smashEDO

10th August 2009

OPEN INVITATION TO PAUL HILLS TO SMASH EDO'S PUBLIC DEBATE: IS BREAKING THE LAW TO RESIST WAR CRIMES EVER JUSTIFIED?

For the attention of Paul Hills (Managing Director of EDO MBM), EDO MBM employees and the people of Brighton,

cc, The Argus

On Tuesday August 11th 2009 Smash EDO will be holding a public debate around the subject of direct action under the heading "Is breaking the Law to Resist War Crimes Ever Justified". As you are aware the campaign has, for the last five years, used all kinds of direct action to highlight EDO's involvement in world wide conflicts.

We say EDO produce weapons components used in Iraq and Afghanistan by the US and UK armed forces, and components, including those for the F16, supplied to Israel for crimes against the Palestinians.

Ever since the campaign started the representatives of EDO MBM, now ITT, have been completely non-transparent about the nature of their business. The company often claim that Smash EDO have got their facts wrong, yet they will not provide arguments to refute what we say. They have, time and again, refused to talk to us and have blocked Freedom Of Information requests relating to EDO's production activities. As a result we continue to rely on our own research -which we believe to be correct- and on direct action based protest.

EDO MBM/ITT directors have repeatedly denied manufacturing arms for Israel from the witness box in court. However it is extremely hard to believe these claims while the company is holding patents for two components for the Israeli F16.

On January 17th 6 people broke into EDO and caused hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage. They are arguing in their defence that they were acting to prevent EDO's supply of weapons to Israel. 1400 civilians had died in Gaza during January as a result of unprovoked Israeli bombardment, Israel's weapon of choice during that month was the F16.

We would like to open an avenue for communication by inviting Paul Hills, EDO MBM employees and any other interested individuals to an evening of debate around these issues. We would like to ask them: Was the decommissioning of EDO not justified in light of EDO's supply of weapons to Israel?

The debate will take place on TUESDAY AUGUST 11th at 7.30pm at the Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton.

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.”