PROTESTERS gathered outside an arms factory to demand it be kicked out the city.
About a hundred activists banged drums, listened to speakers and chanted “break the kill chain” outside the EDO MBM factory in Moulsecoomb.
From the mid-2000s, the company battled a “Smash EDO” campaign which saw dozens of protests and even a court battle.
The group outside, which consisted of some members of the original campaign, were re-energised after the company was linked to war crimes in Yemen.
The Argus reported in July how attacks on a civilian target were carried out using weapon parts made at the EDO MBM factory.
Following the revelation, a cross-party coalition of councillors and MPs called for a clampdown on the Brighton arms manufacturer.
Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Labour’s candidate for Brighton Kemptown, told the crowd in Harm Farm Business Park “This time, of course, you have your councillors on your side.
“Labour and Green councillors and even a Conservative councillor – my goodness – all alike.
“They’re saying what this factory is doing is not welcome in our city and calling for our government to shut it down. Brighton does not welcome EDO.”
City council leader Nancy Platts has written to Defence Secretary Ben Wallace demanding an enquiry after reading the story in The Argus.
We reported how UN inspectors took photographs of fragments of a bomb used in a Saudi-led coalition airstrike on a water pump factory. Written on the side of a fragment were the words “EDO MBM” – the name of the arms manufacturer in Brighton.
Dr Anna Stavrianakis, senior lecturer in international relations at the University of Sussex, said: “That bomb was dropped and it was dropped in a violation of international humanitarian law. Someone made it, someone transferred it, someone approved it, someone launched it.
Alex Breyley, who attended the event for Brighton Against the Arms Trade, said: “We had about seven groups that were willing to speak and we had a whole range of subjects which were spoken about.
“So it is a really nice, welcoming gathering of local people from Brighton who are really invested in trying to get the arms licences to Saudi Arabia revoked that are currently being given to EDO MBM.”
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