Morrisons and Waitrose stores taken over by Boycott Israeli Apartheid protesters

A Waitrose in South Woodford, north-east London, unwittingly played host to a group of demonstrators from Waltham Forest Palestine Solidarity Campaign (WFPSC) and Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG) on 7th November. The campaigners were protesting against Waitrose’s policy of stocking illegal settlement produce. After Waitrose, protesters emerged at Morrisons Read more…

Targeting Brimar

A new anti-militarist campaign is brewing in Manchester against Brimar, a company involved in the manufacture of display units for military aircraft and vehicles that are being used by the US and Israeli military. Local activists have set up the Target Brimar campaign, aimed at forcing the company to end production of military components. In September, Target Brimar published a dossier entitled The Case Against Brimar’, which profiles the company and lists the campaign’s demands. (more…)

Pittsburgh: A new testing ground for acoustic weapons

The mass mobilisation against September’s G20 Summit in Pittsburgh was met with a characteristically brutal response from US Homeland ‘Security’. In many ways, police repression of UK protests pales in comparison to American political policing, with activists being routinely arrested under various terrorism-related charges and local and federal law enforcement agencies rolling out military style operations, complete with temporary detention facilities and costing hundreds of thousands of dollars each. The Pittsburgh police, however, may well have distinguished themselves as hitting a new low in the erosion of US civil liberty. Alongside US police staples such as rubber bullets, tear gas and ‘flash bang’ stun grenades, the Pittsburgh authorities unleashed an acoustic weapon, one of a new generation of ‘non-lethal’ military devices, used not only to disperse and intimidate protesters, but to gain control over their behaviour. (more…)