British Aerospace Action

On Monday 17th June activists from across the country descended on the British Aerospace factory at Warton near Manchester. This factory is the one that manufactures military Hawk jet planes which are then sold on to countries that use them to murder people, more often than not in brutal repression of internal resistance to the government at the time.

After an elaborate misinformation campaign that not only fooled the local Welsh police into closing down the RAF base in Angelsey where the Indonesian pilots are trained, but managed to divert police from Manchester. Around eighty to one hundred people who had attended the Earth First! Gathering arrived at a site next to the base and split up into affinity groups of five to ten people. The groups then dispersed and spread out around the perimeter of the factory. Most groups entered the base either by scaling the fence or using the conveniently placed holes that happened to be there after a midnight excursion by persons unknown the night before. The people that entered the factory faced security and two vans of local riot cops who seemed even more incompetent than usual. One of the cops was so careless with his personal radio that it happened to fall into somebody’s pocket and then after a most amusing listen it had the misfortune to fall into a drain!

Most people were removed from the site but there were six arrests which resulted in four activists being charged, two with criminal damage and two with breach of the peace and obstructing the police. Some activists re-entered the factory complex after having been thrown out once, but most retired to the camp a stones throw from the front gate. The flag of East Timor was raised on a telegraph pole at the front of the entrance to the factory in solidarity with the people in East Timor and the cops reacted with their usual community policing tactics; sending two vans of tooled up riot cops, two mounted police, two police motorcyclists, a Special Branch photographer in plain clothes and a handful of assorted local cops.

There are actions at the base the whole time and to find out more about these contact: Campaign Against the Arms Trade on: 0171 281 0297.

A die-in was also held outside parliament on Thursday 27th June as the first delivery of Hawks have been sent off to Indonesia recently. Meanwhile the trial of the four women charged with smashing up a Hawk jet is set to start on July 22nd. Call: Seeds of Hope, on 0171 923 9511 for more details and/or if you would like to attend.