HOME | IMC UK | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

SouthCoast Indymedia

Brighton City Council Intervene To Stop Illegal Eviction Of Peace Camp

ab | 16.08.2005 23:21 | Anti-militarism | Free Spaces | Repression | South Coast

In which Sussex Police outdo themselves by exposing their
cosy relationship with corporate bomb makers EDO MBM and the
shamefaced city council actually help Smash EDO to go on protesting by stopping the illegal eviction of the peace camp.

Another interesting day in Brighton.


SMASH EDO

PRESS RELEASE

 http://www.smashdo.org.uk
WEDNESDAY 17th AUGUST 2005. 00:01 (BRIGHTON)
EMBARGO: Immediate Release
CONTACT: Andrew OR Sarah 07875 708873
 smashedopress@yahoo.co.uk


CITY COUNCIL INTERVENES TO STOP ILLEGAL EVICTION OF
PEACE CAMP.

On Tuesday 16th August at around 4pm the Smash EDO
Peace Camp based in Wild Park behind the arms factory
EDO MBM, was the subject of a threatening police
operation that was only stopped at the last minute by
the intervention of the city council.

While a police helicopter hovered above at least ten
officers including dogs commanded by a police
seargent, informed the protesters they had five
minutes to leave because they were in breach of a
council bylaw prohibiting the camp. A council park
ranger who supported their statement accompanied the
police. The police were also accompanied by the
director of Guardian Guards Ltd who is responsible
for EDO’s security.

Realising that five minutes would not be enough to
move the whole camp the police decided to give the
protesters till 6PM to leave with all their
belongings. Anything left behind after that time would
be confiscated by the police, the protesters were
told.

The protesters contacted local councilors who, after
checking between themselves and council park managers,
discovered that no council authority had been given
to evict the camp.

One camper said. ‘When we told them this the police
were dismissive. They refused to speak to any
councilors on the phone. The park ranger was told to
turn off his mobile phone by director of Guardian
Guards, which he then did even though he doesn’t work
for the company, but for the council who were very
likely trying to call him at that moment. I think this
was so he would not get any calls from the council
asking him what was going on. This whole event
coincided with our planned demonstration outside the
EDO factory so we were prevented from going to the
demonstration while we had to deal with it. ’

More phone calls between councilors and police led to
the arrival of a higher ranking officer and the mood
changed from outright police aggression to a statement
by the police that they had only come to ‘suggest it
might be a good idea to leave’.

Eventually the commanding officer spoke to a
councilor on the protesters phone and agreed not to
evict the camp.

Smash EDO Press spokesperson Andrew Beckett said,’

After the council’s shameful climb-down amendment of the
UN Peace Message motion in last months full council
meeting, (in which they censored any criticism of
Edo’s presence in the city without even debating the
motion) it is encouraging that they have stepped in
and stopped this outright illegal eviction from taking
place. But disturbing questions remain unanswered. Who
ordered this eviction? Why did Sussex Police believe
they had the authority to attempt it? Why was EDO
MBM’s private security guard included in the operation
when he has no responsibility for council land? Why
did the park ranger follow the orders of EDO’s
security guard and turn off his phone?’

Despite the disruption campers plan to continue their
week of action. Wednesday 17th August is devoted to
the victims of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

At 12 Noon outside the factory the Brighton Palestine
Quilt will be unveiled outside EDO MBM. The quilt has
taken months to make and has included the work of a
large number of individuals from several voluntary
groups within the city. Its aim is to draw attention
to the continuing suffering of the Palestinian people
living under the illegal brutal and racist Israeli
occupation.

Between 4-6pm a demonstration will hear the names of
civilian victims of the occupation (mostly children)
killed since the Al Aqua antiradar began.

EDO MBM make the VER-2 and VER-4 bomb release unit
used by Israeli F16s to bomb civilian areas of
Palestine in documented breaches of the 4th Geneva
Convention. The protesters say Edo’s employees are
liable to prosecution as aiders and abettors of war
crimes under the International Criminal Court Act.
Brighton Police Supt Kevin Moore has refused to investigate the
allegations.



---------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------
SMASH EDO WEEK OF ACTION
PROGRAMME OF EVENTS



DATE: Wed 17th August
EVENT: Palestine Day of Action
TIME: 12 NOON: Unveiling of the Quilt For Palestine
VENUE: EDO MBM, Home Farm Road, Brighton

TIME: 4 - 6 pm: A demonstration to remember
the Palestinian victims of EDO MBM’s products
VENUE: EDO MBM, Home Farm Road, Brighton

DATE: Thu 18th August
TIME: · 4 - 6pm: Noise Demo
VENUE: EDO MBM, Home Farm Road, Brighton

TIME: 7pm: Peace Camp Party
VENUE: The Prince Albert, Trafalgar Street, Brighton

DATE: Fri 19th August
EVENT: Noise Demo
TIME: 11 - 1 pm: Noise Demo
VENUE: EDO MBM, Home Farm Road, Brighton

==========================================
Notes for Journalists

Brighton & Hove is a UN Peace Messenger City.

The injunction referred to be served under the 1997
Protection from Harassment Act (originally designed to
protect women from stalkers) and is the first of its
kind directed at activists outside of the animal
rights movement. Crucially it is a civil injunction
but carries criminal penalties. It affects anyone
deemed to be a protestor.

Initially EDO/MBM requested a large “exclusion zone”
comprising the whole of Home Farm Industrial Estate.
They and Sussex police also wanted to limit
demonstrations to two and a half hours, with less than
ten people who had to be silent. Judge Gross refused
to impose these conditions at the initial hearing of
an interim injunction, which was put in place in the
period before the full trial to be heard at the High
court in London from November 21st.

In his summing up he said, “The right to freedom of
_expression is jealously guarded in English law” and
consequently refused to impose the requested limits on
size, timing or noise made at demonstrations.

He also said that he doubted that protesters were
'stalking' employees of EDO MBM.

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.

EDO also recently
withdrew a threatened libel action against Indymedia
over being named as “warmongers”.

Lawson-Cruttenden & Co, a solicitors firm working for
EDO have been instrumental in developing 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.

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.
The campaign started in August 2004 with a peace camp.
It’s avowed aim is to expose EDO MBM and their
complicity in war crimes and to remove them from
Brighton.





________________________________________

ab

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

Private Police Forces?

17.08.2005 06:46

Is it my imagination or has there been an increase in the use of Private Police Forces in public places recently? At a Council event in a public park In the London borough of Lewisham recently, security guards were doing a pat-down searches of everyone entering the park.

Doug.


that maybe true but..

17.08.2005 13:35

what appears to have happened in wild park brighton was that the police acted as a private police force for EDO and not for the council who own the park. EDO have no authority to get a park ranger and a police team including a helicopter and a FIT team to arrest or eveict anyone in the park, but somehow they almost pulled it off yesterday.




]


Police denial

17.08.2005 21:22

I heard today on Southern FM that the police have denied that they were there to evict the camp. They claim they came to check the site fulfilled health and safety requirements or some such bollocks.

R. Littlejohn


Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

-->

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

South Coast [navigation.actions2016]

South Coast [navigation.actions2015]

South Coast [navigation.actions2014]

NATO 2014

South Coast Actions 2013

G8 2013

South Coast Actions 2012

Workfare

South Coast Actions 2011

2011 Census Resistance
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Occupy Everywhere

South Coast Actions 2010

Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands

South Coast Actions 2009

COP15 Climate Summit 2009
G20 London Summit
Guantánamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
University Occupations for Gaza

South Coast Actions 2008

2008 Days Of Action For Autonomous Spaces
Campaign against Carmel-Agrexco
Climate Camp 2008
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Smash EDO
Stop Sequani Animal Testing
Stop the BNP's Red White and Blue festival

South Coast Actions 2007

Climate Camp 2007
DSEi 2007
G8 Germany 2007
Mayday 2007
No Border Camp 2007

South Coast Actions 2006

April 2006 No Borders Days of Action
Art and Activism Caravan 2006
Climate Camp 2006
Faslane
French CPE uprising 2006
G8 Russia 2006
Lebanon War 2006
March 18 Anti War Protest
Mayday 2006
Oaxaca Uprising
Refugee Week 2006
Rossport Solidarity
SOCPA
Transnational Day of Action Against Migration Controls
WSF 2006

South Coast Actions 2005

DSEi 2005
G8 2005
WTO Hong Kong 2005

South Coast Actions 2004

European Social Forum
FBI Server Seizure
May Day 2004
Venezuela

South Coast Actions 2003

Bush 2003
DSEi 2003
Evian G8
May Day 2003
No War F15
Saloniki Prisoner Support
Thessaloniki EU
WSIS 2003

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech