The international sales office of arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch was shut down on Thursday 18th February by anti-arms-trade activists.
The six activists arrived at H&K’s Nottingham warehouse building before any employees turned up. Using D-locks and arm-tubes, one pair locked themselves to the staff entrance while another pair blockaded the goods gate. Meanwhile the other two gained access to the roof and hung anti-arms-trade banners on the front of the building.
HK - Not in Nottingham!
A poster opposing Nottingham-based arms company Heckler & Koch has appeared at various locations around the city. The poster is the work of a mysterious local artist known only as Questionmarc, and was designed as “a subliminal awareness raiser that the corrupt firm continues to operate from our city.”
The poster features a picture of the rooster troubadour Alan-a-Dale from Disney’s animated Robin Hood film, but instead of holding his traditional lute, he is holding a Heckler & Koch assault rifle. He stands atop the red HK logo, under which are the words “NOT IN NOTTINGHAM” (the refrain of a lament that he sings in the film).
Continue reading ‘Anti-H&K poster appears around Nottingham’
Stop The War demonstration, London, 24th October 2009
In America, Britain and the other imperialist countries there has been widespread public opposition to the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq. Since 2001 millions of people have at some time or other publicly expressed their dissent from the aggressive wars being waged by the imperialist states. Yet there has been little criticism of or attempts to influence the armed forces actually carrying out these military operations.
In Britain the Stop the War Coalition has avoided criticising the British armed forces. It presents them as the innocent tools of the British Government with no culpability for the death and destruction they are causing. The Military Families Against the War wing of Stop the War has actually complained that British troops are getting injured and killed because they are not better equipped. They complain that British military personnel have been injured and killed because they are used to fight illegal and unnecessary wars. But they do not have much to say about all the Iraqis and Afghanis killed and injured by British forces. In general the anti-war movement in Britain has kept away from the armed forces and has not tried to directly influence them. This is a serious error because disaffection among the military would seriously undermine the capability of the British state to wage its imperialist wars.
