On Saturday 6 October members and supporters of London Revolutionary Communist Group picketed Marks & Spencer on Oxford Street, the flagship store of a key British sponsor of Israeli apartheid. An informative picket was maintained on the door of M&S to urge shoppers to boycott the chain which is a historic financer of Israeli development and retailer of Israeli produce, including produce grown on illegally settled land. Israeli barbarism would not be possible without the support of businesses such as M&S.
Our picket was joined by comrades from Socialist Fight and we thank them for their solidarity.
An information tent with a banner declaring ‘Zionism is racism – free Palestine’ was set up directly outside the store. Using a loudspeaker to project our clear anti-racist message along Oxford Street, all comrades gave speeches heartily defying the ongoing attempts by the British state, Zionists and the Labour Party to censor free speech on Palestine by branding criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic.
Organising highly visible action to call out the racism of Israel and its supporters is crucial at this time. The heroic efforts by Palestinians to exercise their right to return to stolen land are being met with brutal force by the Israeli military who have shot dead more than 170 peaceful protestors since March and maimed thousands with their bullets and suffocating gas attacks. The village of Khan Al Amar is under imminent threat of demolition by the Israeli state, an action which will fatally fracture Palestinian territory. Meanwhile, the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn has capitulated to Zionist attacks on free speech by adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism. This reactionary move by the so-called ‘opposition’ in Britain is an alarming threat to solidarity action for Palestine and it must be defied without hesitation.
Zionism is racism! Free Palestine! Boycott Marks & Spencer!
