Grafton Street Marks & Spencer Protest
dublin |
rights, freedoms and repression |
news report
Friday January 16, 2009 03:40
by éirígí PRO - éirígí
Pro-Israeli Marks & Spencer subject of 'trolley jam' and vocal protest
Last night éirígí activists took part in an anti-Israeli protest both inside and outside of Marks & Spencer on Dublin's Grafton Street.
Start of the 'trolley jam'
Marks and Spencer on Dublin’s exclusive Grafton Street was last night, January 15, the scene of a vocal and colourful anti-Israeli demonstration. Upwards of twenty-five éirígí activists took part in the action – both inside and outside of the store.
As part of the demonstration full shopping trolleys were abandoned at every checkout as letters of protest were handed to the staff working at the tills. ‘Trolley-jamming’ has become a popular form of peaceful direct action against retailers such as Marks and Spencer.
As chants of ‘Free, Free, Gaza’ and ‘Free, Free Palestine’ echoed around the store management wasted little time in summoning the Gardai to assist the overwhelmed private security guards.
For more than fifteen minutes business in the flagship store was severely disrupted, before the éirígí activists moved the protest outside onto Ireland’s premier shopping street.
The protest was then joined by a number of Palestinians based in Ireland. Hundreds of leaflets calling for a boycott of Marks and Spencer were distributed to passers-by during the course of the following forty-five minutes.
As has been the case with all of the recent pro-Palestinian protests the reaction of people was almost exclusively positive.
Speaking about the protest éirígí’s Brian Leeson said, ‘Tonight is a great example of the kind of protests that need to take place throughout the world if real pressure is to brought to bear on the Israeli government,’
‘Twenty years ago a worldwide boycott of South Africa brought real and direct pressure to bear on the apartheid regime. It was international solidarity combined with the resistance of the South African majority that ultimately brought about the collapse of that hateful regime.
‘Today it is the people of Palestine that need the assistance of the international community. Marks and Spencer have a long and close relationship with Israel. Indeed a former Chairman, Marus Sieff, has publicly stated that it was one of the main objectives of the company to provide economic support to the state of Israel.
‘éirígí are calling on people to boycott Marks and Spencer until they stop stocking Israeli goods and cut their links with that rogue state. Furthermore we are calling for a wider South African style boycott of Israel until its very own apartheid system is dismantled.’
A short video of the protest can be viewed on the eirigi website at
http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest160109.html
Free - Free Palestine
Protest Moves Outside
Protest joined by Palestinians
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Comments (18 of 18)
Jump To Comment: 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Indeed the iltreatment of the people in the gazza strip is a disgrace, the killing of the inoccents, the killing of a woman as she stood in the way of an israeli tank, and how the tank just went over her, the intense and utter hate that has risen from a nation that will not learn from the hatred of that was inflicted on them. It is an incredible and shocking to think the ones who where persecuted during 1938-1945 in CONCENTRATION CAMPS have now become Natzis and behave like Natizis with their pride and patriotic nerve and a lethal mix of victim hood. They are going to give racecists, and far right extreamists reasons to attack innocent jewish people who strive to make this world a better place, who love their country in a healthy way. I fear that ordinary Jews will be afraid to say they are Jewish in public or where ever they are for fear of being attacked and hated because of the actions of their goverment and military doing horrible sickening things in the name of all the good and peaceful jewish people who are suffering to because of being so misrepresented by its army and govt.
People across the world dont forget not all jewish people support the disgraceful and sickening conduct of their army and govt,
dont turn this against a people who have always suffered through history,, remember everyone is chosen by God, and we are all Gods people moslem jew hindo catholic christian etc ,, its the hate and counter hate that divides the masses into sub groups. Their is a fantastic Jewish man called Daniel Barboniuem who is a fantastic conductor of classical music,, he has done great work at bringing jewish and moslem musicians together and he has taken great risks to do this, also on one of the boats that was attacked by the israeli army there was 1 or 2 holacost survivors aboard the boats in solidarity with the people in the gazza camps.
its also worth pointing out that Hamas and the Israel govt are two groups of stupid bitter fools, who will only settle and be happy the eye for an eye. These Govts should be forced to step down they are not worthy to govern both of them are as bad as each other and Hamas are only too delighted to see israel get bad press, while Hamas is buisey planing attacks that will make one side look worst than the other... the 2 goverments are incapable of leading and governing the terroitories of Israel and Palistine. I hope that new fresh leadership on both sides will also force a big policy shift to this problem. I think its very sad that there is no progressive dialog , no risk taken for peace, and to much getting bitter not better,,
Products labeled from Israel are quite often grown and packaged in Palestine.Be it vegtables,fruit or flowers.It is the Palestinian growers that are being left out of pocket by this misrepersentation of products...one would think that a first world country would not misrepresent where its products have come from. Marks and Spencer have been aware of this problem from the early 2000s and I would hope have been very clear in their dealings with Israeli imports,that the country of origin must be properly and correctly labeled on the products package.
I would also agree with other comments about eirigi explaining why they protested...I would rather facts than a chant. Israel has alot to answer for such as the illegal use of cluster bombs in a suburban area in Beirut,illegal take overs of villages in Palestine,curbing education curriculum within Palestinian schools and universities and a whole lot more.
You do get the feeling that Palestine is just an annoying fly that just wont go away..but imagine if it had resources that the USA wanted,I think then it might get all the help it wanted.Israel still plays the WWII guilt trip and what happened to its people,dont get me wrong,it was an absolute horror what happened to them and all the more reaso to make sure it happens to no-one else in any way if we can help it.They of all people should be the first to stand up and condemn such behavior.But then the west was very slow to put a stop to the genocide in Rwanda.
If only we had more people like the Dunne Stores staff when they took on the importing of S.A goods.
Alot of people make light of this issue with their 'I bought more Israeli' goods, and so what attitudes,but really,people are dying and that should never be taken lightly.
i dont understand why u did that to the staff at there tils what did that solve? nothin exactly ??!! they wer only doin ther job at the end of the day and ther yous are causin havoc if u have a problem wit marks and spencer go over the to the head office over in england ok and voice ur anger over there !country is in a resession and yous are makin it worse for these staff
Here is short video of the protest inside and outside of Marks & Spencers on Grafton Street.
Caption: Video Id: Jj1NmUuhHM4&feature= Type: Youtube Video
Embedded video Youtube Video
I went out of my way to pick up some Israeli fruit and veg, nothing more annoying than protesters making a load of noise and commotion when i'm just doing my weekly shop. How is that going to endear people to your cause?
Made sure I got all my Israeli fruit in M & S today. In fact saw a lot more people there doing likewise.
Why should the poor fruit pickers and packers be out of work when these people deserve a living to feed their families who are often almost on the breadline.
They are doing an honest days work and deserve to keep their jobs.
Why should they be punished by people like us on the other side of the world who have a lot better standard of living and can afford to drive our fancy cars to the supermarkets to protest!!!
Thanks for the signs it helped me buy over 60euros worth of Israeli produce.Lovely oranges.
Thank you verY much.Glad to make my contribution for fighting Islamic terror.That will eventually start on Europe.
Islamic terror is the greatest threat to world peace.
Say goodbye to Liberal Values.And freedom of Expression when the Islamic Extremists start to take over
While I can see what your doing .Its the poor in Israel and in Ireland that will suffer.Why you might ask.
Poorer Israeli from Russia and Ethiopia and Arab Israelis pick these crops.
They will loose there jobs.Not the big owners.
If Marks and Others stopped selling Israeli food.You can garuntee the Spainsh and Dutch would up the price as they can get away with it.So Poor
Irish will suffer.
I feel we should boycott China.Zimbabwe and Burma.But I have to ask who will really suffer.
I visited Israel and met Jews.Palestinans and Israeli Arabs.I like them all.I dont like Hamas.I think they deserve to die.
Ireland would do the exact same as Israel if we were being attacked.
Great protest comrades. Well done indeed
CS
Well done éirigí, fair play.
Boycott is a tactic, not a dogma, as Naomi Klein points out here:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090126/klein?rel=hp_curr...ently
Boycotting Israel is worth trying because it might actually work on such a small, trade dependent nation.
Why not a picket on all stores that sell products from the USA ? This country is radically outside the orbit of international law and civilised standards in it's terrorist and criminal invasion and occupation of Iraq,where deaths are reputed to be in excess of one million men women and children. The same country could click it's fingers and the Israeli dog would come to heel.
This article gives a quick guide as to why Marks and Spencer's is often singled out by activists:
M&S- Not just the lingerie has "secret support"
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/90487
and there is also information all over the internet.
The argument most often used on indymedia against boycotts seems to be that since we can't boycott every single thing that is problematic, then we should not boycott anything at all.
This is clearly stupid if you think about it for more than a few seconds.
However, if Marks and Spencer's really have no special relationship with Israel, perhaps the company could simply issue a statement saying so? Why not issue a press release saying that M&S won't sell Israeli goods until the war is concluded?
Well done eirigi. This is the type of action that is needed all around the country
Since the late 19th Century Marks and Spencer (which was founded by a Russian Jew Michael Marks) has been linked to the Zionist movement which also came into existence at the tail end of the 1800's.
As stated in the story above the former Chairman Marus Sieff stated in "Management: The Marks & Spencer Way, Weidenfield & Nicolson, 1990" stated that it was one of the main objectives of Marks and Spencer to provide economic support to the state of Israel.
In 2000 a spokesperson stated in "The Jewish Chronicle, 22 Dec " that “We are as close to Israel as we have ever been.
Marks and Spencer provides Israel with an estimated €200,000,000 worth of trade each year through the purchasing of a wide range of products.
This is why Marks and Spencer are being singled out for boycott in much the same way that Dunnes Stores found itself at the centre of the Anti-Apartheid campagin.
If anyone can point to similar links between their local corner shop and Israel they should follow the example of eirigi and bring it to peoples attention that they are indirectly supporting a terrorist state when they shop there.
As some posters have said every supermarket in Ireland and small corner shop sells produce from Israel and other countries. Produce comes from all over the world. If you were to boycott every country and their produce for something you don't agree with we may as well go back and live in a cave and go out with a stick and bow and arrow and hunt our own food again so get a life.
Every country has something that someone will find offensive and want to protest about but we have to rise above that.
M & S do not deserve to have the crap you are heaping upon them happen when in this economic climate they are opening a new store not far from Dublin and taking a lot of locals off the dole queue. You will see those locals queing up to get a job and earn a living working for M & S not trying to make things worse for others in this economic climate. If M & S were to pull out of Ireland there would be a lot more of us on the dole so do something worthwhile with your lives not stand in endless protest groups.
Can you not find something better to occupy your time than being professional protesters and disrupting other peoples lives and livelihood?
Get a life and let people carry on with theirs.
Something like fundraising for the Red Cross etc., would be better for everyone and more practical than making a nuisance of yourself in supermarkets. You are just a crowd of sad people with nothing to occupy your sad lives.
If you check the attached link to a previous indymedia article it will answer your question as to why we should boycott Marks & Spencer
The press release doesnt mention anything (in detail) about why Marks and Spencers should be targeted. I am sure practically every super market across the state stocks Israeli goods of some sort. I would happily boycott the store (not that I shop in there, its too bloody expensive) if I there were informed, convincing and valid reasons for doing so.