Financial Times - 12/13th January 2002 - (UK)
Pullovers, Peanuts and two terrorists in a pub
David Michie gets less than he bargains for when he goes in search of real anti-heroes as models for characters in his novel.
I am not in the habit of interviewing terrorists. But, being about to embark on writing a thriller in which underground commandos were to play a key role part, I thought I should do some research for authenticity's sake.
Following an awkwardly self-conscious exchange of coded
greeting in a dreary little pub halfway down the M4
motorway, I found myself sitting opposite two people
who, I had been the reliably informed, were among the
most dangerous activists in Britain, a couple whose
terrorist campaign has sparked police investigations
from Florida to France, not to mention several English
counties.
But Terry and Charlene - their real names were just
as ordinary - could not have been more different from
what I expected. In their Marks and Spencers pullovers,
sensible haircuts and nibbling at honey-roasted peanuts,
the thirtysomething husband and wife team looked more
like the game-show contestants than radical militants.
Eyeing me nervously from behind his glasses, terry seemed even more apprehensive than I was, until the plump-cheeked Charlene cracked a joke about recognising my face from a bookjacket photo.
The deceptiveness of appearance was soon to become apparent.
"A few years back we were into monkey-wrenching,"
explained Charlene, using the activists term for techniques
such as sending mail bombs containing hundreds of razor
blades to cosmetics executives. "We've got more
says sophisticated now. We don't have to do everything
ourselves."
The Animal Liberation Front of (ALF) is not in organisation
in the traditional sense. It has no hierarchy or geographic
bace but comprises autonomous cells self-selected believers
ranging in competence from élite, army trained
paramilitaries, to graffiti spayers at the bottom of
the social heap.
Terry and Charlene in are proud of their parts in the campaign to close down Huntington Life Sciences animal-testing laboratory. Their "sophisticated" methods have included listing of the names, addresses and telephone numbers of HLS. staff and shareholders on a website, so nearby cell members could take direct action. There have been 11 car bombings, attacks on the homes of workers, and assaults.
Occupation of offices by ALF members, mail blockades
and "home visits" to directors of institutional
investors in HLS have all contributed to the company's
shares being offloaded by investors. Its bank has had
to deal with dozens of ATMs disabled by glue-covered
cards.
Apart from the illegalities, aren't the ALF's methods
counter-productive? Doesn't group risk alienating, rather
than promoting, public support? Wouldn't raising awareness
of animal cruelty further be more effective?
Terry disagrees "Every day, 500 animals die a horrible death after being poison in those of laboratories," he said. "It could take years to build public support. We need to close down HLS now."
It seemed like a final solution - until one considers the alternative. Already, animal researchers are talking about shifting facilities abroad, to countries where its staff won't be car-bombed and labs will be secure. What's better, I asked terry Terry: animal testing in a country where regulations can be brought to bare, or in laboratories in the likes of Saudi Arabia?
"They could try setting up somewhere else, but we'd jump all over the companies that use them," he replied.
It wasn't an answer I found convincing, nor, judging by her expression, did Charlene. But, like so many ideas of revolutionary simplicity, the notion of closing down the UK animal-testing labs is naïve - it would almost certainly lead to an increase in animal suffering.
And, distasteful though it is to reduce misery to numbers, what about the 2.4m animals slaughtered each day in British abatoirs? Even a small reduction there would save more lives than closing down a dozen laboratories.
The reality is that, compared with mad cow disease, the ALF's efforts to discourage meat-eating have been insignificant. And, if we were to be converted to a nation of vegans, that wouldn't be the end of it. What about clothing, I asked?
Charlene hasten to assure me that the ALF was against
a leather and wool. But cotton? And what was the ALF
position on the billions of insects slaughtered on pesticides?
Terry was having none of this: "Insects are different,"
he declared.
In what way? " I mean - it's obvious."
But I still failed to see difference between a butterfly and a guppy, in terms of an ability to feel pain.
In my search for anti-hero role model, I realised as
I drove back to London, I'd have to keep on looking.
Despite their promising credentials, there was something
sad about couple hiding behind their computer screens,
urging on-the-ground thugs to torch cars, and beat up
the fund managers.
In looking for a villain who would command wide respect,
I would need someone far more courageous, and driven
by a cogent - if diabolical - clarity of purpose.
As it happens, I was defined just such a being, and a lot closer to my own the public relations background than I would have imagined. He's the one that made it into my book. But don't ask me anything more than that - it would be giving too much why.
By David Michie