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On the first anniversary of the end of the Israeli war against Gaza, Smash EDO activists in Brighton organized a demonstration against the local factory of arms manufacturer EDO MBM/ITT who made some of the weapons that killed 1417 Palestinians during the three-week assault. Brighton, UK. 18/01/2010. On the first anniversary of the end of the Israeli war against Gaza, Smash EDO activists in Brighton organised a demonstration against the local factory of arms manufacturer EDO MBM/ITT who made some of the weapons that killed 1417 Palestinians, mainly the elderly, women and children, during the three-week assault. Around three hundred demonstrators mainly dressed in black as the organisers suggested, assembled at 1pm in Moulsecoomb Wild Park, a short walk from the EDO factory. They intended to march up Home Farm Road for a demonstration outside the factory. Demonstrators had been advised by the organisers to wear masks at all times during the event as both police and press would be taking photographs. Police watched the build-up, with four mounted police and several officers on foot on a ridge overlooking the meeting point, and others in the area around. A couple of officers attempted to hand out 'Section 14' notices under the Public Order Act, but few took one. These orders allow police to impose conditions on demonstrations 'to prevent serious public disorder, serious criminal damage or serious disruption to the life of the community' and they may set limits on the location, duration and number of people allowed to take part. Eventually the march moved off towards the EDO arms factory, but when the reached the bottom of Home Farm Road they could see that there was a large police presence blocking their intended route to prevent them demonstrating outside the factory. Most of the people on the march decided to run up the hill and into the woods to try to reach the factory. I went with them, and as we neared the back of the factory we were met by a small group of police with dogs who warned us we would be bitten if we approached. The demonstrators turned away and walked further through the wood and across an open space where they were met by a line of police. After a while the several hundred protesters decided to continue through the line of police; a few officers made a half-hearted attempt to stop them and were then told to allow them through, and they walked down beside a fence at the rear of the factory to a footpath leading to the far end of Home Farm Road. This meant that the factory was effectively surrounded by the demonstrators and all entrances and exits blocked. At this point they were stopped by another line of police, this time defending a fairly narrow footpath. The demonstrators tried to push through but were repelled and then scattered when the eight mounted police rode in. They regrouped a few years back but as a number of police with riot shields arrived they decided to go back the way they had come. Halfway up the path at the back of the factory, people realised it was possible to lift up the bottom of the wire fence and scramble under the bottom of it into the factory site. I decided not to follow them and could only photograph through a wire fence and some branches. Around 20 had made their way through when police came to meet them with batons drawn. The protesters rolled a few oil drums down towards them, but once police with dogs arrived they quickly scrambled back under the fence onto the path. By this time the police horses and riot police had followed the protesters up the hill and there was a little shoving and fighting with at least one protester needing attention from the protest medics after having a baton blow. After a while the protesters were forced to move on and up to the top of the hill, where the police formed a line to stop them going down again. After a few minutes standing around, the protesters moved away and down through the woods to join the smaller group of demonstrators and the sound system who had waited at the bottom of Home Farm Road. The protest then set out to march back to Brighton. About a quarter of a mile down the road the police attempted to block off the road and stop the march outside Brighton University, but people found a way around the police line through a car park. The police repeated the attempt to stop the marchers a number of times but without a great deal of success. At one point the police announced that they were only stopping the march because there had been an accident down the road that needed emergency vehicles to attend, and the marchers did stop for a while. As we got close to the centre of Brighton and the street was narrower the police again stopped the march. The officer in charge said that he was not going to allow them to continue to march through the city and disrupt shoppers and people going home from work, and was imposing a Section 14 order to prevent the marchers going beyond The Level, a nearby open space, where they could stay for as long as they wished. Eventually the police withdrew towards The Level, and the marchers then rushed past them and the march continued across the centre of The Level and on into town. At this point I had to leave to catch a train home, and as I walked past on my way to the station cordons of police appeared around KFC and McDonalds. According to a Smash EDO press release, after I left there was a demonstration outside a Barclays Bank and partying in the streets, and four or five arrests were made, mainly for breaching the Section 14 Order. Although there were a few examples of individual police losing their temper and hitting out during the day, in general the police seemed rather less violent than on my previous visit to a Smash EDO demonstration in Brighton. But it did seem to me that their job might have been far easier had they allowed a demonstration to take place in the area outside the factory as the protesters wanted. It would have confined the demonstration and thus made it easier to control.

Politics

Smash EDO Gaza Demo, Brighton

DMTX. On the first anniversary of the end of the Israeli war against Gaza, Smash EDO activists in Brighton organized a demonstration against the...

by Peter Marshall in United Kingdom on 18/01/2010

Trident Ploughshares, a group which campaigns to disarm Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons system, held a peaceful demonstration at the UK offices of Lockheed Martin, the giant US arms manufacturer. London, UK. 10/12/2009. <em>Trident Ploughshares</em>, a group which campaigns '<em>to disarm Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons system in a peaceful, non-violent, open and accountable manner</em>' held a Christmas demonstration at lunchtime on Thursday 10 December, 2009 at the UK HQ offices in London of <em>Lockheed Martin</em>, the giant US arms manufacturer which heads the consortium making nuclear bombs for the UK and the USA at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, Berkshire. Few if any of the people passing along Vauxhall Bridge Road were aware that the UK headquarters of bomb makers Lockheed Martin were just a few yards away in Carlisle Place, and many of them stopped to talk with the protesters and to sign the petition against replacing Trident as well as the Christmas card asking the company to stop making bombs and to invest in peace. After an hour and a halfof handing out leaflets, gathering signatures for their petition and card, a group of the protesters in Santa dress (and an odd reindeer) went to the building housing the Lockheed Martin offices to deliver their card. At the door they were met by a security man and the premises manager of the offices, which are shared with a number of other organisations, who told them that they could not enter the building and that nobody from Lockheed Martin was prepared to come out to meet them. He offered to take the card and deliver it to them, making sure that they got it, and after a short discussion his offer was accepted. At the request of the premises manager they left room for people to walk past on the pavement and to leave and enter the building. The protesters then began to sing, start with their specially written 'Lockheed Anthem' to the tune of 'Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer’, which starts: Lockheed the big bomb maker Does some very nasty work Building new nuclear weapons Carlisle Place is where they lurk After singing all three verses and choruses of this, they went on to other anti-nuclear carols for around 15 minutes, while one of the protesters with a Santa mask and a 'weapons inspector' white suit lay on the pavement in a black plastic body bag. A number of people from the other companies in the building came in and out during the protest, but there was no sign of anyone from Lockheed Martin, who have offices on the second floor of Manning House, a fine example of Victorian architecture that was once the house of Cardinal Manning. Their lease comes up for renewal in around 18 months and it seems that the building's owners - and doubtless the other companies leasing offices there - will be glad to be rid of them. So next year's Christmas demonstration there may well be the last in Carlisle Place. It's very hard to find any rational explanation for the UK government's dedication to the continuation of the UK nuclear weapons program and the replacement of Trident. It has of course been many years since we have had an independent nuclear deterrent - the very heart of our special relationship with the USA is that our nuclear weapons are essentially an offshore arm of the US nuclear capability. There has been a massive expansion in the manufacturing capability of the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston since 2005 costing well over £5 billion. The AWE is owned by a private consortium led by the major US arms company Lockheed Martin and including another US company, Jacobs along with Serco from the UK. It is perhaps not surprising to read in the Guardian that as well as making warheads for the UK the AWE also makes them for the USA. This vast investment in increased nuclear bomb-making capacity has taken place at a time when US and other world leaders have been talking about cutting stocks of warheads, and making great efforts to stop countries such as Iran and North Korea developing a nuclear capability. Our nuclear program was once justified as a deterrent against Soviet attack during the years of the cold war. Since we are now celebrating 20 years since the break-up of the Soviet empire this is an argument that is 20 years out of date, 20 years of entirely wasted expenditure on keeping our submarines with their nuclear warheads at sea. With our current financial position, continued expenditure on a military nuclear programme seems clearly madness. That it has gone on for so long despite the end of the cold war seems to indicate some very effective lobbying by private arms manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin.

Politics

Christmas Demo at Bomb Makers

DMTX. Trident Ploughshares, a group which campaigns to disarm Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons system, held a peaceful demonstration at the UK...

by Peter Marshall in United Kingdom on 10/12/2009

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