The British police made two arrests last night against peaceful protestors of Marks and Spencer - Britain's biggest corporate sponsor of Israel.

This has come as no surprise. For the last several weeks the cops have been looking to make arrests against the legitimate, democratic, lawful and peaceful protestors and last night they went ahead and did so. The usual charde began with arguments over the pen - when we arrived last night it was about the size of a little kids playpit, so we went outside it until they managed to muster some more railings between themselves. Then they started serving us with orders under Section 14 of the Public Order Act - as per usual. A particularly delightful and amusing one was a restriction on the timespan of the demo. For over 3 years we have been demonstrating between 6 - 8pm. For some reason the coppers had got it into their head that we began at 4pm so restricted our time from 4pm till 7.45pm - threatening arrests if we didn't pack up by 7.45pm. There was also the usual nonsense about restrictions on selling papers and the use of the megaphone which they cannot lawfuly place and which we paid no attention to.

Anyhow the demo itself was good, with quite a loud and vocal support. There were about 30 of us and had a lot of support from people on the street - British people and tourists alike. It helped that it was such a nice spring evening and that the counter demo has now dwindled to an almost insignificant number - ten at best. Then the police started coming down hard on the use of the megapone and threatened arrests if we carried on. All protestors got together and came to a communal decision, with reflection on the law, to carry on using it. So we did. It was interesting that the Zionists decided not to use theirs last night - a sign of collusion with the police and that the cops told them what they were planning. Whether you support Palestine or Israel - it is clear that it is the Zionists in this country who do not believe (or have the guts) in the exercise of freedom of speech.

Without giving any official warning (something the cops had to do in relation to the particular 'offences' they saw as being committed) a scrum of coppers tried to arrest a comrade on the megaphone and the police steward. A stand-off between us and the cops took place for several minutes while they tried to make arrests but protestors gathered around and lodged ourselves together - by this time half the shoppers/commuters on the streets had stopped to see what was going on.

Eventually, under increased police numbers, they arrested two protestors - apparently under the Public Order Act. All demonstrators made a point of chanting "British police- racist police!" and used the injustice to show the public that if you demonstrate in support of Palestine the British state will pull out all the stops to end such legitimate actions. The demonstrators then moved onto The British Police Authority buiding just off Goodge St where our comrades had been taken to protest with chants 'The M&S 2! Free them now!' and alike. The cops did release them for a bit of peace and quiet but nabbed the megaphone which belonged to a protestor who wasn't arrested. They are to be summoned to Marylebone police station in May.

Why this recent increase in harassment from the cops and the inevitable arrests? There are two main reasons:

Firstly, it is a manifestation of the Islamaphobia that is increasingly prevalent in British culture and the new state repression brought about under the guise of the 'war on terrorism.'

Secondly, it is also a result of pressure on the cops by M&S. On Wednesday M&S's share price plummeted by 5% amid dire sales figures - one new development in a long line of business gloom for the company. Admittedly the main reasons for this being that M&S sells crap clothes and their food is overpriced (but the store desperately now needs the custom of the rich Arabs who flock to Oxford St over the summer time). Having Palestinian supporters telling them not to go in the store (and having Israeli-flag waving Zionists telling people to go in) is the last thing M&S want and need at the moment.

A litlle message to the police monitoring this, Marks and Spencer and our terrorist Zionist friends:
Being arrested is an irrelevance to us, the pickets will continue and they will grow as they have been growing over the last few weeks. The fascist police are not going to stop our democratic right to protest. We urge all progressive people to stand up to the brutality of Israel against the Palestinian people and the infringements on our civil liberties here. Join the pickets of Marks and Spencer next Thursday and every Thursday from 6-8pm outside M&S on Oxford St (Marble Arch end).

Victory to the Palestinian and Iraqi Intifadas!