- Dale Farm eviction company using racist language
- Ahava London flagship to close over demonstrations
- G4S taking over counter-terrorism policing

Dale Farm eviction company using racist language

The Political Scrapbook website revealved that Constant and Co, the company responsible for carrying out the evictions at Dale Farm, have used racist terminology to direct traffic to their website. The list of terms includes “pikey”, which has been viewed by British courts as racist.

The evictions of 87 families were expected to begin on Mon 19th, but, at the time of publication, a last minute ruling at the High Court has delayed any action until a further ruling on the legality of the eviction.

For a previous Corporate Watch article on Constant and Co see here

Ahava London flagship to close over demonstrations

Ahava follows Agrexco as another company to succumb to pressure from Palestine solidarity campaigners. The cosmetics company is closing its flagship Covent Garden store, complaining that biweekly demonstrations have hurt its profits.

The store has been the site of large demonstrations and blockades for more than a year because it produces its Dead Sea cosmetics and lotions on occupied Palestinian land on the north-western shore of the Dead Sea in the West Bank.

The Jewish Chronicle reported in March that the store's landlord, Shaftesbury PLC, said it would not renew the store's lease, which expires next week, due to the disruptive demonstrations. It reported in the March story that the store was seeking other locations.

"The demonstrations hurt our image and created negative media coverage," an Ahava spokesman told Yediot about the decision to close. "We are a commercial company and so we must take cost-efficient considerations."

See here for a longer Corporate Watch article on the company and the campaign.

G4S taking over counter-terrorism policing

The West Midlands counter-terrorism unit has admitted that it was using contractors from private security company G4S to bolster its depleted team. It is understood that 10 G4S staff are “assisting” the unit with viewing and filing electronic material from an operation last December, in which nine people were charged with terrorism offences.

In December last year, Corporate Watch revealed that G4S had been preparing to build new custody cells that it will rent to the police one by one.