Tag: Global Actions

Warmongers EDO Corp. Surrender in British High Court

Final Victory For Peace Protesters Against Arms Company’s High Court Harassment Claim

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

7th May 2006: The attempt by arms manufacturers EDO MBM to restrict protest outside their Brighton, UK factory has ended in expensive failure.

EDO have consistently denied that they supply Israel with weapons systems, but in December 2005 in a related criminal case, ‘the rooftop 3 case’, former managing director David Jones admitted under oath that the company do supply the Israeli Air Force with parts for the VER-2 system – the main bomb rack used on the Israeli F16, which has been used in documented war crimes in the Palestinian Territories. Their dropping of the injunction case can be in no small part attributed to the fact that they had been caught out lying about this in the high court to avoid legal responsibility under the British International Criminal Court act – complicity in war crimes. Many of the protesters who were named in EDO MBM’s injunction have volunteered with ISM in Palestine and their witness of Israeli war crimes in Palestine would have been material to their defence that they had acted reasonably in circumstances of what they knew about events in Palestine.

EDO MBM’s attempt to secure a no-protest exclusion zone with an injunction under the Protection from Harassment Act has ended in unconditional surrender after a year-long High Court battle. The case is estimated to have cost the company upwards of £1 million and this week US parent company EDO Corp announced 2.7 million dollars losses this year and citing losses from legal actions as a contributing factor. EDO MBM will pay the protesters costs, expected to be tens of thousands of pounds.

Big questions remain over the handling of the case. What has come to light is a behind-the-scenes deal between EDO MBM, their lawyer Timothy Lawson Cruttenden (the solicitor responsible for the injunction restricting protests outside the Oxford Primate Lab), Sussex Police and possibly the National Extremism Tactical Co-ordinating Unit.

Andrew Beckett press spokesman for SMASH EDO said, “We were accused of harassment by EDO, and Sussex Police, who secured an interim injunction on trumped-up evidence, but it must be clear to the world after the collapse of the injunction and the dropping of so many criminal cases that we are ones who have been harassed, and it is they in who have been harassing us”.

EDO brought the injunction claim against 14 protesters and two protest groups in April 2005, and by bringing spurious evidence into the case were able to get an interim injunction against all protesters (i.e any member of the public campaigning outside the factory, regardless of their conduct).

The defendants argued consistently that the use of the Protection from Harassment Act to restrict protest infringed their rights under articles 10 and 11 of the ECHR. This was dramatically illustrated by the imprisonment on remand of two protesters for alleged breaches of the injunction last summer. Both cases were subsequently dropped before reaching court. Protesters were placed under threat of five years imprisonment for any breach of the injunction terms that prohibited simple acts such as standing in the road.

In the year-long High Court case it was that Chief Inspector Kerry Cox of Sussex Police had changed her witness statement to exaggerate her view of the anticipated threat by protesters to company employees after direct pressure from EDO s lawyer Tim Lawson-Cruttenden. The altered statement was instrumental in gaining EDO an interim injunction against protesters that restricted their human rights.

The collapse of the EDO injunction case and also the 23 criminal charges against anti-EDO protesters cast a shadow over all similar injunction cases against animal rights protesters, as it highlights a shady practice by police and court officers in a political operation to suppress freedom of expression, acting in a manner that is clearly an abuse of the powers of the state over political activity, but has been supported by the highest levels of the government.

Notes for Journalists

Brighton & Hove is a UN Peace Messenger City

They and Sussex police also wanted to limit than ten people who had to be silent. Judge Gross refused to 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 amongst others. 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”.

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.

SMASH EDO PRESS RELEASE

Press Contact: Andrew Beckett or Sarah Johnson
+44 (0) 7875 708873

www.smashedo.org.uk

Activists Aim to Kick Apartheid Out of Football

Worldwide Activism, Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, April 22nd, 2006

Palestine activists have launched a move to get Apartheid Israel suspended from the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) in protest against the ongoing subjugation of the Palestinian people and as part of the wider global call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against the Occupation.

FIFA is the sport’s governing body worldwide and numerous letters in support of the action have been sent to its President, Sepp Blatter. An online petition has already gathered more than 4,000 signatures.

The campaigners point out the consequences the Occupation and Apartheid has on their lives and professional possibilities. The petition highlights Apartheid Israel’s “obstruction of Palestinian representation and participation in international sports,” as part of a campaign by the Occupation to “deny Palestinian national identity.” This campaign is orchestrated throughout the whole of Palestinian society, of which football is just one example.

All sorts of measures have been taken by the Occupation to block the Palestinian national football team and Palestinian sportsmen and women in recent years. Most recently, said the letter to Blatter, on March 30th 2006 Occupation Forces bombed the Palestine Football Stadium in Gaza, leaving a massive crater in the middle of the pitch.

“In 2004,” it continued, Apartheid Israel “set out to prevent the Palestinian football team from representing the Palestinian people on an international level during the (FIFA) World Cup qualifiers by disallowing several members of the team from leaving Gaza.” In part of the Occupation’s attempts to destroy Palestinian identity, Palestine is forced to play all its “home” games in a foreign country. The ghettoization of the Palestinian people imposes on the Palestinian football team to hold its practice sessions in Egypt.

The petition also condemned the Occupation’s raids, curfews, checkpoints and closures that destroy the lives of the Palestinian people.

The letter to Mr Blatter concluded that, “suspending Israel’s membership from FIFA is the only appropriate sanction for its discriminatory practices.”

This action is the latest step against the world of football’s support for Apartheid Israel and the Occupation. For the last two months, solidarity activists have flooded the offices of London’s Arsenal Football Club with letters and petitions to protest the club’s decision to promote Apartheid Israel as its official tourist destination. At a time when the global “Kick Racism out of Football” campaign is gathering momentum, the sport should be looking to make a firm stand against the racist occupation of Palestine.

Letters to support the campaign to suspend Apartheid Israel from FIFA should be emailed to Mr. Sepp Blatter at contact@fifa.org or posted to FIFA House, Hitzigweg 11, P.O. Box 85, 8030 Zurich, Switzerland.

The petition can be signed at: http://www.petitiononline.com/FIFAPal/petition.html

Rachel Corrie Foundation Peaceworks Conference

Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice
Peace Works Conference
Olympia, Washington, USA

April 20th, In Lecture: Arun Gandhi, Grandson of Mahatma Gandhi
April 21st, Putting Justice into Action: Exchanging Organizing Strategies and Addressing Issues of Identity and Oppression in Our Solidarity Work
April 21st, Jerry and Sis Levin (CPT) at United Churches
April 22-23, A Conference Cultivating a Just and Enduring Peace for the People of Palestine and Israel

History: After Rachel Corrie was killed in the Gaza Strip in 2003 while nonviolently protecting the home of a Palestinian pharmacist and accountant and their families from demolition, the Corrie family, with the devoted support of Olympia community members and supporters across the country, established the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, that continues the work Rachel began and hoped to accomplish. One of the Foundation’s dreams, Peace Works–an annual memorial lecture/conference addressing a significant justice and peace issue–will come to fruition in April 2006.

Rationale: The mission of Peace Works is to provide a continuing forum for exploring the meaning and practice of justice and peace as they affect the social, economic, political, environmental, and spiritual aspects of all people’s lives. The focus of the 2006 conference is the cultivation of a just and enduring peace for the people of Palestine and Israel. We were reminded recently by Jim Wallis (Sojourner’s Magazine) of how Martin Luther King, Jr. knew that “to change the nation, you had to change the wind… change how a nation thinks and feels and perceives the most important things…and then the politicians will follow.” Our conference working group hopes that through this first conference many can join in considering where things stand in Israel and Palestine and can strategize about how to further “change the wind”—in this country, and hopefully beyond. We anticipate that this will be a meaningful event locally, regionally, and nationally.

The Audience: We will engage those long familiar with the Israeli-Palestinian issue and, also, newcomers who are interested in learning, sharing, and stepping up their own efforts to work for enduring peace in the Middle East. We hope to draw both local and regional participants, as well as friends from around the country who will want to be part of this discussion and the inaugural Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice event.

Formats and Speakers: We are considering formats that include lectures, panels, and small group discussions with emphasis on action flowing from the work we do together. The voices of conference attendees will be as important as those of the thoughtful and powerful speakers who will participate:

• Arun Gandhi: the fifth grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, a social-political activist, and founder of the M.K.
Gandhi Institute for Non-Violence in Memphis, Tennessee.
• Dr. Mustafa Barghouti: Palestinian physician and prominent Palestinian leader. Dr. Barghouti recently ran
as an independent candidate in the Palestinian presidential elections.
• Diana Buttu: Canadian-Palestinian lawyer, peace activist, and advisor to the Palestinian Negotiation Team.
• Amira Hass: Israeli author and journalist for the Israeli daily newspaper Ha’aretz who has lived in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
• Huwaida Arraf: Palestinian-American co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement.
• Lama Hourani: Gaza Branch Coordinator of one of the first Palestinian NGOs, the Palestinian Working Women Society for Development, which advocates for women’s rights as equal citizens.
• Liat Weingart: Co-Director of Jewish Voice for Peace in San Francisco.
• Dr. Sarah Roy: Research Associate at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard, author of The Gaza
Strip: The Political Economy of De-development.

How to Help:
This is an exciting but large undertaking for our foundation and community. To be successful, we need your help. Here are some things you can do to help:
• Join a planning committee: Program, Logistics, Tools (Publicity & Media), Gandhi Event, Interfaith Service, and Administrative/Finance & Fundraising.
• Become a sponsoring individual by making a tax deductible contribution to support the conference: Make check payable to the Rachel Corrie Foundation and designate “Peace Works” in the memo. Mail to Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice, P.O. Box 12149, Olympia, WA, 98508 or use our convenient credit card option with Groundspring.
• Ask your organization to become a sponsoring organization providing financial and other support.
• Plan to attend one or all of the Peace Works events.

Information: For further details or to have a member of our committee speak with your group, contact Donna Schumann at 943-0965, 584-3103, or donnaschumann@comcast.net.

Visit our web site at http://www.rachelcorriefoundation.org.

Rachel Corrie is the new Anne Frank

1) Katharine Viner, co-editor of the play, “My Name is Rachel Corrie”, on the controversy over the postponement of her play. Link
2) Debate Between NY Theater Workshop and Katharine Viner. Transcript
MP3 Download
3) Democracy Now, Rachel Corrie’s Parents Reaction to postponement. Transcript
Mp3 download

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1) Katharine Viner, co-editor of the play, My Name is Rachel Corrie

Excerpt:
“There is a particular entry in Rachel Corrie’s diary, probably written some time in 1999, four years before she was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza Strip trying to prevent the demolition of Palestinian homes. She is aged 19 or 20. “Had a dream about falling, falling to my death off something dusty and smooth and crumbling like the cliffs in Utah,” she writes, “but I kept holding on, and when each foothold or handle of rock broke I reached out as I fell and grabbed a new one. I didn’t have time to think about anything – just react as if I was playing an adrenaline-filled video game. And I heard, ‘I can’t die, I can’t die,’ again and again in my head.”

2) Democracy Now, Debate Between The New York Theater Workshop, and “My Name is Rachel Corrie” Editor Katharine Viner

Katharine Viner, co-creator of the multiple award winning play, My Name is Rachel Corrie debates the controversy over the postponement of the plays US debut at the New York Theatre Workshop with the 2 theatre directors – James Nicola & Lynn Moffat responsible, in a Democracy Now broadcast hosted by Amy Goodman

The play My Name is Rachel Corrie was due to open recently at the celebrated New York Theatre Workshop but has been indefinitely postponed.

James Nicola said “After Ariel Sharon’s illness and the election of Hamas, we had a very edgy situation…our plan to present a work of art would be seen as us taking a stand in a political conflict, that we didn’t want to take.”

Actor Alan Rickman – Katherine’s co-writer – responded by saying, “This is censorship born out of fear”.

Literature & Pullitzer Prize winning writer Harold Pinter and others in a letter to the New York Times asked: “What is it about Rachel Corrie’s writings, her thoughts, her feelings, her confusions, her idealism, her courage…that New York audiences must be protected from…Rachel Corrie gave her life standing up against injustice”

3) “Democracy Now”- Rachel Corrie’s Parents Reaction to postponement.

excerpt:

AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined in our studio by Rachel Corrie’s parents, Craig and Cindy Corrie. They have traveled to New York to attend a public reading of Rachel’s writings tonight at Riverside Church. It was supposed to have been the opening night of the play, My Name is Rachel Corrie, at the New York Theatre Workshop, as we just discussed. Last year, the Corries initiated lawsuits against the state of Israel, the Israel Defense Forces and Caterpillar, the manufacturer of the Israeli military bulldozer that crushed Rachel to death on March 16, 2003, just a few days before the invasion of Iraq. We welcome you both to Democracy Now!

CINDY CORRIE: We really defer to the Royal Court Theatre in deciding what the next step should be with the play. It’s actually going to be playing in the West End in London again, starting at the end of this month. I think Katharine, when she talked about the breakdown of trust, I think that’s a real concern. We know that the original intentions of the New York Theatre Workshop were good intentions. They wanted to bring the play here, and we respect that, and we certainly, you know, we don’t wish any ill towards them or towards any of their staff around this, but I think — I have some real concerns about the amount of contextualizing, and so forth, that they wanted to do. Mr. Nicola spoke about wanting to sort of set the stage to get Rachel’s voice out there. And I would just say, in London that happened just by presenting the play, by allowing people to come to see it. And I would say, let Rachel do that. Let her get her words out.

CPT Statement: CPTers Released

Released by the Christian Peacemaker Teams

Vigil for CPT hostages in Hebron

Our hearts are filled with joy today as we heard that Harmeet Singh Sooden, Jim Loney and Norman Kember have been safely released in Baghdad. Christian Peacemaker Teams rejoices with their families and friends at the expectation of their return to their loved ones and community. Together we have endured uncertainty, hope, fear, grief and now joy during the four months since they were abducted in Baghdad.

We rejoice in the return of Harmeet Sooden. He has been willing to put his life on the line to promote justice in Iraq and Palestine as a young man newly committed to active peacemaking.

We rejoice in the return of Jim Loney. He has cared for the marginalized and oppressed since childhood, and his gentle, passionate spirit has been an inspiration to people near and far.

We rejoice in the return of Norman Kember. He is a faithful man, an elder and mentor to many in his 50 years of peacemaking, a man prepared to pay the cost.

We remember with tears Tom Fox, whose body was found in Baghdad on March 9, 2006, after three months of captivity with his fellow peacemakers. We had longed for the day when all four men would be released together. Our gladness today is made bittersweet by the fact that Tom is not alive to join in the celebration. However, we are confident that his spirit is very much present in each reunion.

Harmeet, Jim and Norman and Tom were in Iraq to learn of the struggles facing the people in that country. They went, motivated by a passion for justice and peace to live out a nonviolent alternative in a nation wracked by armed conflict. They knew that their only protection was in the power of the love of God and of their Iraqi and international co-workers. We believe that the illegal occupation of Iraq by Multinational Forces is the root cause of the insecurity which led to this kidnapping and so much pain and suffering in Iraq. The occupation must end.

Today, in the face of this joyful news, our faith compels us to love our enemies even when they have committed acts which caused great hardship to our friends and sorrow to their families. In the spirit of the prophetic nonviolence that motivated Jim, Norman, Harmeet and Tom to go to Iraq, we refuse to yield to a spirit of vengeance. We give thanks for the compassionate God who granted our friends courage and who sustained their spirits over the past months. We pray for strength and courage for ourselves so that, together, we can continue the nonviolent struggle for justice and peace.

Throughout these difficult months, we have been heartened by messages of concern for our four colleagues from all over the world. We have been especially moved by the gracious outpouring of support from Muslim brothers and sisters in the Middle East, Europe, and North America. That support continues to come to us day after day. We pray that Christians throughout the world will, in the same spirit, call for justice and for respect for the human rights of the thousands of Iraqis who are being detained illegally by the U.S. and British forces occupying Iraq.

During these past months, we have tasted of the pain that has been the daily bread of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Why have our loved ones been taken? Where are they being held? Under what conditions? How are they? Will they be released? When?

With Tom’s death, we felt the grief of losing a beloved friend. Today, we rejoice in the release of our friends Harmeet, Jim and Norman. We continue to pray for a swift and joyful homecoming for the many Iraqis and internationals who long to be reunited with their families. We renew our commitment to work for an end to the war and the occupation of Iraq as a way to continue the witness of Tom Fox. We trust in God’s compassionate love to show us the way.

Living through the many emotions of this day, we remain committed to the words of Jim Loney, who wrote:

“With God’s abiding kindness, we will love even our enemies.
With the love of Christ, we will resist all evil.
With God’s unending faithfulness, we will work to build the beloved community.”

Related News Stories
BBC: British Iraq hostage Kember freed
Times Online Timeline: how Kember saga unfolded
Telegraph: ‘This is news beyond belief’
Times Online: Iraq hostages freed after four-month ordeal
Globe & Mail: Canadian hostages in Iraq freed
BBC: Why Norman was right to go
Scotsman: Western hostages freed after coalition raid
BBC: Peacemaker who wanted to do more
Aljazeera: Western peace activists freed in Iraq