On International Workers’ Day, activists from the Stop G8 Network held a series of loud and angry protests against Mango, Primark and Benetton stores in Oxford Street.
Each of these companies is known to have sourced their clothes from the Rana Plaza factory in Savar, Bangladesh, in which more than 500 people are known to have died after the building collapsed (see here for more info). Protesters entered the shops and chanted about the continued exploitation of workers in Bangladesh and elsewhere. Many leaflets were handed to people in the heaving shopping district and there was considerable interest and support. Most shoppers were deterred from entering the shops due to the large number of police and protesters standing in front of the entrances. Protesters emphasised that the disaster in the Bangladeshi garment factory is just the latest incident in a series of such tragedies and that callous disregard for workers is part and parcel of global capitalism.
More pictures are available here
Further actions in solidarity with Bangladeshi workers were held in Hackney, Birmingham and Bristol. For more info see here.
In Lewes a social centre has been squatted and is being used for skillshares, anticapitalist workshops, seedling swaps and the distribution of fresh vegetables for donations while a piece of anti-capitalist G8 themed street theatre, involving the guillotining of David Cameron, was carried out in Worthing Town Centre.