London 2011 Census Resistance Newswire Archive

21-03-2011 16:22

Disarm the Census

A report on London CAAT's protest about Lockheed Martin's role in the UK census

As part of Count Me Out's weekend of action against Lockheed Martin's deplorable involvement in the census, Saturday saw London CAAT members carry out a protest at Victoria station.

The protesters engaged with the public for nigh-on two hours and found a lot of sympathy for our cause (one passerby even said we were saving the world but I wouldn't go that far!). We handed out 400 leaflets as well as a number of stock letters that people could send to their MPs. The Guantanamo Bay-style costume attracted a lot of attention (Lockheed contracts out interrogation at Guantanamo Bay) and enabled us to inform the public why we were there.

£150m of taxpayers money has been given to the biggest arms company in the world (according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's latest list of top arms-producing companies) to help run the census. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for Britain's Trident nuclear weapons and also produces Joint Strike Fighters and F-16 fighters.

Another issue stems from the fact that they are an American company - under the US Patriot Act any personal data held by companies with systems in the US has to be made available to government intelligence, thus meaning our details could end up in the hands of the US government. Finally, our government does not have a good record of storing data securely.

For more information, visit the Count Me Out website at http://www.countmeout.me.uk. Here you can find a number of actions you can take regarding the census, from boycotting it entirely to spoiling your census paper as well as writing protest letters to your MP and the Office of National Statistics.

Also, the Peace News log has a piece on how to fill in your census form without Lockheed Martin profiting - http://www.peacenewslog.info/2011/03/how-to-fill-in-your-census-form-without-lockheed-martin-profiting-short-version/. And finally Indymedia has a supplementary page you can enclose with your form - http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2011/03//475485.pdf.

19-03-2011 16:22

Lockheed Martin and the 2011 UK census

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.

London 2011 Census Resistance Newswire Archive

21-03-2011 16:22

Disarm the Census

19-03-2011 16:22

Lockheed Martin and the 2011 UK census

Kollektives

London Topics

London IMC

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London 2011 Census Resistance Newswire Archive

21-03-2011 16:22

Disarm the Census

19-03-2011 16:22

Lockheed Martin and the 2011 UK census

Kollektives

London Topics

London IMC

Major Coverage

London links

London Links

UK IMCs

Other IMCs

Page 1 of 1 1

Page 1 of 1

1