Summer 2012 antimilitarist actions
The UK antimilitarist movement is building fresh coalitions against new developments in state militarism. In March activists converged in Bristol to confront an unmanned drones conference and a ‘Disarm the National Gallery’ campaign was launched in London to end arms trade sponsorship of the gallery. This week delegates visiting the annual Counter-Terror conference were met by a counter-protest and Vince Cable's speech at the UKTI conference was disrupted.
Smash EDO, who have campaigned to shut EDO MBM down for eight years are launching three months of action, from May 1st to August 1st, next week with a mayday noise demonstration, a bad music demonstration and a phone and twitter blockade to name just a few of the planned events.
And in Scotland, Faslane peace camp are calling for 30 days of action against Faslane nuclear base.
On the newswire: Vince Cable's speech to Arms Industry disrupted | Protest & Vigil At Shenstone Drones Factory | Smash Edo reports | Anti-militarism topic
Links: Stop The Arms Fair | Disarm DSEi | Space Hijackers | Smash EDO | CAAT | London CAAT
Smash EDO Summer of resistance reports: Picket of Barclays - 27/4/12| A few words on sensationalist journalism, protest bans and the local rag| The Summer of Resistance starts here| Mayday! Mayday! The Summer of Resistance Day One| Day Two: Face the Music| Day Three: Hot on the Wire| Day Four: Surprise! Surprise!| Smash EDO Summer of Resistance Week Two begins| Bikes not Bombs: Smash EDO Summer of Resistance hits the Pedals| Ratchet up the Racket: Summer of Resistance Continues| Summer of Resistance Targets Barclays
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SchNEWS 742: ITT's Hammertime
Brighton's Smash EDO campaign are holding a mass demo at EDO/ITT on Wednesday 13th October. Anti arms trade campaigners plan to lay seige to EDO/ITT and shut them down for the day.
Info for the Day:: The meeting place for the demo is Wild Park Cafe (directions here) at 10am on Wednesday, but people are being asked to arrive on the evening of the 12th. Convergence space will be available. There will be a meeting about the demo at 7pm at the Cowley Club on Tuesday 12th. There will be a timeline on Indymedia and a twitter feed: @smash_edo
Local contacts for ITT's Hammertime: Birmingham - hammertime-brum [at] riseup.net | Bristol - bristolagainstarmstrade [at] gmail.com | Cambridge - hammertime-cambridge [at] riseup.net | Cardiff - val.swain [at] yahoo.co.uk | Cornwall - kernowaction [at] gmail.com | London - hammertimelondon [at] dsei.org | Manchester - info [at] targetbrimar.org.uk | Notts - alex.dable [at] ntlworld.com | Swansea - d [at] undercurrents.org
Previous features:They Think It's All Over ...ITT Is Now | Smash EDO Solidarity in Nottingham | Hammer Time: The EDO Decommissioners go on trial | Indymedia Coverage of Remember Gaza | Anti Militarists take on Barclays | Support the EDO Decommissioners | Mayday! Mayday! | EDO Smashed | Anti-Arms Protesters Shut ITT | Smash EDO Carnival Against the Arm Trade - Timeline | Carnival Against the Arms Trade | Marie Vesco RIP | On the Verge - The Film They Tried to Ban | Singers Arrested Outside Arms Factory | Smash EDO Action Camp: Shut down the Brighton bomb builders | Lebanon War protesters - Not Guilty! | EDO CORP: 2006 Alternative Report | 2007 Is The Year To Shut EDO Down | EDO MBM Injunction crumbles | EDO MBM desperate to stop protests as resistance increases | Smash EDO Take On The Law | Harassment Law Used Against Anti-War Campaigners | Campaign to Smash Edo | Arms company shut down
Links: ITT's Hammertime demo page| Smash EDO |Target Brimar| Decommisioners
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Call for action against escalating house demolitions in Jordan Valley, Palestine
Brighton Jordan Valley Solidarity have called for international action to stop the house demolitions, harassment and attempted ethnic cleansing of Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley.
Within days of video footage being released showing Netanyahu's stated intentions to declare the entire Jordan Valley as a closed military area,the Israeli army destroyed 26 homes in the small village of Al Farisiya.
The call for action was launched in Brighton on Tuesday, with the establishment of a Palestine Solidarity Settlement in Waitrose. Brighton Jordan Valley Solidarity is calling on others to:
* Call local demonstrations against companies that sell Israeli produce, and Zionist organisations that support settlement expansion in the Jordan Valley
* Donate to the fund to rebuild the demolished houses (email brightontubas@gmail.com)
* Write to those responsible for the house demoitions
* Go to the Jordan Valley to support the local community
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SchNEWS 732: Getting Away With Murder
“After 16 months of waiting, to hear nothing is being done is a complete joke. Today they gave us no hope. This experience has broken our family apart. The DPP has told us there was an unlawful act, yet no charges are to be brought. This is no justice - everyone has failed us.” - Ian Tomlinson's son Paul King.
Ian Tomlinson, a 47 year old news-vendor was killed at the G20 protests in April 2009. His family have waited until now to find out what action the justice system was going to take. The Director of Public Prosecution Keir Starmer stated today (Thurs) that there would be no charges brought against any police officers involved in the death of Ian Tomlinson. This astonishingly bare faced whitewash prompted the director of INQUEST Deborah Coles to say “The eyes of the world will be looking on with incredulity as yet again a police officer is not facing any criminal charges after what is one of the most clear-cut and graphic examples of police violence that has led to death. This decision is a shameful indictment of the way police criminality is investigated and demonstrates a culture of impunity when police officers break the law. It follows a pattern of cases that reveal an unwillingness to treat deaths arising from the use of force by police as potential homicides”
Family Campaign Fighting Fund | Picket of DPP 30/7
Links: www.inquest.org.uk | www.iantomlinsonfamilycampaign.org.uk
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SchNEWS 729: They Think It's All Over ...ITT Is Now
The EDO Decommissioners have all walked free after unanimous acquittals following the three week trial which concluded on Friday (2nd July) at Hove Crown Court. What began as a trial of the Decommissioners effectively ended up with the Brighton arms manufacturer, and the war crimes of the Israeli state, in the dock. Is it all over for EDO/ITT in Brighton? It might be now...
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Hammer Time: The EDO Decommissioners go on trial
After a full year and a half of one defendant being on remand in prison, numerous pre-trial hearings and several last minute postponements, the EDO decommissioners’ court case is finally kicked off on Monday. With the first date taking place exactly a week after the murderous attack on the Gaza freedom flotilla, the world has, yet again, been reminded of Israel’s continuous war crimes and much is at stake. A callout for solidarity with the decommissioners during the trial has been issued. There will be an 'If I had a hammer' themed demo in support of the decommissioners outside EDO/ITT on Wednesday 9th June between 4 and 6pm - Bring rubber and inflatable hammers. The decommissioners will be arguing that their action was taken to prevent greater crimes.
The trial comes just a few days after 9 people who attempted to decommission Raytheon in Derry during Israel's 2009 assault on Gaza were acquitted by a jury (see Ireland Indymedia and here) .
A reminder of what happened: In the early hours of 17th January 2009, during Israel's 'Operation Cast Lead' offensive against Gaza, six people broke in to the EDO/ITT weapons' components factory in Moulsecoomb, Brighton, and, allegedly, caused hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage to the production line. (see youtube for the local paper's video of some of the damage)
The six decommissioners barricaded themselves inside, and proceeded to break computers and other equipment, with the aim of preventing the factory from being able to produce weapons. The action stopped production at the facility until Israel’s bombing campaign was over.
Original feature | UK Smash EDO Newswire Archive
Links: www.smashedo.org.uk | www.decommissioners.co.uk
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SchNEWS: Squaring Up To 'Em
This Saturday (15th) people will be protesting at various places around central London to give the new 'stable, national interest' coalition a warm welcome.
SchNEWS gives a round-up of all the events taking place over the weekend to get your action-hungry teeth stuck into.
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SchNEWS: A Smashing Defence
"I told many people in Gaza about the people's strike on EDO MBM... When I recounted this action to people, I saw an expression come over their faces that I hadn't encountered before when talking about international solidarity. It was a kind of respect, a sense of surprised pride at a tiny move towards a leveling between the blood sacrifices and living hell of so many here, and sacrifices made by people in comparative comfort zones on the other side of the world - for them" - Ewa Jasiewicz - human rights activist/journalist eyewitness to Operation Cast Lead
In the early hours of 17th January 2009, during Israel's 'Operation Cast Lead' offensive against Gaza, six people broke in to the EDO/ITT weapons' components factory in Moulsecoomb, Brighton, and caused hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage to the production line. (see SchNEWS 663 and also check out the local paper's video of some of the damage)
On the Newswire: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Indymedia EDO archive
In SchNEWS: 721 | 663
Links: smashedo.org.uk | decommissioners.co.uk
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SchNEWS: Gaza Defendants Hammered
The state has begun handing down vicious sentences to men accused of participation in the rioting in London that occurred during a protest against the Israeli attacks on Gaza (see SchNEWS 661-662). Ten young men have been jailed for their role in protests demanding an end to Israel’s invasion of Gaza early last year – and more are to follow in the coming weeks.
Links:
Indymedia coverage of the protests: Feature | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Recent Indymedia articles:: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
No More Isolation | Schnews 710
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Schnews: Haiti - The Aftershock Doctrine
As the rescue effort winds down and the body count piles up, SchNEWS takes a look at why this earthquake hit so many so hard, and how the international aid effort is being subverted by military and corporate power.
As Haiti’s total estimated dead hovers at around 200,000, the earthquake has hit the country so hard that it’s dropped a whole digit off its former population of 10 million. It’s almost a law of world injustice that the poorer the country, the more vague the body count.
Haiti is a unique place. The only nation to be founded by a slave rebellion, its angry population of African slaves managed to defeat the French back in 1791. Renamed as Haiti - the original Arawak name for the island - it was the Cuba of its day- an inspiration to enslaved peoples the world over and a thorn in the side of the imperial regimes.
Also in Schnews 706: MOBS AND COPPERS Smash EDO demo runs rampage - again | STOKING THE FIRES English Defence League counter demo on January 23rd | LANARKY IN THE U.K Mainshill site has pre-eviction gathering | GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN Anarcha-feminist gathering at Brighton's Cowley Club[Full Story | 11 comments ]