No crime done, no harm done — only crime and harm averted. Nine people are in court this morning in Northern Ireland for entering a US missile company’s factory (Raytheon) on Wednesday in Derry, shutting down the place for the day, and emptying thousands of documents and computer equipment out the windows! They were joined by 20 or so others from the Derry’s tireless Anti-War Coalition who maintained a picket outside.
It follows just one week after five peace activists were found Not Guilty by a Dublin jury, though they hammered a US Navy aircraft at Shannon Airport in February 2003. Yesterday’s Raytheon action also reminds me of the time three women emptied computers and documents from a barge called the Maytime in Scotland, which formed part of the UK’s trident nuclear weapons system. They too were acquitted by a jury in 1999.
According to an Irish Anti-War Movement statement on Indymedia yesterday the Derry peace activists “began an occupation of the factory this morning in protest at the production of missile components there, currently being used in the Israeli assault on Lebanon.”
The statement continued: “The Raytheon factory produces components for Guided Missile Units (GBU) such as Patriots, Mavericks, Sidewinders and Sparrows, all of which are used by Israel and paid for with US taxpayer’s money.
“GBUs were the weapons responsible for the recent atrocity carried out by Israel at Qana.”
(Photos credit: copyleft Indymedia Ireland)