I know I write this each week but last night was actually a really good demonstration outside of Marks and Spencer on Oxford St. Particularly so considering the harassment by the coppers over the previous weeks and the illegal arrests of two comrades last week. The Met are still deciding whether to press charges against the two - they've promised to let us know shortly. Any charges will be dilligently and successfully fought against.

Yesterday's demo started with the return of our megaphone by the cops (again out in large numbers, including the Forward Intelligence goons) but only after many delaying tactics such as 'will give you the megaphone back - but we don't have the right paperwork just at the moment' etc.. After about half an hour the hand-over commenced to loud cheers by the crowd and we began to use it....
....But lo and behold! The bugger didn't work. Odd. It worked just before the cops nicked it but now, after being locked away, it ceased to operate and no sound came out.

No doubt the coppers were planning to have a little giggle between themselves over our inability to use a megaphone. Unfortunately for them we have megaphones coming out of our backsides and brought one along which we quickly used...

...at which point the cops intervened and claimed that we would not be able to use the chant 'victory to the intifada!' Apparently this may cause offence to passers by and therefore we could not use it. We'll, if there were to be any ethnic-cleansing murderous Zionists about it probably would cause them offence, but such people are not going to stop us from showing our support to the most just struggle of our time...the intifada...a struggle against brutal occupation and murder.

This is a significant political point. We are called 'Victory to the Intifada!' and not 'Hands off Palestine' for example, because we align ourselves to the legitimate and just struggle of the Palestinian people by a brutal occupier funded by the West. We are not addressing ourselves to the imperialists...'please stop lying Mr Blair. Please stop killing loads of people.' No, instead we say 'victory to the intifada..victory to the Iraqi resistance...victory to the just struggles of the Nepalese, Phillipino, Indian, Venezuelan, Cuban, Colombian and all people's of the world fighting imperialism'.

Intifada is not some crazed concept based on mindless terrorism as the media would like it to be portrayed. Even the more passive likes of Ghandi back in 1948 to Mandella today have supported the inalinable right of the Palestinian people to struggle against occupation. So after the police threatened arrests for using the word 'intifada' (which is an insane condition anyway as the word constantly appears in the mainstream media) the first slogan to come from our lips was...'victory to the intifada!' Every single person chanted this and the police backed down. We will continue to use this slogan and if anyone has a problem with it.....well tough.

It is imperative that we keep up the pressure against Marks and Sparks and against Israel. The intensification of the occupation is heightening with NINE children being killed in one city yesterday alone. The harassment by the police against us exposes the links the British state has to Israel. The reason we have so much intimidation by the cops is because we are continuous, we are organised and as last night showed - we are getting bigger. People do want to defend our democratic right to protest and people do want to demonstrate in support of Palestine. The police and the Zionists are afraid of what we may become. If we were ineffective, inward looking, isolated, sectarian then there would be no real problem from the police as we wouldn't be growing. But the demos ARE growing. It is not just VTI/FRFI on them now but people and individuals from different groups, different backgrounds.

If we stop then we are sending out a clear message to the cops and the establishment: you win, we don't have the right to protest. We don't have the right to support the Palestinian people. Well, I for one don't just consider it my right but my duty to support the oppressed of the world. Vanunu, a true Jewish hero, has just been released after surviving 18 years in Zionist Gaols, 12 years of which were spent in solitary confinement. Their intent was to break him, they failed. Two hours on Oxford St a week is the least we can do to show our support for Palestine. Join us! Fuck M&S. Fuck the police's harassment. Fuck the Mussolini loving Zionists. Please 'scuse my language but all these numbskull fascist and religious zealots can suck my you know what if they think they can stop what has now been started.

Victory to the Initifada!

Demonstrations against Marks and Spencer continues every Thursday between 6 till 8pm on Oxford St (Marble Arch end).