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Entrance to Arms Manufacturer Blocked by Newcastle Activists

newcastle against the arms trade | 22.01.2009 10:47 | Smash EDO | Anti-militarism | Palestine

A group of activists from Newcastle locked themselves in a human chain blocking the entrance to BAE systems on Scotswood Rd early this morning in protest at the company's supplying of weapons used in the Gaza conflict and in atrocities across the world.



close call!!!
close call!!!



This morning at 7:30 am, a group of local activists blocked the entrance to BAE Systems, in protest against the role of the company in manufacturing weapons and components for the arms trade. BAE, which is based on Scotswood Road in Newcastle Upon Tyne, makes tanks, planes and hundreds of other weapons. It is also playing a crucial role in the current humanitarian crisis in Palestine – this British company supplies parts for the F-16 bombers that are currently being used by the Israeli army to bomb Gaza. As has been widely reported by the media in recent weeks, Israel’s campaign of attacks has consistently targeted civilians, including UN shelter sites.

BAE Systems makes more than £1 million per day from arms manufacturing. While some may argue that this is good for the British economy, the arms industry is in fact heavily subsidised by the British government. This company makes huge profits from supplying the weapons of war all over the world.

This morning, 6 Newcastle-based protesters decided to expose the fact that killing machines are being made in our neighbourhood. 5 protesters lay in front of the main gates in a ‘die-in’ protest, surrounded by ‘blood money’ to represent the incredible ill-gotten gains of BAE Systems. They used arm locks to ensure that they could not be easily moved on by police, and blocked the entrance for more than an hour.

The police were called immediately but the protest continued peacefully and there were no arrests, and although a the driver large truck trying to enter the site did threaten the activists, other staff were supportive.

The activists wanted to draw attention to the British companies who work comfortably in factories such as this, miles away from the atrocities of war, their wallets getting fatter every time another bomb is dropped. They call for an end to the cynical trading of arms and profiteering from death and destruction.

The companies that engage in this murderous business must be closed down in Newcastle, Brighton, where EDO was smashed last weekend, and wherever they leave their dirty finger prints.

newcastle against the arms trade

Comments

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Article with smaller pics

22.01.2009 11:30

link below

Newcastle Against the Arms Trade
- Homepage: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/01/419750.html

Great stuff!

22.01.2009 11:40

Thanks for making the effort and taking the trouble!

Thank you!

"Exterminate all the Brutes"

22.01.2009 12:23

Prof. Noam Chomsky argues:

"Israel is deliberately turning itself into perhaps the most hated country in the world, and is also losing the allegiance of the population of the West, including younger American Jews, who are unlikely to tolerate its persistent shocking crimes for long. Decades ago, I wrote that those who call themselves "supporters of Israel" are in reality supporters of its moral degeneration and probable ultimate destruction. Regrettably, that judgment looks more and more plausible.

"Meanwhile we are quietly observing a rare event in history, what the late Israeli sociologist Baruch Kimmerling called "politicide," the murder of a nation -- at our hands."

But why should it be a bad thing that a State is hated? All states should be hated because they use violence to maintain inequality between workers and employers. Israel also maintains it's racist "law of return" which denies Palestinian refugees their right to return and seeks to address it's "demographic problem" by regular ethnic cleansing.

Actions against the military industrial complex should be supported by everyone who would benefit from an equal society. The workers inside BAE have the lever of production in their hands. Armstrong works has a history of impressive strikes. We could be working on machines to help people, not to bomb schools.

@nti Zionist
- Homepage: http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20090119.htm

solidarity

22.01.2009 12:33

SOLIDARITY TO THE COMRADES .........KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK ......we cant win without direct action

aaa

Chomsky on Gaza

22.01.2009 12:39

Prof. Noam Chomsky argues:

"Israel is deliberately turning itself into perhaps the most hated country in the world, and is also losing the allegiance of the population of the West, including younger American Jews, who are unlikely to tolerate its persistent shocking crimes for long. Decades ago, I wrote that those who call themselves "supporters of Israel" are in reality supporters of its moral degeneration and probable ultimate destruction. Regrettably, that judgment looks more and more plausible.

"Meanwhile we are quietly observing a rare event in history, what the late Israeli sociologist Baruch Kimmerling called "politicide," the murder of a nation -- at our hands."

But why should it be a bad thing that a State is hated? All states should be hated because they use violence to maintain inequality between workers and employers. Israel also maintains it's racist "law of return" which denies Palestinian refugees their right to return and seeks to address it's "demographic problem" by regular ethnic cleansing.

Actions against the military industrial complex should be supported by everyone who would benefit from an equal society. The workers inside BAE have the lever of production in their hands. Armstrong works has a history of impressive strikes. We could be working on machines to help people, not to bomb schools.

@
- Homepage: http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20090119.htm

Solidarity

22.01.2009 12:49

Actions against the military industrial complex should be supported by everyone who would benefit from an equal society. The workers inside BAE have the lever of production in their hands. Armstrong works has a history of impressive strikes. We could be working on machines to help people, not to bomb schools.

Prof. Noam Chomsky argues:

"Israel is deliberately turning itself into perhaps the most hated country in the world, and is also losing the allegiance of the population of the West, including younger American Jews, who are unlikely to tolerate its persistent shocking crimes for long. Decades ago, I wrote that those who call themselves "supporters of Israel" are in reality supporters of its moral degeneration and probable ultimate destruction. Regrettably, that judgment looks more and more plausible.

"Meanwhile we are quietly observing a rare event in history, what the late Israeli sociologist Baruch Kimmerling called "politicide," the murder of a nation -- at our hands."

But why should it be a bad thing that a State is hated? All states should be hated because they use violence to maintain inequality between workers and employers. Israel also maintains it's racist "law of return" which denies Palestinian refugees their right to return and seeks to address it's "demographic problem" by regular ethnic cleansing.





@
- Homepage: http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20090119.htm

re: "Exterminate all the Brutes"

22.01.2009 17:14

"Exterminate all the Brutes" - don't know who you mean, it's not something quoted from any text you've posted, so it sounds well dodgy. Explain yourself, or, er, don't (& we'll think the worst)!

bab

"Exterminate all the Brutes" is the title of Chomsky's latest article.

26.01.2009 13:09

Chomsky explains:

"When Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006, Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz explained in the liberal online journal Huffington Post that all Lebanese are legitimate targets of Israeli violence. Lebanon's citizens are "paying the price" for supporting "terrorism" -- that is, for supporting resistance to Israel's invasion. Accordingly, Lebanese civilians are no more immune to attack than Austrians who supported the Nazis... In a video on the Jerusalem Post website, Dershowitz went on to ridicule talk of excessive kill ratios of Palestinians to Israelis: it should be increased to 1000-to-one, he said, or even 1000-to-zero, meaning the brutes should be completely exterminated. Of course, he is referring to "terrorists," a broad category that includes the victims of Israeli power, since "Israel never targets civilians," he emphatically declared. It follows that Palestinians, Lebanese, Tunisians, in fact anyone who gets in the way of the ruthless armies of the Holy State is a terrorist, or an accidental victim of their just crimes."

@