Wisc Gov Scott Walker protested at National Governors Association in DC

On the 27th of February, Wisconsin’s union-busting governor Scott Walker came to DC for the annual meeting of the National Governor’s Association at the JW Marriott. Outside was a fiesty picket line of union workers and supporters, demanding he kill the so-called “Budget repair bill.”

Video of the picket, a speaker, and Vermont Gov Schumlin

Audio: Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin’s Speech

Audio: An organizer on Wisconsin and Washington Hospital Center

The GOP-backed “budget repair bill” is the bill that would strip away collective bargaining rights for Wisconsin public employees. People throughout the US are demanding this bill be scrapped.

At the JW Marriot, there was even an “Egypt, Tunisia, Wisconsin” sign which implictly comparesa Scott Walker to Mubarak and Ben Ali!

Given the strength of the union picket outside, Gov Walker was lucky the National Governor’s Association was in a non-union hotel, otherwise the entire convention could have been hit by work stoppages.

Vermont’s governor Peter Shumlin came out of the event to speak at the rally, condemning Wisconsin’s Governor Walker, saying “All governors are not alike.”

Reportback from massive pro-Wisconsin/pro union rally in Dupont Circle

On Feb 26, enough protesters to fill most of Dupont Circle to packed-crowd, standing room only descended on the circle for a rally to condemn Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for trying to abolish public employee unions.

Audio:Speaker invokes Washington Hospital strike as example of same fight

Video: Same speaker invoking Washington Hospital strike as same fight, march to Dupont Circle, plus interview about Walker’s bill selling off power plants

HD Video:Solidarity-speaking of Madison, the Madison Hotel is still being picketed as their owners STILL won’t sign a contract!

One speaker (on the audio and featured in the upcoming video) invoked the upcoming DC fight at Washington Hospital Center as a local example of the same fight.

When a march from the Dupont Circle rally arrived at the White House, protesters supporting Yemen, Libya, and Bahrain. Some of them carried signs giving dictator’s names with lines all the way or partway through them, depending on the status of the fight on each country. Someone from the union rally in turn had a sign adding Gov Walker’s name and Scott Boehner’s names to the list of Mideast tyrants that started with Ben Ali and Mubarak. There was a lot of cheering and mutual support between the two rallies.

Lasty, there are calls for a general strike in Wisconsin if Scott Walker manages to ram his anti-union bill through. If this occurs and strikers demand that Gov Scott Walker resign as a condition of ending the strike, then Wisconsin will truly be America’s Egypt or at least it’s Tunisia.

Protesters threatened with arrest for bullhorns at Miller’s Furs

On Feb 26, animal rights protesters showed up at Gartenhaus Furs and Miller’s Furs as they have every weekend in “Fur Free February.” The protests at Gartenhaus went fine, but police at Miller’s Furs threatened activists with arrest for using a bullhorn and refusing to carry ID.

There was just one problem for the cops: The protesters had their lawyer on-site, and he reminded the police that no law in Montgomery County or MD requires anyone to carry or possess personal identity documents. In addition, the Montgomery County noise ordinance does not define a violation as an offense subject to arrest, only to citation.

Astra-Zeneca, Bayer, Baxer get HLS office demos followed by home demos

On Feb 25, Huntingdon Life Sciences customer Astra-Zenica got their second office demo in just three days from animal rights activists.

Same video on Liveleak in case youtube disables the sound

The protests began with a noisy bullhorn speakout inside the office lobby. After security managed to push the action back outside, additional protesters showed up-with yet another bullhorn as well. Bayer, a fellow HLS customer in the same building as Astra-Zenica, also was called out for supporting animal torture.

A few hours after the office demos, protesters showed up at the home of Brian Maloney, associate director of policy and issues management for Astra-Zenica. Since this is a huge apartment building, instead of a normal protestthe building was entered and fliers left on door knockers on many floors.

Next, prlotesters showed up at the home of Marc Coin of HLS customer Baxter, until Feb 2011 global policy director of Astra-Zenica. Changing jobs to another HLS customer is NOT enough to buy exemption from the global week of action!

This is a global week of action against Astra-Zenica, and DC animal rights activsts have been getting their licks in!

Astra-Zenica, a Big Pharma, contracts some of their animal testing out to New Jersey and UK based Huntingdon Life Sciences or HLS. HLS is a contract animal testing la b where undercover investigations have revealed such abuses as punching beagle puppies in the face and swinging them in the air by their hind legs to force them to accept toxic injections.

In addition, scientists who have left HLS have been sued for revealing that in some cases HLS has pencilled in the desired test results, not even attempting to determine whether or not the product under test is safe. This may have contributed to Merck’s problems with Vioxx, which was tested at HLS before killing people. Merck subsequently dumped HLS. Give how much damage HLS did to Merck with Vioxx, Merck ought to sue HLS!

This man took photos, then stood with security guards snapping some more.

Hundreds protest outside DC offices of Wisconsin Gov Scott Walker

On the 23ed of February, for the second day in a row, union activists laid siege to the 444 N Cap st offices of Wisconsin’s GOP Governor Scott Walker. His efforts to abolish collective bargaining in Wisconsin have led to a statewide uprising some have compared to Egypt.

Video from 444 N Cap

A speaker at the rally invoked DC’s recent victory over union-busting former school chancellor Michelle Rhee, turned out of office when her patron, former Mayor Fenty, was defeated at the polls.

The right-wing “FreedomWorks” lobby has an office in neighboring 400 North Capitol Street, yet managed to turn out less than a dozen counterprotesters against a union rally hundreds strong, maybe more! One of them was wearing a full-body Panda bear suit, appropriately enough a national symbol of China. Pandas are native to China, the Panda suit may have been made in China as well-and China is internationally notorious s the ground-zero of union busting.

Meanwhile, labor groups are calling for a general strike in Wisconsin if Scott Walker’s budget bill is ever approved. This may be the first major general strike in the US since the 1934 West Coast Longshore Strike!

Nomura, DC HLS customers get noisy office demos

The Siege of Fortress continues! On Feb 23, after showing up at Bayer, Astra-Zenica, and Sanofi-Aventis, animal rights activists brought loud bullhorns to the lobby of Nomura.

Nomura is a key stockholder in Fortress Inc, the lifeline of puppy-killing Huntingdon Life Sciences or HLS. HLS, a contraqct vivisection lab in New Jersey and the UK, has been caught in 7 separate undercover investigations punching beagle puppies in the face, dissecting live monkeys, and more.

If Fortress Inc calls in those $100M in loans that saved HLS from bankruptcy, HLS will shut down forever. With the existing victory over Convance’s now-cancelled lab in Virginia that was to replace another lab Covance is closing, this could make secret, contract animal testing hard for any corporation to get.

MoCo cops claim bullhorns illegal at ALL protests as fur customers run the gauntlet

What few fur customers showed up at Gartenhaus and Miller’s Furs on Feb 19 had to run a gauntlet of shouting protesters. This was both before and after cops showed up and pointed to an obscure noise ordinance.

They approached each person with a bullhorn and interpreted the ordinance as banning ALL amplified sound at ALL protests, with the usual threats of arrest if the bullhorns were used again. As a result, loud shouting, as loud as the bullhorns, plus the air horn, were used instead o keep up the pressure.

Anti Wal-Mart film screening packs the house at Plymouth Congregational

Perhaps 60 people packed into a room at Plymouth Congregational Church on Feb 18 to see and discuss the film “The high cost of low prices” about what Wal-Mart has done to every community where they have a store-or a sweatshop.

Video:Intro,very short clips from film and longer clip of a speaker afterwards

The film was shocking, even to those of us who have always despised Wal-Mart’s business model and spending on right-wing causes. The sweatshops, the long hours off the clock both in factories and their stores, the environmental recklessness all had to be seen to be believed!

Especially noteworthy was Wal-mart “associates” meaning employees, saying again and again that when they could not afford Wal-Marts $75 per paycheck for health insurance or could not feed their families on Wal-Mart’s meager paychecks that they should apply for Medicaid and food stamps! In other words, every single Wal-Mart store is only able to stay open because of “generous” public subsidies in the form of public benefits replacing adequate pay and health care!

Wal-Mart hired some local young people to give out pro Wal-Mart propaganda outside the film screening, but nobody was buying the bullshit printed on Wal-Mart’s fliers.

The very fact that both Wal-Mart and FOX News showed up implies that Wal-Mart is feeling the heat and is not at all sure that what they claim is a “done deal” will ever be able to break ground anywhere in the city.

DC Residents tell John Riggins, Councilmembers: NO to Wal-Mart!

On Feb 15, Wal-Mart’s developer for New Jersey Ave revealed their plans to an audience that seemed to be a majority of opponents of Wal-Mart with several pro-Wal-Mart members of the audience was well. Citizen speakers ran at maybe 3/4 against Wal-Mart-but had to cool their heels for nearly two hours while no less than John Riggins presented the developer’s plan along with two councilmembers.

Video focussing on citizen and small business opponents of Wal-Mart

Photo: Riggins and his friends deceiving the public in church

It almost seems like Wal-Mart is trying to wow a DC audience by pickin a developer connected with John Riggins, formerly of the Washington Football Team. He has been with this developer long enough that he spoke of building 800 North Capitol Street-a builidng I delivered to in 1998 as a bike messenger. I do not know whether he owns the company, is a board member, or is just a pitchman for them.

Once this ended and citizen testimony began, speaker after speaker tore into Wal-Marts low wages, discrimination, and deceptive busienss practicies. A few speakers were for Wal-Mart, but most against.

Overall I was reminded of the hearings in MD for the Inter-County Conector, where citizens oponents had to sit through hours of pro-highway blowhards before being allowed to present their objections, which were then ignored.

Housing activists protest massive GOP HUD/Section 8 budget cuts

On Feb 14, Valentine’s Day, housing and tenant activists showed up outside the Russel Senate Office building demanding the Senate reject proposals from House Republicans to gut public housing programs and Section 8 assistance nationwide.

Video from the protest at the Russell Senate Office Building

The continuing resolution that has funded Section 8 (and everything else) since last year expires in March. If the GOP and the teabaggers get their way,half of all DC tenents with Section 8 vouchers, as many as 750,000 Section 8 tenants will then be cut off from assistance. Most or all will then face eviction for unpaid and unpayable rent.

Furious at the GOP proposals for what would amount to mass evictions, protesters went so far as to evoke the Egyptian Revolution as an example of what happens when prices of the necessities of life are doubled or tripled as part of an austerity plan. The words “grave consequences” were invoked by one speaker-words that in diplomacy refer to war.

Others pointed out that there never seems to be any shortage of Congressional dollars for war or public funds for stadiums, yet the GOP is screaming that budget cuts against food and housing are needed.

In addition, the same GOP that is trying to abolish Section 8 housing vouchers is demanding MORE public money for vouchers for private and religious schools. The use of tax money to pay tuition at sectarian religious schools is considered questionable on a First Amendment basis, raising questions about the Tea Party’s true commitment to “strict constructionism” on constitutional issues.

It should be remembered that many economists and social theorists regard the original “New Deal” public assistance programs from the 1930′s as an effort by a capitalist country to buy peace and avoid chaos during the last Great Depression. They stop paying, people just might stop delivering social peace