hasecondary SCHOOLS UNITED NATIONS SYMPOSIUM 2017 Animal Farm Chair: Nicole Widmer Crisis Director: Arthur Corbel Vice Chair: Sean Aoun Assistant Crisis Director: Violette Yu NOVEMBER 16-19, 2017 MONTRÉAL, QUÉBEC
Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. Animal Farm Welcome, Comrades! We are beyond pleased to bring you this year s most exciting SSUNS committee, ANIMAL FARM! Arthur Corbel will be your Crisis Director for the Animal Farm committee. He was born in France just wait for the accent and lived there all his life until his admission to McGill in 2014. After 3 great years at McGill s faculty of Management, this fall semester will sign the end of his undergraduate experience in Montreal Which means that this year s SSUNS will also be his last! So get pumped and organize him a beautiful revolution like (almost) only the French can do. Violette Yu, who serves as your Assistant Crisis Director, is a third-year political science and economics student and this is her fifth year in Model UN. She was involved in SSUNS past two literary crises, Lord of the Flies and The Handmaid s Tale. Her choice of degree, favourite book genre dystopian fiction for those who haven t yet guessed and strong performance as North Korea in crisis committees highlight her megalomaniac tendencies. As well, she derives joy from the look of awkward confusion people give her when she engages in deadpan humour and has an unhealthy obsession with cats which serve only as further evidence of megalomania. Finally, my name is Nicole Widmer. Originally from Switzerland, I am a fourth year student at McGill with a major in Political Science and International Development. This is my fourth year staffing for SSUNS and I am honoured and excited to be your chair. Theatre and Literature are my passions and I am thrilled to bring Animal Farm to life with you! I refer to my cats as little squigglebeans and am ready to escape the Montreal winter this year to return to South Africa! I would like to assure you that the entire dais has been working incredibly hard to ensure that you will have a wonderful experience at SSUNS 2017. In exploring the dystopian world of George Orwell and becoming Animal comrades, you will be able to use your diplomatic and quick-thinking skills in a novel context. So, delegates of every land and clime, let s prepare us for a revolutionary committee! SECONDARY SCHOOLS UNITED NATIONS SYMPOSIUM 2017 PAGE 2
Context and history of the McDonald Farm Inspired by a neighbouring farm called the Animal Farm, the animals residing on the McDonald Farm have recently experienced a multiplicity of political stirrups. Animals have grown increasingly discontent with the oppressive life they lead under farm owner Ronaldo McDonald. The workload he demands from them has increased and the food rations the animals receive are dwindling; physical discipline is routinely used to enforce obeisance; and animals over the years have started disappearing to never come back following visits from young humans with their parents. Recent Actions Following the animals increased hostility towards their owner due to his poor treatment of them, roots of an uprising have been sowed on the farm. Indeed, some of the animals have started taking political actions to show their anger. The idea of hunger strikes first emerged from among the pigs ranks. When asked about the origin of their idea, the pigs denied any inspiration from human behaviour: instead, they presented their creation as a revolutionary tool of political protest. But theory has hardly been followed by the practice. After the first day of collective hunger strike, individual actions seem to have ruined the group s determination, as cats have refused to let their daily milk go bad. Following this incident, the pigs joined again to discuss some new potential actions. To avoid a repetition of the Hunger Strike Incident, they decided to include all animals in discussions to develop a new form of protest that they would all support. After hours of intense brainstorming, the idea of coordinated chanting during the night, inspired by the example of the neighbour Animal Farm, appeared as a perfect fit. In addition to SECONDARY SCHOOLS UNITED NATIONS SYMPOSIUM 2017 PAGE 3
the universally-known Beast of England, the McDonald crew proposed a more personal chant in order to send a strong signal to Ronaldo. The task of coming up with this chant was again delegated to the pigs, who came up with the following verses: Don't you know They re talking 'bout a revolution It sounds like a whisper Animals are gonna rise up And get their share Animals are gonna rise up And take what's theirs Once again, the pigs denied any human source of inspiration for their tremendous cultural production. The excitement provoked by this new chant has pushed the animals to come up with new protest ideas. The most recent one was the concept of work strikes, which took the form of lying down and playing dead during work hours. This idea was partly suggested to placate the cats: due to their undeniable expertise for this type of exercise, there seemed to be consensus that the cats would be amenable to the idea. Following those successful actions, interest has spread among all animals of the farm about how to achieve revolution, and what may be to come. Some of them have gotten their hands on a manifesto written by pigs on the neighbouring Animal Farm. The SECONDARY SCHOOLS UNITED NATIONS SYMPOSIUM 2017 PAGE 4
manifesto has been shared to many on the McDonald Farm. The authors of this background guide have been able to get some excerpts of this influential piece of work. The Little Porcine Book We, the thinkers of the revolution, have a dream. We dream of a society free of oppression, of abuse, of exploitation. Free of the grunts of animal pain and pangs of animal hunger that constitute daily cacophony for us, and yet constitute sweet sounds of decadence and luxury for humans. And as we live and die by humans, we must confront one reality. Freedom on human farms will always remain about the same as it is: Freedom for animal owners. We will not detail how to seize power, as to prevent humans from dismantling animal liberation efforts. However, if the revolution is to be successful, animals will have to prove to the world that they are able to constitute a self-sustaining society. To do so, they will have to face numerous challenges, and have to navigate them carefully. Post-revolution, animals should immediately start with deciding and agreeing on a new structure for society. They should then select and implement policy priorities to forward their ideals. Surrounded by a sea of human territories, they should quickly resolve questions of security, as grave danger looms over all animal nations that seek liberation in the face of oppression. 1) Structure and Constitution SECONDARY SCHOOLS UNITED NATIONS SYMPOSIUM 2017 PAGE 5
Humans have undermined animal freedom and choice, and claimed it was for their good. The newly liberated animal society will first have to agree on and choose a structure for the farm, and should do so in writing in a constitution. To create and maintain utopia, there should be agreement as to the society s functioning and its goals. Such a constitution should also lay out the rights and obligations of the members of the society, how government is formed if any should exist and any other important considerations that may interest them, such as food rations, labour division, religion, dinner time, treat allowance, etc. Animals should agree upon methods to change existing agreements as well, as the flexibility of a society will be vital to its continued existence. 2) Policy implementation Animals will also have to agree on which policies their assembly will prioritize, as it will affect their society and its development as a whole. Their choices will be particularly vital as they will influence the initial resources the new animal society will have at its disposal. Two priorities among the six following choices will have to be chosen. Commerce and economics Education External relations SECONDARY SCHOOLS UNITED NATIONS SYMPOSIUM 2017 PAGE 6
Agricultural sciences Military might Sports and Health This discussion should be of extremely high importance once the revolution is accomplished. Each animal should be ready to make a case to convince his or her fellow compatriots. In addition to their collective future, policy choices will have different consequences for each type of animal in the farm. 3) Defence organization: Recalling ancient knowledge from our forbearers mythology, we have imagined three types of barriers. Depending on an animal society s available resources and their strategic choices, the farm could be protected with walls made of straw, sticks, or bricks. An illustration of defense policy SECONDARY SCHOOLS UNITED NATIONS SYMPOSIUM 2017 PAGE 7
4) The Budget Ideals will always underpin revolutions, and underpin actions and policy choices. But after the creation of a new world, animals will have to remember that the availability of resources also affect them, as they will be needed to pursue policy objectives, and particularly to defend themselves from the continued attack of human oppressors. Soon after their revolution, the animals will have to make their first choices. They will have to constantly be reminded of how many resources are available to the collective to do so. It will be important to remember that the way they choose to accomplish revolution will have an impact on the initial amount they have. Conclusion The spectre is haunting McDonald Farm: the spectre of animal freedom. unknown Revolutionary seeds have been sown: it is time they be reaped. As delegates, you will represent different animals on the farm and attempt to overthrow the human oppressors, and create a new society. The future is in your hands, and it will be shaped and moulded by your every action, word and choice. We wish you best of luck. SECONDARY SCHOOLS UNITED NATIONS SYMPOSIUM 2017 PAGE 8