Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Caterkillar refuses to accept Housewrecker of the Year award

Caterpillar OUT! | 13.05.2004 13:33 | Anti-militarism | Repression | Birmingham | London | Oxford

Many of us have protested against Caterkillar in the past, on the High Street, at trade fairs, in their offices and in their factories (see links).

We have seen the error of our ways.

Image .pdf of leaflet - application/pdf 111K

A work of art. How could they refuse?
A work of art. How could they refuse?

Setting up for the award ceremony
Setting up for the award ceremony

Aww, go on. Take it.
Aww, go on. Take it.

I think you'll find it's a public right of way, officer.
I think you'll find it's a public right of way, officer.


We now recognise that the company is doing an outstanding job – indeed it is a world leader in the conversion of civilian machinery for military use and amongst the best when it comes to extracting the generous subsidies available from the tax-payer to arms dealers worldwide (1).

Caterkillar deserves proper recognition for its outstanding contribution to the fields of home demolition, collective punishment, land theft and ethnic cleansing. On Wednesday, May 12th 2004 at 8.30am, we arrived at Caterpillar Financial Services (UK) Ltd near Solihull hoping to persuade them to accept the first annual Homewrecker of the Year Award on behalf of the company.

Oddly enough, by the time we had finished placing leaflets on all the staff cars and arrived at the front entrance for the official ceremony, Caterkillar security had closed all the entrances to the building. Undeterred, our beautiful hostess approached reception to explain the reason for our visit. Disappointingly, noone from Caterpillar would come out to accept the award. Modesty is such an admirable attribute.

The local constabulary dropped in to find out what we were up to. One of them declared the trophy a work of art and they went into the building to try to persuade Caterkillar to overcome its shyness and accept the award. Sadly, they could not be persuaded. We briefly left the premises when Caterkillar made it clear that they would prefer us to advertise their achievements to the general public on the main road rather than solely to their staff in the company car park. The police were, however, unable to enforce this arrangement as Caterkillar’s car park is, in fact, a public footpath. When this was pointed out to the officer concerned, he welcomed us back on to the property. With a smile, obviously.

We will try again tomorrow morning. With a bulldozer, maybe. If we’re unsuccessful, well there’s always the public footpath for a picnic and a bit of a sing song. We’ll let you know how we get on. This lot seem to be very shy though – so if anyone else out there wants to have a go at presenting the award for us – to the Caterkillar folk in Solihull, or maybe their colleagues at the Head Office in Desford near Leicester, or the MoD site in Shrewsbury, or perhaps the plant in Cannock – well, we’d be happy to help out. E-mail us at  caterpillarout@yahoo.co.uk.



Foot note:

1. CATERPILLAR D9 bulldozers are used to demolish homes in acts of collective punishment breaching article four of the Geneva Convention. They are also used in the building of Israel’s apartheid wall, splitting Palestine into a series of ghettos separating hundreds of thousands of farmers from their lands.

UNWRA recently reported that 131 civilian homes had been destroyed in Gaza in the first ten days of May alone. CAT financial corp report that company profits had risen by 41% to $457 million this quarter. While CAT’s profits rocket, CAT machinery is instrumental in the occupation – Israel is reliant on imported military machinery and has declared that it cannot hope to be self-sufficient in this area. The occupation relies on the greed and amorality of companies like Caterkillar.

See www.sustaincampaign.org and www.catdestroyshomes.org for more information.


Links to a few past actions:

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/06/273107.html (fun at a trade fair)
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/09/276508.html (a visit to Head Office)
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/03/287035.html (shutting down the arms factory for a day)
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/04/289816.html (using our bulldozer to evict Israeli arms dealers)
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/11/280130.html (one of many high street actions)
 http://www.ism-london.org/actions.html (more action reports)



Caterpillar OUT!
- e-mail: caterpillarout@yahoo.co.uk

Comments

Hide the following comment

Update (breakfast with Caterkillar)

14.05.2004 13:58

Just a quick link to the follow-up action:  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/05/291359.html

Caterpillar OUT!


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech