This is a letter to the directors of ITT from residents of Brighton over the proposed merger of ITT Corp with EDO Corp.
On Tuesday 18th December the sale of EDO Corp to ITT will be approved by a shareholder vote. If the sale goes ahead ITT will take ownershp of all EDO Corp's assets, including EDO MBM in Brighton. Residents of Brighton have been involved in trying to shut down EDO MBM for four years, we will not tolerate an arms company profiting from the illlegal war in Iraq in our city.
We urge the directors of ITT to discontinue business at EDO MBM's sites at Home Farm Road, Brighton, and Mill Road, Fishersgate.
Since 2004 EDO MBM has been the subject of hundreds of demonstrations, acts of sabotage, blockades preventing deliveries to its factories and demonstrations at the homes of its Managing Directors. EDO has received public condemnation from sections of Brighton and Hove Council and been the subject of hundreds strong marches through Brighton city centre. Its closure has been a major subject in local election campaigns. EDO MBM has spent millions of pounds attempting to stop protests outside its factories and has failed, In 2005 the directors of EDO MBM attempted to have a High Court civil injunction imposed on protesters at its Home Farm Road site, the protesters fought the injunction and won. The campaign against EDO MBM is growing and will not stop until EDO MBM has closed down.
If ITT takes over EDO MBM's business in Brighton the direct action will continue, not only against EDO MBM but also against ITT elsewhere in the UK. Again, we urge you not to continue the manufacture of weapons in Brighton. We would remind you that the lease on EDO MBM's Home Farm Road allows you to move from the site soon without incurring costs, it would be prudent to do so.
On Tuesday 18th December the sale of EDO Corp to ITT will be approved by a shareholder vote. If the sale goes ahead ITT will take ownershp of all EDO Corp's assets, including EDO MBM in Brighton. Residents of Brighton have been involved in trying to shut down EDO MBM for four years, we will not tolerate an arms company profiting from the illlegal war in Iraq in our city.
We urge the directors of ITT to discontinue business at EDO MBM's sites at Home Farm Road, Brighton, and Mill Road, Fishersgate.
Since 2004 EDO MBM has been the subject of hundreds of demonstrations, acts of sabotage, blockades preventing deliveries to its factories and demonstrations at the homes of its Managing Directors. EDO has received public condemnation from sections of Brighton and Hove Council and been the subject of hundreds strong marches through Brighton city centre. Its closure has been a major subject in local election campaigns. EDO MBM has spent millions of pounds attempting to stop protests outside its factories and has failed, In 2005 the directors of EDO MBM attempted to have a High Court civil injunction imposed on protesters at its Home Farm Road site, the protesters fought the injunction and won. The campaign against EDO MBM is growing and will not stop until EDO MBM has closed down.
If ITT takes over EDO MBM's business in Brighton the direct action will continue, not only against EDO MBM but also against ITT elsewhere in the UK. Again, we urge you not to continue the manufacture of weapons in Brighton. We would remind you that the lease on EDO MBM's Home Farm Road allows you to move from the site soon without incurring costs, it would be prudent to do so.
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White House Tape on the ITT-Chile papers 1972
23.12.2007 19:11
In this White House tape, President Nixon is recorded on March 23, 1972, speaking by phone to his White House press secretary, Ron Zeigler about damage control efforts on the first major covert operations scandal of the 1970s-the ITT papers on Chile.
Zeigler reports on a State Department press conference held earlier in the afternoon. He tells the president that the key issue was an ITT memo that stated that in the fall of 1970, U.S. Ambassador Edward Korry had received a "green light" from the White House to "do everything short of a Dominican Republic-type action" to stop Allende.
Nixon demands to know how that leaked out, and then emphatically states that Korry "was instructed" to do that. The President then scapegoats the Ambassador for failing to carry out those instructions ('the son of a bitch let him get in').
Numerous declassified records make it clear that Nixon and Kissinger explicitly ordered the CIA not to inform Ambassador Korry of their efforts to instigate a military coup to keep Allende from assuming office.
ITT and Chile
Homepage:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB110/index.htm
ITT: Engineering for Death
23.12.2007 19:35
Despite its size, ITT hasn't exactly imprinted itself on the conscience of the American consumer.
To change this situation, the company announced in September 1998 its plans to spend $16 million on an advertising campaign featuring the tagline "Engineering for Life."
Designed to counter similar, brand-building moves by competitors Raytheon and United Technologies, the campaign will promote the ITT brand through broadcast, Internet, and print advertising.
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ITT urge USG to intervene in 1970 Chilean election-declassified CIA memo
23.12.2007 20:40
research
more on ITT and Chile
23.12.2007 21:08
The most recent and blatant example of this power was reflected in ITT's relations with Chile. In 1970 ITT's board of directors concluded that Salvador Allende would be elected President of Chile. Allende was campaigning on a platform calling for the expropriation of American businesses, including ITT.
ITT tried to get the CIA to support Allende's right-wing opponent with ITT funds and offered to pay the CIA $1 million to prevent the Chilean Congress from confirming Allende after he was elected.
In October, 1971, after Allende nationalized ITT's 70% interest in the Chilean Telephone Company (Chiltelco), ITT proposed an 18-point action plan to the U.S. Government to strangle Chile's economy, create panic among its population, and cause social disorder, so the Chilean armed forces would overthrow Allende.
Three months later President Nixon created a special inter-agency group to implement ITT's proposal, and the National Security Council's 40 Committee approved a plan to overthrow Allende. ITT directors John A. McCone, former head of the CIA, and Eugene R. Black, former head of the World Bank, were instrumental in getting the U.S. to approve ITT's plan.
Funding for the covert actions was channeled through the CIA, and the World Bank was one of the 1st financial institutions to cut off credit to Chile.
...
Greg Palast on US Ambassador Korry and ITT
23.12.2007 21:29
The State Department pulled Korry out of Santiago in October 1971. On his return to the US, he advised the government's Overseas Private Investment Corporation to deny Anaconda Copper and ITT compensation for their seized property. Korry argued that, like someone who burns down their own home, ITT could not claim against insurance for an expropriation the company had itself provoked by violating Chilean law.
Confidentially, he recommended criminal charges against ITT's top brass, including, implicitly, chief executive Harold Geneen, for falsifying the insurance claims and lying to Congress.
Given powerful evidence against the companies, OPIC at first refused them compensation, and the Justice Department indicted two mid-level ITT operatives for perjury. But ultimately, the companies received their money and the executives went free on the grounds that they were working with the full co-operation of the CIA - and higher...
IN FULL
gp
Some honesty finaly
24.12.2007 07:35
A first step in the revolution perhaps ?
Please do explain how this is a good idea
at last the truth
thousands of working class people?
31.12.2007 16:51
how many working class people have they helped murder over the years?
a lot more than 200
get your priorities straight pal
get you head out of your work at any cost arsehole.
a