Carmel Agrexco's Depot Shut Down in Commemoration of the Nakba

Agrexco employees, finally fed up of being cooped up in their office for hours, come out to confront activists and fume over the disruption to their business. When they saw me taking video of them pushing activists out of their way, they went absolutely bonkers, and were screaming at the cops to confiscate my camera. The man in the orange shirt went the usual route of lecturing us to get a job and go home and enjoy a full english breakfast like 'normal' folks, while his mate in the black and white hoodie ( a particularly stupid thug) behind showed his disapproval by gesturing to his brain.... They tried to play the disruption to business down, but after many hours of turning away lorries (one driver claimed he would try not to do business with them anymore - whether or not he has any say in the matter is debatable), and police ination, they were clearly distressed. They were also totally baffled as to how activists easily made it over their new state of the art security fence! Hint: rhymes with mallet, mate.

1) One of the workers compared the security fence to the separation barrier through the West Bank, he said, 'We paid £30,000 for this, and you still managed to get over it'. Yes we did and guess what, we and loads of other activists are going to do it again!

2) At least one Stop and Search note (everyone was SUSsed afterwards) contained the definition of the search as 'suspect had committed aggravated trespass' - the police knew exactly which charge, according to the Law and police protocol, would normally have been applied, even going so far as to write it on the search form! Well, this was early in the morning for them and they had no sleep and nowt but drizzle and huddled activists singing and playing charades and waving banners intermitently at passing trains to look at.

3) One police officer was asked, 'why havent you arrested any of us? What would you do if a load of activists locked on to your work vehicle in your driveway and prevented you from doing your business!!'? He replied, 'Its not in the public interest', to which he was asked, 'what do you mean the public interest?' He said, 'It has been decided that you shouldnt be arrested because its not in the public interest'. 'According to who? Who decides whats in the public interest?', he said to that, 'Its above my station, It goes all the way to the top', to which he was asked, 'What, so Ian Blair (Police Commisioner of London) has decided we shouldnt be arrested?'. He said, 'Yeah, him, and further up', all the way up to the top'. So, it would appear to be not just police and Agrexco security guards colluding, but government ministers/authorities too, to keep Agrexco's unlawful business of handling stolen goods, out of the public eye. But its too interesting and essential to expose to be kept out of the public eye, which is why we need to keep up the pressure until it gets there and we all partcipate in the shutting down of Agrexco and its' role in perpetuating and profiting from the occupation.

One way we can reclaim this definition of 'public interest' is by taking sustained direct action and pushing this campaign forward and making getting it onto action, media and movement agendas.

Lets do it, we can do it!
xxx