Pictures of the Raytheon protest
I've just been to Filton to offer support. Please get up there if you can. You'll have a hard time passing the protestors any food, but your presence will be appreciated. The protestors are in good spirits, the weather is wonderful, and their cause is just...
1000+ sorties from RAF Fairford... carrying Raytheon's lethal hardware
The two on the roof wanted me to tell you all that Raytheon should express protest every Thursday. We need the people of Bristol to turn out in force to make their protest felt. We need to come up with creative ways to resist Raytheon's horrendous activities. More power to the protestors!
A policeman goes cherry picking...
The protest continues...
Unforgiveable: Raytheon make cluster bombs.
The two protestors going strong. You can see a policeman and a fireman in the background - they're in the cherry picker.
Bristol resists: Raytheon must stop!
make this your indymedia front page
Friday October 24, 2008 16:29
by nickleberry
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can't get it up lads?
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I've been doing some digging on Raytheon: they produce some of the most hideous military hardware imaginable (they claim to be world leaders in "smart" hardware). Bunker busters and cluster bombs being just two examples of their lethal hardware.
Their hardware wasn't smart enough to avoid 62 civilians in Iraq:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the....html
As CAAT reports, "Raytheon is the prime contractor for the Tomahawk cruise missile and the JSOW AGM-154, both of which deliver BLU/97B submunitions." (that's cluster bombs to you and me). They've got a regular stall at DSEi:
http://www.caat.org.uk/publications/armsfairs/dsei-2003...s.php
And do you remember Israel's little bombing frenzy in the summer of 2006? When they blasted Lebanon to smithereens? Well Raytheon's hardware played its part:
http://bristol.indymedia.org.uk/newswire.php?story_id=25266
All that seems reason enough to protest Raytheon's presence in Bristol. In fact plenty of people have been protesting against Raytheon. Nine fine folk from Northern Ireland were recently (June 2008) "acquitted in Belfast for their action in decommissioning the Raytheon offices in Derry in August 2006. The prosecution could produce not a shred of evidence to counter our case that we had acted to prevent the commission of war crimes during the Lebanon war by the Israeli armed forces using weapons supplied by Raytheon."
http://www.raytheon9.org/
A couple of final points: If you want to make plans for further action, there's discussion on this thread:
http://bristol.indymedia.org.uk/article/689115
And, to the guys on the roof (when you get down...): sorry, I messed up your phone number! That's why I've not got in touch....
As a matter of interest will any of you be venting your moral outrage at Irans nuclear programme or the al queda suicide bombers who deliberately target civilians, why don't you go and sit on their front doorstep.
You might like to consider Pakistans nuclear arsenal and the fact that their command and control systems are so poor that their army once deployed a warhead ready for use against India without their government knowing anything about it, don't you think they would benefit from your attention as well
If @teller ullam can give us the address of the Bristol Offices of Al Qaeda, as well as the Iranian and Pakistani nuclear weapons agencies, then we can go and protest there. I'm sure plenty of people will be well up for that. In the meantime we've got plenty of reason to protest against Raytheon, so let's get on with it.
Get on the next plane to Iraq or Afghanistan Nickleberry, they will come and find you.
A weekly peace vigil
teller have you got the banknotes? raytheon will make you your very own guided missile - taliban or cia - no problem. do you feel lucky?
'As a matter of interest will any of you be venting your moral outrage at Irans nuclear programme or the al queda suicide bombers who deliberately target civilians, why don't you go and sit on their front doorstep.'
While pro-peace protesters clearly have a problem with suicide bombers and nuclear weapons (of any nationality - not just those associated with muslims) why would British protesters choose to fly halfway round the world to complain about weapons which they don't pay for with their taxes and aren't being used by their elected representatives, when there are companies like Raytheon right here in Bristol?
Once we are a peaceful nation who aren't currently involved in illegal military occupations overseas, and who don't posess a nuclear arsenal of our own then perhaps we can start crusading round the world telling other people not to do these same things that we are now...
Or would you rather we only protested against people with a different skin colour to you having nuclear weapons and killing or maiming civilians (as things like cluster bombs certainly do)?
I've heard people talking about weekly pickets/noise demo's meeting outside Raytheon on the pavement (unless your willing to be arrested) on thursdays from 3pm till all the staff have left the building.
These people need stopping from making more plans for depleted uranium and cluster bombs in Bristol.
Surely you want to contact UWE People & Planet, just over the road?
They don't seem aware this was even happening!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10270644290