MAXMARA HAD A REALLY BAD CHRISTMAS! (ITALY)

The campaign to get Max Mara fur-free is getting stronger in Italy, spreading in a lot of cities and becoming more and more visible.

The period before Christmas is definitely the most important one to target companies for anti-fur campaigns, because more people are shopping and companies expect to do more business, because there is more fur in display, because you can get more attention in the streets.

With this in mind AIP organized a week of demos from dec. 19th to dec. 24th, to put more pressure on Max Mara. The week started with an early morning demo at their headquarters in Reggio Emilia, where they really do not like us to be there and the police is reacting with a lot of restrictions. It was good anyway to meet hundreds of workers and give them the leaflet of the campaign, most of them took the leaflets with a smile, a sign that they do not stand too much on their company’s side (it would be difficult indeed, since Max Mara is well known for very low workers’ rights standards and no trade unions in their company).

After this demo it was time to go for the shops, and a lot of local groups joined the week of action demoing their Max Mara and Max&Co shops, some of them moving to do more demos in nearby cities and helping each other to have stronger demos.

It was a really powerful and amazing week, with 40 demos, most of them right in front of the shop doors and almost no customers going inside.

A very bad Christams time for Max Mara, both for their image and for their finances! Some of the demos also had media coverage, wich helped to get the people know what this company is doing to animals and the existence of an international campaign to get them fur-free.

During this week of action activists demoed also an Escada store in Florence, to join with the “global network against the fur industry” and their campaign to get Escada fur-free. This was a very loud and visible demo right in the city centre of Florence.

We need to show that the animal rights/animal liberation movement is strong and can organize well in coordinated struggles, both on a national and an international level, and the Max Mara and Escada  campaigns are a good example.

Take action now, let’s fight for a fur-free world!!