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29th July 2009
AN OPEN INVITATION TO SMASH EDO'S PUBLIC DEBATE: IS BREAKING THE LAW TO
RESIST WAR CRIMES EVER JUSTIFIED?
On Monday The Argus reported that the police spent £310 000 on the
policing of Smash EDO's Mayday! Mayday! protest.
On Tuesday August 11th 2009 Smash EDO will be holding a public debate
around the subject of direct action under the heading "Is breaking the Law
to Resist War Crimes Ever Justified?".
As you are aware people in Brighton have, for the last five years, used
all kinds of direct action to highlight EDO's involvement in world wide
conflicts. This has included blockades, rooftop occupations and mass
street protests. In January six people broke into EDO MBM/ITT and damaged
machinery to stop it being used against the people of Gaza.
The meeting will debate mass street actions, and Mayday in particular, as
a tactic in campaigning against EDO MBM/ITT. On Mayday thousands of people
from Brighton and around the UK joined together to show resistance against
EDO and the companies, like Barclays Bank and Mcdonalds, who invest in it.
One of the reasons that campaigners chose to take their protest to the
centre of Brighton was that Sussex Police have done everything they can to
prevent protest at the factory. At Brighton Magistrates Court, on Monday
27th July, Sussex Police admitted that they had intended to prevent
October's Shut ITT demonstration from reaching the factory at all. In
doing so, they attacked demonstrators with batons, pepper spray and dogs.
The cost of policing the protest only reflects the lengths Sussex Police
are prepared to go to to repress dissent in Brighton.
The debate on the 11th will be a chance to debate the tactic of mass
street protests like Mayday.
The debate will also discuss the legitimacy of January's decommissioning
of EDO. On January 17th, as the bombs rained on Gaza, six people broke
into the factory and caused 300 000 pounds worth of damage. They say they
were acting to prevent war crimes being committed by Israeli forces using
weaponry including EDO components. We say that their action was legitimate
and necessary.
We invite the people of Brighton to come and discuss the
decommissioning. Ewa Jasiewicz, who was in Gaza as a human rights worker
during the bombing, will join the debate.
The debate will take place on TUESDAY AUGUST 11TH at 7.30pm at the Friends
Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton. Everyone welcome.
Notes for
Journalists The Company
EDO MBM Technologies Ltd are the sole UK subsidiary of huge U.S
weapons manufacturer EDO Corp.From their base in Moulescoombe
Brighton, EDO MBM manufacture vital parts for the Hellfire and
Paveway weapons systems,laserguided missilesused extensively in
Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Somalia. EDO Corp were recently acquired
by ITT in a multi-billion pound deal. ITT's links to fascism go
back to the 1930s. The founder Sosthenes Behn was the first foreign
businessman received by Hitler after
his seizure of power. The
Campaign
There has been active campaign against the presence o f EDO MBM
in Brighton since the outbreak of the Iraq war.Campaigners include
students, Quakers ,Palestine solidarity activists, anti-capitalists
and academics.
Despite an injunction under the protection of harassment act (which
failed) and over forty arrests the campaign is still going strong.Their
avowed aim is to expose EDO MBM and their complicity in war crimes
and to remove them from Brighton. They hold regular weekly demos
outside the
Moulescoombe factory on Wednesday's between
4 and 6. THE FILM
On the Verge is an independent film about the SMASH EDO Campaign
“In 2004 a group of Brighton peace campaigners began to bang
pot and pans outside their local arms manufacturers EDO MBM in
disgust of their part in the Iraq war. This has grown into the
Smash EDO campaign, which has cost the company millions, been
the subject of large scale police operations and has tested the
right to protest in the UK.Using activist, police and CCTV footage
plus interviews with those involved in the campaign, 'On The Verge'
tells the story of one of the most persistent and imaginative
campaigns to emerge out of the UK's anti-war movement and direct
action
scene.”
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