London Indymedia

FLF (food liberation front) action last friday - some pics and words

rikki | 16.06.2013 12:31 | G8 2013 | Bio-technology | Climate Chaos | Globalisation | London

a small protest specifically against asda and more generally against global food policies, corporations, monsanto, GMOs, G8 and austerity, was characterised again by massive overpolicing in a week of repressive crackdown on anti-G8 protests in london.

green assembly member jenny jones
green assembly member jenny jones

food police
food police

march to asda
march to asda

speakers outside store
speakers outside store

corporate protection squad
corporate protection squad

banners
banners

EEE
EEE

speakers and cops in mudchute field
speakers and cops in mudchute field


click pics for larger versions - free for credited non-commercial use - all other rights reserved - contact author
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the 'food liberation front', in association with the occupy london energy, equity and environment group, called the protest at crossharbour DLR, a couple of stops from canary wharf, starting at 5.30 on friday evening.

at the site, a reception committee, comprising several riot police vans and two teams of forward intelligence together with their stills and video police photographers, was waiting.

at 5.30. a handful of people, mainly well-dressed middle-aged women, including the london assembly green member, jenny jones, turned up.

meanwhile, a bicycle sound system followed by a few dozen activists were trying to make their way down as an impromptu march from the 'they owe us' assembly that had taken place earlier in the afternoon at canary wharf (  http://is.gd/PorU8X ). their progress was hampered by police continually pushing them and out of the road onto the pavement while a row of police vans following the group held the traffic up (contrast this behaviour with un-policed turkish march next day in harringay  http://is.gd/YOGD32 ).

once the small crowd had assembled, with new arrivals and some local people swelling numbers to around a hundred or so, there were speeches from jenny jones and various activists, and an announcement of yummy free food supplied by the hare krishna crew, to be followed by a 'direct action'.

at around 6.30, after pretty much everyone had been photographed from every angle by police photographers, the small group set off across the nearby retail park to the large 24-hour asda store, police copter hovering overhead. no particular attempt was made to enter the supermarket, but a phalanx of TSG officers spread out across the threshold and then began the farcical quizzing and decision-making to allow bona-fide consumers in (gotta keep those profits up) while keeping protestor riff-raff out. (i got in, but surprisingly wasn't tempted to buy anything, shortly later thrown out for taking photographs).

outside in the car park, there were some speeches about why we were there. it turns out asda, owned by mega-corporation wal-mart, has refused to sign the bangladesh treaty which offers some small protection for exploited garment workers (1000 recently killed in factory collapse there). asda also refuses to label GMO foods sold in its shop. it was also implicated in the recent horsemeat scandal, and uses workfare slave labour.

activists handed out loads of leaflets to shoppers, and then a small procession made its way across the car park and into the mudchute community farm and park.

settling in a playing field, around 40 people sat in the welcome sunshine to hear a few more speakers, while as many riot cops hung around in the bushes and the helicopter buzzed above.

speakers from war on want, fareshare, farmer's unions, via campesina, and a permaculture expert between them eloquently made the connections between corporate greed, land grabs, GMO, exploitation, repression and climate change.

the energy, equity and environment group can be followed on the  http://occupylondon.org.uk website


for sporadic live tweets from london actions @indyrikki

rikki
- e-mail: rikkiindymedia(At)gmail[d0t]com

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

Food For Thought!

16.06.2013 14:52

Great...support for food connection of monolopies of evil faces that own supermarkets etc...
Support the Heritage Seed Library
 http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/hsl
Hey!Sarge quick nick that protestor they are intent with guilty purpose on teaching folks on how to grow their food!Vegorrists!!
Don't forget the invisible army around the world...planting seed bombs!!!!
 http://www.guerrillagardening.org
Careful with that trowel!


Mr Ray


We grow our own food at Grow Heathrow which is still going strong

16.06.2013 16:13

We grow our own food at Grow Heathrow eco village which is still going strong. Come down and visit us sometime as we are open every day from around noon onwards.
 http://www.transitionheathrow.com/grow-heathrow/

Grow Heathrow


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