HOME | IMC UK | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

Oxford Indymedia

Breakfast with Caterkillar

Caterpillar Out of Palestine | 14.05.2004 12:29 | Anti-militarism | Repression | Birmingham | London | Oxford

Yesterday, we went to the Caterpillar offices near Solihull to present them with their well-deserved Homewrecker of the Year Award, and to ask the employees to take up the issue of arms sales to Israel with the company (see  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/05/291298.html).

Unfortunately, the employees were too shy to leave the building to talk to us. So this morning, we thought we'd join them for breakfast in the car park as they arrived for work.

Caterkillar - Homewrecker of the Year 2004
Caterkillar - Homewrecker of the Year 2004

Come and join us for breakfast
Come and join us for breakfast

Fresh fruit, pastries and fruit juice?
Fresh fruit, pastries and fruit juice?

Caterkillar decline our beautiful award again...
Caterkillar decline our beautiful award again...


Security were evident as we arrived at 7.30am, but no attempt was made to prevent us from laying out our picnic. Soon afterwards, the staff started to arrive, and were greeted with plates of pastries and fruit, and, of course, that beautiful award that noone from Caterpillar seems to want to accept.

Local law enforcement attended the scene within a few minutes. They were interested to know why we were there, and asked if this was the only kind of protesting we did. So we talked a bit about the experiences we've had in the Occupied Territories, the families and communities we know whose lives have been dismantled by Caterpillar equipment. We talked about the fact that these are machines designed for military use in the Occupied Territories, supplied as weapons via the vast US military subsidies to Israel in direct contravention of Caterkillar's stated business policy. We explained that Caterkillar has failed to respond to repeated requests from activists to explain and justify its trade with Israel, and that we were here to share our breakfast with Caterkillar staff and talk to them about how they might influence Caterkillar's business practices.

The WPC said: "Makes our job seem a bit trivial really. We'll leave you to it.". A brief nod and a smile from her colleague and they drove off. Caterkillar security spent several minutes staring forlornly at the road after they left, as if expecting reinforcements to arrive any minute.

A few of the workers seemed a bit nervous to see us. Some of them even drove straight off, despite the tempting plates of breakfast foods awaiting them. Most smiled, at least. The postie was nice, and the delivery guy took one look at the leaflet and said "Oh yeah - you're dead right. Nice one". We managed to talk to a couple of the workers - clearly those who had not been around the day before and received company orders not to take our leaflets or talk to us. A quiet thoughtful American guy and a slightly more aggressive Israeli - both claiming that:

-- the bulldozers are civilian not military machines (so how come Caterkillar exhibit at DSEi and have an MoD site in Shrewsbury?) and that

-- Caterkillar are not responsible for how their machines are used (despite having a business policy which states that they DO take responsibility for the social, political and environmental consequences of their business partnerships?).

One guy said that we were wasting our time as Cat's Board are currently discussing this issue (interesting!), but got a bit confused when we suggested that maybe it would therefore be a good time for him to make his feelings known to the Board.


Anyways, we still have that award to present. If anyone wants to have a go, contact us at  Caterpillarout@yahoo.co.uk

Caterpillar Out of Palestine
- e-mail: Caterpillarout@yahoo.co.uk

Comments

Hide the following comment

OOoh Tasty!

15.05.2004 12:08

I must say - well done chaps! That is a marvelous pice of action and also good to see all those differing peoples from Police to Delivery men all either having knowldege or taking an interest and showing some respect.

I have to ask - what happened to the breakfast as it looks absolutely beutiful and far too tasty.........if you laid on a spread liek that every time I am sure I could find you something to protest about round near me! :)

Seriously, well done

Many Regards As Ever
John

John Cooper
mail e-mail: papillon_jc@yahoo.co.uk


Publish your news
-->

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Oxford 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

IMCs


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