Fur Free Friday kicks off a winter of fur protests

The day after “Thanksgiving” is two things: Buy Nothing Day, and Fur Free Friday. Honoring both, animal rights activsts marched to many of the fur-selling department stores on “Furrier’s row,” Wisconsin Ave near the MD-DC border.

Fur Wars:Episode 1 on Liveleak. Same video in case Youtube kills the sound…

The protest was planned to begin at Andriana’s Furs, but they are not CLOSED, with a sign announcing that their former space is now available for lease. Hopefully the next tenanat will not be a fur shop, and it’s too small for a department store.

After celebrating victory over Andriana’s, protesters marched to Lord and Taylor, one of many department stores in the area known to sell fur products. After that was Bloomingdales, then Nieman-Marcus AKA Nieman-Carcass, and finally Dior, where there were so many problems last year.

This time around, cops responded in moderate numbers and once again seemed to avoid any rash actions that could provoke protesters. The only exception was that Dior left their door locked open for a while, in what was suspected to be an attempt to entice activists to enter the store and then be entrapped into arrest. Nobody took the bait, so this tactic failed.

There were a LOT of people taking pictures, including some suspected undercovers who appeared in too many places to be random tourists.

Hearing on “Surplusing” Franklin School/shelter gets an earful

On November 18, DC held a required public hearing on the subject of declaring Franklin School surplus. The city wants to sell the former school and homeless shelter to a developer to build a luxury hotel.

Video of the hearing on liveleak

Supporters of selling the building were heavily outnumbered by opponents, though one condo owner from a nearby condo on K St. bleated that he was glad the shelter was closed. He also accused shelter residents of dealing drugs, and was called out as a liar by another speaker for this spurious claim. Franklin was known in particular for residents who worked but could not afford housing.

Another speaker reminded the meeting that the Verizon Center received a subsidy more than double the expected cost to renovate Franklin for unrestricted city use-and that private ownership is no guarantee against a building being boarded up. The example of Randall Shelter was invoked, another former shelter in an old school that was closed, in this case to give the building to the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Randall remains boarded up to this day.

I spoke myself, recounting the history of the two occupations of Franklin School that made it a shelter and of my own logistics/scout/comms role in those actions. I asked if it would be necessary to repeat these occupations to prevent a luxury hotel from replacing Franklin, or would the release of bedbugs at the new hotel be necessary?

Finally, one of the last speakers warned that the coalition that toppled Mayor Fenty was still together, warning that new mayor Vincent Gray would get the same fate as Fenty if Franklin was demolished

PNC Bank to stop funding MTR coal mining

Remember when PNC Bank received a civil disobedience protest during Appalachia Rising? Well, now PNC Bank, stung by the attention they have received from activists on this issue, has agreed to STOP FUNDING MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL COAL MINING!

(photo-protest at PNC during Appalachia Rising)

This is a validation of the strategy of attaching political risk to investments in socially undesirable practices like MTR mining or vivisection.

Until now, PNC Bank was the largest investor in MTR mining among all banks. Now they will write no new loans for Mountaintop removal. With more and more banks like Bank of America,Citibank, and now PNC dumping MTR mining related lines of credit, corporations like Massey are finding fewer and fewer places to turn for funding these destructive projects.

Like Huntingdon Life Sciences, the economic lifeline of corporations practicing MTR is being slowly strangled by community opposition. Eventually, new MTR mines will face the face of the new vivisection lab Covance was unable to build in Prince William County-cancellation due to “economic conditions.” This may be how MTR mining is ended-old mines run out, no new mines can get funding.

PNC said in a statement that: that MTR “is the subject of increasing regulatory and legislative scrutiny.” In other words, the political risk is now unacceptable to them.

This particular victory comes in the wake of protesters entering a PNC branch in DC during the 1500-strong Appalachia Rising protests in DC. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that Appalachia Rising helped push PNC into this decision, and therefore to conclude that this protest was effective.

PNC still has $80M in MTR-related investments, it is unknown if they intend to divest of these investments as well as cut off all new credit for MTR mines, but surely they will not escape further protests unless they go entirely MTR-free.

http://www.kentucky.com/2010/11/08/1516316/pnc-to-halt-mountaintop-mining.html

Iraq Mess: Parliament walk-out, US bases/Green zone attacked

While all candidates for office ignored the war and FOX, et all avoid war coverage:

WSQT Nov 12 War Update

Transcript of Nov 12 WSQT Radio war update:
Baghdad, yesterday: The Secular “Iraqya” bloc walked out of the Iraqi parliament as other factions formed a nominal government and reappointed Prime Minister Maliki for another term. Many Sunni residents fear he is too close to Iran and thast they may have to take up arms again.

Baghdad, Wednesday: Eleven roadside bombs detonated within an hour of each other in three predominantly Christian areas of central Baghdad early Wednesday. Four of the blasts hit houses belonging to Christians, and two mortar rounds also struck Christian enclaves of the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Dora in south Baghdad.

Baghdad, Wednesday: Eight people were wounded Wednesday in a rocket attack against the fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, according to a security source reporting to Aswat al-Iraq news agency. The rockets scored direct hits in the “residential” section of the occupied Green Zone.

Kirkuk, Thursday: Unknown resistance fighters attacked a US military airbase in northeastern Iraq, according to Iraqi security officials. The base, located near Kirkuk, was hit by mortar fire and two Katusha rockets early on Thursday, police chief Sarhad Ghader told Fars news agency.

Mr Barrack Obama, does this sound to you like the surge worked? Does this sound like a viable plan to copy in Afghanistan? Three more NATO soldiers dies there Wednesday and Thursday. Now’s the time to get off this treadmill of death-bring all the troops home TODAY!

Reportback from the American College of Toxicology protest

The campaign to force the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel to cancel the American College of Toxicology convention did not succeed, so protesters showed up-and security and cops were most displeased about bullhorns at the hotel. They also acted as if they feared an invasion, given that Huntingdon Life Sciences was directly present at the convention. Remember, it took three go-arounds to shut down the AmeriKKKan Renaissance Conference, so it’s no suprise the first time against ACT would not shut them down.

Below is a report filed by DC’s WSQT Radio:
WSQT Radio audio report

(transcript of audio report)

On the 7th of November, the American College of Toxicology met at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel. At this cenvention were a number of animal “research” firms including puppy-killing Huntingdon Life Sciences, where undercover investigations have caught so-called researchers punchign beagle puppies in the face and dissecting live monkeys with no painkillers of any kind. A blizzard of phone calls forced the hotel to agree never to host this convention again, but they refused to cancel, so animal right protesters showed up outside.

(Clip-whe’re out here today because…)

At first, protesters used powerful bullhorns in front of the hotel, but Baltimore cops threatend to arrest them for sound equipment even though there is no law prohibiting it’s use, and even tried to intimidate protesters out of recording this exchange:

(clip-cops)

All those threats didn’t work-you just heard these cops right here, and the protests went on for at least a half hour after that confrontation. In the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel,for the American College of Toxicology and for Huntingdon Life Sciences, theres…No sleep for the wicked!

Shut Down American College of Toxicology(vivisection) 31st Annual Meeting

Unfortunately, the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel is not canceling,
so we will converge Tomorrow, Sunday November 7 @ 2pm!

Where: Meet at SW Corner of President and Eastern Ave
When: 2pm where we will be moving on to the Baltimore Marriott (700
Aliceanna Street)

The American College of Toxicology (ACT) is holding their 31st Annual
Meeting, which brings together key companies (including Huntingdon Life
Sciences) and governmental agencies responsible for the continuation and
execution of cruel and unjustifiable use of animals for “research”. In
response to this, regional groups will be converging to take a stand
against vivisection and Huntingdon Life Sciences.

Thank you to everyone who called. Ed Rudzinski, the General Manager of
the Baltimore Marriott, stated that he will not contract with the
American College of Toxicology. Please come out and provide a much
needed voice for animals trapped inside laboratories.

Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel
700 Aliceanna St
Baltimore, MD 21202

Defending Animal Rights Today & Tomorrow (DARTT)
http://www.dartt-online.org
DARTT (at) riseup.net

HLS home demos on Halloween spark furious confrontation

On Halloween 2010, Michael Paese of Goldman-Sachs received his third protest at his home, 1632-B 19th st NW, in about 24 hours, and his neighbors erupted in fury with sexist insults and threats. Cops stood by to make sure any use of force was not answered in kind by protesters.

Same Video on Liveleak

Audio: A Native American speaker reminds us that humans too have been vivisection targets

Through the threats and near-assaults by neighbors the protest went on ,sending a message that the previous night’s violence was not going unanswered. The wealthy Dupont Circle neighbors of Michael Paese apparently think supporting animal torture is a perfectly acceptable way to make money, and why not? After all, Dupont Circle is a neighborhood full of wealthy thugs who get rich exploiting people, so why would they not also support exploiting animals?

A Native American speaker reminded neighbors that some of the same firms that deal with HLS also test products on people in the global south without informed consent and test on prisoners. He also detailed the horrific history of medical “experiments” on Native Americans and African people by the white settlers of the past, and declared that what is now done to animals at HLS is a continuation of that grotesque “tradition.”

At about 9PM, protesters moved on to an even wealthier neighborhood-Georgetown. Abbot Fund Vice President John Richardson lives there, at 2732 P st NW-and there was unfinished business from the detention of protesters there last week. This time, neighbors called the cops but lacked the courage to get physical themselves, calling the cops to handle that part of the confrontation.

The First cop to respond was the former undercover “Kimmey” who had infiltrated Homes Not Jails and the Anti-Capitalist Convergence with no results back in 2001-2002. Her re-emergence (from an unmarked car) could mark a shift in police strategy for handling protests, what with the chaos that has resulted from Harold’s replacement as commander of SOD.

Kimmey threatened that any use of the human voice beyond one-on-one conversation would lead to arrest for “disorderly conduct” with no further warning, in defiance of DC’s 3-warning mass arrest law. No attempt was made to actually detain or arrest anyone, however, though cops did once again tail protesters out of Georgetown. Perhaps they feared that provoking protesters would lead to some real “disorderly conduct” later that night?

Here’s a shot of Kimmey threatening arrests for “disorderly conduct.”