Gaza Campaigners Target Hastings Arms Manufacturer
Around 25 demonstrators held a rally and march last Thursday outside the offices of General Dynamics on the Castleham estate in St Leonards. The firm is one of the US military’s largest defence contractors and, according to speakers at the rally, contributes directly to the manufacture of bombs and weapons systems supplied by the United States military to the Israeli Defence Force. The site in Hastings is believed to provide avionic systems for planes, and tactical communications equipment for ground vehicles, both used in the Israeli assault on Gaza city in recent weeks.
There were repeated chants calling on the firm and its workers to “Stop Arming Israel” and “Stop Bombing Gaza”. Placards also denounced the complicity of the UK government: “Gaza’s Children Killed by Israel with UK Support”. Messages were written in chalk on the pavement outside the premises, but attendant police intervened to forbid a demonstrator from writing on the outer wall.
Asked what purpose was served by the demonstration, local Trades Union Council chair Simon Hester said that they wanted to show the people of Hastings the connection between what was being done in their town and the slaughter in Gaza.
No representative of the company came out to respond to the demonstrators, but they were told that the factory had been put in “lockdown”. A post on Facebook on behalf of the Hastings and Rye Palestine Solidarity Campaign claimed this as a positive outcome.
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