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AUGUST 3RD: AFFINITY GROUP ACTIONS AGAINST SELFRIDGES!

DAAWN | 25.07.2002 12:11

1pm on Saturday 3rd August is the big demo against Selfridges' sale of goods used to fund illegal settlement expansion in Israeli-occupied land. Better than joining the main demo outside, get together with some friends and form an affinity group!

AUGUST 3RD: AFFINITY GROUP ACTIONS AGAINST SELFRIDGES!
AUGUST 3RD: AFFINITY GROUP ACTIONS AGAINST SELFRIDGES!


Decide on an action dress smartly to get in the store, and do it!

Nearly 1,500 Palestinians and 500 Israelis have been killed in recent months. The time for action is now!

The products are:

Achva Halva from the Barkan Industrial Zone,
West Bank Beigal and Beigal pretzels from the Barkan Industrial Zone,
West Bank Yarden Wines from Katzrin, Golan Heights

And all can be found in the Food Hall.

~~~~~~~

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Selfridges has caved in to Israeli government pressure and placed back goods produced on illegal Israeli settlements for sale. Selfridges removed these goods over Christmas when they appeared to recognise a wider civic responsibility. Now they have reneged on this decision and are once again accomplices to Israel's brutal occupation of Palestinian land that has resulted in the murder of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians since 1967.

Selfridges are supporting the illegal Occupation which the Israeli Government has tried to cement by attempting to colonise the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights. Prime Minister Sharon wishes to make conditions so awful for the Palestinians living there -by sheer terror and enforced poverty- that they will give up and leave: this is effectively ethnic cleansing. By selling goods from these settlements, Selfridges are giving economic and political support to Israeli military oppression.

These settlements have been built on land expropriated from the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. Not only are they illegal under international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, but their existence and continuing expansion, a symbol of the ongoing occupation, has been identified as a major obstacle to peace at this sensitive time.

The EU and international positions make it clear that settlements are not part of Israel, and therefore are not covered by any trade agreement. By stocking such products, Selfridges is in effect assisting settlement expansion through subsidising the settler economy. Whilst settlement trade flourishes, Israel continues to strangle the Palestinian economy by denying it free access to the outside world.

DAAWN
- e-mail: stopselfridges@soon.com
- Homepage: http://www.daawn.cjb.net

Comments

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Actions which have been done in the past

25.07.2002 12:22

If someone was going to do an affinity group action, or even an individual one, here are some which have been done at various places and times and have been quite successful:

stickering the products, stinkbombing, sounding the fire alarm, graffing the bogs, doing a banner-drop inside the shop, locking onto an entrance etc...

Use you imaginations - be creative! The revolution should be fun!

autonomous


Legal info

25.07.2002 12:40

It's worth mentioning that this is a 'winable' action. And this is not a boycott. This is Direct Action against Israeli ruling class capital, its powers of further accumulation, repression of Palestinian people and the continuing occupation of their land. This *will* reduce the amount of money funding settlement expansion and as such lessen the suffering of both Israeli and Palestianian workers.

Also, people are unlikely to be charged with anything if they do decide to enter the store, lock on, make noise, give out prop etc - arrested perhaps, but the only charges levied would come under the Public Order Act relating
to 'behaviour likely to cause alarm, harm or distress'. There will be leaflets explaining that the occupation has no intention of causing as such, therefore absolving people of being 'guilty' of such an intention. Any charge of tresspass is a civil offence and not a criminal one and therefore not a police matter. Below is some legal info:

Trespass

Trespass means going onto land or entering a building without permission. It is not a criminal offence, but a civil matter. Therefore it is nothing to do with the police. A person (e.g. a security guard) may use reasonable
force to remove you, but only if they are on the land or in the building at the time. If you enter empty land or an empty building and lock them out it is their bad luck and they will have to get an injunction (a civil court
order). However it may be a criminal offence to commit criminal damage getting onto land or into a building.

Aggravated trespass (section 68 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994) This applies to land which is not a highway (e.g. private land), but it must be in the open air (i.e. not under a porch and not indoors). The cops
must show that you are acting with the intention of intimidating any person on the land or neighbouring land into stopping their lawful activity or
obstructing them so that they cannot carry out their lawful activity.
Public order offences (Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994)
These are a range of offences from "causing harassment, alarm or distress" (section 5), "using threatening words and behaviour" (s4), affray (s3), violent disorder (s2) to riot (s1). The distinctions between these definitions are minor and it is largely arbitrary what you are charged
with. Apart from s5, they are all considered to be serious, and if you are accused of any you will be arrested, so there is little point in trying to debate the finer points. If the cops claim that you are causing harassment,
alarm or distress, try to find out who you are supposed to be causing it to.

DAAWNer
- Homepage: http://www.daawn.cjb.net


Defence Industry Conf/ October 14th / LOndon

25.07.2002 14:41

One-day Conference to be held at QE2 Centre, Central London (Westminster or St James Park tube) for the Defence industry. Sponsored by Economist magazine, Janes, and BAE . Speakers from NATO included

just thought you should know