Latest news from campaign to Shut Down Heckler & Koch.

H&K on TV.  H&K arms Bahrain.  Come to one-off extra picket 26th Sept.

The episode 5 of satirical BBC TV programme The Revolution Will Be Televised has correspondent "Dale Maily" doing a report on arms dealers.  In it visits a Heckler & Koch stand at an arms fair and takes the piss out of the salesmen there.

The programme will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer until October 3rd.  The arms trade bit starts at 9 minutes, 44 seconds into the programme.  See http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01mxryr/?t=9m44s

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Heckler & Koch and two arms companies in Nottinghamshire / Lincolnshire applied to export weapons to Bahrain just before the regime began its brutal suppression of democracy protests.

H&K, as well as Primetake in Lincolnshire, and Extreme Performance, which has sites in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, applied in 2009-10 to export weapons to Bahrain that fall into one of these categories: small arms, artillery, mortars, smoke and gas projectors, and ammunition. You can see the exact location of Primetake and Extreme Performance on CAAT's new map of the arms trade, published last month: http://www.caat.org.uk/resources/mapping/organisation/2668
http://www.caat.org.uk/resources/mapping/organisation/6741

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights reports that since protests began in 2011, over eighty people have been killed as a result of aggressive and violent security tactics, which includes the use of small arms and an unprecedented weaponisation of teargas. Thousands of people have been arrested and tortured.

Although it is often difficult to tie UK weapons exports to specific examples of where they have been used, the fact that our local company exported small arms to Bahrain in 2009-10 is extremely significant. CAAT has contacted them to rule out that their export was to an individual or for sporting use. These companies have not ruled out that they were in fact arming the authoritarian regime, which turned its weapons on civilians.

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Wednesday 26th. September at 08.30, there will be a one-off extra picket to leaflet people attending the following event being held at the church next door to H & K, a church that is well-informed of the nature of their neighbours business but chooses to ignore it. We leave you to ponder why.
 
Good Health in Hard Times?
Wednesday 26 September 2012, 9.15 am – 3.30 pm. Trent Vineyard, Lenton
Lane, Nottingham NG7 2PX
As economic austerity increases, this ‘Communities for Health’ Conference will pose the question ‘Is it possible to have good health in hard times?’
The programme for the day will soon be finalised and you can book early by
going to http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/communitiesforhealth.
There will be spaces at the event for projects wishing to share their good
practice on the day. For more information, please contact
healthandwellbeing@nottinghamcity.gov.uk.

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Our regular pickets continue at 4pm on the second Monday every month.  We are not going away.  Please join us.