EDO Warmongers Face Brighton City Council Vote of Censure

Today at 3pm inside Hove Town Hall, Brighton and Hove City Council will vote on a resolution saying EDO MBM are not welcome in the city.

In the light of continuing anti-EDO protests in Brighton, two people remanded to Lewes Prison and the fact that Brighton and Hove is a 'UN Peace Messenger City' certain Green and Labour councillors are pushing for the resolution today.

Democracy or cynical attempt to safeguard UN PMC funding for another year? Whatever it is, once again EDO face a PR problem.

Of course the arms industry are the most corrupt bunch out there when it comes to bribery and 'inducements' so its quite possible that councillors will get a hefty bonus for voting against this resolution, and maybe a free guided tour of USAF Eglin Airforce Base.

UK arms trade corruption reports can be found on the CAAT website.Worth a read.
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Yesterday coverage in Brighton corporate daily The Argus
'Arms Company Face Censure'

http://www.theargus.co.uk/the_argus/archive/2005/07/19/NEWS50ZM.html

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smashnika

Comments

Hide the following 11 comments

B & H council meeting

21.07.2005 13:07

apparently the meeting is at 4.30 at Hove Town Hall but at 3 concerned citizens will be lobbying councillors.
Jaya got out y'day and is in good spirits after a week banged up.

peace not greedo

This seems a success, not a problem

21.07.2005 13:10

Getting a motion put forward at your local council condemning EDO is quite an achievement for your campaign. So why are you seeing it as a 'PR problem'?

Of course politicians will have their reasons (sometime more in tune with local feeling than activists, to be brutally frank) for opposing arms factories and the like. Their motives are unlikely to be based on a wish to live in a non-hierarchical anarchist society. They may even be cynical.

But why condemn people moving towards you because of your excellent campaign instead of welcoming the move? If you build on things like this council debate - and the inevitable press coverage that will allow thousands of new people to read about EDO - you could get massive local support in a town like Brighton.

Some activists don't want to build campaigns that get too widespread support because they no longer control them and people from different backgrounds get involved. Wanting to be right all the time is very different from wanting to win.

I hope smashEDO want to win. A mixture of protests, legal battles, smart lobbying, research and locally-focussed campaigning can work wonders.

All the best with the council vote and the rest of the campaign.

whatever

Try again...

21.07.2005 15:11

Hmmm...Try reading the posting again- it actually says EDO (who are the arms manufacturers) have a PR problem, not the anti-EDO campaign...

Result?

22.07.2005 10:06

what was the result at the Council yesterday? any news?

Anonymous

RESULT!

22.07.2005 12:27

75% voted against the motion / support.

a home goal i guess.

itchy fitchy

Not correct

22.07.2005 12:47

That's not quite correct. An amendment was passed due to council worries that the litigous company in question might take legal action against the council. The amendment was passed but the motion was carried. It was only just over half who voted for the ammendment and the main motion was passed pretty unanimously.

What this means is that nearly half the councillors in B&H do not approve of weapons manufacture in this city as they rejected the amendment which removed most of the references to Edo and the fact that the war is illegal.

Disappointing but a good result nonetheless. In 6 months time we might be luckier as it was all rushed through yesterday after a long session.

Each time they bang someone up their support weakens!

Ken Badfish

Something smells fishy ....must be bad!

22.07.2005 22:23

More likely that an amendment was passed because, like you lot, the council didn't have the full facts, and unlike you lot didn't want to make complete a-holes of themselves.

I notice the word 'citizens' being used more and more by the acteeevissst clan. Perhaps you should start behaving like citizens.

Rare Damsel

Pray Damsel, informeth uth pleath.

22.07.2005 22:54

How doth a citizen behaveth?

Me thinks you doth think that a citizen should shut-up whilst the deaths of wee babes for profit be enabled.

Me thinketh too that citizen doth many meanings have - and hardly any doth match thy thoughts on the matter in hand.

Furthermore, me thinketh that once thy shyster lawyer hath had his pound of flesh, that the faire councillors, the illustrious press barons and many peoples besides shall know far more of the enterprises deadly dealings. Oh yeth indeedy.

And that this shalle assist with hastening the speedy departure of thy murderous enterprise from our city, that shall yet a Peace Messanger City be.

I bid thee farewell.

Sir William of Wildparke

What's wrong

24.07.2005 12:29

with selling arms? When the US and UK sell arms to other countries, there is no obligation on those countries to use them to kill people. Are you suggesting that that the UK shouldn't sell arms so that other people don't have the capability to wage war? That sounds a bit paternalistic to me, even imperialistic. To suggest that the purchasers of these arms are not to be trusted to use them properly could be interpreted as an attitude of cultural superiority, and in some cases racism.

peter

Peter the Grate

24.07.2005 20:13

I've finally seen the truth. I now realise far from being a peaceful person of conscience, I'm a racist, imperialistic, culturaly superior bigot. Suppose it makes a change from being seen as a violent, stalking, trouble making vandal who if not protesting might be mugging old ladies in the street whilst high on heroin having blown all my dole money.

It seems too many arms dealers (with or without anagrams) spend more time than is healthy for them on this site. Nice for one of them to finally admit they sell them to anyone who wants them as they are all so into equality.

Roland Bolan

Glad to have been of assistance Roland

25.07.2005 19:17

By the way I'm not an arms dealer, but if you know of any vacancies let me know. I've heard it's a lucrative business to be in. There are so many people around the world who want to shoot or bomb each other that it should be a job for life. Give the people what they want I say.

Peter