Names of Gaza Victims to be read Outside Brighton Bomb Factory Today

Local campaigners today will read out the names of the 1400 people killed
during the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in January this year

During January 2009 the Israeli army launched an attack on the civilian
population of Gaza. Over 1400 people were killed including over 300
children. EDO supply components to the Israeli army and were hence
complicit in this massacre.

On January 17th, exactly five months ago, during the bombing of Gaza, six
people broke into the EDO factory and damaged over £300 000 worth of
machinery to prevent the factory from supplying weapons to the Israeli
military.

Chloe Marsh, press spokesperson for the Smash EDO campaign said "EDO
MBM/ITT, and companies like them, enabled the Israeli army to carry out a
murderous attack on the people of Gaza.Today, five months after the
bombing, we will be reading out the names of all 1400 people who were
killed outside of the bomb factory to ensure that this war crime is not
forgotten.

for more info call 07754135290 or email  smashedopress@riseup.net

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 a 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.”