ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS VOW TO FIGHT INJUNCTION

On Thursday 24th March SMASH EDO, the defunct BOMBS OUT OF BRIGHTON and number of named individuals were served with a High Court summons under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 by solicitors representing EDO/MBM Technology Ltd a Brighton based arms manufacturer.

The proposed injunction will restrict protest outside the bomb manufacturer’s headquarters to two and a half hours on a Thursday, providing there are less than ten protestors and they make no amplified noise.

Nine individuals named on the injunction and one other representing the campaign are contesting both the evidence and the legal power of the injunction.

The defendants are seeking an adjournment as they have only had just under three weeks to examine evidence that it has taken EDO/MBM and their solicitors a year to accumulate. Despite this the evidence mainly consists of hearsay and spurious connections to the animal rights movement, which has been used to attack the campaign by selective release to sections of the press.

Lorna Marcham, one of those who will be contesting the injunction “This injunction coupled with a smear campaign is a clear attempt to restrict our right to freedom of speech and assembly. Surely the irony of a bomb-maker complaining about noise, harassment and
damage to buildings cannot be lost on anyone”.

Ceri Gibbons, spokesman for SMASH EDO: “This injunction is ridiculous. It effectively bans any peaceful anti-war protest outside EDO MBM other than for a minor exception which is granted under draconian conditions and threat of arrest and even prison if it is disobeyed. Meanwhile those it seeks to protect from so called 'harassment' are being allowed to develop technology that continues to be used in an illegal war and occupation of Iraq resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians. In contrast there has been no violence in over a year of this campaign by us towards any employee of EDO MBM."

The campaign is appealing for everyone in the wider peace movement as well as anyone who cares about freedom of speech to join them on:

WEDNESDAY 13TH APRIL 2005

2pm DEMONSTRATION FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND ASSEMBLY

OUTSIDE EDO/MBMs FACTORY ON HOME FARM ROAD,
BRIGHTON.

5.30pm SUPPORTERS RALLY: CHURCHILL SQUARE Brighton
Town centre

THURSDAY 14TH APRIL 2005

DAY OF HIGH COURT INJUNCTION HEARING

9:30 am RALLY AND PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE STEPS OF THE ROYAL COURTS OF JUSTICE , THE STRAND, LONDON. FURTHER PRESS CONFERENCE TO BE ANNOUNCED DEPENDING ON SITUATION

Notes for Journalists

Brighton & Hove is a UN Peace Messenger City

The injunction referred to was served under the 1997 Protection from Harassment Act (originally designed to protect women from stalkers) and is the first of its kind directed at activists outside of the animal rights movement. Crucially it is a civil injunction but carries criminal penalties. It affects anyone deemed to be a protestor. Initially EDO/MBM requested a large "exclusion zone" comprising the whole of Home Farm Industrial Estate.

They and Sussex police also wanted to limit demonstrations to two and a half hours, with less thanten people who had to be silent. Judge Gross refusedto impose these conditions at the initial hearing of an interim injunction, which was put in place in the period before the full trial to be heard at the High court in London from November 21st. In his summing up he said, "The right to freedom of _expression is jealously guarded in English law" and consequently refused to impose the requested limits on size, timing or noise made at demonstrations. He also said that he doubted that protesters were 'stalking' employees of EDO MBM.

EDO MBM Technologies Ltd are the sole UK subsidiary of huge U.S arms conglomerate EDO Corp, which was recently named No. 10 in the Forbes list of 100 fastest growing companies. They supply bomb release mechanisms to the US and UK armed forces amongstothers. They supply crucial components for Raytheon's Paveway guided bomb system, widely used in the "Shock and Awe" campaign in Iraq.

EDO also withdrew a threatened libel action against Indymedia over being named as "warmongers".

Lawson-Cruttenden & Co
Solicitors firm working for EDO have been instrumental in developing the Protection of Harassment Act 1997 from a measure designed to safeguard individuals to a corporate charter to make inconvenient protest illegal. Theyhave pioneered to use of injunctions to create large "exclusion zones". They have secured numerous injunctions against anti-vivisection and anti-GM protestors.

Campaign against EDO MBM
People involved in the anti-EDO campaign include, but are not limited to: local residents, the Brighton Quakers, peace activists, anti-capitalists, Palestine Solidarity groups, human rights groups, trade unionists, academics and students. The campaign started in August 2004 with a peace camp. It's avowed aim is to expose EDO MBM and their complicity in war crimes and to remove them from Brighton.

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