ASTRAZENECA & STAPLES DEMOS IN LUTON, UK

On Friday 14th March a small group of us visited AstraZeneca's premises at Capability Green Industrial Park in Luton. They didn't seem to appreciate our presence as most office blinds were drawn from the moment we arrived. It would appear that the police didn't like us being there either and decided we had to leave less than an hour after we had arrived. This was despite the fact that we had previously been in contact with them regarding the demo. Despite this we were able to protest for about an hour with banners, placards and megaphones and were hopefully successful in alerting their neighbours to their involvement with HLS. The industrial park was fairly quiet, however some passing workers and motorists showed their support for us, even if AstraZeneca decided to turn a blind eye to the truth about HLS.

As the demo had been cut short we decided to move on to Staples in Luton town centre and proceeded to hand out leaflets to customers. However our efforts were once again cut short as the police took offence to our perfectly legal and peaceful protest and gave us 15 minutes to leave or face arrest. We had previously managed to have a conversation with the store manager who informed us that he would be contacting head office to let them know we had been there. He was a bit more vague though on his own views, claiming that he was˜just a cog. We are sure however that many customers and employees would be horrified to learn of Staples involvement with HLS, if only we had been given a fair chance to let them know.

Both AstraZeneca and Staples appear desperate to hide the truth about their involvement with HLS as evidenced by the aggressive tactics of the police. We will not give in however and they can be rest assured we will be back in Luton in near the future.