FRFI 167 June / July 2002
The campaign to boycott Israeli goods has been gaining ground in Britain. But the movement needs to unify around a symbol that embodies corporate support for Zionism. No company better deserves to be that symbol than Marks & Spencer since:
• It sells £240 million worth of Israeli exports annually including goods produced in the illegally Occupied Territories, often by exploited Palestinian labour;
• One of its fundamental objectives is to aid the economic development of Israel;
• Founder Simon Marks, along with relatives Israel Sieff and Harry Sacher, were key diplomatic allies of Zionist leader and first President of Israel, Chaim Weizmann;
• M&S was critical to the Israeli economy from the 1960s through to the 1980s in getting Israeli goods to the British marketplace.
In 1998 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu granted M&S the Jubilee Award, given to those individuals and organisations that have done the most to strengthen the Israeli economy. An M&S spokeswoman recently confirmed: ‘We are as close to Israel as we have ever been’.
A campaign to boycott M&S gives the broader struggle to isolate the Zionist state a much-needed focus for action. Pickets outside Manchester’s Market Street M&S have shown the way, as Rahima Islam and Shaheda Choudhury report:
‘We have handed out thousands of leaflets and persuaded dozens of people not to shop there. We have irritated management and the security guards no end. We have also collected hundreds of signatures on our petitions. Between 25 and 50 people come each week to help: communists, Muslims, anti-imperialists, democrats.
‘On 20 April, after 18 months’ picketing, council officials tried to stop us by removing our stall under the pretext of clearing the city centre of “dangerous obstacles”. After heated argument, they took it away with the backing of the police – but ten of us agreed to be summonsed to show we would not be intimidated. Their action took place as we all started to learn the true horror of Jenin. The council was supporting the Zionists. Next Saturday, there were 50 of us with our stall to reclaim our streets for political protest. City Council officials did nothing. On 4 May, however, they did return. More argument, during which we showed them a solicitor’s opinion that their action was illegal and liable to judicial review. The council officials retreated; our stall was intact.
On 11 May the police were there to “greet” us. They told us that they did not expect the council officials to appear – there had been an excess of zeal; our stall was not an obstruction. However, the police decided to take a lot of video of the picket. We are demanding copies of their film and an explanation as to why they took this action.’
In London, pickets are now weekly events in Wood Green, and one of the Oxford Street branches. On the first picket of Wood Green, a security goon tried to get the police to stop the picket on the grounds that it was racist. The police had to agree with us that it wasn’t, and told the security guard that the only way to remove the picket would be through a civil action. However, as one copper said to the astonishment of the picketers, M&S would be unlikely to pursue it ‘because of the atrocities that are going on there’ – this was at the height of the West Bank assault in April. Exit security goon with tail between his legs! On 20 May, more than 20 people attended a very lively meeting to organise and extend the pickets throughout London.
Similar pickets are taking place on a regular basis in Leicester and Glasgow. The pickets in Manchester have attracted supporters from both Liverpool and Bolton who are now setting up similar events at home. The proposal for a Liverpool picket has incurred the wrath of the local SWP organiser because no one had sought the permission of the Liverpool left (meaning the SWP) to hold the event. His parting shot to one of the organisers was ‘If you like Cuba so much, why don’t you go back there?’ This is nothing compared to the behaviour of one Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) member in Edinburgh at the PSC picket on 25 May. Hurling abuse at our supporters, she actively removed our petition boards from the hands of members of the public, saying that if they signed our petitions they would receive all sorts of information about Cuba. When we asked the SSP/SWP organiser on the picket to stop this absurd behaviour, he pretended not to notice it, and then told us to ‘fuck off’. Other SSP/PSC supporters were just embarrassed by the stupidity of their comrade.
