Saturday, October 15 & Sunday October 16, 2005

Operation: Slip Slide Continues

Friday's rain gave way to a beautiful, sunny Saturday in Midtown Manhattan. We began with back to back protests at two Washington Mutual branches. Our first stop was the branch at Lexington Avenue and 45 th St.. Employees and customers stood in shock at the images on our posters. Every customer who entered the bank was given a flyer detailing the connection between Washington Mutual and Huntingdon Life Sciences. A large group of activists was led in loud chanting further interfering with the bank as they tried to conduct business. 

The second branch was on Fifth Avenue and 48 th St.. This will be a key location for future protests as this branch houses a WM Group of Funds, which is the subsidiary that directs and manages stock market investments. This is the group that is directly responsible for Wamu's investment in the death camps of Huntingdon Life Sciences. The second protest was louder than the first and hundreds of flyers were distributed to the many pedestrians shopping on Fifth Avenue. Many expressed horror and promised to call the bank to ask for an explanation.

Next stop was HLS customer, Novartis. There we protested and distributed leaflets detailing the connection between Novartis and Huntingdon Life Sciences. This is a return visit to a great location with loads of foot traffic on Fifth Avenue close to Central Park South.

The Fifth Avenue office of Dalton, Greiner was so close to where we were that we couldn't resist stopping and spending an hour of our time to remind them that we vowed to keep coming back until they divested. No doubt they thought they would get more than a 24-hour reprieve. The wonderful thing about this location is that the building has a cavernous alley that acts to amplify our already loud voices. A word to the wise…be prudent, dump HLS.

Following this, we stopped at HLS customer, Pfizer. Pfizer World Headquarters is located on 42 nd Street at a prestigious address close to New York City's Grand Central Station. Our mission today was to honor the beginning of National Primate Liberation week here in the USA. A large banner with pictures of tortured primates was unfurled at their front door. Activists distributed a large number of flyers calling for a boycott of Pfizer prescription drugs and over the counter products. A list of Pfizer's products was given to each passerby.

We didn't want our fur mongering nemesis, Dennis Basso, to have a free pass this Saturday so our weary crew capped off the day with a Madison Avenue demonstration at scumbag Basso's fur salon. As always, the staff there is so obnoxious, that we soon had our second wind and had a rousing, aggressive, loud demo. 

The day was capped off when a police officer with the NYPD came by to ask us what we were doing. Duh, you would think they would know the answer to that question by now! The P.O. pointed out that a woman customer in the store looked "….intimidated and frightened to come out of the store…". An activist quickly replied: "She should be intimidated and she should be afraid to come out". WAR's new anti-fur campaign promises to "boldly confront anyone who dares cross the picket line to purchase fur products".

On Sunday, October 16, 2005, Operation Slip Slide continued with two outreach teams manning educational tables at busy Union Square in New York City. Literature was widely distributed and the video "The Truth" was used to educate shoppers about the horrors of animal testing, particularly at Huntingdon Life Sciences, and to promote cruelty free products.