Anti-War Resisters Before the Courts

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Tuesday March 18, 2008 07:44

by Ciaron - London Catholic Worker

London Catholic Workers Face Imprisonment for DSEi Arms Fair Resistance!

“RIVERS OF BLOOD START HERE”
Zelda Jeffers and Fr Martin Newell of the London
Catholic Worker community were sentenced to
days in prison today, at Stratford Magistrates
Court, for pouring fake blood onto the gangway
entrance to the DSEi (Defence System Equipment
International) Arms Fair at Custom House DLR station
in east London in September. The entrance to one of
the world’s largest arms fairs was closed for at least
4 hours as a result.

The were found guilty of “criminal damage” at their
trial at the same Court in February and ordered to pay
fines and costs totalling £700. However, as they
refused to pay these, the Magistrate ordered them to
serve a custodial sentence. The two admitted pouring
fake blood, but denied that it was criminal damage. Fr
Newell had poured out five litres of red paint on the
gangway, saying 'rivers of blood that start here at
the DSEi Arms Fair’ . Having done this, he then knelt
down to pray. He was dragged away and arrested. Ms
Jeffers had held up a banner saying "Get the Guns Out
of London" and then poured fake blood on herself
before being arrested.

Martin Newell said in court today, “To pay this fine
would be to co-operate with a system that is fuelling
murder and mayhem around the world by promoting and
protecting the arms trade. We withdrew our
co-operation at the DSEi arms fair last September. We
continue that refusal to go along quietly with
manifest evil. In Holy Week, Christians and others
remember the price Jesus paid on the cross for
standing up for truth, life and freedom, when he was
arrested for his act of civil disobedience when he
cleansed the Temple of traders and bankers. It is a
great privilege to be able to follow, in a small way,
Jesus’ example of suffering for love and righteousness
sake.”

At the trial in February, Zelda Jeffers said, “"I am
a mother, have held my babies, know the love and care
and concern a mother anywhere has for her children.
They have a right to physical integrity that is, not
to be blown up shot or burnt. I worked as a midwife
which is a respected profession, I helped babies be
born, I hoped for them to grow up. The week before the
arms fair Ryan was shot in Liverpool, with a gun that
was manufactured and traded, then ended a young life,
this is wrong, it should be stopped. I worked in
Nicaragua during and after the war there. I saw the
results of these arms not only in maiming and killing
but in poverty, ignorance and hunger. How can I not
try to stop this going on? The blood coloured paint
and dye was not damage but a statement of truth. The
action was not criminal but my duty as a human being."

Both Ms Jeffers and Fr Newell cp live and work at the
London Catholic Worker community house of
hospitality in Hackney, east London. The house
provides accommodation for asylum seekers, and members
run a community cafe and soup kitchen in Hackney.

The London Catholic Worker is part of the
international Catholic Worker movement, started in
1933 in New York to "explode the dynamite of Catholic
Social Teaching". The movement is committed
to radical social, political and economic change. The
London CW organises and campaigns for peace and
justice and publishes a quarterly newsletter as well
as a website.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Contact London Catholic Worker on tel: 020 7249 0041
(Ciaron), or 01923 777 201 (Scott)

LCW website: www.londoncatholicworker.org

US CW website: www.catholicworker.org