Over 120 activists around the world took part in the first day of action against GUESS, with protests and other actions taking place at GUESS stores in London, New York, St Petersburg, Milan, Turin, Bologna, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Dublin, and British Columbia in Canada. Leaflets and posters were produced in 6 languages especially for the protests.
In the week before the day of action, protests were called off at GUESS stores in Liverpool, Nice, Cannes and Helsinki, after these stores gave fur free statements to the campaign, explaining they were GUESS franchises rather than owned directly by the company.
Many thousands more supporters called, emailed and wrote to the company asking them to stop selling real fur and adopt a fur-free policy.
It was clear that GUESS were worried by the campaign. Lawyers acting for the company's European head office in Florence, Italy, wrote to the Italian AIP campaign, threatening them not to go ahead with the protests and stating that the AIP campaign, as well as CAFT, would be liable for any loss of income or the damage to the image of the company as a result of the protests, a letter which was also released to the Italian media.
AIP released their own statement in reply, asking GUESS to give a fur-free statement, and on Saturday the protests went ahead in 3 Italian cities.
The head of GUESS UK also contacted CAFT by telephone, and said they had hired extra security and had informed the police, and that we would not be allowed to protest near the shop. We replied we had the right to protest peacefully in front of the shop and inform the public, and that the police usually attend our protests in any case.
In the event, no police turned up during the protest, though the police were called out to an incident in another shop nearby, and one officer came up to take a leaflet and ask if we had a petition to sign in support.
Both GUESS Italia and GUESS UK stated that their shops currently did not sell any fur, but we said that was usual in Spring and Summer, and we were aware they sold fur last Autumn/Winter season, and they refused to state they wouldn't sell fur again this Winter.
A big thank and well done all who took part in the protests and made the day a big success, as well as those who contacted the company. Protests will continue in some countries, and we are already planning for the next international day of action in a few weeks time, with even more countries and activists taking part next time.
