In the wake of a its citizens' weapons inspection and successful launch
demonstration, the Target Brimar campaign has called a public meeting at
the Friends Meeting House, Mount St, Manchester at 7.30pm on Monday 2nd
November. We want to gauge the support in Manchester for an ongoing
campaign to put pressure on this manufacturer of military components used
by Israel in Palestine, by the US and British armies in Iraq and by NATO
in Afghanistan. For more information on the campaign, see
http://www.targetbrimar.org.uk
demonstration, the Target Brimar campaign has called a public meeting at
the Friends Meeting House, Mount St, Manchester at 7.30pm on Monday 2nd
November. We want to gauge the support in Manchester for an ongoing
campaign to put pressure on this manufacturer of military components used
by Israel in Palestine, by the US and British armies in Iraq and by NATO
in Afghanistan. For more information on the campaign, see
http://www.targetbrimar.org.uk
Where next for Target Brimar?
We believe we should build a strong anti-war movement that can
successfully challenge war-making and the militarism that underlies it.
This anti-war movement must be democratic, non-hierarchical and
grassroots. It must be based in local and community action. We need to
create a culture of permanent resistance to the 'permanent war'.
We must organise in our localities. Local organising must be about more
than demonstrations in town centres. The war machine is spread throughout
the country – bases, depots, factories, offices, transportation,
recruitment and so on. We must seek to apply pressure to vulnerable parts
of the machine – at places we can have an impact.
Arms companies can be accessible targets for anti-war campaigners. They
are civilian enterprises, in contrast to the many state and military
institutions that are part of the military industrial complex. The workers
at these companies are not barracked away from the community like soldiers
and also the workers have not sworn allegiances to the State/Queen. The
companies are accessible because they are not guarded by soldiers and do
not enjoy special legislation restricting the right to protest.
Campaigning against a local arms company provides a focus for resisting
foreign wars. Most arms companies are not exclusively supplying the UK or
the US. They are usually supplying other aggressive and repressive regimes
around the world. A lot of activity around the Smash EDO campaign in
Brighton has been focused on Israel's actions in Gaza.
Campaigning against a local arms company is the “green” way to resist war.
When the military -industrial complex surrounds us there is little need
for us to consume vast amounts of oil in travelling to London for yet
another demonstration. This is not to say that big demos do not have a
place in anti-war activity but rather they should be the exception, not
the norm. Furthermore, campaigning against the military machine is
actually an environmental action - the US military, for example, is the
biggest single pollution source in the world.
Campaigning against a local arms company provides a focus for local and
community action. This focus is something that diverse groups and
individuals can coalesce around. Campaigning against a local arms company
opens debate about what kind of society and economy we want on a local
scale (as well as regional and global). It also challenges popular
conceptions of capitalism, democracy and globalisation.
Day to day activity builds and strengthens resistance – it is in working
together that we come to know and respect each other.
'If you go to one demonstration and then go home, that's something, but
the people in power can live with that. What they can't live with is
sustained pressure that keeps building, organisations that keep doing
things, people that keep learning lessons from the last time and doing it
better the next time.'
Noam Chomsky
What's Next for Target Brimar?
We hope that this demo will be the start of a sustained campaign which
would involve many different groups and individuals in Greater Manchester
and beyond, using the various tactics that these differing groups have as
their strengths. We not only want to be able to put pressure on Brimar to
cease its military business, but to build our own strengths and unity as a
community of anti-war activists in the area.
Manchester has a wide body of people active on social justice, peace and
environmental issues, but we rarely come together to use our combined
strengths. There has been the lack of a sustained campaign, where people
can build up skills, get to know each other, feel strong and actually win.
In view of the facts that:
- the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are unethical, illegal, and responsible
for thousands of civilian deaths
- the wars can only be perpetrated with the participation of the military
industrial complex
- the weapons used are being made on our doorsteps
- a small handful of people are making millions from this bloody industry
- the single biggest source of pollution is the military- an M1A1 Abrams
tank (in which Brimar's display systems are used) uses 5 gallons of fuel
per mile
We believe that this issue could unite us.
We'd love to see, for example, Quakers doing silent vigils, left-wingers
and unionists doing pickets and marches, environmental direct action
activists doing blockades, CND organising petitions, and importantly,
everyone supporting and learning from each other.
We can win this one, if there is the will to do it from the Greater
Manchester community of activists.
On Friday 6th November there is an international day of action against
Depleted Uranium, and members of CADU and Target Brimar will be
demonstrating outside Brimar (whose display systems are used in DU
weaponry) contact info [at] targetbrimar.org.uk, or info [at] cadu.org.uk
for more info.
We believe we should build a strong anti-war movement that can
successfully challenge war-making and the militarism that underlies it.
This anti-war movement must be democratic, non-hierarchical and
grassroots. It must be based in local and community action. We need to
create a culture of permanent resistance to the 'permanent war'.
We must organise in our localities. Local organising must be about more
than demonstrations in town centres. The war machine is spread throughout
the country – bases, depots, factories, offices, transportation,
recruitment and so on. We must seek to apply pressure to vulnerable parts
of the machine – at places we can have an impact.
Arms companies can be accessible targets for anti-war campaigners. They
are civilian enterprises, in contrast to the many state and military
institutions that are part of the military industrial complex. The workers
at these companies are not barracked away from the community like soldiers
and also the workers have not sworn allegiances to the State/Queen. The
companies are accessible because they are not guarded by soldiers and do
not enjoy special legislation restricting the right to protest.
Campaigning against a local arms company provides a focus for resisting
foreign wars. Most arms companies are not exclusively supplying the UK or
the US. They are usually supplying other aggressive and repressive regimes
around the world. A lot of activity around the Smash EDO campaign in
Brighton has been focused on Israel's actions in Gaza.
Campaigning against a local arms company is the “green” way to resist war.
When the military -industrial complex surrounds us there is little need
for us to consume vast amounts of oil in travelling to London for yet
another demonstration. This is not to say that big demos do not have a
place in anti-war activity but rather they should be the exception, not
the norm. Furthermore, campaigning against the military machine is
actually an environmental action - the US military, for example, is the
biggest single pollution source in the world.
Campaigning against a local arms company provides a focus for local and
community action. This focus is something that diverse groups and
individuals can coalesce around. Campaigning against a local arms company
opens debate about what kind of society and economy we want on a local
scale (as well as regional and global). It also challenges popular
conceptions of capitalism, democracy and globalisation.
Day to day activity builds and strengthens resistance – it is in working
together that we come to know and respect each other.
'If you go to one demonstration and then go home, that's something, but
the people in power can live with that. What they can't live with is
sustained pressure that keeps building, organisations that keep doing
things, people that keep learning lessons from the last time and doing it
better the next time.'
Noam Chomsky
What's Next for Target Brimar?
We hope that this demo will be the start of a sustained campaign which
would involve many different groups and individuals in Greater Manchester
and beyond, using the various tactics that these differing groups have as
their strengths. We not only want to be able to put pressure on Brimar to
cease its military business, but to build our own strengths and unity as a
community of anti-war activists in the area.
Manchester has a wide body of people active on social justice, peace and
environmental issues, but we rarely come together to use our combined
strengths. There has been the lack of a sustained campaign, where people
can build up skills, get to know each other, feel strong and actually win.
In view of the facts that:
- the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are unethical, illegal, and responsible
for thousands of civilian deaths
- the wars can only be perpetrated with the participation of the military
industrial complex
- the weapons used are being made on our doorsteps
- a small handful of people are making millions from this bloody industry
- the single biggest source of pollution is the military- an M1A1 Abrams
tank (in which Brimar's display systems are used) uses 5 gallons of fuel
per mile
We believe that this issue could unite us.
We'd love to see, for example, Quakers doing silent vigils, left-wingers
and unionists doing pickets and marches, environmental direct action
activists doing blockades, CND organising petitions, and importantly,
everyone supporting and learning from each other.
We can win this one, if there is the will to do it from the Greater
Manchester community of activists.
On Friday 6th November there is an international day of action against
Depleted Uranium, and members of CADU and Target Brimar will be
demonstrating outside Brimar (whose display systems are used in DU
weaponry) contact info [at] targetbrimar.org.uk, or info [at] cadu.org.uk
for more info.
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