Demonstration against Lockheed Martin and 2011 UK census processing

 

A small demonstration was held outside Victoria station to raise awareness of the fact that the government has paid Lockheed Martin £150m of public money to help run the 2011 census. London, UK, 19/03/2011.

According to information compiled by 'Count me Out', (a collective taking action against the 2011 census as a result of the ties with Lockheed Martin UK) the government awarded the World's second biggest arms company a £150m contract to help run the data processing for the 2011 UK census.

Count me out take the view that "Our government shouldn't be paying an arms company, which fuels conflict and war, huge amounts of money to help run the census."

The company used to have offices in Victoria but they were recently moved to an unknown location.

Perhaps best know in the UK for producing Britain's Trident nuclear weapons, they have also sold weapons to Bahrain which have been used recently against anti-government protesters in line with sweeping protests across the Middle-East.

The census is undertaken by the government every 10 years and is a method of counting people and households in the UK. Under UK law, every household is obliged to fill in the relevant information which can be done online, by post or collected by census agents.

Census day for this year is March 27th.