International campaign against G4S gathers momentum
Corporate Watch | 07.07.2012 21:33 | Anti-militarism | Migration | Palestine | Policing | Public sector cuts
Campaigners in the UK and Sweden have taken various actions against G4S over the last month. Meanwhile, various discussions and meetings are taking place to coordinate efforts aimed at forcing the multinational security giant to halt its “unlawful and criminal activities”, as well as to put pressure on public authorities to withdraw from and not award new contracts to the notorious company.
Related: Many reasons to stop G4S | G4S Alternative Annual Report
Links: Corporate Watch | No to G4S
G4S provides services to the Israeli Prison Service, both in the occupied West Bank and in 1948 Israel, where Palestinian political prisoners from the Occupied Palestinian Territories are transferred in violation of the Geneva Conventions. Torture, child detention and imprisonment without trial are widespread.
In the UK, G4S runs six private prisons at which 400 prisoners are made to work 40 hours a week for as little as £2 a day. The company also runs three immigration detention centres, where detainees have made repeated claims of abuse and assault by G4S guards. It is also a provider of controversial workfare schemes, and is taking over more and more public services, including policing, housing and healthcare provision. For more information about the company, see Corporate Watch's G4S company profile.
On the 6th June 2012, over 70 activists, some dressed in prison uniform, staged a protest outside the G4S annual general meeting at the London Stock Exchange. Protesters handed the company's shareholders attending the meeting an ”alternative annual report”, based on Corporate Watch's research, which detailed the company's involvement in human rights abuses around the world. Elsewhere, G4S advertising hoardings were subvertised by activists. One bus stop subvertisement read “G4S Proudly Securing Israeli Apartheid”.
On 19th June, over 100 participants in the Stockholm No Borders Camp held a demonstration against the award of public contracts to G4S and blockaded a G4S depot.
On 2nd July, campaigners from the Boycott Israel Network and No Borders UK occupied the roof of the G4S HQ in Crawley, West Sussex. Two banners were hung from the edge of the building (photos). One read “G4S – Profiting from: Israeli Apartheid, Prison Slavery, Deadly Deportations”. Another dozen protesters gathered on the ground, holding placards in support of the Palestinian hunger strikers, who have called for action against G4S. A previous demonstration had been held at the G4S HQ in Crawley in May.
The two rooftop occupiers demanded to speak to the company's management to tell them why they were there. The G4S Area Manager, Mike Milligan, tried to appear friendly and 'understanding' but said the company was “not willing to talk to them at the moment”. Then the Head of Media Relations, Adam Mynott, came out onto the smoking balcony round the back and did a rather poor job of 'engaging' with the protesters.
The protesters expressed their concerns over the company's unlawful contracts with the Israeli prison service. Mynott pointed to a 2010 report by Hjalte Rasmussen, an 'expert' hired by G4S itself to examine the lawfulness of the company's contracts in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The activists countered that the report had been roundly discredited (see the Palestine section of Corporate Watch's G4S company profile). Concerns were also raised about the “dangerous” restraint techniques – as described by parliament and the Home Office itself – used by G4S security guards against migrants in detention and during forcible deportation, which allegedly lead to the death of Jimmy Mubenga in October 2010 (see the Immigration section of Corporate Watch's G4S company profile). They asked whether these techniques have been reviewed by the company since then and whether the same techniques will be used by the privitised police forces.
Mr Mynott, previously a BBC foreign correspondent, had little to say apart from some poorly prepared soundbites and the repeated “I'm not aware of this” and “I don't know”. The two rooftop occupiers were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass and were released on bail later that night.
One of the bail conditions is “not to enter any land or building associated with G4S anywhere within the United Kingdom,” which, given the rapid expansion of the G4S empire, may include a big proportion of the country, from prisons, hospitals and schools to banks and other private and public facilities where G4S provides security, including the venues of the London Olympics.
Activists in Birmingham plan to picket a West Midlands Police Authority meeting on 12th July. G4S is bidding for a £1.5bn contract to take over Police services in the West Midlands and Surrey.
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2012 olympic G4S fake security masks.preparations for private police
10.07.2012 00:58
An undercover reporter infiltrates the London 2012 Olympic security firm G4S (Group 4 Securicor) where he is made painfully aware of gaping 'open-goal' security holes. 1hr interview, split into 7 parts
G4S is the only player in the race to privatise the UK police. This incredibly dangerous course of action began years ago. The majority of police and those who know the issues oppose this growing catastrophe. Many of the wheels and gears are already in place. The Office of Peace Constable must be guarded with our lives and the requirement to be a Special (volunteer) for up to 2 years must be revoked. G4S are not of suitable good character and trustworthiness to play any further role in UK policing. For all their faults we need the Police. If the burden of victimless Acts, Statutes and Byelaws could be lifted from their shoulders then they could keep the peace with full community support. Whilst playing an active part in restoring that community to it's former glory.
part 2
part 3
part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Massive but Passive
Stop G4S national event Sheffield October 6th
05.10.2012 16:15
10.30-5pm at The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield S1 2BX (next to Showroom Cinema)
Activists from various anti-G4S campaigns are coming together for a UK-wide gathering in Sheffield on Saturday 6th October. Individuals and campaign groups are invited to attend to share, network, strategise and plan how to build an even more effective Stop G4S campaign. The gathering is open to all who oppose G4S and want to work with others to Stop G4S from taking over public services for private profit while violating human rights.
Despite its track record of complicity in human rights abuses in the UK and abroad, G4S is being handed control of public services - everything from policing to “asylum markets” to the welfare system. Even after the Olympics débâcle, G4S looks set to take over even more control of our communities.
Campaigns have begun to highlight the appalling record of G4S and to work to prevent it from putting profit before human rights and dignity. From local campaigns to pressure G4S as it cuts corners, to demonstrations targeting the company’s AGM and headquarters, we’re beginning to damage the G4S brand.
The gathering will launch the UK 'StopG4S' campaign coalition, bringing together grassroots campaigns, networks and organisations with the aim of providing support, resources, guidance and skill-sharing. This coalition will be inclusive and non-hierarchical.
Please respond to:
Reasonable travel costs may be paid to those unable to fund themselves. Overnight accommodation will be provided by local activists.
The many reasons to Stop G4S:
G4S and Public Contracts:
ñ G4S has recently been awarded £210million of public money to provide housing services to asylum seekers in Yorkshire, Humberside, Midlands and the North East .
ñ With profit its only motive in what it calls “asylum markets”, it’s expected that over 1000 asylum seekers will be uprooted from their communities to live in slum housing.
ñ G4S profits from the privatisation of policing, courts & prisons
ñ Workfare: G4S profits from forcing the unemployed to do unpaid work or risk having benefits cut.
ñ G4S won the contract to provide security for the Olympics and failed to deliver on time but still insists on receiving payment.
Human Rights Abuses:
ñ Jimmy Mubenga, an Angolan asylum seeker died, following restraint by G4S employees. The DPP recently ruled that no prosecution was necessary.
ñ In 2011 G4S Australia admitted liability and was fined for the death of Warburton Elder Mr Ward.
ñ It profits from imprisoning refugees while it abuses families and children in their 'care'.
G4S and Israel’s occupation of Palestine:
ñ G4S provides equipment and services to Israeli prisons in which Palestinian prisoners, including child prisoners, are illegally held and tortured.
ñ G4S supplies equipment and services to Israel’s illegal settlements and Wall.
ñ Palestinian civil society has called for action to hold G4S to account for its role in profiting from the detention of Palestinian political prisoners, 1,600 of whom recently held a mass hunger strike.
Selection of actions taken so far:
ñ Local campaigns in cities and campuses across the UK
ñ G4S headquarters rooftop occupation.
ñ Demonstrations in Birmingham, Sheffield, London and beyond
ñ Successfully pressuring companies to drop their ties with G4S
ñ Publishing detailed analysis online (see
The event is sponsored by Boycott Israel Network, Corporate Watch, Dundee Trades Council, Jewish Socialists’ Group, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Newcastle Palestine Solidarity Campaign, No Borders UK, No One Is Illegal, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign, South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG) and Stop Deportations
see www.symaag.org.uk for more
SYMAAG
Homepage:
www.symaag.org.uk