Demo at Heckler & Koch weapons manufacturers HQ in Nottingham

Flyer for event

Quoting Tash: "Many wondered why a peaceful and lawful protest continues to attract the levels of surveillance this and similar events have done in the recent past."

I'm not sure there's much "why?" about it!

We supposedly live in a "free" country, yet evidently it is the job of bastards like FIT and these "Evidence Gatherers" (Evidence of what? People who give a shit about actually creating peace?) to undermine even our most basic supposed "rights", such as the right to protest. It's plain for all to see - they don't even try to hide that they are there to trample on our "rights". It is their purpose to let us know.

OK, they may not actually prevent us protesting - in that we are still "allowed" to protest (albeit out of the way, somewhere completely irrelevant, on their terms), but what possible justification can there be under ANY circumstances for the way they followed people who had attended a legal, peaceful protest and had not broken any laws?

I'm stating the obvious again, but their sole objective is to intimidate, and to violate people's rights.

Well, I for one will not be intimidated by these shits any more, and I'm sure a fair few others in Notts are already leaps ahead of me on that one.

I don't care if they know my name, and I don't care if they take my picture. Next time, I will know their names, and be taking their pictures non-stop.

Let's get better organised on this - across all campaigns in Nottingham. It's high time we raised the stakes against these fascist bastards and their pathetic bullying.

Your the people who stop our legal rights to do stuff, you make a fuss about the police getting in your way and not letting you get away with distrupting the peace and stopping traffic, they are there for yes observing the issue, but also to protect the assetts of nottingham, yes its rong to have a factory in nottingham manufactoring arms that are dangerous to others, but cmon people wat happened to this class war that your supposedly cracking down on, your are judging too far ahead, leave that to the people who have a say in the matter, like the police,, youll just get scrubbed off with soap an water regarding your say and your rights and the matters that are raised, yes thers lots of people who support you in wat you stand for, but no need to take it out on these people doin a job. Why dont you get a job and see how it feels on the side of getting told wat to do without choice, or a payrise to go to your events wasting there time wen it culd be spent on more inventing stuff, like more help on the streets of nottingham. just think how safe u feel. u must feel safe with a good police force, to even let u near such a touchy subject,
yes people do have the rights to express themselves, but theres others who have to protect what they have expressed and kept consistant. Get a job all off you, even if your 50, or in a wheel chair theres still a job just for you, and youll get paid for wat u have in skills and ability and maybe sread your word further. no need to stand on street corners promoting how bad it is to have a gun shop in the middle of nottingham,, why not try an close the gun shop in radford on hartly road, thatll stop alot of damage created on the streets. one less distributer. 50 60 people lol,, your havin a laugh. i see only about 30 and most have hidden there faces, is it shame or was it to do with pride. times are changing, an people arent gonna listen to you unless u have the right tools to do it,or at least show your face. so get a job and save up instead of recieving state benifits recooped from thhe all different trades within the UK including the profits from the arms trade. Let them do there job, while u look for one.
Your wasting their time and their money. wen it could go to stopping local people on the streets of nottingham with knifes guns and drugs creatin havoc for the residents of nottingham,, i dont see u all goin out an confrunting the youths or yobs that are makin nottinghams life a misery. go do sumthing contructive, help nottingham to feel safe in the changing world we live in. go out an be anti vigilant and one day ull will need their support instead of pushing them away. plenty more fish in the sea to catch, leave it to greanpeace, and also let them be, to observe your actions on how disruptive u all are.

I know many of people on that demo, most of them have well qualified jobs from nursing to engineering & building workers. Also they are kind of people who do intervene with yobs & violent youth as well & sometimes help police if they want to be cooperative on the matter.
Personally I think small arms are needed for good democratically federated UN peacekeepers like the international brigades & zapatists who like peaceful communities in Sudan suffer death squads regularly & need proper peace keeping & self defence.
The way things are today, yep the police at the demo should be ashamed really,some of them do look it. Wonder why they keep using the Met, dont they trust Notts police?

Go on then what IS your name?

Notts FITWatcher I think you're really cool, it's good to have you on our side x

Colin: "Go on then what IS your name?"

Just because I don't care if FIT find out my name (so they know my name, so what?), doesn't mean I'm about to start using it on here. I can assure you I have a lot less to worry about than they do.

Still, if you're so sure you've nothing to hide, why not post your home address, family details, medical details and bank details too? Perhaps pet names for your loved ones, vehicle details and how many times a week you have sex too? Privacy is supposedly our "right", and it benefits everybody, even those who are too stupid to realise and continue to chant the idiot's mantra of "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. There are so many recent examples from the UK I'm not even going to bother listing them.

You have everything to fear from police-state fascist bastards like the FIT - just ask 6 million dead Jews. Oh wait, you can't... they're all dead.

I don't really know what your point is to be honest. I choose to remain anonymous on here because that is a sensible thing to do, but I will be making myself known to people I know I can trust and work with on this issue. I daresay you aren't one of those people, which is why to you, I shall remain anonymous.

It's "need to know" and you seem more "needed to nobody".

Notts FITWatcher, please don't post comments that are insulting to other readers. 'Please make your point without resorting to personal abuse.'

Fitwatcher,

You are a person of contradictions and cliches.

So they know my name, so what?

then...

I choose to remain anonymous because that is the sensible thing to do...

The one about the jews was a bit hard for even me to swallow - I thought that one wasnt in dispute.

Nice cliche - needed to nobody, i shall use it myself in further put downs to other lesser beings!

Fitwatcher, you have declared what you are..

Some people make things happen,
Some people watch things happen,
Some people wonder what the fuck has happened.

P.s you aint the top one.

Off to bed now, nice trading posts with you

Stay safe

Night night

This is precisely the sort of behaviour a campaign such as this needs to avoid. If we are going to take on H&K sucessfully we need to do it TOGETHER.

If youre disagreeing over ANYTHING that disagreement needs to be approached and dealt with TOGETHER.

If FIT split a group of people like this or provoke another group of people into behaving irrationally, they have done their job, simple as.

We need to take on this company on our doorstep, a company that profits from all the worst traits of humanity. If FIT and the EGs want to use their equipment to spy on legitimate protestors and protect that company, then we need to document what they are doing, monitor their behaviour and assert ourselves in the face of it. But at the end of the day, we're there for H&K, not for the cops, so lets not let this issue divide us.

Colin: Context! You can't just chop words off the ends of my sentences and then accuse me of contradiction. I said I choose to remain anonymous ON HERE - as in on Indymedia - which is why I'm not giving you my name. If FIT happen to know my name, I'm not bothered. I still wouldn't start using it on here though.

As for making things happen - you have absolutely no idea how many things I have a hand in making happen, so why don't you just take your incorrect assumptions and trolling elsewhere? (Are you a member of FIT? Do you support and make excuses for what they do? Why else would you post provocative come-ons to someone who wants to take action against them, unless you were someone who just happens to get off on being annoying?)

Indymedia Editors: I don't think it's inappropriate to tell trolls that they're needed by nobody - or was that not the bit you were referring to? Maybe it would have been better not to respond, but nobody is perfect. Wrist slapping aside, I still think my response was justified and not overly insulting, and I make no apologies for it. I've seen far worse on here than telling trolls to get stuffed, with nobody even batting an eyelid.

Anon E. Mouse: I don't think FIT or boring trolls are splitting anything - it would be a false dichotomy anyway. There are some who would prefer to just act on H&K, and there are some who would like to act on H&K but are also prepared to deal with FIT if and when it is necessary. It's not mutually exclusive, and it's not at cross-purposes either, just two paths heading in the same direction.

Those who aren't so concerned about dealing with FIT can leave it to those of us who's buttons that presses a bit more. Personally, I have had enough of FIT and their tactics, and am beginning to do something about it.

There's no disagreement here as far as I'm aware. I'm sure everybody involved in the H&K stuff and all kinds of other activism have probably had enough of FIT. Those who don't feel strongly enough about it to do something themselves are under no compulsion to. (Anarchy is good like that!)

I think most activists are into several forms of activism, so I'm just officially adding "FIT Watching" to my list and will be asking around for others to work with on it.

it was a warning for the future, as much as anything else. Its clear that theres a division between the IMCers and others. Just trying to 'nip this in the bud' before it gets out of hand. Of course theyre not exclusive and that was NOT what I was suggesting at all. More that FITwatching needs to place itslef in a larger context of the events it occurs at.

Anon E. Mouse: "Its clear that theres a division between the IMCers and others."

Is it clear? I don't think so.

It's clear there's various people (trolls, FIT apologists, fascists) out there who would like to sow divisions - and this of course is to be expected.

There's all kinds of nutters that post on Indymedia, and it's nothing to worry about if a few of them disagree with something or try to mess it up.

I don't think we should credit them with giving us anything to worry about, particularly as they just seem to be lobbing spanners from their internet armchairs. They don't appear to be from within the campaign, so let's not waste time worrying about "divisions" where none actually exist.

By others i meant "the view you're expressing".

and watch another video.

Wow! the demo looked amazing!!!!!! well done every body!!!!!!!

SO annoyed I missed it!!

When's the next one??

HECKLER AT THE BACK

NO KOCH JOKES PLEASE AS PROTESTERS TARGET GUN FIRM HECKLER & KOCH...


Campaigners in Nottingham have the world's second largest seller of small-arms, Heckler and Koch, firmly in their sights.

One would have thought that a city infamous for its gun crime would be a poor location for a warehouse full of guns. Not according to H&K, who do great business equipping war-mongers on any side.

Proud owners of H&K weaponry include the brutal militias of Darfur - the Janjaweed. Funnily enough, despite the outcry against the massacres in Darfur, they obviously weren't quite bad enough to stop selling weapons to the perpetrators. Even a recent arrest warrant by the
International Criminal Court (ICC) against a senior Sudanese politician accused of selling H&K weapons to the Janjaweed hasn't seemed to stem the flow of H&K guns to a militia accused by everyone including the US of committing genocide. (H&K guns also fill the arsenals of the US Dept of Homeland Security, US Navy Seals & the FBI amongst others).

H&K have a 'strategic partnership' with the world's largest mercenary company Blackwater (see SchNEWS 572). H&K supply the guns to the Iraqi and Afghan puppet governments, and Blackwater provide the training (perhaps they also supply child-sized targets for their students).

There was a plan for H&K to produce special edition 'Blackwater' weapons - complete with the Blackwater logo on them. However, after Blackwater made the headlines for killing 17 innocent Iraqis (not the first time that Blackwater have killed innocent Iraqis, but the first time
that it made the news in a major way), the plan was shelved.

Nearly 100 people showed up this Tuesday (6th) to march against H&K at their Nottingham facility, accompanied by large numbers of police who, in the words of one protester were 'their usual sinister selves'.

The FIT Team (See www.fitwatch.blogspot.com) made their (always unwelcome presence) and did what they do best - blatantly intimidate people all day with video cameras; following some people home.

Interestingly, local media also came under pressure; Trent FM, who had shown some enthusiasm about reporting the demo, received a word in their ear from both H&K's press office as well as the police, warning hacks that it would be 'irresponsible' to publish the fact that H&K has a warehouse full of weapons in Nottingham, as it may prompt criminals to try and steal them.

In response the campaigners pointed out to the radio station that H&K's address was published at Company House, as well as in several business directories. About the radio station being leaned on, the campaigners said that "If the security policy of H&K and Notts police relies on no-one finding out the company's location, then clearly it is they who are irresponsible, not our campaign and not the media. A large
warehouse stocked with high-power assault rifles and submachine guns with inadequate security to prevent a robbery is clearly a significant danger to the public, and publicisng such a danger is very much in the public interest."

The H&K warehouse, located at Easter Park, Lenton Lane, Nottingham, is next to the 'Trent Vineyard', an evangelist church that held the funeral of Danielle Beccan, a 14 year old girl who was killed in a drive-by shooting. At her funeral service the then mayor of Nottingham said, "Guns have no place at all in our community - not in Nottingham,
not in my city nor any other city in Britain."

One camapigner told us "The arms trade relies on secrecy. Most people abhor the idea of factories and warehouse making and selling weapons around the world, and arms companies know this. By lifting the lid on the business, anti-arms protesters can make a put the pressure on the government/corporate killing machine to stop killing for profit."

*  http://nottsantimilitarism.wordpress.com