Census refuser Judith Sambrook in court. Report from Wrexham

Go girl, go!

From: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/11/488393.html

” People started to gather outside Wrexham Magistrates Court from about 9.30am this morning in solidarity with conscientious census objector Judith Sambrook. Judith’s census refusal stems from the involvement of WMD manufacturer Lockheed Martin in processing the data from the 2011 census in England and Wales.

Demonstration outside the court

Banners and placards

The youngest participant

Vital statistics

Judith (right)

Circle at war memorial

Joan speaks about drones

ANTI-WAR DEMO

This was very much an anti-war demonstration and, with the case being heard on Remembrance Day, most of the 25 supporters were wearing white peace poppies on their lapels. Placards and banners pointed out Lockheed Martin’s deadly business, called for solidarity with Judith and all census refusers, and for an end to wars everywhere.

Around 25 people took part, from Wrexham, Flintshire, Shropshire, Wirral, Liverpool and beyond. Some maintained a presence outside the court for the duration of the hearing, while others went into the court to support Judith.

MOVE ALONG NOW

Our presence outside the court seemed to cause consternation inside. Security were sent out soon after 9.30am to try and move us from our prominent but sheltered spot right in front of the court to a windy patch of grass opposite. A bit put out that no one was ‘in charge’ of the protest, the security guard quickly moved from asking, to ordering, to threatening us with the cops. Having established that the court had no immediate plans to use the bit of ground we were occupying for a function, end of season garden fete or suchlike, we pointed out its advantages and individually expressed our intention to stay. He said he’d been briefed from ‘above’ that we had to move, muttered darkly that we wouldn’t want children to be caught up in police action against us, would we? and retreated inside. A while later, and after some CSOs had cheerily assured us we were fine where we were, a cop turned up and did a similar ‘move or else’ routine. None of us obliged, which prompted the Sergeant from Wrexham Police Station next door to pay a visit and tell us that ‘the court’ (whoever that is) would like us to move. In fact, it wanted us to move. He appealed to us to be reasonable, which in his view meant that we would agree to stand where ‘the court’ wanted us to stand, across the way. We said we’d move when we were finished, so he went back inside, consulted and came back out smiling to tell us we could stay after all thanks to the court’s reasonableness. I think we were supposed to be grateful.

SOLIDARITY MESSAGES FROM SUPPORTERS

Judith was an hour late, courtesy of a cancelled Arriva train. While we were waiting we passed the time handing out flyers to passers-by, speaking with a number of local journos who had turned up to cover the story, and reading out all the messages of solidarity from British well-wishers, including many from Occupy London Stock Exchange and Finsbury Square, from Canada (where Lockheed Martin also has a census contract) and beyond.

COURT REPORT

Inside the court, Judith entered a plea of not guilty and the case was adjourned until 8 December, when it will be heard in Mold Magistrates Court, Flintshire, even further away from Judith’s home in Shrewsbury and involving both a train and long bus journey (NB this date and venue could change).

SILENT VIGIL

Although we’d planned to observe a silent vigil at the war memorial at 11am, in the event we were still at the court, so we held the vigil there instead. Those who were able to stay longer then moved to the war memorial, where we held a further two minutes of silent reflection in a circle before sharing information about Lockheed Martin’s deadly business, thoughts about Judith’s case, white poppies, Remembrance Day and the impact of war. Joan Meredith spoke about the need to oppose drone warfare and about the protest camp at Waddington in Lincs. Judith spoke about her reasons for refusing to comply with the census, about how David Cameron’s idea of a ‘Big Society’ was looking set to backfire on him big time, and thanked everyone for their support and solidarity.

FUTURE COURT DATES

We now have three future dates of census refuser court cases:

Refuser in Liverpool: 5 December (details to be confirmed)
Judith: 8 December, Mold, Flintshire (may change)
R Grenville: 5 January, Birmingham Magistrates Court.”

 

Occupy London – Solidarity with Census Refuser Judith Sambrook

From: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/11/488233.html

” Judith is mother of five, single parent, currently raising two children of primary school age. She has kidney failure and is on dialysis three days a week. Judith is pleading not guilty to the charge and may run a human rights defence. If found guilty, she has pledged not to pay any fine imposed. ”

From: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2011/11//488237.pdf

” The Director, Office of National Statistics, Segensworth Road, Titchfield, Fareham, Hants,  PO15 5RR

Dear Sir

2011 Census of England and Wales

This letter is in response to the census forms which are not being completed by either myself
or my partner. As a long term university lecturer in the social sciences I am well aware of the
value of the census information to the government. But also as a long term pacifists we are
aware of the need to act with honesty towards one’s conscience when it comes to making
ethical choices. I find that the decision to award the data processing aspects of the census
to   an   armaments   manufacturer   (Lockheed   Martin   UK)   to  be  crass   in   the  extreme,   and
certainly   a   thoughtless   move   on   behalf   of   the   government   in   terms   of   guaranteeing
maximum compliance with the census.

By way of substantiating the above we would like to make the following points:

• We never knowingly have dealings with unethical companies. You will be aware that,
  for instance, the Cooperative Bank does not deal with weapons manufacturers, and I
  have always banked with this company.  Most mainstream churches in Britain also
  do not support companies that are considered as unethical. We find it insensitive in
  the extreme that it is compulsory for us to help contribute to the business and profits
  of a company that manufactures cluster bombs, Trident nuclear warheads, and which
  controls a third of the Aldermaston nuclear weapons factory. We find it regrettable
  that ONS fails to appreciate this insensitivity. And now Lockheed Martin is moving
  into   the   rather   sinister   world   of   surveillance   and   intelligence,   with   their   US   Vice
  President (Lorraine Martin) being on record as saying “We want to know what’s going
  on anytime, any place on the planet”.
• The ONS states that the census is being supported by Lockheed Martin (UK) and
  that this company is somehow completely separate from the US parent company.
  However, a perusal of the Lockheed Martin (UK) web site confirms that they too deal
  in the same military and surveillance areas as their US parent company. If they are
  totally   separate   companies   as   ONS   suggests,   then   it   seems   an   incredible
  coincidence that a company called Lockheed Martin should be carrying out both the
  USA and UK census processing! It is mere tautology to say that they are separate
  companies.
• Another depressing coincidence seems to be the fact that the census for England
  and Wales is being partly carried out by a subsidiary of a US company (Lockheed
  Martin) who themselves are involved in surveillance and intelligence and who were
  heavily   implicated   in   some   of   the   scandalous   activities   in   Afghanistan,   and   who
  controlled interrogators at Guantanamo Bay. At the same time the censuses for both
  Scotland and the Irish Republic are being partly carried out by the subsidiary of a US
  company (CACI International) who are also involved in surveillance and intelligence
  and who were also implicated in some of the scandalous Abu Ghraib prison activities
  in Iraq. Perhaps ONS can explain how this coincidence came about? These seem
  strange credentials for companies who are gathering 32 pages of data on all the
  citizens of the British Isles!
• Maybe one answer to the above facts lies in the fact that  Sir David Manning was
  appointed to be one of Tony Blair’s top foreign policy advisors in 2001. He was
  British Ambassador to Israel from 1995 to 1998 and Mr Blair appointed him to be the
  UK   ambassador   in   Washington   from   2003   to   2007.  Wikipedia   notes   “His   close
  relationship with the Prime Minister suggests he has been a key figure in driving
  British foreign policy in respect of  the United States, particularly in the aftermath of
  the September 11, 2001 attacks and the decision to invade Iraq. In 2008 he became
  a non-executive director of Lockheed Martin, the multinational arms manufacturer
  that made millions supplying military hardware for the war, and he joined the advisory
  board   of Hakluyt   &   Company,   an   intelligence   company   partly   staffed   by
  former MI6 officers.”  One seriously questions whether Sir David might have had a
  major influence on LM getting the census work!
• We hope that the ONS are aware of the fact that the Lockheed Martin US parent
  company is listed at No 1 on the USA Federal Contractor Misconduct database (run
  by the Project on Government Oversight), with 57 alleged cases of corruption, fraud,
  bribery,  environmental  damage   and   discrimination.   We  must   remember  that  with
  respect   to   most   of   these   cases,   private   companies   in   the   US   have   government
  contractor immunity from prosecution. It is also relevant to note that a New York
  Times profile of the company in 2004 opened with the sentence: “Lockheed Martin
  doesn’t run the United States. But it does help run a breathtakingly big part of it”, and
  further “Giving one company this much power in matters of war and peace is as
  dangerous as it is undemocratic,” says Bill Hartung, senior fellow at the World Policy
  Institute in New York. “Lockheed Martin is now positioned to profit from every level of
  the war on terror from targeting to intervention, and from occupation to interrogation.”
  With the help of Lockheed Martin, it is our opinion  that the national census has
  moved from a legitimate socio-economic activity to an activity that is part of  the
  sinister security world of intelligence and surveillance.
• The   ONS   may   not   be   aware   that   the   Lockheed   Martin   Corporation   is   the   lead
  company behind the current United States government Next Generation Identification
  (NGI) initiative in which $1.6 billion is being spent on biometric developments that will
  allow many aspects  of an  individual’s  private  characteristics  to  be  gathered  and
  stored  in  a  vast  digital  warehousing  system.  For  those  who  champion  individual
  rights, this represents yet another step in the erosion of natural rights and individual
  liberties, and is a move towards a more robust and authoritarian police state. We
  would   remind   the   ONS   that   when   communist   governments   were   gathering   data
  (spying?) on their citizens during the Cold-War then we severely criticised this. But
  now we do this ourselves in a much more detailed and comprehensive manner.
• The ONS claims that our census data is perfectly safe, and that the parent Lockheed
  Martin company will not be able to obtain it. A perusal of http://www.lockheedmartin.co.uk/
  buying-solutions/  states   “We  feel  that   the   census   work   is   particularly   relevant   in
  demonstrating our end-to-end (my emphasis) capability ensuring cost effective and
  time critical delivery of benefits”. This seems to imply that the company are doing all
  of the data processing work, and that therefore they might have easy access to
  private data.
• We are afraid that there has been too much evidence that our government is not to
  be trusted when there is a matter of looking after digital data. We have seen lost
  information, shared information, stolen information and we have seen how hackers
  can penetrate even the most secure data holding facilities. Of course ONS will claim
  data security but that is very different from upholding this claim. I simply do not
  believe that your offices can keep the census data from getting to the USA parent
  company, or that you can provide a rigid guarantee that it is safe from the US Patriot Act   whereby   the   data   can   be   passed   onto   the   American   government   when
  demanded, i.e. this matter has yet to be tested in the UK courts. We also have to
  consider that when it suits them, our government can claim that a circumstance is an
  issue of national security, and then any data promises can simply be ignored, and the
  Prime Minister of the day can simply make his/her own  rules. We saw this with
  regard   to   the   BAE   Systems   weapons   deal   with   Saudi   Arabia,   and   where   this
  company (the world’s  number one weapons  manufacturer) has since been given
  immunity from further prosecution in respect to paying bribes.
• Since a UK company (UK Data Capture) has apparently been contracted to receive,
  scan and process the 2011 census information, then it is inconceivable to us that a
  non-contentious UK company cannot perform all of the census processing work, i.e.
  as was done prior to 2001. It would be interesting to know why UK Data Capture
  could not have been doing this work. Indeed what is it that Lockheed Martin are
  doing that UK Data Capture cannot be doing? Or maybe in practice they are the
  same company?

Over the past few weeks we have seen how the UK government seems to place huge
importance on selling weapons abroad, much to the detriment of many citizens in the Middle
East and north Africa. Our successive governments (of any party) clearly care little about
who   the   weapons   are   sold   to,   but   we   know   for   certain   that   Lockheed   Martin   was   the
company supplying most of the cluster bombs (and other weapons) that have killed 10,000s
of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. And it is interesting to speculate on the reaction
of American citizens were they to be told, for instance, that BAE Systems was about to
undertake their census.

One would have to be extremely naive to believe that there was nothing rather sinister in
awarding the census contract to the Lockheed Martin company We simply refuse to have
any part in supporting this company, and we  wonder whether senior personnel in ONS
privately regret the decision to award the contract to this company?

Yours very sincerely “

 

Judith Sambrook: Census court case

From: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/11/488084.html

” Judith Sambrook is due to appear in Wrexham Magistrates court on Remembrance Day, Friday 11/11/11. She’s being prosecuted for refusing to cooperate with the 2011 Census in protest at the involvement of deadly arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin in processing census data. There’ll be a demonstration outside the court from 9.30am and a silent vigil at the war memorial at 11am. If you’re not able to be there in person, please consider sending a message of solidarity to Judith. Messages can be sent to NoCONcensus[at]yahoo.co.uk.

ASSEMBLE 9.30am OUTSIDE WREXHAM MAGISTRATES COURT on FRIDAY 11 NOVEMBER.

See also:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/10/487666.html
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/11/487752.html

Note change to original start time.

DEMONSTRATE

• against war, weapons manufacturers and the arms trade, and against Lockheed Martin in particular
• in solidarity with Judith and all census refusers
• to condemn the criminalisation of conscientious census objectors

As this is also Remembrance Day, we will hold a silent vigil at 11am at the war memorial, which is just 50 yards from the court.

Please join us for the morning if you possibly can. Contact us if you need accommodation the night before.

LOCATION AND TRAVEL

Address: Bodhyfryd, Wrexham LL12 7BP.

Transport: 5 minutes walk from bus station, 10 minutes walk from either train station. Car parking right outside, access from Chester Street (swimming pool car park). Direct train services from Chester, Deeside and the Wirral, North Wales coast, Shrewsbury and Birmingham. Wrexham is 12 miles from Chester, 30 miles from Liverpool and 40 miles from Shrewsbury.

MORE ABOUT LOCKHEED MARTIN

Lockheed Martin manufactures F-16 fighter jets, as used by Israel to murder civilians in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead in 2009.
http://www.amnesty.ie/our-work/operation-cast-lead

Lockheed Martin developed and manufactured Britain’s Trident nuclear missiles and has a £5.3 billion contract with the UK government to design and build new and illegal weapons of mass destruction at Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment.
http://thechristianradical.blogspot.com/2007/12/london-catholic-workers-muriel-lesters.html (read the footnotes for a summary of Lockheed Martin’s Trident credentials)

Lockheed Martin has developed the ‘Aegis Combat System’. The US is pressurising South Korea to site Aegis-fitted destroyers at a planned naval base on Jeju Island, South Korea, a Unesco-designated ecological area, in a move which will fuel the arms race in the region and will be seen by China as extremely provocative. Local peace activists and others have been resisting this development for years, with many detained for occupying the proposed base.
http://www.koreanbeacon.com/2011/10/11/jeju-island-naval-base-construction-facing-strong-resistance/
http://www.savejejuisland.org/Save_Jeju_Island/Welcome.html

Lockheed Martin also manufactures cluster bombs, sells arms to Bahrain and makes surveillance drones used by the UK in Afghanistan.

The Census connection:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/03/475304.html
http://www.bristol.indymedia.org/article/703611

More on Lockheed Martin’s nefarious activities here:
http://www.corpwatch.org/section.php?id=9

Canadian take on the issues here:
http://sandrafinley.ca/?page_id=70

FOR MORE INFORMATION or to arrange accommodation on the night of 10 November: email: NoCONcensus[at]yahoo.co.uk

We’d be interested to hear of any other court cases being brought against census refusers. “

 

Everything is ok with the census part 2

Sod the Census

From: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMfWYzQ9tdI&feature=related