Vegan Video Brigade!

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

 

As many of you know, the Food & Social Justice Project (the folks that

coordinated the local Shameway campaign) recently purchased a tv/vcr combo

and a generator. We were taking the setup to our weekly leafleting

socials/demos (placing the tv/vcr on a card table, with the generator

below), where we would play a continuous loop of video taken undercover at

Safeway suppliers of meat, dairy and eggs.

 

On the Saturday evening following the Safeway victory, I took the combo unit

out to the corner of Castro & 18th Street. With my pal Bruce, I played

factory farming & slaughter images for about ninety minutes, leafleting the

whole time. It was quite powerful, and a very worthwhile endeavor. In spite

of the drunken stupor of the Saturday night streetscape, we had a LOT of

very good conversations.

 

I'm thinking of starting the " Vegan Video Brigade " -- organized leafleting

events, accompanied with a screening of factory farming/slaughter footage.

The Washington, D.C. group, Compassion Over Killing, uses their Fauna van

(the same one used by Eddie Lama in the film, " The Witness " ) to do

video-accompanied-leafletings every Friday. I would like to establish a

similar frequency here, with our baby faunette.

 

COK has three to five activists go out each Friday. There really isn't a

need for a large number of activists, since the video is the main focus.

We're just there to provide leaflets that direct the thinking of the

audience towards veganism as they watch the video footage.

 

My plan is to kick off our Vegan Video Brigade *this* Friday (May 31st). I'd

like to go out from 8:30 pm until about midnight (COK goes out from about 9

pm till 1 or 2 am). I would like us, through the course of the coming

months, hit most of the heavily trafficked areas in San Francisco. Some of

the BART stations (Powell Street/the Mission Street BART stations/downtown

Berkeley) are very good. Union Square would probably be a great location, as

would North Beach, the Marina, and lots of other areas that we can identify

as we sit down and plot out our strategy. Time being of the essence right

now, I'll make an executive decision and vote for the Powell Street BART

station as the site for this Friday's vegan video brigade. I'm looking for

three or four other people to join me at 8:30 pm. As the evening progresses,

we can take our set up over to Union Square.

 

And, for people who like to plan ahead, I'm thinking of scheduling the

following Friday's vegan video brigade in North Beach (where we can enjoy

steaming cups of espresso, or soy lattes to help buzz us through our

leafleting, coffee achievers that we are).

 

Please let me know via email if you would like to join us on Friday, May

31st or Friday, June 7th. Future video brigades will be announced as time

goes on.

 

Also: early heads up -- it's all but confirmed (I have to go in for the

mandatory tour tomorrow) that we have secured the 1st Floor Conference Room

at the SF Public Library (main branch) for *next* Thursday, June 6th, for

our brainstorming strategy meeting to discuss vegan activism in the Bay

Area. Details to follow!!

 

Best regards,

Alka