wake up! ITS YER ANARCHISTS ATE MY BABY Friday 2nd May 2003 Free/Donation Issue 402/403 CRAP ARREST OF THE WEEK For barking at a dog! A barman from California, faces up to a BOMBS R US year in jail and a $1000 fine for the highly “On Mayday, we propose a pre-emptive ish nuclear warheads at their Atomic Weap- strike…an attack on the real weapons of ons Establishment at Aldermaston in Berk- serious crime of barking at a police dog! Walking in down town San Jose during the mass destruction: oil companies, arms shire where they specialise in “state-of-the- Mardi Gras street party he came across an manufacturers, multinationals and banks.” art hit-to-kill” precision weapons. They re- agitated dog in police and a friendly ‘woof’ - Mayday flyer. ceive $1 billion per year from the US Dept of back to the caged animal, then he was Yesterday was Mayday and time for the Energy to help run the notorious Nevada Test promptly nicked by over zealous cops. He traditional game of cat and mouse, with a Site where it carries out “sub-critical testing”, plans to plead innocent saying “Its ridicu- few thousand anarchists and anti-capital- which attempts to exploit loopholes in the lous that someone could be charged for bark- ists trying to outwit and outsprint thousands Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. They are ing... And what about the First Amendment of cops. Many of our favourite shops had also heavily involved in the Trident pro- rights? Is there no freedom to bark?” either been boarded up or not even both- gramme in the US, as well as here in the UK ered to open up for the day while workers which costs us £1.5 billion a year. British been busy mopping up contracts as Neo took the day off obviously fearing that hun- nuclear-powered Trident submarines are on Labour puts our public services on sale to gry anarchists would eat them alive. patrol, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Each the highest bidder. When air traffic control One of those who didn’t bother opening submarine can carry 48 independently tar- was part-privatised Lockheed was there, ea- was Lockheed Martin, one of the main tar- geted nuclear warheads, each of which has ger to add to its already existing contracts gets of the Mayday pre-emptive strike strat- seven times the explosive power of the first with the Royal Mail, the Met Police and the egy. Lockheed are the world’s largest weap- atomic bomb at Hiroshima, which killed UK Census. Now they are bidding for the £3 ons manufacturer who make a killing out of, 140,000 civilians. billion contract to run the nerve centre of the er, killing. The “defence” company’s share Lockheed produce the AUP-3(M) de- NHS, which would enable it to profit not only prices rocketed after September 11th and with pleted uranium missiles that have been de- from bombing people but also from putting their fighter jets very busy during the war in ployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. These indis- them back together again. No doubt soon Iraq, they’ve reported a doubling of profits criminate weapons are classified illegal by they’ll be running our schools telling kids in the first few months of this year. the United Nations. When a DU shell ex- that War is Peace. In late 2001, the company won what has plodes, it sends out contaminated dust parti- * For more on this delightful company been described as “the largest defence con- cles small enough to be inhaled - high doses www.actagainstwar.org/article.php?id=177 tract in history,” a $200 billion development kill, low levels cause cancer. Unfortunately * Check out some of their war porn contract to build a Joint Strike Fighter, which dust particles are not smart enough to distin- www.lockheedmartin.com or www.lockheed according to their own website, aims to “pro- guish between civilian and military victims martin.co.uk vide the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine and since the last Gulf War incidences of leu- * CND have a scrap Trident campaign 020 Corps, and the UK’s Royal Navy and Royal kaemia and Hodgkins disease in Iraq have 77002393 www.cnduk.org Air Force with an affordable and stealthy tac- increased tenfold, as has the proportion of * Campaign Against Arms Trade 020 7281 tical aircraft for the 21st century.” One capa- babies born with birth defects, that is with- 0297 www.caat.org.uk ble of killing thousands of civilians who hap- out heads, brains, spines and limbs. * Recommended reading ‘The No Nonsense pen to live in ‘rogue states’ no doubt… With a track record like Lockheed’s they guide to the Arms Trade’ by Gideon Bur- Since lining its pockets through war, suf- just couldn’t resist sticking their fingers in rows (Published by Verso 2002) fering, and destruction is what Lockheed the Star Wars pie. They are the lead contrac- www.versobooks.com/ Martin is all about - just check out its latest tor for the Theater High-Altitude Area * There were more pre-emptive strikes against “Making Weapons For the World” advertis- Defense programme, a system designed to the arms trade at the BAE Systems AGM on ing - it comes as no surprise that the compa- intercept medium-to-long-range ballistic mis- Tuesday. BAE is the UK’s biggest arms deal- ny’s most lucrative export item is the F-16 siles. Of course, if you make loads of money ers. One person who was dragged out by combat aircraft. Since the mid-1970s, they’ve producing some of the world’s most destruc- security yelled “It’s on your conscience. How managed to flog over 3,000 of them to such tive weaponry, it only makes sense to make do you sleep at night, you bastards?” By freedom-loving customers such as Israel, loads more by creating systems to “protect” thinking about all the lovely profits they make Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia and Egypt. people against those same weapons. It’s the out of war and death stupid. But if your stomach for flying has weak- ultimate business plan. * Were you nicked at Mayday? Did you see ened since September 11th, Lockheed are one Lockheed also does a good line in brib- anyone get arrested or beaten? Then get of the only arms manufacturers still to offer a ery and corruption. According to Tim Weiner, along to the meeting today (2) 6pm at LARC, nice line in anti-personnel land mines, with a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, “Lockheed 62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 (corner of life span of up to one hundred years, which has a criminal history that includes paying Parfett St.) If you saw someone getting they flog for as little as £2 each - surely it millions of dollars in bribes.” Since 1990 nicked then get in touch with the Legal De- can’t be good business to make them so they they’ve been done a total of 63 times, hand- fence and Monitoring Group email last that long? Across the world, landmines ing over $230 million in fines and settlements. [email protected] or claim a new victim every twenty minutes, So how come they seem to get all the www2.phreak.co.uk/ldmg/index.php that’s more than 26,000, mostly civilian, contracts? The US Centre for Responsive * DSEi (Defence Systems Equipment Inter- deaths and injuries each year. Politics reports that Lockheed spent more national) is Europe's largest trade fair (6-12 Lockheed are leaders in the design and than $9.8 million lobbying members of Con- September in London) for guns, bombs, mili- development of nuclear technology and its gress and the Clinton administration during tary planes, small arms, mines and tanks. A by-products in the US and are responsible 2000 and gave $225,000 to the Bush-Cheney mass international protest has been called, for the production and maintenance of Brit- inaugural fund. Whilst in the UK they’ve get ready to Disarm DSEi! 07817652029 / 07887620379 www.dsei.org @nti-copyright - information for action It’s yer SchNEWS Summer Party and Protest Guide MAY herded like sheep, overcharged for water and spied on by cops. 1-11 Exhibition: We Get Restless. Photos and paintings of anti-capitalist www.homelands.co.uk 25 Redbridge Green Fair Live music, stalls, vegan and anti-war demos around the world. The Foundry, Grt Eastern St. Lon- food and much more. 11.30am-7pm Melbourne Field, Valentines Park, don. 4 Mayday Football Tournament, Clissold Park, Stoke Newington, Ilford, Essex. 020 8 5545439 [email protected] 26 Queeruption V London. 7-a-side football tournament, mass proletariat kickabout, 3 sided International gathering of radical queers. Venues in Berlin to be confirmed. game (!), kids game and Mayday Picnic. Kicks off 10am. www.queeruption.com 26 Maidstone Green Fair 10th year anniversiary. [email protected] 07958 11 2870. 5 Open Meeting to Support Blues, jazz, folk and world music. Markets, arts and crafts, kids activities, Refugees on hunger strike in Haslar Prison, Portsmouth, they are protest- street theatre and workshops. Free. 12pm-9pm. Mote Park, Maidstone. ing against prison conditions and particularly fire safety. 7pm at the Cowley 01622 673413 www.greenfair.co.uk 26 Kingston Green Fair. 3 stages of Club, London Road, Brighton. 5 World Bank Boycott Tour, Cube Cin- world music, food, children's parade, stalls, exhibitions and more. Powered ema, Bristol 6pm. An international coalition of grassroots groups from the by the wind and sun.