Category: Technologies of Control

Saturday 17th October 2009

This afternoon, around 70 people gathered in Chadderton, Greater Manchester at the launch demonstration of the Target Brimar campaign.
The campaign opposes the activities of Brimar, a Manchester-based company which makes military components used by the British and American armies in Iraq and Afghanistan and by Israeli forces in Palestine and Lebanon, and which have also been sold to other militaries around the world. Although the company stresses the ‘situational awareness’ and defensive role of many of the items it manufactures, it also contributes parts to F16 fighters, Apache attack helicopters and Javelin missiles and lists ‘target acquisition systems’ for ground-launched missiles amongst its products.
In sunny weather the demonstration – which included generations of Manchester residents, from babies to veteran peace campaigners – started peacefully and in good spirits. Meeting at the Gardeners Arms roundabout in Moston, it proceeded along the Greengate to the industrial estate where Brimar’s factory is sited, where food and a children’s play area had been set up. The procession included Critical Mass cyclists, banners and music.
Unfortunately, during the talks and music which followed, Oldham Police chose to abuse their power by arresting three co-defendants from the Edo Decommissioners trial who were present to show their support for the Target Brimar campaign. The three were arrested for allegedly breaching draconian bail conditions which specify that various co-defendants are not allowed to communicate with one another. Witnesses at the demonstration stressed that the three had deliberately not been communicating with one another and were appalled to see that being in the same geographical area was regarded by Oldham Police as grounds to haul them away, threatening other people with arrest when they tried to intervene.
The Target Brimar demonstration continued after the arrests and wound up early to allow supporters to head to Oldham police station to offer solidarity to the arrested three.
The Target Brimar campaign would also like to express its solidarity and respect for the Edo Decommissioners and their principled action in January this year in carrying out an accountable action which destroyed up to £300,000 worth of equipment used by Edo in Brighton to produce weapons components involved in massive human rights abuses in Palestine, Pakistan and other conflict zones.
At the time of writing, supporters at Oldham police station have been informed that the three will be taken to Brighton for a hearing next week (w/c 19th October 2009) but that the time of their transportation is in the hands, not of Oldham Police, but of the private Group 4 security company.
For more information on future Target Brimar campaign plans, see http://www.targetbrimar.org.uk

Target Brimar campaign press release
Monday 5th October 08:00
– for immediate release

Citizen Weapons Inspectors visit Manchester Factory

At just before 8 o’clock this morning, several citizen weapons inspectors from the Target Brimar campaign visited the Chadderton premises of military component manufacturer Brimar.[1] They were seeking information on possible connections between Brimar’s products and human rights abuses committed in Gaza and the West Bank, Iraq, and Afghanistan.[2]

Target Brimar campaigners, in a research dossier released today,[3] have raised concerns that the company’s products may have been used in the commission of human rights abuses including attacks on civilians during the ‘Operation Cast Lead’ invasion of Gaza by the Israeli Defence Forces in December 2008/January 2009. Brimar directors admitted in 2006, during the war in Lebanon, that the company supplied components used in Apache attack helicopters sold to the Israeli military.

There is also evidence that products developed during a research collaboration between Brimar and the US Marine Corps were deployed with Marine tank battalions in Iraq in 2004-5, including with forces directly involved in the Second Battle of Fallujah in November 2004. And there is concern that Brimar products may be incorporated into helicopters currently being used to fire thermobaric missiles in Afghanistan.

The Target Brimar campaign is calling on the company, which is owned by private investors and has a significant financial relationship with the Bank of Scotland/Lloyds Banking Group and therefore with the British taxpayer, to return to its historically peaceful manufacture of specialist screens and viewing equipment, and on the British government to reviews its arms export policy and to cease its immoral and economically distorted subsidising of the arms industry.

The Target Brimar campaign is calling for a public demonstration on 17th October 2009 calling on Brimar to rethink its military manufacture operations. Full details are available on http://www.targetbrimar.org.uk

Notes for editors

1. the weapons inspectors are, at the time of writing, still at Brimar. They can be contacted directly for interview on 07866 001207. Video footage and stills images will be made available as soon as possible via press@targetbrimar.org.uk and http://www.targetbrimar.org.uk. General questions regarding the campaign and research should be made to 07506 551323 or to press@targetbrimar.org.uk.

2. the inspectors will be directing questions to Brimar regarding its awareness of documented human rights abuses which are likely to have involved the use of its products, and the comprehensiveness of its knowledge of the final destinations of its products once sold.

3. copies of the dossier can be downloaded at: http://www.targetbrimar.org.uk/downloads/target_brimar_dossier_october_2009-1.pdf