Report by John C.
The BDS protest on Sunday, 27 February at the ugly ExCeL centre in the East End was a boost to our morale, even though an icy blast whipped up the Thames and an angry sky was threatening rain.
While at our regular picket of the Ahava shop in Covent Garden’s Monmouth Street, we are preaching to a random sample of passing shoppers, valuable as that is, – at the ExCeL, which was hosting a “Beauty“ exhibition, we were able to be much more effective because the trade was concentrated there. We are confident the word is getting around.
Even though there was a very talkative local constable assigned to stay with us throughout the time we were there, he didn’t prevent (or notice) anybody delivering regular supplies of flyers to those inside the exhibition.
Outside we had our usual presence with flags, flyers, banners and hopefully erudite information and this did attract a steady flow of enquiries, but the really effective work was taking place within the exhibition hall itself where we were able to contact all the exhibitors, as well as engange in a bit of subversive advertising.
Outside we had the time to explain our case to some of those whose curiosity had been raised inside; entrepreneurs and others in the industry and at least one building contractor who was engaged on another project inside the building. Three young men from Palestine stopped by suprised to come across a reminder of their homeland.
The eyes of an African woman who runs a Fair-trade cosmetics company in Ghana lit up with understanding when we explained – Ahava, it is the opposite – an Unfair Trade company!
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