LOCK-ON ACTION AT MAXMARA IN BOLOGNA (ITALY)
On saturday january 17th a sort of national demo was called against Max Mara in Bologna. This is called "AIP in Tour" and is a monthly day for different italian local groups to meet in one town for a bigger demo, a socializing/benefit event and meetings.

In Bologna the idea was to demo 2 Max Mara shops at the same time. But the police gave some restrictions just a couple days before, with permission for just one demo in a very central square of the city, but 500 mt from Max Mara shops!

Since the idea of this day and of our campaign is to have an impact on Max Mara, we were obviously not so happy to be put so far from the shop. Our answer to these restrictions was organized rapidly and worked great:
the demo started and took place in the square, with a total of 70-80 people, a normal information demo both against fur and Max Mara's bloody business... but at some moment the demo moved in the middle of the road blocking the traffic, while someone was going to do a lock-on at one of Max Mara shops nearby.

The chaos was great and with activists splitting into groups we managed to have a lock-on action at one shop and a non-authorized demo at the other, with riot police in full gear actually blockading the entrance! Two shops actually closed for more than one hour, a great result!

During all this chaos the group in the square continued to stop the traffic once in a while and informing people on the atrocities of the fur industry.

The police were outnumbered and could not manage well 3 different groups of angry activists!

In all occasions activists told the police they were just expressing their right to protest in front of the shops, and only because of the restrictions this chaos erupted.

The two girls who locked themselvs at the entrance of Max Mara were taken to the police station for a few hours after they delocked themselves when the shop was going to close for the evening. They have been charged with disrupting a business and criminal damage of two dummies (that a policeman actually damaged while trying to push them).

This was a very very bad saturday afternoon for Max Mara! And more will come, be sure!!