Bulldozer Justice
The playground of the rich and vindictive
This article was intended for Tribune magazine. I'm publishing it here because it's been hanging around long enough. It had gone through two rounds of edits when their legal department stepped in and killed it. It's largely about the scion of JCB, Sir Anthony Bamford and his company's bulldozers which have been used in human rights abuses in India and Palestine.
Right now I appreciate the irony of that. Last week my glasses broke. The cost to have them fixed or buy new frames has been prohibitive. Thus I am currently wearing my JCB branded prescription safety glasses, which I have had since 2018 when I worked on a construction site.
Whilst I was offered a kill fee by the Tribune, which would help my glasses fund, I decided not to take it. Who wants to be paid for NOT writing? It seems peverse. Is journalism a protection racket? If so, wouldn't that make me a mafia soldier?
Applause to Declassified who have been stepping on the necks of the state since they were founded and have been superlative since 2023, but there needs to be a well funded left platform for investigative journalism that concentrates on domestic nefarious doings and can, if needed and warranted fight any lawfare that's waged by those who would prefer their secrets stay buried.
If you want to contribute to buying me new glasses, please consider subscribing or even better drop some cash in my paypal. Unexpected costs are pretty much a nightmare for freelancers.
All that said, this isn't an investigative piece. All the information is publicly available and completely damning. There is a campaign against it: Stop JCB's Bulldozer Genocide who have documented numerous human rights abuses.
They occupied London's Southbank Centre last month:
Plus Amnesty wrote two reports about JCB in 2021 and 2024. Nonetheless I can see why a risk adverse lawyer might balk.
Bulldozer Justice: The playground of the rich and vindictive
Owned by right-wing Tory peer Anthony Bamford, JCB has formed close ties with ethno-nationalist regimes in India and Israel, where campaigners say its bulldozers have long been used to facilitate human rights abuses.
The JCB manufacturing tycoon Anthony Bamford was made a life peer in August 2013. He made his maiden speech in parliament the following year in June, and ended it by saying:
As a young man at JCB I came to realise how deeply rewarding it is to turn an idea into something that you can touch, something with form and texture which works and does things, and to use the best of yourself – your energy, know-how and talent – to make things that shape the world in which we live and, yes, even to contribute to human progress.
Such comments might seem laudable in themselves. But by the time Bamford uttered them, his company’s bulldozers had been used to destroy countless homes, schools, water sources and olive gardens in occupied Palestine. They had also been used to demolish Muslim homes, shops and places of worship in India, where Narendra Modi’s ethno-nationalist BJP government is committed to a strategy of ‘bulldozer justice’.
JCB makes yellow goods, or construction machinery such as diggers, bulldozers and excavators. In 2023 their Pre-tax profit rose to £805.8 million, up from £557.7 million in 2022, with a revenue of £6.5 billion. Bamford himself is one of the biggest donors to the Tory party. As of 2021 his donations stood at £14 million. This is a drop in the ocean when we bear in mind that the manufacturing tycoon and his family are worth about £7.56 billion according to the 2024 Sunday Times Rich List.
A mainstay of the elite, Bamford is rumoured to have the biggest car collection in the world, owns a €47 million super yacht designed to resemble an English country house, and lives between estates in Barbados, France and Chelsea. His wealth was never more apparent than in his plans for his and Lady Bamford’s joint 70th birthday party, a colonial-themed celebration hosted at the former residence of the Maharaja of Jaipur, which included elephant rides and trips to the Rambagh Palace for a coterie of celebrities and news scions including News UK chief, Rebekah Brooks.