A summer of antics and opposition to Brighton's very own peddlers
of
death. Start working on your cunning plans now and join in!
Since 2001, EDO/ITT's products have been used to attack civilian populations in Afghanistan, Gaza, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia and Pakistan. ITT, EDO's parent company, has a track record of clients that includes the Nazis, Franco and the Pinochet regime. ITT continue to lobby Western governments to pursue military action in order to boost their profit margin. EDO/ITT may be only one cog in the global war machine but shutting them down will throw a spanner in the works.
Since 2004 Brightonians and thousands of supporters from around the world have demonstrated their rage at the factory through a variety of methods. Weekly noise demos, pickets, blockades, rooftop occupations, lobbying, street theatre, mass demonstrations and sabotage have all been used to pile pressure on EDO to leave. Despite being subject to a successful civilian decommissioning during Israel's 2009 brutal assault on Gaza, the factory somehow clings on.
The summer of 2012 is the time for you to come and take action! We want you, your mates or your affinity group to come to the factory and express your outrage as creatively as you like. We welcome a diversity of tactics and no action is to big or too small. We will provide accommodation, support and advice wherever necessary.
How to get involved:
1.Talk to your mates/your group and think of ideas for action
2.Pick a date in the summer months of 2012
3. Email/call the campaign
07538093930 e-mail: smashedo@riseup.net
Twitter: @smash_edo
Facebook
Long term Brightonian activist for social justice, Simon Levin, passed away on Friday 24th June, at the age of 36
Simon had spent much of his life fighting against injustice. He often spoke about attending pickets during the miners strike when he was a young boy. Simon was an active supporter of the Irish struggle against imperialism and, during the last decade, has been involved in action for Palestine and against the Iraq war. Not only was Simon's dedication evident in all that he did, his depth of knowledge on a range of subjects was second to few. His impassioned debates were always well researched, proving a difficult andsometimes frustrating opponent in political arguments over a pint late into the night with his friends, as well as to those who represented the oppression he was determined to fight. He was always a delightfully sarcastic thorn in the side of any police presence.
Simon was a firm atheist and socialist, scathing of sectarianism, cliques and "tooth-fairy worshippers".
Simon was from a Jewish background; his great grandparents were murdered at Auschwitz. This was one of the reasons that he was attracted to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli apartheid. In 2004 Simon travelled to Palestine and spent months as an international volunteer in Balata refugee camp. During Israeli army invasions Simon provided an international presence designed to make people in the camp safer and support Palestinian resistance. In 2008 Simon led a delegation to the Jordan Valley and worked with Palestinians to establish Fasayil School, despite Israeli military orders that building was prohibited.
In 2004 Simon wrote "I have witnessed the destruction of family homes by the Israeli army in retaliation for suicide attacks in lsrael I would not consider this self-defence' it is collective punishment. I have queued for hours in the blazing sun at checkpoints where Palestinian civilians are pressed like cattle in what appears to be a deliberate attempt to humiliate them in their own lands, and have accompanied peaceful demonstrations against the Annexation Wall.The wall continues to be built on land accorded to Palestinians under the Oslo agreement, dividing Palestinians from their water and agricultural lands. These demonstrations, often supported by brave and idealistic Israeli activists I count as my friends, were broken up with tear-gas, percussion grenades and rifle-fire. If there is to be peace in this region, Israel must stop provoking Palestinians into armed response."
Here are some blog posts that Simon wrote in his unmistakable style for the group during his stay in Palestine in 2008:
Simon had been involved in the Smash EDO campaign since its inception; he was part of the first blockade of EDO in 2004 and was involved in the fight against EDO's planned injunction against protesters outside the factory. In 2009, during the Israeli massacre in Gaza, Simon helped the decommissioners break into the EDO factory and destroy the production line. In 2010 he was found not guilty of conspiracy to cause criminal damage on the basis that he had acted to prevent war crimes.
On hearing the verdict he said "Considering that the whole point of this is that we have broken no law, hopefully it will set a precedent for the people of this country to realise that in a liberal democracy we are the checks and balances"
Despite personal battles, Simon never gave up on the struggle for justice and the well-being of those lucky enough to count him as a friend. On June 30th 2011 he had planned to bring food to the picket lines in support of the strikers.
One friend said "Simon was not only a dedicated activist in the name of liberty, against oppression in all its forms, but a sublimely passionate human being, whose eccentricities, eloquence and wild imagination will never be forgotten."
For those of you who want to remember Simon go to your local arms factory, importer of Israeli goods or oppressor of workers and do a vigil, noise demo or action. Have a beer. He would have liked that...
Blockade of EDO in Solidarity with Gaza
Early on Wednesday 27th April three activists locked themselves to the Brighton arms factory EDO/ITT, in solidarity with the people of Gaza
EDO is currently working on contracts for supply of weapons umbilical connectors to US firm Lockheed Martin who are incorporating them onto the new F35 fighter plane, bound for Israel. Paul Hills, EDO, managing director, has described the function of the connector as "to provide coordinates to the guidance unit... on the weapon."
EDO's connector systems have already resulted in civilian deaths in Afghanistan. In 2009 Royal Dutch Air Force F-16s, equipped with EDO's FRCS connectors, killed 52 civilians in a bombing raid in Helmand.
Chloe Marsh, Smash EDO press spokesperson said "During the last month Israel has intensified attacks on Gaza killing over 30 people and there has been talks of the possibility of a second Operation Cast Lead. EDO/ITT are as ever complicit in this slaughter, as many of these attacks have been carried out by F16s equipped with EDO components. Through the new F35 contract, EDO are ensuring that they will continue to profit from Israel's war crimes far into the future. By accepting these contracts, EDO show beyond a doubt that they are not opposed to supporting Israel's military machine"
A recently published UNICEF report confirmed that Israel's military actions in and around Gaza still amount to a siege, with little alleviation of the situation for civilians. The report also revealed that Israel's siege now puts 1.9 million children at risk of early death, injury or severe psychological harm. See
http://bit.ly/eDH2vxMayday Mayday!
Brighton Mayday Protest
Before the demonstration Brighton's Mayday Collective said:
While bankers are rewarding themselves with taxpayer funded bonuses and the royals are forcing us to pay for their weddings, ordinary people are facing an attack on their lives, massive cuts to jobs, benefits and the services they rely on. In response to this, on Saturday 30th April, people will gather at an undisclosed Brighton location to celebrate May Day, a day to stand up for workers' rights and resist oppression, capitalism and the elites who benefit from them. .
Local groups; Brighton Benefits Campaign, Brighton Anarchist Black Cross, Smash EDO , South Coast Climate Camp, Sussex Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), No Borders Brighton, Squatters Network of Brighton, Brighton Antifascists, Brighton Hunt Saboteurs, Brighton Uncut, Queer Mutiny have formed the Brighton Mayday collective to make Saturday 30th April a carnival of resistance.
Danny Beltane, of the Brighton Mayday collective said "Today our lives are under attack. Our future is being sacrificed to increase the power of an elite. The bankers' crisis is being used as an excuse to push through a right-wing agenda of vicious cuts – cuts which will hurt the poorest and line the pockets of the rich. The NHS, Education and Welfare systems are being stripped back while the bankers are being paid million pound bonuses.
Their only answer to the disaster is more of the same, capitalism with the gloves off. More wars, more ecological devastation and we're being asked to pay for it. We are being robbed blind – it's time to reclaim what is ours."
Chloe Marsh, of Smash EDO said "Resistance to the arms industry is a vital part of the struggle against capitalism and the fight against capitalism is an attack on the basic strength of the arms industry"
Sussex IWW: "May Day is the historical declaration of working class struggle. This year Mayday has a new relevance, as the government arrogantly and shamelessly starts to dismantle the gains made by ordinary people to better their working conditions."
Brighton Uncut: "Big corporations are feted and relieved from having to pay their taxes in full. While politicians the world over, in the thrall of multinationals, are cutting public services to address the deficits caused by bailing out the corporations."
Student from the University of Brighton: "We must stand united for workers and students rights, for they are one and the same."
Brighton College Student: "The student protests of last year were just the beginning, they showed us all that resistance is possible, now is the time to finish what we started..."
More from the Mayday Collective at
http://brightonmayday.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/zine-2.pdfSmash EDO are supporting a callout for a Mayday demo in Brighton on Saturday 30th April.
For more info-
brightonmayday.wordpress.com
Surprise Noise demo at EDO - 'Merry Christmas Paul Hills '
EDO have been being targeted increasingly recently with two noise demonstrations held last week and a blockade of the factory on Tuesday.
EDO should be under no illusion that we will be here until they're not...
However...we are now taking a break over xmas. The next noise demo will be 4-6, WEDNESDAY JANUARY THE 5th 2011. Obviously anyone who feels the urge can go up there and annoy them at their leasure in the meantime!
Blockade of EDO MBM
Hillls, for the umpteenth time, had to angle grind through his fence to get his staff in in the morning.
It seems that Paul doesn't relish the prospect of his business dealings being scrutinised in court after his gruelling cross examination during the Decommissioners trial this Summer. After a conversation with Hillls, Police left the blockaders to it. After five hours everyone unlocked/glued and left with no arrests.
For more info see http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/12/470666.html and http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/12/470680.html
Andrew Beckett, campaign spokesperson, said "The government's spending review made only perfunctory cuts to the defence budget. Every job in the arms trade is still massively subsidised by the state. The exports made by EDO benefit only the company CEOs. All this at the same time as the government is cutting the education and health budgets and hammering ordinary people's pensions and benefits."
"The arms industry makes its money through destroying the lives of civilians abroad whilst the budget cuts target the most vulnerable people here. We say that it is obvious where the budget cuts should be focused - on an arms trade that only benefits the corporations."
Days of Action against Repression - Surprise Noise demo at EDO
EDO is a Brighton based arms manufacturer owned by ITT. They produce bomb release equipment for the US, UK and Israeli armed forces.
Fifteen people turned up early Monday morning and held a noisy demonstration outside the factory gates.
This was to reaffirm that we will continue to protest against EDO, despite police repression, and that the campaign will not go away until the factory closes down.
Since the campaign began Sussex police have acted as a biased political force, a private security firm for a US corporation. Sussex Police and EDO collaborated, in 2005-6, to criminalise protest through an injunction under the Protection from Harassment Act. When this failed, after campaigners defied the injunction in the courts and on the streets, the police have used a series of cackhanded conspiracy charges, prosecutions under archaic council noise byelaws, kettling, mass arrests to 'prevent a breach of the peace', use of section 60, harassment by police Forward Intelligence Teams and have attempted to pay informers for information about the campaign.
Sean Mcdonald, the rotund 'events liaison' officer for Sussex is a permanent feature at EDO protests. Mcdonald's oily attempts to ingratiate himself with newcomers in order to intelligence gather, efforts to provoke protesters to violence, and personal remarks about campaigners are an effort to harass and intimidate campaigners. Mcdonald's career is centred around his knowledge of the Smash EDO campaign (which is quite sad really as he is hideously ill informed).
Sussex Police and the CPS have invested considerable resources on attempting to stamp out the Smash EDO campaign, spending $1 million on policing four demonstrations, yet Smash EDO has been campaigning relentlessly against EDO/ITT for six years with no sign of slowing down. The majority of prosecutions against campaigners have ended in failure.
In October 2010 Elijah Smith, one of the six people who decommissioned EDO during Operation Cast Lead, was given a restraining order, as a result of an amendment to the PHA act. Under this order he is prevented from demonstrating outside the factory for five years. This order is proof that the demonstrations against EDO continue to be used as a testing ground for new repressive legislation.
It is important that we recognise the state's attempts to repress effective campaigns and that we stand in solidarity with those targeted, support each other and, most importantly, don't give in. If they try to repress us that is because they see us as a threat.
We will be here until they're not...
For more info about the anti repression days of action see http://www.freedomtoprotest.org.uk/
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