animal torture centre, which stands in South Parks Rd.