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Smash EDO's Big Day Out - High Court Report

Timothy Lawson-Cruttenden, your honour - see Open Publishing! | 14.04.2005 21:13 | Anti-militarism | Repression | London | South Coast

Smash EDO and 10 individuals were in the High Court, London today to resist the injunction being sought by corporate war whores EDO MBM*.

Following the 70-strong noise demo at EDO's factory yestarday and later march round Brighton in defence of the right to protest, the case was predictably adjourned but unexpectedly WITHOUT any restrictions on freedom to protest in the form of an interim injunction - another small vitory following the granting of legal aid on appeal.

The defendants will return to the High Court on friday week (22nd April) to further contest attempts for an interim injunction - ie. an injunction without a proper trial with virtually nil burden of proof. The outcome's hard to call but since EDO's case rely's on what harrassment they fear *might* happen in the future, there aren't really any grounds for such a 'preemptive' or even 'preventative' attack on liberty.

One supporter was randomly arrested by the met police during a brief photo op outside the court. The reason was completely unclear, but the irony was the banners were about defending the right to protest! The saga continues . . .

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* The proposed injunction would apply to ANYONE aware of it who does anything prohibted by it, namely; enter the 'exclusion zone' around EDO's factory, (including Home Farm road and parts of the Wild Park) or the (unknown) adreses of its 160 employees, park within 1/2 mile of EDO (includes university), demonstrate in numbers larger than 10 at any other time than for 2 hours on a Thursday, make any 'artificial' or 'amplified' noise or play musical instruments during protests. This effectively amounts to a private corporation buying its own private martial laws enforcable by the police.

Timothy Lawson-Cruttenden, your honour - see Open Publishing!
- Homepage: http://www.smashedo.bpec.org

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

just to clarify

15.04.2005 08:00

Under the proposed injunctiion, NO protest would be allowed except at the set time and restricted location (a grass verge 1 metre from a 40ft drop!) on Thuirsdys - any other protest could land you in prison! Thats why we have to fight this . . .

whatever you like


can the protests continue?

15.04.2005 10:25

im not sure if i understand this correctly but does this mean the noise protests can continue?

el gormo


no noise

15.04.2005 16:34

The proposed injunction would ban 'artificial noise', 'anything to amplify sound' and 'musical instruments' and limit protests to 10 people for 2 1/2 hours on Thursdays (the company works a 4 1/2 day week so this would probably mean standing in silence outside an empty building! So basically, the injunction would kill noise demos an much else.

Silent free speach, nice one EDO!

TLC