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10th October 2007
5 PEOPLE ARRESTED FOR KARAOKE!
Police arrested 5 people
during a peaceful demonstration outside a Brighton-based arms
manufacturer today. Thirty people turned out to demonstrate
against the factory during a themed ‘Bad Karaoke’
demonstration. Over 40 police were present.
The police used a local
byelaw to seize the karaoke machine and arrested 5 people,
during a rendition of “We are the champions” one
of them aged only 16. Although members of a BBC film crew
were present this did not stop the police from aggressively
arresting 3 more people. Police then surrounded protesters
and pushed them away from the site of their regular Wednesday
demonstrations to the bottom of the road.
Sarah Johnson said “We have been protesting outside
this factory for four years. This is the most heavy handed
policing we’ve seen outside this factory in over two
years. Arms dealers EDO have used Sussex police as their rotweillers
before and their efforts have ended in failure and humiliation
for the company. This is a desperate act by a failing company.
The community has shown time and again that this aggression
will not silence us. We will continue to protest against EDO
until it has been shut down.”
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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