How Vegans Can Prevent and Manage Infighting

Infighting among vegan advocates and within vegan organizations comes at a huge cost. It takes a tremendous amount of resources out of the movement and causes vegans to feel betrayed, demoralized, and fearful of being on the receiving end of an attack. Infighting is a major obstacle to the success of both vegan organizations and the movement more broadly. In this workshop, Melanie Joy explains the causes and consequences of infighting, as well as practical ways to prevent and manage the problem. She guides participants through experiential exercises so they can integrate and practice new skills and understand how to apply a variety of new tools. This unique and empowering workshop can help vegans cultivate more resilient organizations and a more impactful movement. Dr. Melanie Joy is an award-winning psychologist and educator and the author of seven books, including the bestselling Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows and the forthcoming How to End Injustice Everywhere. Melanie specializes in effective advocacy, social change, relationships, and communication and her work has been featured in major media outlets around the world. She has received a number of awards, including the Ahimsa Award—previously given to the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela—for her work on global nonviolence. Melanie has given talks and trainings in over 50 countries, and she is also the founding president of Beyond Carnism. About Beyond Carnism and the Center for Effective Vegan Advocacy Beyond Carnism is a nonprofit, US-based, international organization dedicated to exposing and transforming carnism, the invisible belief system that conditions people to eat certain animals. At Beyond Carnism, we believe that meaningful social change requires a two-pronged strategic approach, which entails weakening the oppressive system (carnism) and strengthening the system that challenges it (veganism). For this reason, all our programs are designed to decrease the power of carnism and increase the power of veganism, through awareness-raising and training. Our Center for Effective Vegan Advocacy (CEVA) works to increase the impact of vegan advocacy worldwide by increasing the effectiveness of vegan advocates and organizations and by helping to create a more unified and resilient vegan movement.