M & S picket attacked today

Please try not to use jargon, acronyms etc when reporting stuff. Remember not everyone is as wrapped up in this campaign as you.

It is good to see that a piece has gone up already, on indymedia about the demonstration outside Marks and Spencers on the 17th.

It was also good, to get the Manchester Evening News and find the front page, (actually not a bad article) was dedicated to the Picket and the crap that is being thrown at the picket by this big, multi national company.

What was also interesting, were the comments being thrown at the demonstrators by the Zionist group, one which included that Palestine did not nor ever exist and these remarks, clearly did not go down well and they failed to intimidate any body because one of them managed to get himself arrested by the Police, one woman was getting heated up with her brolly and hit one of the organisers with it and it was them, not us, who closed down Marks and Spencers for a good few hours and probably lost the company a good few grand!

It was also good to see so many peace groups, socialist groups, the Samba Band and many others on the demonstration too support the plight of the Palestinian people.

The reality is though, that they will probably return next week to try and disrupt the picket and it is important that all those who do support peace in the Middle East turn up and support the Boycot M & S Picket!

ASBOs are Anti-social behaviour orders used normally to evict "nusiance" neighbours in housing but (like so many other pieces of legislation) now they are trying to use them against protesters. This means that Marks and Spencer are gathering "evidence" about the behaviour of the picket to use in court. They have official police forms to complete and apparently they don't need much in the way of evidence to support an application for an ASBO. If they are successful, this means of attacking protest will be used against other protests, which is why it is so important that people support this protest. We need people to watch and listen to what happens to counter any lies used to support ASBOs.

MEN is Manchester Evening News. The local daily newspaper.

For the record. As we stood there, a man passing by came and shook hands, saying "good luck with your protest, you are doing the right thing"

Bet the behaviour of the self-proclaimed Zionists doesn't make it onto any ASBO.

pics - just thought they'd like to see how pretty they look on camera.

"Banshee woman" is the one who hit a picketer in the face with an umbrella. "Smirking Bastard" is the one that got arrested :-) And "Protecting Israels rightwing", the three guys in the middle are Zionists.

"Blood" is from last weeks protest.

just to say that M & S wasn't shut, but the main entrance was. sorry to mislead those potential M & S shoppers I spoke too...

bet we cost them some money though.

but, just think, if we had enough people to demonstrate at the side entrance and the tunnel across from the arndale as well?

hmmmmmm..........

Until you mentioned Manchester, I'd assumed this was in London where there is also a weekly picket which I attended. This is why it's always worth including about 2 standard sentences each time you publish, describing what any protest is about, where, the issues in a nutshell etc. I and many others may know this stuff. But imagine someone else stumbling on Indymedia for the first time, they probably wouldn't even know what M & S was in this context.

This is indeed an insidious and wholly wrong use of anti social behaviour orders. A bit like when company directors used anti stalking laws against similar protests before they were ever used for their proper pupose even. Anyway, respect and best of luck to you guys. You're hitting them where it hurts most. About the only things faceless corporations understand or care about.

Hi I am a regular member of the m&s picket and have been for about 18 months and would like to say thanks to everyone who came down to support the picket today! We had nearly 60 people today and this helped us to defeat the zionists who we outnumbered greatly!! We do need to maintain the numbers seen today as the zionists will not give up. If we show up in those numbers every week they have no chance of successfully attacking us. We are also under constant attack from the police and the labour city council who are colluding with m&s and are currently trying to find the grounds to issue picketers with anti-social behaviour orders!! I'd like to see them try issuing ASBOs to 60 people!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE come down and support the right to protest and let people know about what is happening to the palestinians on a daily basis. We are having a planning meeting for next weeks picket on tuesday night, please contact us at  victory_intifada@hotmail.com
SUPPORT THE DEMOCRATIC RIGHT TO PROTEST!
VICTORY TO THE INTIFADA!

HEATHER K, FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM!

Are heather and HEATHER K the same person?

I was going to come to the next picket until I noticed the involvment of the looney RCG.

there are two heathers. heather=me (not in RCG or any party), and HEATHER K is in RCG.

I, (the not in RCG heather thats posting this) am supporting the picket because if M & S get away with ASBOs and people get driven off the streets by violence, then it will be used on other protesters next time (and also i do care about what is happening to people in Palestine). i am an anarchist, and not part of the RCG. but it doesn't mean i can't see where this shit is going.........

I'm not in the RCG and neither are many of the people who came today.

Its about the bigger picture, not the particular party that started the picket. If M & S win this one, it will be harder for us all.

hope you do come next week.

what a mess ! your posting are completely out to lunch .
One thing that most UK indymedia posters often forget is that british people, like me, who are not in the UK
do not a) understand your jargon / banter, and b) perhaps do not know your "case history" (sorry!)

Indymedia UK should be a good place to find out what is going on in the UK, but it's not because
most of whats going on goes un reported. But there you go I am not knocking IMC.

I support your picket against M n' S 100% but you really must get your shit together .

like name of event .
venue / exact location / street and number
day / date / time

I like someone else thought you were in London although I have seen reports from manchester in the past
if you want to be taken seriously be a bit more serious with what you publish .. and good luck !!!!

Confused is an excellent negative example that everyone should take note of, an example of braindead sectarianism.
This sort of person would rather not do anything than take part in an activity in which others they do not agree with are taking part.

NOTE THE NEGATIVE EXAMPLE

Thanks for clearing that up Heather. Hopefully I'll make the next picket.

Braindead your name is most apt ;)

(That stands for Victory to the Intifada, just in case anyone doesn't know.)

Well, folks, for some reason (I suggest it is our staunch and prolongede resistance!)the Betar (Zionist 'youth' counter-demonstrating group) presence in London had cooled off lately, and the pressure is on you now. But you will see them off, that is for sure.

A luta continua!

don't think i actually used much in the way of banter, and jargon i've already apologised for. there was no name of the event except M & S picket which i titled the report with. i said it happened yesterday, and given that the date is marked on the top of all indymedia reports i thought that was pretty clear. i can't see why the time of the event matters except in asking people to come back at 12 noon next week, which i did. i didn't mention manchester, fair enough. i posted it on manchester imc and forgot that it also goes up on uk site. equally, because it was posted on manchester (and M & S is a major presence in the city centre) i did assume that people know where m & s is. anyway, for anyone who doesn't, Marks and Spencer are situated on the corner of cross street, just across the road (and down a bit) from Printworks in the city of Manchester.

Just to make it clear the Boycott M&S is a national campaign supported by a number of organisations. The weekly picket of M&S in Manchester has been going for almost 4 years and is the only regular protest against Israel in Manchester and so a focus for action.

On 3 July it was attacked by an organised gang of ex-Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) Zionists who assaulted picketers, tore-up leaflets, destroyed placards and tried to turn over the stall. We stood firm and eventually one was arrested. They then wrote a letter to the Jewish Telegraph calling on Zionists to prevent us setting-up (9 July). This was supoorted by Likud and others. Their aim is to try to create disorder and proke retaliation from ourside and, as in Liverpool, get the police to remove both sides. They drew up a leaflet that makes it clear that their intention was to hound us "off the streets of Manchester".

A number of groups called for the defence of the picket and we made clear that we welcomed independent observers who do not necessarily support Palestine to join us to prevent us being bullied by these thugs and to defend our right to protest. This is not the time for sectarianism.

This violent attack comes on top of attempts by the Labour Party run Council to take us to court to stop us having a stall or use placards. Of the police who admited to the Zionists that they would have us moved if they could and who have interfered with the vehicle insurance details of one picketer. Of M&S and their security staff who allow these Zionists to loiter in their shop and who have 'detained' a picketer in their store on 26 June. This is as well as their on-going attempt revealed by a local newspaper on 17 July (as mentioned above) to take out a Anti Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) against the picket.

Anyone who wants to defend the democratic right to protest or support Palestine (or both) should come down to the centre of Manchester to M&S at the bottom of Market Street any time between 12noon and 3pm next Saturday - and every Saturday. Different people can offer different types of support.