PROTESTER ARRESTED FOR PLAYING WALTZING MATILDA
21ST AUGUST 2007
Press Contact Andrew Beckett or Chloe Marsh
For more details tel. 07875 708873 or 07754 135290
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The police used a local by-law designed to quieten noisy traders and buskers to seize the sound system and arrest Glenn Williams, a fifty year old protester, during the playback of ‘The Band played Waltzing Matilda’ a protest song about the horrors of the First World War.
Campaigners are calling on Brighton and Hove Council to step in and restrict police use of council byelaws. Chloe Marsh said “Sussex Police are manipulating a byelaw to hinder lawful protest. Brighton and Hove Council never intended for this byelaw to restrict freedom of expression. Articles 10 and 11 of the Human Rights Act protect the right to assemble and protest, these cannot be overriden by council byelaws.”
Police have used local byelaws for over a year now against anti-arms trade protesters. Five arrests have been made under them, including three for karaoke singing and one for playing an acoustic guitar, equipment has been seized and a protest camp evicted.
Glenn Williams, who regularly attends protests at EDO said “I've been bailed not to go to Home Farm Road. So I'm devastated that after going to protests almost every week for over four years I now have been arrested and will possibly be jailed just for playing protest songs. Does Brighton Council really want to suppress free speech so much?".
Notes for Journalists
The Company
EDO MBM Technologies Ltd are the sole UK subsidiary of huge U.S weapons manufacturer EDO Corp.From their base in Moulescoombe Brighton, EDO MBM manufacture vital parts for the Hellfire and Paveway weapons systems,laserguided missilesused extensively in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Somalia. EDO Corp were recently acquired by ITT in multi-billion pound deal. ITT's links to fascism go back to the 1930s. The founder Sosthenes Behn was the first foreign businessman received by Hitler after his seizure of power.
The Campaign
There has been active campaign against the presence o f EDO MBM in Brighton since the outbreak of the Iraq war.Campaigners include students, Quakers ,Palestine solidarity activists, anti-capitalists and academics. Despite an injunction under the protection of harassment act (which failed) and over forty arrests the campaign is still going strong.Their avowed aim is to expose EDO MBM and their complicity in war crimes and to remove them from Brighton. They hold regular weekly demos outside the Moulescoombe factory on Wednesday's between 4 and 6.
THE FILM
On the Verge is an independent film about the SMASH EDO Campaign
“In 2004 a group of Brighton peace campaigners began to bang pot and pans outside their local arms manufacturers EDO MBM in disgust of their part in the Iraq war. This has grown into the Smash EDO campaign, which has cost the company millions, been the subject of large scale police operations and has tested the right to protest in the UK.Using activist, police and CCTV footage plus interviews with those involved in the campaign, 'On The Verge' tells the story of one of the most persistent and imaginative campaigns to emerge out of the UK's anti-war movement and direct action scene.”
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
offending lyrics
21.08.2008 09:46
WALTZING MATILDA
When I was a young man I carried my pack
And I lived the free life of a rover
From the Murrays green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over
Then in nineteen fifteen my country said Son
It's time to stop rambling 'cause there's work to be done
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they sent me away to the war
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we sailed away from the quay
And amidst all the tears and the shouts and the cheers
We sailed off to Gallipoli
How well I remember that terrible day
How the blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
Johnny Turk he was ready, he primed himself well
He chased us with bullets, he rained us with shells
And in five minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia
But the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we stopped to bury our slain
We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then we started all over again
Now those that were left, well we tried to survive
In a mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
But around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over tit
And when I woke up in my hospital bed
And saw what it had done, I wished I was dead
Never knew there were worse things than dying
For no more I'll go waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and near
For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs two legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me
So they collected the cripples, the wounded, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where my legs used to be
And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As they carried us down the gangway
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
Then turned all their faces away
And now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
And I watch my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reliving old dreams of past glory
And the old men march slowly, all bent, stiff and sore
The forgotten heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask, "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question
And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men answer to the call
But year after year their numbers get fewer
Some day no one will march there at all
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me
And their ghosts may be heard as you pass the Billabong
Who'll come-a-waltzing Matilda with me?
Eric Bogle
Just Dan
Marjorie Roswell
eric bogle
A tip
21.08.2008 12:43
I've been bailed several times and each time I've refused the police bail conditions and forced it to go to a magistrate. There I have usually had far less severe bail conditions imposed.
Refuse Police Bail if you don't like the conditions.
Bail
Waltzing Matilda
16.11.2008 23:32
I prefer this version of the song by the Pogues.
Let me know what you think..?
Brendan
Brendan McCready
e-mail:
brendan.mccready@ntlworld.com
I know something you dont
24.11.2008 22:34
The hostility levels of (some) protesters in this film are astronomical - review it and check.
Proposal: singer go back to the site you are banned from and do something more proactive than to protest (imagination needed for this).
L Hoppstubbe Mor
Les Hoppstubbe Mor