REPORT ON JCB NSPCC DAY OF ACTION

This day reflected a brilliant national, collective response to JCB and to the NSPCC, a charity which chooses to accept that firm’s money, despite full knowledge of the company’s tarnished reputation. In a nutshell, JCB is:

·         named by the UN as complicit in Israel’s war crimes.

·         being investigated following Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights complaint for failures to observe OECD guidelines on human rights.

·         increasingly visible in reports of home demolitions in Palestine as here in Channel 4 and here in Tom Anderson’s film.

SO, WHAT HAPPENED ON 4^TH MARCH?

This was the first day of a national conference organized by the NSPCC. In the advert, NSPCC asserts ‘Every Child has the Right to Grow up Safely’, and the campaign response was ‘How Safe are Palestinian Children?’ Our demand was that NSPCC stop taking money from JCB; the values of the company are totally at variance with the stated values of the charity.

The campaign coalition comprises: The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD UK), Social Work Action Network (SWAN), UK Palestine Mental Health Network, PSC England and Wales, Scottish PSC, the Shoal Collective, Boycott Israel Network (BIN), Protecting Palestinian Families.

E-ACTIONS

·         Each of the 50 speakers and facilitators of the Conference received two letters, one from the broad coalition, one from the Director of PSC, informing them of concerns about NSPCC’s acceptance of JCB’s defences of itself and the charity’s continued partnership with the firm.

·         9,337 letters were sent, facilitated by PSC, from 3000+ participating supporters. These went to 3 key members of the NSPCC’ s decision making body: CEO, Peter Wanless; Chair of Trustees, Neil Berkett and Head of Fundraising, Josephine Swinhoe.

·         Many individualized letters were sent to the NSPCC by members of the coalition groups, but also by concerned non-aligned people, friends and colleagues who were shocked at the link between JCB and NSPCC.

·         A Twitter storm saw huge numbers of posts being made, using the conference hashtag (#HowSafe2021) and the campaign hashtag (#HowSafeArePalestinianChildren) and copying @NSPCC and @JCBmachines

CAMPAIGN PROMOTION WEBINARS: The campaign has been widely promoted, airing the issues effectively.

·       ICAHD UK has hosted 3 webinars:

• Not Every Child Matters: Challenging the NSPCC – 21 Feb 2021 – Watch here
• Resisting Demolitions from Outside Palestine – Part 1 – 26 Sept 2020 – Watch here
• Resisting Demolitions from Outside Palestine – Part 2 – 11 Nov 2020 –  Watch here

·        Scottish PSC has hosted 2 webinars:

o   Interview with Guy Shennan and Annie O’Gara, of the campaign coalition

o   Interview with Linda Ramsden of ICAHD UK and the campaign coalition

RECENT PUBLICATIONS: Important articles from social work and mental health professionals have been published in journals and sites with a wide reach in the profession.

·         On the day the NSPCC conference opened, the Professional Social Work Magazine published a letter, see below, entitled “By Accepting JCB money, NSPCC is Complicit in Bulldozing Homes”, signed by 29 social workers, all members of BASW (British Association of Social Workers).

·         Also, a background article by Simon Cardy on the whole campaign and its ethical basis was published on the SWAN (Social Work Action Network) site.

·         Earlier, Martin Kemp, of UK Palestine Mental Health Network (UKPalMHN) had this article published in Middle East Monitor; his piece was entitled “Clearly, Not Every Child is Worth Fighting for: racism, conscience and the NSPCC.” 

ANTHEM FOR THE DAY:  A song was specially composed, performed and recorded for the day. It has been widely broadcast – an unexpected and welcome creative gift.

·         The George Cowley Experience song can be heard here, is available on YouTube, so can be shared. Peter Unwin composed it: Peter is a lecturer in Social Work and one of the signatories to the BASW letter mentioned earlier. 

CITY AND DEALERSHIP ACTIONS: We live in strange, Covid-enforced days of isolation, but individuals and pairs of people still managed to produce powerful demonstrations against JCB. These have been shared on Twitter and of Facebook.

·         BRIGHTON posted picturesof a number of actions, adding to Twitter’s impact.

o   City centre actions

o   Actions near JCB sites

·         SHEFFIELD and STOKE ON TRENT ACTIVISTS targeted dealerships:

o   the World Logistics centre of JCB Engines near Stoke on. The protest focussed on the devastating impact of home demolitions on children and the callous disregard by the Bamford family (owners and Directors of JCB) for the wellbeing of Palestinian children.

o    A simultaneous protest was held in Sheffield at the main dealership for JCB in the north of England, TC Harrison JCB. Banners read: “Anthony Bamford: working with Israel to demolish Palestinian homes” and “Anthony and Carole Bamford: Why don’t you care about Palestinian children?

o   Information sheets providing more information about the complicity of JCB and the hypocrisy of the NSPCC were hung in the two bus stops used by the JCB workforce, informing them of their employers’ complicity with Israel in war crimes.

JCB are clearly alert to the campaign. At one of the dealership sites, it was reported in Sheffield that  JCB blockaded its own entrance and called the police (see photo below), despite there being only two people there, one of whom had made it clear no mass protest was planned and no disruption envisaged. In its statements to the NSPCC, JCB has claimed that the LPHR complaint has been dismissed (it hasn’t) and also asserted that they have asked the UN to remove them from the list of complicit companies (UN hasn’t budged). These over-reactions at the dealerships and threadbare excuses reveal a company rattled by the campaign.