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No More Isolation after London Gaza demonstration
In January 2009, there was a solidarity demonstration in London regarding the Israeli bombardment of Gaza from 27th December 2008 until 18th January 2009. At the demo, many people were arrested, the majority being young Asians below the age of 19, some as young as 12. The police used indiscriminate baton charges, kettles and heavy surveillance. Their repressive tactics began to take a less visible form in the months following, with numerous dawn raids, denial of communication with solicitors and physical and psychological abuse. Almost all have now been charged with “violent disorder” and so far, 10 people have been jailed for 15 months to 3 years. In this climate of intimidation and isolation, and in spite of flimsy evidence, 50 people have pled guilty and the sentencing began on 12th February at Isleworth Crown Court. (more…)
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Counter Terror Expo Take Two: G4S Technology
In the lead up to the Counter Terror Expo in April 2010, Corporate Watch is taking a closer look at the companies helping to create, and profiting from, the terror/security culture (see the previous article). The trade fair, which is taking place at Kensington Olympia in London, is an opportunity to make huge profits for any company that can link its products to Western governments’ ‘wars on terror’. Amongst the 250 exhibitors are several companies developing security systems using biometric technologies and increasingly oppressive surveillance systems, bidding for lucrative contracts to create state-of-the-art security systems, for both state agencies and private clients. (more…)
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Making New Markets: ParcAberporth and the commercialisation of drone technology
The western Welsh county of Ceredigion is home to Danger Area D201, a former RAF missile testing ground, now converted into a 22km x 1.5km restricted airspace for the testing of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The area is the embodiment of the tangled relationships existing between corporate, governmental and private commercial interests. A section of the old RAF land is now operated by arms giant QinetiQ; the runway is owned by the same private businessman who runs the local airport; and at the centre of this hub of UAV promotion is the ParcAberporth facility, made possible, and owned by, the Welsh Assembly. (more…)
Corporate Watch News Update Articles
Identifying Threat: New biometrics markets and terror culture
The culture of fear and distrust that has grown up around this century’s terror culture and its associated wars has created vast new markets for anything that can be branded with the words security or defence. In April 2010, London’s Kensington Olympia will play host to a Counter Terror Expo, […]
Corporate Watch Newsletter Articles
CAMPAIGN SPOTLIGHT: Smash EDO
In small and multifarious ways, we can, despite appearances, still win. From the resounding defence of the Camp for Climate Action against police incursions last summer to Smash EDO’s victories on Brighton’s streets and in the courts, there are still explosions of hopeful defiance. Campaign Spotlight is a new fixture in the Corporate Watch newsletter. Through its portrayal of the wide variety of campaigns struggling for social and ecological justice, this column seeks to demonstrate that, whilst imagination is one of the first acts of defiance, action is its mainstay and active resistance persists and flourishes, even as the citadels of power, the state and the corporation, become increasingly powerful. Campaign Spotlight hopes to carve another hole in the prison wall, showing that resistance against corporate power, rapacious exploitation, ecocide and deadening consumerism is still everywhere AND it’s still fertile. (more…)