ABOUT
Who are EDO/ITT?
The EDO factory on Home Farm Road in Brighton has been part of ITT Corporation (www.itt.com), since December 2007.
Before ITT took over the factory was known as EDO MBM, a trading unit of the EDO Corporation, another US company which acquired EDO MBM in 2003 and was bought by ITT in 2007. Prior to that the factory was owned by the Emblem Group, a British company.
ITT
stands for International Telegraph and Telecom. The company was
established in 1920 and diversified to weapons production in the 1930s
when it acquired the German Focke-Wulf company who were a manufacturer
of aircraft for the Nazi Luftwaffe. It is now the 19th largest defence
manufacturer in the world.
EDO's military products include
bomb racks, release clips and arming mechanisms for warplanes. They
have contracts with the UK Ministry of 'Defence' and US arms giant
Raytheon relating to the release mechanisms of the Paveway bomb system.
EDO
MBM's supply of weapons systems for the illegal aggression and
subesquent war crimes committed in Iraq makes their directors war
criminals. International law is very clear on this point, in the 1947
trial of Bruno Tesch, a German industrialist, the court acted:
"on
the principle that any civilian who is an accessory to a violation of
the laws and customs of war is himself also liable as a war criminal".
Tesch
was convicted even though he did not supply products for specifically
criminal purpose, because he carried on supplying them when he became
aware they were being used to commit atrocities. Release mechanisms may
not be as 'glamourous' as warheads, but they are just as crucial to the
committing of the atrocities in Iraq. Dave Jones, EDO MBM's Managing
Director has said under oath that he is "fully aware" of what his
products are used for.
We have read out testimonies from the
survivors of the Fallujah massacre over a megaphone outside EDO. We
have read out the names of the dead in Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and
Palestine. We have shown pictures of those killed or wounded by the
bombing campaign. We have directed their attention to the report in the
Lancet which estimates over a million people have been killed during
the US/UK occupation of Iraq and the UN's Goldstone report which
catalogue's war crimes in Gaza. Yet EDO continues its complicity...
Who are Smash EDO?
We are residents of Brighton who marched against the war. We were sickened
to learn that a company in our home town was not only profiting from,
but making possible the illegal and immoral slaughter in Iraq. Smash
EDO is a grassroots response to EDO's complicity in murderous crimes -
a banner under which people opposed to those crimes can rally.
Campaigners
have been calling for the closure of EDO MBM/ITT since 2004. The
campaign was kickstarted with a roof occupation and lock-on at the
factory in May 2004 and demonstrations have taken place every week
since then. Several protest camps have been held outside the factory
and recent mass demonstrations at the factory have attracted thousands
of people, for example at last years Mayday demonstration.
"No government's condemnation of terrorism is credible if it cannot show itself to be open to change by nonviolent dissent”
- Arundhati Roy
As
the UK government blindly follows the US regime, citizens of the UK
have a special responsibility to prevent crimes around the world being
committed in our name, with our taxes, with weapons built in our
communities.
"Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience imposed by the individual State”
- Nuremburg War Crimes Tribunal
EDO
are running scared - spending tens of thousands of pounds trying to
silence us in the courts. EDO claim their weapons defend democracy -
yet a High Court Judge threw out most of their proposed injunction as
too draconian, commenting that "freedom of expression is a right
jealously guarded in English law".
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
- Mohandas Gandhi
History
teaches us that when ordinary people stand up together for their
beliefs, nothing can stand in their way. That is what democracy is
about; ordinary people making decisions...
EDO have ignored us, then laughed at us and now in desparation they are fighting us - but we will win!
