Halliburton On the Run : Houston Indymedia

Houston activists remember well May 18th 2005. The Halliburton Shareholder’s Meeting was taking place at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Houston. Even if you didn’t make it to the protest planned outside the mega-corp’s get together, you probably saw pictures of HPD running horses into people, and masked kids fighting back.

I began that morning high above downtown streets, peeking out of my hotel room window inside the Four Seasons. By six a.m. there were hoards of officers, mounted police and two riot buses waiting to take people to jail. The previous year a spirited festival of resistance had taken place outside the hotel, with a few hundred protesters, pig snouts and billionaires. In 2004 inside the hotel five activists handcuffed themselves to the railing of the stairway and poured fake blood on their bodies while chanting. It seemed that in 2005 the cops and Halliburton were ready for us. They didn’t know that we had rented a room this year and were ready to engage in waves of direct action.

Coming down from our four hundred dollar hotel room was a surreal experience. There were uniformed police and undercover officers everywhere. The hotel was crawling with cops. We had people inside the meeting, three teams of protesters outside the meeting and at least three photographers ready to capture what ensued. As I sat and had coffee I tried not to seem nervous, but my heart was pumping a mile a minute. When it came time to deploy it seemed that I left my body for a moment. I heard the first team start chanting, and saw officers (who had been about to ask us just what were doing milling about in the hallway) rush to drag them out. Then my team sat down, the four of us, and began to chant as well. Officers besieged us. I tried to hold on to my fellow protesters, and watched as they used pain compliance on the 18 year old woman next to me. We were all quickly dragged out, but not before I heard team three deploy. All our photographers were asked to leave before they could document any of what happened, making the action bitter sweet.

Once loaded on to the paddy wagon I watched as things got hotter and hotter on the street. One by one sweaty, bleeding men that I knew were being hauled in to join us on our way to jail. “What the hell is going on outside?” I wondered, but there would be no time to ask questions. We made clandestine phone calls into the pirated radio station set up for the occasion. To Hell With Halliburton Radio was in full effect.

Twenty hours later I sat on a friend’s couch and watched the media coverage of the event. It was madness. Halliburton stock fell by almost a dollar on the day that it announced its profit statement (a hefty profit as we all know). So, when Halliburton announced that it would not be holding its shareholders meeting in Houston this year, I felt more than a little proud. The company emphatically denies that it is moving its shareholder meeting to Duncan, OK to avoid the protesters in Houston. Since the shareholders meeting of 2005 Houston Global Awareness, who organized the protests against Halliburton, was found to have been spied (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10965509/site/newsweek) on. Scott Parkin (http://www.scottparkin.org/ ), the man who begun HGAC, was deported from Australia where he was targeting Halliburton. We have Halliburton on the run, and there is no reason to let up now.

Check http://www.houstonglobalawareness.org for more info on buses to Duncan for the May 17th shareholders meeting

2004 AGM, October 2004 Carerolazo at KBR hq, 2005 AGM. The pressure has been escalating. Keep it up.

how does this help anything?

is owned by Haliburton.No major press,redneck cops on Haliburton payroll,no hotels for protesters,redneck judges and Haliburton will control all access to the town and their venue.This event will be a major fund raiser for the town,along with the fines collected Haliburton will pour big bucks into this small town in cop overtime in order to buy control.

halliburton owns everything but we should still challenge them and major press will be in the city. that is all but a guarantee.

If you go to Duncan, the best place to eat is Cedar Street Grill. Awesome burgers and ribs. Good pie to.

If you're a vegan, you'll pretty much be out of luck in Duncan.

If you want to experience that movie moment where you walk into the local diner and everything stops and everyone stares at you, the Daybreak Diner is for you. It's just plain spooky. I'm sure it helped that I was there with an Arab guy, but most of you protesters are odd enough that I'm sure you'll get the experience as well.

If you're in Duncan for any amount of time, you'll run out of places to eat pretty soon. Lawton isn't a very far drive, and you'll have a restaurant selection that is 20 times larger than Duncan. My guess is you could even find a vegan joint there. Plus, this would be a good place to find additional lodging. Lawton is only about a 30 minute drive from Duncan.

BTW, the casino is Duncan sucks, so don't waste your time there.

It's quite a trek from OK City down to Duncan, so I really would advise against seeking accomodations there. If nothing is available in Lawton, your next best choice would be Witchita Falls.

After that, if it's just for the day, you may consider driving to Dallas, staying the night there, and then leaving real early for Duncan.

http://www.cityofduncan.com/

Videos located on the top right. We should stop by the Chisolm Trail Museum while we're there!

Perhaps we should all read up on this stuff before we have a peace vigil of any kind. I was going to list some of the funny laws that they have in place, but there were too many to list. Just remember to not "molest automobiles" or "dress inappropriately."

Cheers!

Not that it really matters...but the population of duncan is like 15,000

The population is well over 22,000. Get your facts straight.

Yes, you are correct. The population is around 22,500, but don't be such a dick about it.

I AM EMBARRASSED FOR YOU THAT YOU SHOW YOUR STUPIDITY BY SAYING WHAT YOU DID !!

YOU MUST HAVE A VERY LOW IQ !!!

Diners don’t chicken out at PETA’s clucking

Thursday, May 18, 2006

A human inside an injured-chicken costume, hobbling in protest on the sidewalk Wednesday in front of a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, didn’t achieve the desired effect, according to many who dined there.

Brad Steig called Wednesday’s protest in Grand Junction by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals good advertising for KFC.

The protest consisted of four adults and one child holding signs in front of the restaurant, handing out fliers and DVDs and urging people to not eat at KFC until the restaurant buys chickens from humane vendors.

Steig, a manager for Halliburton, said he heard about the PETA protest on the radio and decided right then to eat at KFC on Wednesday, the day of the protest.

Not only that, but he bought seven of the biggest buckets of chicken and all the side dishes and used four trips to load them into his Halliburton pickup to treat his co-workers.

“I detest that organization,” Steig said, adding PETA tries to harm the economy because of personal agendas.

Jim Shults dined at KFC with his wife, Deb, on Wednesday just because of the PETA protest, he said. Shults called his lunch a preemptive strike, he said.

“I’m going to kill chickens before they kill me with bird flu,” said Shults. He called PETA “People Eating Tasty Animals.”

When he heard about the protest, he decided “instantaneously this is where we were going to eat today,” he said.

Deb Shults ate chicken strips, and said, “I’m killing one of their pot pies.”

A group of Grand Junction High School students brought their chicken to the curb to eat in front of the costume chicken and the protesters.

A big man in a big pickup rolled by, growling out his open window, “I eat chicken ... lots of chicken.”

A cruiser with the Grand Junction Police Department stood by with Sgt. Scott Stoneburner making sure the protest was a peaceful one. In the cooler on his front seat awaited his own lunch: a chicken salad sandwich.

Grand Junction City Councilwoman Bonnie Beckstein blew by the protesters on her way through the door of the restaurant.

Of course she’d eat there, she said. “I do it all the time. It’s called free enterprise,” she said.

PETA Campaign Coordinator Lindsay Rajt wore a portable television screen showing a video of animal abuses by the corporate giant and its vendors. Curious high school students watched.

Some people driving by honked and waved.

Rajt said she doesn’t oppose eating chicken. She just wants the chickens to be slaughtered in a more humane way.

KFC and its vendors have been known to scald animals alive “while they’re still fully conscious and able to feel pain,” Rajt said. They also give drugs to the animals to quickly grow big, she said.

“We get a lot of positive response,” said Angie Rolly, who stood in the chicken costume in the hot sun. “When people find out what’s going on, they’re appalled.”

Grand Junction High School freshman Nicki Stewart watched the video with three friends. She had a soft approach.

“I think they ought to make sure the chickens are dead before they dunk them in the water,” Stewart said. “It’s mean.”

Still, she said, she’ll probably continue to eat at KFC.

The video didn’t change the outlook of her friend Cassandra Lauber either.

“It still tastes good,” she said.

***June 1st, 2nd, and 3rd,**
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***June 1st, 2nd, and 2nd***

A Weekend of Resisting Walmart in the Ozarks.

Every summer, Wal-Mart Shareholders from all over the world come to Fayetteville, Arkansas to celebrate their plunderous fortunes. For the past 2 years, they have been met by people in the streets — people who object to Wal-Mart's longstanding anti-worker, anti-women, anti-community and anti-environmental policies and practices. Come to Fayetteville this summer and join us for the 3rd Annual March Against Walmart. Help us confront the worlds largest corporation on its own turf!

We highly reccomend that people try and arrive on Thursday, June 1st as we will be facillitating important discussions about the shareholders convention. Folks are welcome to contact info (at) againstthewal.net for more info and to inquire about travel info and housing arrangments. Housing and food will be provided. Please feel free to come to town earlier to help finalize preparations and to enjoy spring in the beautiful Ozark hillcountry. Also, please visit our freshly updated website,
http://www.againstthewal.net.

Weekend Of Resistance To Walmart

Thursday, June 1st- All day meetup at the All People's Unite Infoshop in Fayetteville. Workshops, Strategy Sessions, Puppet Making, Hangin' on the porch.

Friday, June 2nd- March Against Walmart- Time-TBA, Meet at the
Fayetteville High School

Saturday, June 3rd- Bikes Not Sprawl!!- Noon, Meet at the Fayetteville Town Square with your bicycle for a ride to the 6th street Walmart. Contact us if you need a bike.

http://www.againstthewal.net
info (at) againstthewal.net

We also have a web banner available if you would like to put it on your website and help promote the March Against Walmart.

http://www.againstthewal.net/AgWal_banner.gif

Thanks and we'll see you in the streets.

http://www.againstthewal.net