PROTESTERS TO FIGHT INJUNCTION

Following an adjournment on April 25th anti-war activists from the Smash Edo campaign are awaiting a judgement on a possible interim injunction. The court was told on Monday that any interim injunction would be a draconian breach of civil liberties for an unlimited number of people. An interim injunction would compromise their right to protest before the matter has even come to full trial.

EDO/MBM ltd, who manufacture bomb release mechanisms used in the illegal Iraq war, are seeking an injunction to prevent campaigners from protesting outside their factory in Brighton. Activists have vowed to fight the injunction because it breaches their statutory right of freedom of expression and would affect anyone who wanted to protest outside EDO/MBMs factory in Brighton.

Chris Osmond, who is representing himself in court said ‘The real issue here is that innocent civilians in Iraq and elsewhere are being killed by weapons components made by this company and the people of Brighton are being silenced’. Mark Thomas, who came to a demonstration at EDO/MBM last week and who has attended the high court in support of the defendants sent the following letter of support:

‘When EDO issued court proceedings to try and get an injunction issued against any one who might oppose EDO's actions, this campaign became even more important. What we are fighting for here is the right to protest. The type of protest and demonstrations we can and can't do must not be defined by the company we are opposing. In the faux war against terror the real enemies are the enemies of liberty.’

Ceri Gibbons, who has volunteered to be a defendant as a representative of those who will be affected said “The definition of protestor in the proposed injunction is so broad it covers anyone who disagrees with the arms trade or the war in Iraq. It should come as no surprise that a company that makes its profits through death and destruction abroad should also have such contempt for human rights in this country”

The campaign is appealing for everyone in the wider peace movement as well as anyone who cares about freedom of speech to join them on:

Thursday 26th April at 4pm

Demonstration against the arms trade, the illegal war and for freedom of speech and assembly outside EDO/MBMs factory on Home Farm Road, Brighton.

Notes for Journalists

Brighton & Hove is a UN Peace Messenger City

The injunction referred to was served under the 1997 Protection from Harassment Act (originally designed to protect women from stalkers) and is the first of its kind directed at activists outside of the animal rights movement. Crucially it is a civil injunction but carries criminal penalties. It affects anyone deemed to be a protestor. Initially EDO/MBM requested a large "exclusion zone" comprising the whole of Home Farm Industrial Estate.

They and Sussex police also wanted to limit demonstrations to two and a half hours, with less thanten people who had to be silent. Judge Gross refusedto impose these conditions at the initial hearing of an interim injunction, which was put in place in the period before the full trial to be heard at the High court in London from November 21st. In his summing up he said, "The right to freedom of _expression is jealously guarded in English law" and consequently refused to impose the requested limits on size, timing or noise made at demonstrations. He also said that he doubted that protesters were 'stalking' employees of EDO MBM.

EDO MBM Technologies Ltd are the sole UK subsidiary of huge U.S arms conglomerate EDO Corp, which was recently named No. 10 in the Forbes list of 100 fastest growing companies. They supply bomb release mechanisms to the US and UK armed forces amongstothers. They supply crucial components for Raytheon's Paveway guided bomb system, widely used in the "Shock and Awe" campaign in Iraq.

EDO also withdrew a threatened libel action against Indymedia over being named as "warmongers".

Lawson-Cruttenden & Co
Solicitors firm working for EDO have been instrumental in developing the Protection of Harassment Act 1997 from a measure designed to safeguard individuals to a corporate charter to make inconvenient protest illegal. Theyhave pioneered to use of injunctions to create large "exclusion zones". They have secured numerous injunctions against anti-vivisection and anti-GM protestors.

Campaign against EDO MBM
People involved in the anti-EDO campaign include, but are not limited to: local residents, the Brighton Quakers, peace activists, anti-capitalists, Palestine Solidarity groups, human rights groups, trade unionists, academics and students. The campaign started in August 2004 with a peace camp. It's avowed aim is to expose EDO MBM and their complicity in war crimes and to remove them from Brighton.

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