JUDGEMENT DAY FOR THE SMASH EDO CAMPAIGN
Following an adjournment on Monday April 25th
defendants from the Brighton anti-war Smash Edo
campaign have been told that judgement on any interim
injunction against them under the 1997 Protection From
Harassment Act will be heard tomorrow Friday 29th April
at 2pm in the Royal Courts Of Justice, The Strand,
London.
Justice Gross will present his pre-trial judgement to
defendants who have been involved
in a year long campaign of peaceful protest outside
arms manufacturing company EDO MBM
Home Farm Road, Brighton. The company is the UK
business unit of EDO Corporation which is one of the
fastest growing companies in the U.S. It has profited
from lucrative Pentagon contracts due to the war in
Iraq, and is seeking to ban all protests outside its
factory other than for a couple of hours on a Thursday
afternoon under thereat of arrest and five years
imprisonment if such restrictions are defied.
The court was told on Monday that any interim
injunction would be a draconian breach of civil
liberties for an unlimited number of people. An
interim injunction would end their right to
protest before the matter has even come to full trial.
Activists have vowed to fight the injunction because
it breaches their statutory right of freedom of
expression under the European Convention On Human
Rights and would collectively punish anyone who
wanted to protest outside EDOs factory in Brighton.
Mark Thomas, who came to a demonstration at EDO MBM
last week and who has attended the high court in
support of the defendants said,
‘What we are fighting for here is the right
to protest. The type of protest and demonstrations we
can and can't do
must not be defined by the company we are opposing. In
the faux
war against terror the real enemies are the enemies of
liberty.’
Ceri Gibbons, who is was not originally named on the
injunction, but has volunteered to be a defendant as
just one of those who will be affected by its
blanket definition of 'protestor' said,
“The definition of 'protestor' in the proposed
injunction is so broad it covers anyone who disagrees
with the arms trade or the war in Iraq or who might do
so in the future.
It is obscene that a corporation that makes weapons
that supply an illegal war in Iraq
And the Israeli Defence Forces should be allowed to
criminalize our protest against them.
Where is the injunctive relief for the people of Iraq
and Palestine?”
Chris Osmond, a named defendant who is representing
himself in court said,
‘The real issue here is that innocent civilians
in Iraq and elsewhere are being killed by weapons
components made by this company and the people of
Brighton
are being silenced’.
The campaign is appealing for anyone who cares about
freedom of speech to join them on:
Friday 29th April at 2pm
The Royal Courts Of Justice
The Strand London
http://www.smashedo.org.uk Press Inquiries: Andrew 0787 5708873
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Notes for Journalists
Brighton&Hove is a UN Peace Messenger City.
The summons followed the acquittal of three activists
accused of aggravated trespass on EDO’s premises.
EDO also recently withdrew a threatened libel action
against Indymedia over being named as “warmongers”.
It is believed that the injunction served under the
1997 Protection from Harassment Act (originally
designed to protect women from stalkers) is the first
of its kind directed at activists outside of the
animal rights movement.
If granted it would create an “exclusion zone”
outside of EDO’s premises on Home Farm Industrial
Estate as well as banning any protests outside homes
of directors and employees of the company. The company
will allow protests to take place on Thursday
afternoons for two hours provided those protesting
number no more than ten and are silent.
EDO MBM Technologies Ltd are the sole UK subsidiary of
huge U.S arms conglomerate EDO Corp, which was
recently named No. 10 in the Forbes list of 100
fastest growing companies. They supply bomb release
mechanisms to the US and UK armed forces amongst
others. They supply crucial components for Raytheon’s
Paveway IV guided bomb system, widely used in the
“Shock and Awe” campaign in Iraq. The bomb is little
different to those dropped on Coventry by the Nazis.
They are a wholly owned subsidiary of EDO Corp, a
US-based arms multinational that is currently number
10 on the Forbes 100 list of fastest growing
companies.
Lawson-Cruttenden & Co, a solicitors firm have been
instrumental in the development of the Protection of
Harassment Act 1997 from a measure designed to
safeguard individuals to a corporate charter to make
inconvenient protest illegal. They have pioneered to
use of injunctions to create large “exclusion zones”.
They have secured numerous injunctions against
anti-vivisection and anti-GM protestors.
The Campaign against EDO MBM, People involved in the
anti-EDO campaign include, but are not limited to:
local residents, the Brighton Quakers, peace
activists, anti-capitalists, Palestine Solidarity
groups, human rights groups, trade unionists,
academics and students.
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