Brighton 18/01/10 Remember Gaza.Smash EDO mass demo

[Bitter Ashes]

http://www.smashedo.org.uk/remember-gaza.htm

iIn Brighton EDO MBM/ITT manufacture some of the weapons components that devastated so many lives. All over the world thousands of people watched appalled at the carnage on the streets of Gaza. Thousands marched and raged at the destruction of peoples' homes and lives. On January 18th 2010, the anniversary of the final day of Operation Cast Lead, we will come together to remember the people of Gaza. We will not allow those who supported their pain and profited from their suffering to go unchallenged. We will not let this genocide be forgotten. On the first anniversary after their deaths, we will rise up. We will take to the streets. We will remember...
Assemble at 1pm, wear black...
More details, including the meeting place, will be published here closer to the date.
How to find out the Meeting Point for the Demo
We will not be making the meeting point for the demo known until shortly before the demonstration. Watch this space to find out the meeting place. Alternatively you can sign up fto receive a text when the location is announced - email your phone number to [email protected] or text your number to 07538093930
Accommodation and Transport
If you are organising regional transport to Brighton - or looking for it - likewise if you can offer accommodation or are needing it for the demo, call 07538093930 or email [email protected]
Local contacts
get in touch with a local contact in your area to get hold of flyers, posters, find people from your area going to 'Remember Gaza' and find transport:
Cornwall - [email protected]
Hastings - [email protected]
Greater Manchester - [email protected]
Bath - [email protected]
Swansea - [email protected]
Cambridge - (gandhi_hands[email protected])[email protected]
Bristol - [email protected]
Oxford - [email protected] ([email protected])
London - [email protected]

[Pogue]

That was quite jokes last time, although I think the campaign was a dead end, we had a fun day by the seaside running through the backstreets, I'd reccomend it for the fun if nothing else. Maybe it'd be more wortwhile this time if the mistakes of last time are learnt from.

[bricolage]

Hmmm, it was fun but might have been more counterproductive than anything else, the police were sneaky and didn't try and kettle or anything so it just got reduced to some shit like 'blac blocers crushing babies at bus stops'. Things like this can have a point but when you get nowhere near to the factory and just piss off some locals I do wonder whether it was worth it at all. Gaza, quite rightly, a very emotive subject for many people and if the same thing happens in Brighton and the focus gets shifted from remembering, and challenging, Israeli atrocities to protest that appears to have focus then I think it would be a shame. Not that I don't think people should go to this, I think they should and I definitely think people should showing solidarity with Elijah Smith (send him a letter if you haven't already) and if this goes well it would be very impressive, there is just a possibility it won't. You are right though there are lessons to be learnt, like better affinity group organisation, organisation between affinity groups, common aims, actually knowing where you are going! and making sure if you have to turn around you don't get to stuck with people who have no idea where they are going at the front! I suppose though these are lessons to be learnt for any such demo.

Also there is going to be something happening in Nottingham that day if people can't make it down to Brighton.

[Pogue]

Hmmm, it was fun but might have been more counterproductive than anything else, the police were sneaky and didn't try and kettle or anything so it just got reduced to some shit like 'blac blocers crushing babies at bus stops'. Things like this can have a point but when you get nowhere near to the factory and just piss off some locals I do wonder whether it was worth it at all. Gaza, quite rightly, a very emotive subject for many people and if the same thing happens in Brighton and the focus gets shifted from remembering, and challenging, Israeli atrocities to protest that appears to have focus then I think it would be a shame. Not that I don't think people should go to this, I think they should and I definitely think people should showing solidarity with Elijah Smith (send him a letter if you haven't already) and if this goes well it would be very impressive, there is just a possibility it won't. You are right though there are lessons to be learnt, like better affinity group organisation, organisation between affinity groups, common aims, actually knowing where you are going! and making sure if you have to turn around you don't get to stuck with people who have no idea where they are going at the front! I suppose though these are lessons to be learnt for any such demo.

Also there is going to be something happening in Nottingham that day if people can't make it down to Brighton.

Yeh it lacked aim and was probably counter-productive but it was quite fun still. I don't really care about the campaign that much (we could protest agaisnt every single company in the world, couldn't we), it was just a laugh.

It would eb cool if we could really get things going over the war but I don't think we will 'smash EDO'.

[nuisance]

Yeh it lacked aim and was probably counter-productive but it was quite fun still. I don't really care about the campaign that much (we could protest agaisnt every single company in the world, couldn't we), it was just a laugh.
Having fun will keep you active!
Anyway, 'Smash EDO' is effectively the Brighton branch of the anti-militarist network, that has other groups affliated like Disarm DSEI. The point of this sort of demo, for me, is to act structures that are possible- here we have a local arms factory that is involved in the production of weapons used in the Gaza conflict, and well the weapons are made somewhere and can thus be stopped. Perhaps this is why the antics around the anti-militarist network tend to be alittle more hetic because a tangible thing can be demobilised which will have material benefit- though that goes for most things haha:cool:


It would eb cool if we could really get things going over the war but I don't think we will 'smash EDO'.
Well Elijah Smith did! :lol:

[Bitter Ashes]

Well Elijah Smith did! :lol:
And look what happened to him. 11 months detained without trial. Unless there's thousands turning up then if anyone tries to do the same then the end result will be the same.

[h0m0revolutionary]

I always view such things as a good opportunity to get gawped at when we hand out propaganda supporting the organising of arms manufacturers. Something SolFed is particularly good at doing.

[nuisance]

And look what happened to him. 11 months detained without trial. Unless there's thousands turning up then if anyone tries to do the same then the end result will be the same.
It was a joke, plus he handed himself in.....

[bricolage]

I don't really care about the campaign that much (we could protest agaisnt every single company in the world, couldn't we), it was just a laugh.

If you don't care about the campaign why were you there?

And unless we have swathes of people and money that none of us know about then no we couldn't protest against every single company in the world, so when a grassroots, non-hierarchical sustained direct action campaign emerges against a local arms factory I can't see why you wouldn't support it or care about it.


It would eb cool if we could really get things going over the war but I don't think we will 'smash EDO'.It doesn't look like we will smash capitalism or the state at the moment, should we give up on that too?

[Pogue]

If you don't care about the campaign why were you there?

And unless we have swathes of people and money that none of us know about then no we couldn't protest against every single company in the world, so when a grassroots, non-hierarchical sustained direct action campaign emerges against a local arms factory I can't see why you wouldn't support it or care about it.

It doesn't look like we will smash capitalism or the state at the moment, should we give up on that too?

I was there because I couldn't make any Mayday demos and this was advertised as an event to mark mayday, also I wanted to get to know some anarchists better and generally have a day out. Plus at the time I wasn't so sure that I think the campaign is a dead end, alot has changed in the 7 months since.

The point is, I don't see how these demos will ever realistically smash EDO, and if they do, it wont stop the arms trade, because its so integral to capitalism. I have my own praxis on what needs to be done to get rid of capitalism, found here: www.libertyandsolidarity.org (http://www.libertyandsolidarity.org). 'Smashing EDO' wil be part of this process.

[bricolage]

I was there because I couldn't make any Mayday demos and this was advertised as an event to mark mayday, also I wanted to get to know some anarchists better and generally have a day out.

Ah yeah fair enough.


Plus at the time I wasn't so sure that I think the campaign is a dead end, alot has changed in the 7 months since.

What do you think has changed in 7 months to make a dead end that is wasn't before?


The point is, I don't see how these demos will ever realistically smash EDO,

No I don't they will either, and I don't expect Smash EDO do either. However Smash EDO is a lot more than these mass demos, there are the weekly noise demos, the localised direct action (like smashing up the factory :)), the lobbying, the press campaign, and lots more that I imagine I don't know about, it is quite conceivable that through this they could be successful.


and if they do, it wont stop the arms trade, because its so integral to capitalism.

No probably not but you have to start somewhere and you have to start at the bottom, at the 'cracks', the weakest points, and move upwards. Campaigns like Smash EDO are a hell of a lot better than just marching with placards and slogans and definitely something that we should support. As you note the arms trade is indeed integral to capitalism so of course something we should challenge, it is also an issue on which people who are not necessarily anarchits/communists/socialists etc can feel strongly about so a good way to connect with them and spread anti-capitalist ideas.

In any case I could also say the same thing about anti-fascist activity, environmentalism, womens liberation, queer liberation, arguing they are all against integral aspects of capitalism so you can't smash fascism/environmental destruction/patriarchy/homophobia. However I of course believe they are important struggles so should be supported.

[bricolage]

Also there is going to be something happening in Nottingham that day if people can't make it down to Brighton.

These are the details of the Nottingham event;

Mon 2010-Jan-18 Direct Action against the Arms Industry 10:00 at a company that is part of the arms industry, Nottinghamshire. The target of this mass non-violent direct action will be one of the companies on the Notts Map of Militarism (http://nottsantimilitarism.wordpress.com/map-of-militarism/). For details, call +447929123314 on the Monday morning. Come along to support the action without having to risk arrest.

http://nottsantimilitarism.wordpress.com/

[TRS]

location for the smashEDO demo announced.

Wild Park Cafe, less than 500 meters from the Factory. Directions here:

www(dot)smashedo(dot)org(dot)uk/remember-gaza(dot)htm

[ls]

location for the smashEDO demo announced.

Wild Park Cafe, less than 500 meters from the Factory. Directions here:

www(dot)smashedo(dot)org(dot)uk/remember-gaza(dot)htm

I have seen pictures with armed police at the place itself, do they generally have them there?

Obviously, they are quite unlikely to gun anyone down, but it's not an impossibility. I wouldn't expect any less from a massive factory with many arms in it from this government, but I'd be fairly cautious myself with small-minded trigger happy trash around. Armed police I have encountered before seemed to be extremely edgy, didn't want to hang around.

[The Ungovernable Farce]

These are the details of the Nottingham event;

Mon 2010-Jan-18 Direct Action against the Arms Industry 10:00 at a company that is part of the arms industry, Nottinghamshire. The target of this mass non-violent direct action will be one of the companies on the Notts Map of Militarism (http://nottsantimilitarism.wordpress.com/map-of-militarism/). For details, call +447929123314 on the Monday morning. Come along to support the action without having to risk arrest.

http://nottsantimilitarism.wordpress.com/
Let us never speak of it again. :blushing:

[Bitter Ashes]

Let us never speak of it again. :blushing:
Come on. Report in Comrade TUF! What happened? lol

[The Ungovernable Farce]

Come on. Report in Comrade TUF! What happened? lol
Hippies happened. Street theatre happened. Organisation didn't happen. Effective direct action definitely didn't happen.

They decided to literally organise the entire thing from scratch at a meeting 18 hours before it started. People kept on talking about the arrestable group and the non-arrestable group, until someone asked who was actually prepared to be in the arrestable group, and one person put their hand up. So they ended up just doing some street theatre in the city centre while me and Barabbas leafleted, then the hippies went off to go and stand on the deserted industrial estate where Heckler and Koch are based doing pretty much nothing, while we went home. Not a great day.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Doesn't sound too good..