Support the Decommissioners Week of Action - 16th -26th October
The decommisioners are six Palestine Solidarity activists on trial
for direct action taken against the massacre in Gaza
Events are planned in the week beginning 16th October in London,
Brighton, Manchester and Bristol including:
EDO Decommissioners Week of Action
Sat 17th – Target Brimar, Manchester - National launch
demonstration
for campaign targeting Brimar, manufacturer of military parts used in
Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan. Also in solidarity with the EDO
Decommissioners.
Meeting point grassy traffic island by the Gardener’s Arms pub,
junction of B6393 (Lightbowne Rd) and A6104 (Victoria Avenue East)For
more information see:
http://www.targetbrimar.org.uk/ Monday October 19th - Rally outside Brighton Town Hall calling on
Brighton and Hove Council to condemn EDO.
Wednesday October 21st – Prison Picket 6pm till 9pm, Horfield
Prison, Cambridge Road, Bristol. Calling for a Free Elijah Smith – an
end to British involvement with the so called ‘war on terror’ and an
immediate arms embargo with Israel.
Thursday October 22nd - Rally outside the Foreign Office, London
demanding an end of arms exports to Israel. Handing in of the
new
decommissioners petition. Sign it here
http://www.petitiononline.com/decom1/petition.htmlFor more information on the week of action see:
http://decommissioners.co.uk/2009/09/16/october-16th-26th-support-the-decommissioners-week-of-events/Please support the 'Support the Decommissioners' petition urging the
British government to end arms exports to Israel.. To sign the
petition click
If you are a Brighton and Hove resident sign this pettion to Brighton
and Hove Council
Who are the Decommissioners:
“If the law and the police can’t do anything about it it’s about time
somebody else did”
– The EDO Decommissioners
On January the 17th 2009 the bombs had already
fallen relentlessly on
Gaza for three weeks. Massive, passionate demonstrations and pickets
had been held in many cities around the country and the world in
protest against Israel’s war crimes. However, a growing sense of
helplessness was grabbing hold of the movement as the Palestinian body
count stood at 1400 and counting. 300 of the dead were children. This
was the night of the “citizen’s decommissioning” of the weapons
manufacturer EDO MBM/ITT in Moulsecoomb, Brighton.
Just after midnight Elijah Smith, Tom Woodhead, Robert Nicholls,
Ornella Sabiene, Robert Alford and Harvey Tadman and broke into
EDO’spremises with the aim to, in Elijah Smith’s words, “...smash it
up to the best of
abilities”. It was an entirely accountable action where each
decommissioner had pre-recorded a video in which they stated the
reasons for their participation – to help dismantle the war machine
from
the factory floor (to view their video statements go to
http://www.youtube <
http://www.youtube/>
.com/watchv=mfa8R2AxUFg&feature=related). Once inside the building,
they barricaded themselves in and set to work; Equipment used
to make weapon components - including some used in Israeli F16
fighter jets - were trashed whilst computers, filing cabinets and
office furnishings were thrown out of the windows. Once they were done
they calmly waited for the police to arrest them. Three bystanders
were also arrested on the day and are now implicated in the
decommissioners’ court case.
According to EDO £300,000 worth of damage was caused and Detective
Chief Inspector Graham Pratt was quoted in the Guardian as saying:
“Windows had been smashed and offices turned over in what I would
describe as wanton
vandalism, but with machinery and equipment so
targeted that it could have been done with a view of bringing business
to a standstill”. He was of course misguided. Far from being an action
of “wanton vandalism”, it was a thought through act of resistance
against what could only be described as a massacre
going on in Gaza. However, the second part of his statement was
rightly observed: the decommissioning prevented the manufacturing side
of EDO from working for several weeks, hence slowing down the
murderous war machine they are a part of.
One of the decommissioners, Elijah Smith, is still remanded. A ten
week
court case was scheduled to start in the last week of October 2009.
It has now been scheduled to begin on May 17th 2010. The defendants
will argue that they were entitled to decommission EDO because the
factory was complicit in war crimes.
Click here -
http://fs08n2.sendspace.com/dl/b394d9a68c6d6154a3e4bb1b0d5ed990/4ad58bfe4f7c9c17/wnrj55/decommissioners-booklet-web-version.pdf - to download 'If I had a Hammer', a 32 page booklet explaining why
the decommissioning was necessary.
Email
smashedo@... <mailto:
smashedo@...>
to order copies of 'If I Had a Hammer' and 'Support the
Decommissioners' T-Shirts and Hoodies.
Download the 'Support the Decommissioners' flyer, please print out
and hand out in your area -
front -
http://www.smashedo.org.uk/resources/Support%20the%20Decommisioners.pdfback -
http://www.smashedo.org.uk/resources/Support%20the%20Decommisioners.pdfFor more info see www.smashedo.org.uk <
http://www.smashedo.org.uk/>
and
http://decommissioners.co.uk/One decommisioner is still on remand: Elijah Smith, XP 7551, HMP
Lewes, Brighton Road, Lewes, BN7 1EA. Letters of support are always
appreciated. If you want to support financially postal orders can be
made out to HM Prison Service with prisoner number and your name and
address or make a donation to the campaign at
http://www.smashedo.org.uk/donate.htm. Please tag donations as ‘prisoner support’,
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