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Sainsburys birmingham depot blocked

Red | 02.07.2004 16:44 | Ecology | Birmingham | Oxford | Sheffield

Sainsbury’s was blocked from 0130 am until 0700 am when the activists decided to call it a day. The protest was due to start at 11 o’clock pm as a coordinated national protest aimed at Sainsburys for supplying milk from GM fed cows, the action done in support of local farmers who have been campaigning for a better deal on their non GM contaminated milk.

Police turn up
Police turn up

Roads blocked
Roads blocked

Dawn
Dawn

sleeping on the job
sleeping on the job

GM free Dairy
GM free Dairy

Chaos for some
Chaos for some


The first timing was abandoned at Birmingham due to the Sainsburys depot being heavily policed. On our approach we found road blocks preventing us access to the road that would lead us to our target. There was some cat and mouse as the transport we were using tried to lose the cars following us and get organised with a new plan. The group of about 40 decided that there had been too much time and effort put into this action to abandon it just because the police were at the seen and spurred on by news that Bristol, Liverpool and others had been blocked or were in different states of conflict with the police we didn’t want to be left out.
A new plan was hatched and the only option that we could come up with was to block the approach road that led to Sainsburys. This had draw backs as a few other companies would be effected, we were aware that this would also block BMW, Nestle and a company making bulkheads for Landrovers that were heading to the Indonesian army (shame). However there were a few independent lorry drivers that were also affected and it was this that the activists took into account and decided to call time.
Two tripods were used to block one side of the dual carriageway and a strange multiple lock-on tube blocked the other side of the road; this took up a lot of space and worked well. The tripods and lock-on set went up very quick, so much so that even the police inspector commented at how efficient we all were and within minutes Lorries were backed up on the duel carriageway and down side roads, public cars were allowed to go through later which was negotiated early on with the police.
There were 12 people arrested, all when they either came down from tripods or unlocked themselves, one of which was in a wheel chair, disabled and locked on to the tripod legs!
The police inspector praised the protesters for the speed at which they deployed the tripods and lock-on tubes. He also commented how upset Sainsbury’s was at being blocked in/out and were very unhappy at the situation. This obviously left the inspector in a difficult position as they were there to allow the smooth running of the Lorries.
Until next time

Red

Comments

Hide the following 6 comments

It's alright for some ... but not others

02.07.2004 23:53


The calves (children) of milk producing cows are stolen away from their mothers usually within 48hrs so as the mothers milk can be stolen by greedy humans rather than it going to feed their calves.

The calves are sent to veal farms where they are shackled inside wooden crates side by side and fattened until they are slaughtered still at a young age for greedy humans to eat. Some of the calves cannot even stand up because they have not been used to walking.

Their mothers are impregnated time and time again and 'milked to death' before they reach slaughter. Some of the cows also cannot even stand up because they have not been used to walking.


So, good on the humans for such all encompassing enviro-action.

Keep that 'safe' milk for your tummies flowing eh? Makes ya sick dunnit?


>>  http://milksucks.com/index2.html

Veg^n-Nation


....not the point....

03.07.2004 10:26

I was on this action... the point for me (and I feel this was shared by all I knew there), is not trying to make my consumables safer, but to stop GM entering into this country at all... to be eaten by us or the cows. The point is to make Britain entirely GM free - to say 'No Fucking Way!' we don't want this shit that the corporations are hoisting on us, irrevocably and unforgivably fucking up our natural world. Of course I don't want dairy herds to exist.... another day I might have been on a meat is murder type action.... there are a lot of types of fucked up shit in this world.

veganenvironental/animalrightsactivist


Another vegan on the action

03.07.2004 16:24

For me the 'human health' aspect of animal feed is only minor, and I'm certainly not endorsing GM-free dairy as the ideal solution, but it will at least get as somewhere towards the solution on the 'animal rights', 'environmental protection' and 'agribusiness exploitation of small farmers' front. It may well also be winnable.

I was on this action mainly because one of the major uses of GM crops world wide is for a low-cost high-protein animal feed (so much for GM feeding the world!). Farmers in the UK feed this to their animals because it is cheap and UK supermarkets force them to accept a price for their milk which is below the cost of production. Meanwhile, a diet solely consisting of genetically modified protein is really unhealthy for cattle.

The intensive growing of GM maize and soya for animal feed in both the USA and Argentina has caused massive environmental destruction and led to the dislocation of millions of small farmers in favour of massive chemical intensive monoculture farms. See for example, "Argentina's Bitter Harvest" an article by Sue Branford in the New Scientist (April 2004)  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/04/289323.html

another veganenvironmentalistanimalrightsactivist


Milk is still murder

03.07.2004 17:49

..That is my only point. Highlighting how milk is screwed out of cows at enormous emotional and physical cost for mother and young.

Fuck Sainsburys and Fuck GM. A point was ported across to accompany the report that needed to be lit up.

Veg^n-Nation


they're both bad!

04.07.2004 21:59

They're both bad! We don't like either of them! Gm is bad and milk is nasty and full of pus! We don't ingest either if we can help it but in any case the action was really effective, thanks everyone and loads of love.
lock on!!!!!

me


crap

16.10.2004 21:31

I HAVE READ YOUR ARTICLES,AND I AM DISTURBED TO FIND THAT YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAN CAUSE MAYHEM,AND ENDANGER THE LIVES OF THOSE AROUND YOU OVER A GLASS OF MILK,WHAT YOU DON'T TELL ANYONE IS THAT THE COWS ON DAIRY FARMS HAVE TO BE MILKED OR THEY WILL DIE,GET A LIFE AND DO SOMETHING USEFULL LIKE GET A JOB

noname