We started the day of demonstrations with a short, sharp trip to NYSE/Euronext. A 20 minute loud burst to let them know that we're not going to forget their murky dealings with HLS. However, this day was for Barclays, HLS's new biggest shareholder, so we left the NYSE to do the rounds...
Now we moved to the Barclays at 114 Fenchurch Street. This was a very busy area, especially at lunch time, and many people were shocked to find out that their bank would invest so disgracefully. Barclays will invest in anything and everything that will make them money. They don't care if it's war, weapons, chemical companies, oil companies, pharmaceutical companies, meat companies or anything else.
Everyone who stopped to talk to us was made fully aware of all of Barclays disgusting investments, not just the 279,842 shares (worth about $8m) in HLS. A couple of people here actually indicated that they would move their bank accounts. The manager at this branch, Dan, called through to Barclays Global Investments to tell them about the demonstration and we were told that a PR meeting had been called to decide what to do about the protests. Barclays have no ethical policy, but they are concerned about their image.
We left this Barclays and moved onto another Barclays, this time at 24/26 Minories. It was a quieter branch than the previous two, but it was a lovely little place for a demo and was definitely the best for photos! There were still a decent number of people walking past taking leaflets and many told us of their disgust with Barclays.
We rounded off our tour of Barclays with a demo at their branch at 29-33 Wormwood Street. This is another very good place for a demo, with many cars and people going by all the time. We shamed Barclays for all their wrongs and told them very clearly that we will not go away until they ditch their HLS shares. Five demos and a great day. We can expect many more Barclays London tours very soon unless the shares are sold. 8 million dollars of shares means 8 million reasons to get out there and protest against Barclays.
Until HLS is history.
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