AstraZeneca Demo Report - Wednesday 23rd September
October 4, 2009 – 5:57 am
Campaigners once again returned to AstraZeneca’s offices in Luton. As soon as we arrived we were greeted with the usual sight of blinds being hastily pulled down. We were also greeted by an audible announcement, which appeared to come from the office block opposite AstraZeneca, warning their staff that animal rights campaigners had arrived.
We began our protest using placards and megaphones to let staff and those in nearby offices know exactly what AstraZeneca are involved in. Shortly after our arrival the police also turned up and immediately issued us with a Section 14 warning telling us that we had only 20 minutes to demonstrate. We questioned the legality of this and attempted to at least negotiate a more reasonable time frame. After some debate the police officer said she would talk to her sergeant and see what she could do. Unfortunately she only came back to us 20 minutes later to inform us that we had to leave. She then proceeded in an attempt to retrospectively serve this Section 14 on the remaining protestors after it was pointed out to her that she had only spoken to one campaigner originally. Strangely she appeared to be reading the Section 14 from a laminated card which a Community Support Officer had previously fetched for her from inside AstraZeneca’s offices!
At this stage we decided to leave for a break with a plan to return later and continue our protest. Predictably on our return more police officers soon arrived, however the officer in charge this time was somewhat more reasonable. Although he issued a Section 14 almost as soon as he arrived he did allow us an hour to demonstrate before we had to leave. He tried to tell us that we could not use megaphones at all, however we questioned this and were able to use them in the end. Once again this officer was reading the Section 14 notice from a card that one of the accompanying PCSO’s had retrieved from AstraZeneca.
We continued to demonstrate at times noisily, but peacefully, as workers began to leave for home. One or two of these were decidedly rude in their hand gestures towards us; obviously they did not appreciating being reminded of what their company was involved in. One worker even tried to film us on his mobile whilst driving out of the car park;strangely none of the police officers present seemed to notice this.
Despite continued attempts by the police to suppress our right to protest here, we felt that the demo had been effective in reminding AstraZeneca of the cruelty they continue to support through their involvement with HLS. We left at around 5pm vowing to return in the very near future.
