During the massacre in Gaza in January this year, the Green Party attempted to table a motion condemning the activities of EDO MBM/ITT in Brighton at the full Council meeting. The motion was refused a hearing by the city Council convenor. The Smash EDO campaign has collected hundreds of signatures of Brighton residents to demand that a new motion condemning EDO should be discussed and on December 10th, at the full council meeting, Ben Duncan intends to present the petition.

View Petition, signatures and comments here -  http://www.petitiononline.com/edoitt2/petition.html

A leaked document from the Green Party (see  http://88.80.16.63/leak/uk-greens-brighton-edo-2009.jpg) reveals that the reason given for blocking the original motion was that ‘the issue is not directly related to Brighton and has no bearing on the well being of the city’. Ryan Bridgewater, local resident disagrees. He writes: “I was born in Brighton and still live locally. The arms factory IS of concern to Brightonians, as has been demonstrated by the wave of protests attended by hundreds of local people.”

On the evening of the council's refusal to table the motion six people broke in to the EDO factory in solidarity with the people of Gaza, who were being bombed with the aid of Brighton manufactured EDO components. In an attempt to ‘decommission’ the weapons they caused up to £300,000 worth of damage to the machinery aiding this atrocity.

Chloe Marsh from the Smash EDO campaign says “We hope that this petition will persuade Brighton and Hove Council to table this motion in January, one year after dialogue about the factory was originally prevented”

Naomi Riches, a local resident, submitted this comment to the petition: "Residents of Brighton are all affected by war crimes in the Middle East - we are shocked and horrified to see the human suffering they cause, and we feel more vulnerable to acts of retaliation in our own country. Brighton is known as a vibrant, forward-thinking place - we should ban this weapons factory from operating here."

Ends

Notes for Editors

EDO MBM, based in Moulsecoomb, is a weapons manufacturer owned by the American multi-national ITT. They make weapon components for the Paveway guided bomb programme, which was the most used aerial weapon in the attack on Iraq. They also own the patents of the Zero Retention Force Arming Unit and the Ejector Release Unit ERU 151, both essential components for the F16 aircraft’s VER-2 bomb rack, used by the Israeli Air Force against civilians in Gaza.

Since 2004 there has been a growing campaign against EDO MBM in Brighton. Campaigners have used diverse tactics to highlight and resist this murderous business in our city. There have been blockades, rooftop occupations, street theatre and hundreds of noise demos outside the factory. Thousands of people have also taken to the streets against them during nationally advertised events.

Contact: Andrew Beckett or Chloe Marsh, Smash EDO campaign
Tel: 07754135290 E-mail:  smashedopress@riseup.net Website:
www.smashedo.org.uk