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Arms Dealers forced to Break in to their own Factory

Smashy Doh! | 21.09.2006 14:17 | Lebanon War 2006 | Anti-militarism | South Coast

EDO-MBM suffered major disruption for the third time in three months when activists completely blocakaded all entrances to Brighton’s bomb factory.

The workers began arriving at around 6am. By 7.30 there were over 100 workers with their cars outside the factory. They were met by protesters who used megaphones to make the workers listen to details of the carnage that their weapons wrought in Gaza, Lebanon and Iraq.

Later that morning the protesters bore witness to the surreal sight of the managing director, Paul Hills, having to climb the fence of the factory in order to get inside. He then returned brandishing an angle grinder, which he instructed an employee to use to cut a hole in the company’s own fence through which employees were eventually able to get inside the factory.

The factory was completely blockaded from 6am to 9.30am, stopping production for several hours. Having achieved this aim, the blockaders decided to unlock themselves before the police intervened. There were no arrests.

The protest is continuing outside the factory, which supplies weapons components to the USA and Israel. Spokesperson Andrew Becket said “Yesterday was UN Peace Day. These protests highlight the hypocrisy of a United Nations Peace Messenger City that is involved in the production of weapons that have been used to kill more than 1000 people in Lebanon and over 100,000 people in Iraq. It’s time that we live up to our city’s title and kick this deadly factory out of Brighton.”

Last Saturday hundreds of protesters marched aginst EDO MBM, despite police repression, to deliver a petition to Brighton and Hove Council calling on them to condemn EDO. Smash EDO have been holding noise protests outside the factory once a week for three years. Since the bombing of Lebanon began Smash EDO have hit back at the war profiteers with two blockades, a rooftop occupation and regular telephone blockades of the factory.

The campaign will continue until EDO shuts down or ceases production of military technology.

Smashy Doh!
- e-mail: smashedo@hotmail.com
- Homepage: http://www.smashedo.org.uk

Additions

Photos

21.09.2006 14:44


Lock ons at EDO gates
Lock ons at EDO gates

E.D.O M. D. Paul Hills
E.D.O M. D. Paul Hills

...be for or against \\ but you can't do shit if you ridin' the fence.
...be for or against \\ but you can't do shit if you ridin' the fence.

Cutting the fence
Cutting the fence

driving through said fence
driving through said fence

-

Smashy Do


and EDO share price drops again

21.09.2006 18:56

This brilliant story didn't get much press apart from indymedia UK, and just in case EDO pumped out press releases of new contracts today to try and counteract any bad media.

But nevertheless EDO's share price appears again to have dropped at about the same time the Indymedia Uk story was posted.

 http://finance.google.com/finance?q=EDO

x


SchMOVIE

22.09.2006 10:36

There's a little video on SchMovies, with a longer one promised once soon.

 http://www.schnews.org.uk/schmovies/

Eric


Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

Hahahahahaha!

21.09.2006 14:46

Well done again!

Weapons Inspector


Did get some press...

21.09.2006 21:39

was covered by two tv stations, we did two live radio interviews and local newspaper coverage...

smashy


to clarify

22.09.2006 07:59


the point of the comment was that even though the story was only carried yesterday across the net *internationally* by IMC UK ,the share price still appeared to drop at the time the story was posted.

It looks like EDO tried to counteract bad press by releasing news of a new contract on the same day. Such news would normally make the stock go up, but most likely because of the protest this failed to work.

Its unlikely that international investors were watching BBC South local news before deciding to sell. The Argus article didn't come out till today.

Here it is...

 http://www.theargus.co.uk/display.var.933667.0.campaigners_get_stuck_in_at_arms_protest.php

x


Shareholder address (8+%) of EDO Corp

22.09.2006 10:14

London
Corporate, Global Markets & Investment Banking Group, Global Private Client
Merrill Lynch Financial Centre
2 King Edward Street
London, EC1A 1HQ
Tel:+44-20-7628-1000

London
Merrill Lynch Investment Managers
33 King William Street
London, EC4R 9AS
Tel:+44-20-7743-3000

info