ITT/EDO MBM Decommissioned in Solidarity with Gaza
On Saturday morning, activists entered EDO MBM and barricaded themselves inside the factory. The protestors then proceeded to decommission EDO by causing extensive damage to offices and to equipment used to make arms, including the ‘zero retention force arming units’ and ‘ejector release unit 151′ which are supplied to the Israeli Air Force. Over £250,000 worth of property damage was incurred, whilst the monetary repercussions to EDO through cancelled contracts and paying employees will clearly dent the already declining financial status of the company.
Shortly following the arrest of the activists, a video was released on Indymedia, showing the protestors providing justification for their actions. One protestor stated ‘I don’t feel that I’m actually going to do anything illegal tonight, but I am going to go into an arms factory and smash it up to the best of my ability, so that it cannot actually work or produce weapons or munitions… We have laws in this country, specifically Section 3.1 of Criminal Law Act 1967 which says to the best of my knowledge that I am allowed to decommission an infrastructure if they are committing greater crimes.’
Although not involved in the action, Chloe Marsh, spokesperson for the Smash EDO campaign commented: ‘The citizens of Britain are no longer prepared to stand idly by whilst Israel commits genocide with the backing of our own government and arms industries. This is a peace messenger city, ITT/EDO MBM is an obscenity that must be removed from Brighton and the directors of this foul company ought to be tried for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.’
On Monday 19th, three activists were remanded in prison, whilst the rest were bailed to immediately leave the Brighton & Hove area and not to return except for court appearances or pre-arranged solicitor appointments. Since, another activist has been bailed with similar conditions. They have been charged with burglary and criminal damage and could face upwards of 5 years in prison.
Smash EDO resolves that it will not stop until this factory is closed down, and continues to call for mass action against ITT/EDO MBM and other arms dealers complicit in war crimes.
For information on ITT/EDO MBM see previous article.
To make a donation to support legal defence, please visit the Smash EDO website.
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