SchNEWS the free weekly direct action news sheet covering social and environmental issues in the UK and abroad including climate change, arms industry, ecological direct action and more... Anarchist Bookfair
Subscribe to receive SchNEWS erery week by email View all of our back issues Find out about the history of SchNEWS and how it's put together every week Search for contacts and links of protest and community groups in UK and abroad A selection of How To guides for direct action andother fun stuff Previous articles and hot topics SchMOVIES
Copyleft - Information for direct action - Published weekly in Brighton since 1994

Home | Friday 23rd October 2009 | Issue 696

Back to the Full Issue

EDO AQUITTALS

Two protesters convicted of aggravated trespass during the Smash EDO Carnival Against the Arms Trade back in May ‘08 have had their convictions quashed by an appeal court this week. The two had been busted after the mass invasion of EDO’s car park (well what do you expect if someone opens the security gates whilst a demo’s kicking off?). It’s small relief for one of them, Elijah Smith, who’s still inside awaiting trial for the citizen’s decommissioning of EDO during the bombing of Gaza in January.

Over the year and a half since the arrests at the Carnival, police have downgraded serious conspiracy charges to relatively minor public order charges, only to watch trial after trial come unstuck.

Even though the decommissioners case has been adjourned to May next year, the events planned for the Support the Decommissioners Week of Action continue. On Monday (19th) there was a demo outside Brighton Town Hall, demanding Brighton and Hove City Council table a motion against EDO’s complicity in war crimes. A Green Party motion condemning EDO early this year because ‘the issue is not directly related to Brighton and has no bearing on the wellbeing of the city’.

On Saturday (24th) there was a rally outside the Foreign Office in London, demanding an end of arms exports to Israel.

* See www.smash edo.org.uk



 

Subscribe to SchNEWS: Send 1st Class stamps (e.g. 10 for next 9 issues) or donations (payable to Justice?). Or £15 for a year's subscription, or the SchNEWS supporter's rate, £1 a week. Ask for "originals" if you plan to copy and distribute. SchNEWS is post-free to prisoners.