Today’s news about the targeting of GSK shareholders by Campaign Against HLS (Who? Seems SHAC has disappeared) has rightly focused on some salient points, namely the illegitimacy of these tactics and the abuse of shareholders’ information.

However, I also saw a fascinating quote in The Guardian from other ‘animal rights activists’;

Privately, animal rights activists are sceptical that an individual or a grassroots organisation would have the resources to send the letter to 170,000 shareholders or publish addresses online.
The Guardian, ‘Animal rights activists tell drug firm’s small investors to sell up or else’, 9th May 2006

This is the only acknowledgement I’ve yet seen of an important practical consideration.  Without disparaging the concerns of those few people who have been unfortunate enough to receive a letter, a quick totting up of the figures (on the back of a fag packet if I smoked, but in these modern times actually done on my mobile) shows what a desperate, and pathetic, attempt this was to grab a few media headlines.

CAHLS has threatened to write to all of the 167,000 individual GSK shareholders (see The FT, ‘GSK says investors targeted by extremists’, 9th May 2006) will receive a letter from them within two weeks.  This would cost a huge sum of money – even if we’re generous in our calculations!

Even if CAHLS:
1.  Hand-delivers half of the letters to keep costs down (unlikely because (i) there really aren’t enough activists willing to cross the line into illegal action to deliver 83,500 overnight and (ii) it would be risky hand-delivering letters, someone would be bound to see and then identify the miscreants).
2.  Uses 2nd class stamps (a bad idea in light of their self-imposed, two-week deadline and the Post Office’s track record on deliveries).
3.  Made their activists bring their own pen and paper, rather than the group buying envelopes etc.

83,500 letters @ 23p each = £19,205

Chances of a new, grassroots organisation having £20k for any sort of campaign?  Zero.
Chances of an established group secretly funding a £20k hate-mail campaign in light of legislation changes?  Slim to none, you’d hope.

This seems like the last gasping breaths of the opponents of HLS who are not only in denial about their abject failure, but are drawing attention to it with their ludicrous activities…