04/06/08

PRESS RELEASE EMBARGO: IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ANTI ARMS TRADE DEMONSTRATION ENDS IN CONFRONTATION

Contact: Andrew Beckett or Chloe Marsh

07875 708873

 smashedopress@yahoo.co.uk

Approximatley 600 marched along Lewes road, out towards EDO MBMs factory on the Home Farm Rd industrial estate. At around 2p.m the crowd turned up Home Farm Rd towards the arms factory.


Police attempted to force the crowd into a small pen made of crowd barriers. This escalated as police used batons, pepper spray and dogs to force protestors back away from the factory, who refused to be intimidated.


Andrew Beckett, campaign spokesman said “We will not submit to crude tactics of police intimidation – whatever the accusations of violence thrown in our direction they pale in comparison to the violence inflicted in Iraq, Palestine and Somalia by the products of EDO MBM”


By 5 p.m the campaign has learned of five arrests, several people were injured by police batons

Notes for Journalists:

THE CARNIVAL AGAINST THE ARMS TRADE

The Level is a public park south of Union Rd in Central Brighton.

More info about the Carnival and a flyer for the event can be found at www.smashedo.org.uk/carnival

Notes for Journalists

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.”

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.