Challenging JCB’s complicity in demolishing Palestinian homes

JVL Introduction

Sharen Green reports on the campaign to stop JCB selling its bulldozers to demolish Palestinian homes and, incidentally, to shame NSPCC into refusing cash from the company.

Her account reflects well the travails of political organising. What shines through is the dedication of committed campaigners who persist through the highs and the lows  in order to keep issues on the political agenda.

In the event, a good day’s outing was had by all involved!

Green’s report is followed by the letter sent to the owners of JCB and photos and leaflets from the protest.

Big Brother was watching us!

A tournament staged by JCB at its very own golf course and country club? The perfect opportunity to take our protests to the company’s doorstep.

For three years various organisations and individuals have been campaigning

• to stop the sale of JCB bulldozers to Israel which uses them to demolish Palestinian homes and
• to shame children’s charity NSPCC into refusing cash from the company which makes money out of plunging Palestinian children into total misery.

The challenge was huge. The event was to be held in the middle of nowhere on a site spread over many hundreds of acres.

We toyed with the idea of getting into the course and causing a spot of mayhem – JCB and the NSPCC richly deserve anything we could come up with.

But on reflection it was the golfers and the public attending the event who were our real targets. It might well be the first time they would hear of how JCB makes its profits in Israel – or even the first time they had ever heard the story of Palestine.

They were all coming for an enjoyable day out so we abandoned the idea of stealing the flags and other pranks to concentrate on getting the message across – a fortuitous decision as things turned out.

As a family-owned firm, JCB doesn’t need to hold normal AGMs and there are no shareholders so the usual channels for challenging the company were not available. So we used the occasion to send a signed-for letter to Lord and Lady Bamford detailing their misdemeanours and calling them out for trying to “sportswash” their misdeeds.

The letter was signed by Protecting Palestinian Families (PPF), the Israeli Campaign Against House Demolitions and Jewish Voice for Labour.

The next thing to do was to rally the troops, using our numerous contacts across the country. That proved a bit of a washout, to be honest. Not many people responded to our call but we were determined to do something.

PPF’s Annie O’Gara designed a leaflet detailing JCB’s crimes, how they had been identified by the UN and Amnesty International and how the NSPCC – which was to benefit from this major fund-raiser – was happy to take money, some of which had been earned by making Palestinian children homeless and destitute.

One of the organisers,  a keen cyclist from the North East, spent valuable time and his own money finding the snail-mail addresses and twitter handles of many of the so-called golfing “legends” taking part.

We devised a friendly letter to send them and a flyer was enclosed in each envelope. The letter acknowledged that it would be an enjoyable occasion but telling them about the dark side of JCB and why we thought it was immoral for the NSPCC to take money from the bulldozer manufacturer.

Simon Cardy, a social worker who had worked hard on the NSPCC side of the on-going campaign, came up with a picture of a dozer doing its work headlined “Don’t play golf with apartheid!” This was tweeted to the players and hopefully made the point.

I met Annie at Uttoxeter – the nearest station to the Rocester site – two days beforehand to seed the area with our flyers. We thought we’d hand them out at the station but Waterloo it wasn’t – it fielded maybe six trains a day?

So we repaired to Waitrose for a cup of coffee. While I went to the loo, carelessly leaving behind some flyers by the wash basins and putting some in the men’s for good measure, Annie got chatting to her first victim. This was a woman whose husband was good friends with “Anthony” – ie Sir Anthony Bamford who was due to host the wedding celebrations of our PM on his Cotswold estate the next day. She was actually rather interested in what Annie had to say.

We wandered into the little town and proceeded to visit cafés and pubs, striking up conversations with people who seemed interested, some of whom worked for the company. Much to our surprise, nobody was at all hostile.

Then we moved on to Rocester itself – it felt like going into the lion’s den as JCB seems to have a feudal hold over the place – there’s even a JCB plaque outside the village hall. However nobody was hostile – shops, cafés and pubs took our flyers without demur and were cool about us chatting to their customers.

Next it was time to do our recce. One activist wandered round the entire site and took video footage and photos to familiarise us with the scene. He had helped us with the parking and we identified a public stretch of grass between two roundabouts where we could raise our banners and flags and try to engage with the public coming to the event.

The site was rather quiet – the factory itself was closed. We questioned several members of JCB staff about the tournament. They were friendly but not well informed. We did discover that the punters would use the large car parks and then be bussed over to the course or they could walk through the rather lovely grounds.

The place is massive – beautiful lakes and walkways open to the public on one side of the road and the golf course a pleasant stroll away on the other. No wonder JCB – known as an excellent employer – is really popular around here.

The night before the tournament three of us made our way to Derby where we were royally hosted by proud Palestine supporter, one Jean Sharp. There was to be a reception for the annual Big Ride for Palestine which we attended. Nearly 300 cyclists were to take in the golf tournament the next day on their way to Manchester.

The next morning we got to Rocester bright and early – just after seven – but I was disorientated and it took me a while to identify the grass strip. A group of four – two former and one future ecumenical accompanier among them – had come up from London. After much frantic phoning, the two contingents met and then another supporter arrived from Chesterfield.

It became immediately apparent that we were expected. Two very pleasant constables greeted us and stopped me stepping into the road whenever a punter came by. I managed to hand out a few flyers and there was quite a bit of support driving by in the form of honking and thumbs-up signs.

But we weren’t making much impact so I decided I would go to the car park and stick flyers under windscreen wipers on parked cars. There was a constant stream of people parking. I approached them smilingly and offered them a flyer. Almost all accepted and several engaged in friendly chat. I remembered to tell them to enjoy the golf!

We established that the big names would be teeing off at 11.30am so we decided to walk up to the pedestrian entrance at 11am. Our friendly neighbourhood police officers pointed out that we probably wouldn’t get in as there were cameras everywhere and we’d be recognised. Anyway, our bags – containing the incriminating flyers – would be searched.

They were right. Five of us with bona fide tickets set off – it felt awful leaving just three people behind but reinforcements from Sheffield – singing reinforcements at that – arrived in our absence.

Sure enough we were met by Charlie – the very charming head of security. He said as we hadn’t come to watch the golf (how on earth did he know that?) we would not be allowed in. Our money was duly refunded and he pointed out an area where we could leaflet pedestrians coming in which, we did until it seemed they were all inside.

So we walked back down to our grass strip shifting all our remaining flyers on every car in sight. In fact we also distributed some hundreds of flyers the Big Ride for Palestine had had printed.

I’d been a bit sceptical about the Big Ride’s stop at the entrance to the golf course but they were allowed to rest briefly and they were a wonderful sight – their chanting rivalling the Sheffield singers. In fact being among so many fervent supporters of Palestinian rights brought tears to my eyes.

Things hadn’t gone exactly according to plan but I think we had much better penetration by working on the vehicles than had we trailed round the course, trying to distract punters from what they’d come to see.

Of course we’re just a pinprick on the backside of JCB but we got the story out and I hope not too many people were disappointed that the flyers weren’t vouchers for pizzas!

Sharen Green

Dear Lady and Lord Bamford

We, the undersigned, would like to register our dismay at the way in which JCB makes some of its profits.

Bulldozers and other building equipment are used to good purpose to provide much-needed housing and infrastructure around the world but your company chooses to export to some countries in the full knowledge that the equipment is used to destroy homes, businesses, schools, clinics, animal shelters, water sources and orchards.

The UN, War on Want, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions UK, Amnesty International have all issued statements, chronicling the use of JCB machinery in grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

And now Amnesty India has railed against the fact that JCB bulldozers are used to demolish Muslim homes and businesses there.

You have been made aware of the use of your equipment in these egregious acts which traumatise children and plunge whole communities into homelessness and poverty, in Palestine, Israel and India. But you have failed to engage with either concerned bodies or individuals.

Instead you pour millions into a highly respected and well-loved charity, the NSPCC. This is an attempt – so far successful – to whitewash what happens to your equipment abroad.

And the Legends Golf Tour which you are to host at the end of this month is a further attempt to gain kudos in the wider community in spite of your ignoring all appeals to human decency.

You are pausing trade with Russia because of the brutal invasion of Ukraine – a move we can all applaud – but you are happy to continue to profit from the brutal occupation of Palestine, the brutal removal of Bedouins from the Negev/Naqab desert and the brutal actions of the BJP in India.

We note that Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights brought a case against you under the OECD rules with the National Contact Point.

You are bound to devise a human rights policy under its findings. We eagerly await that policy and we intend to monitor how you implement it.

Yours faithfully

Richard Barnes, chair of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
Sharen Green, on behalf of Protecting Palestinian Families