CLICK HERE FOR UP TO DATE COURT INFORMATION
Earlier this week Count Me Out received word from our friends at NoCONcensus about a number of upcoming court dates for census refusers. We’ve reproduced their call-out below.
CALL OUT for solidarity action at court for census refuser, Sarah Ledsom.
Let’s make this a big show of support bring your own and group campaign
banners and placards.
“All for one and one for all!”
DAY: This Thursday, 8th December
TIME: 9.30am
LOCATION: outside Liverpool Magistrates Court, 107 Dale St, L2 2JQ
(opposite side of road from council municipal offices, fly-over end of Dale
Steet)
This is a protest against war and the big brother surveillance state, it’s
about opposing rewarding the world’s biggest (which overtook BAE as of 2009)
arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin with the £150 million pounds contract
(awarded by the Labour government in 2008) for processing the UK census.
Furthermore Lockheed-Martin are big in surveillance Lockheed Martin
Vice-President Lorraine Martin has said: “We want to know what’s going on
anytime, anyplace on the planet.” Would you trust a company with such an
ambition with your confidential data?
There’s something sinister and ironic about us peace/anti-war protestors,
anti-nuclear, Palestinian supporters, anti-surveillance/anti-ID card
campaigners being legally forced, under threat of a £1,000 fine and possibily
prison if we refuse to pay the fine, to fill out the most personal of
information for it to be processed by the world’s biggest arms manufacturer.
Support already confirmed:
Merseyside CND,
Occupy Liverpool,
Wrecsam Peace and Justice Forum,
Nerve Magazine
The refusnik in court
Sarah Ledsom, 56, of Bromborough, Wirral, a grandmother who suffers with a
disabling chronic condition, is due to appear at the Magistrates Court in
Liverpool, 107 Dale St, L2 2JQ, on 8th December at 10am to answer a charge of
failing to complete the 2011 Census form. Sarah’s objections to completing
the census relate to Lockheed Martin’s contract to process census data given
the use of deadly Lockheed Martin weaponry by Israel on the people of
Palestine. Sarah plans to run a human rights defence in her case. There will
a demonstration and vigil outside the court from 9.30am. Please support this
if you possibly can. If you can’t be there in person, please consider
sending a message of solidarity to Sarah:
“My conscience will not, cannot condone what is happening to the good people
of Palestine, innocent men, women and children being murdered by arms
provided by Lockheed Martin to Israel. The very same Lockheed Martin who
were given the contract to oversee the census 2011. On Thursday 8th
December I will be pleading not guilty as I will not be part of the
collusion against Palestine. I will refuse to pay any fine and am more than
prepared to go to prison. This is not about me; this is about the corruption
and collusion going on between the UK/US/Israel against the innocent
Palestinians and I am standing against it. Will you stand with me and all
census resisters?” – Sarah Ledsom
