In the context of the NATO summit in Newport, a cell of the Federazione Anarchica Informale (FAI) has struck BAE Systems in Filton, Bristol:
We mounted our attack against the BAE Systems arms factory in the Filton area of Bristol by setting a fire against the fuel tank outside the onsite Advanced Technology Centre (Impact Facility – High Power Electro Magnetic Facility section) on August 29th. Today we now announce carrying this out in the context of the NATO summit in Newport in five days. Britain is rife with military industrial complex structures all year round and everyone can draw her or his own conclusion.
BAE Systems are possibly the largest so called defence multinational and they are Britain’s largest manufacturing employer. Some of their major projects with the British Armed Forces alone are the NATO Eurofighter jets and nuclear submarines.
From artillery and aerial drones with specialist communication systems to the Israeli Air Force F16 fighter bombers and the shackles used on detainees in Guantánamo Bay you can find BAE Systems across the world behind imperialist conquest and the death or immiseration of millions. The company now has branches in criminal intelligence and investigation that deal with matters like cyber threats to the banking industry and was contracted by the European Union to devise the Strategic Crime and Immigration Information Management System : essentially an international police database. They are in line to profit from managing the transition of analytics from analysis of physical locations to analysis of individuals and how they interact for the advantage of law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
The factory where we hit produces hardware including that of naval frigates and combat vehicles and there hundreds of staff with the Advanced Technology Centre design cutting edge weaponry for global markets. Just a few of their specialities are :
Abnormal behaviour detection & video analytics
Bio-inspired technology
Micro & nanotechnology and smart materials
Technologies for covert & secure operations
BAE Systems are at the forefront of military robotics as well as the latest innovations such as cloaking devices for tanks and body armour formed from liquid to make the modern flesh and blood killing machine even more agile and deadly. Look to their armoured land vehicles which are autonomous of human supervision (like those patrolling the Israeli-Gaza and Israeli-Lebanon border zones) or the tiny above ground or under water machines modelled on insects for audio-visual reconnaissance to see a sign of our future they are preparing.
The company make explicit reference to the age of asymmetric warfare and the crossover from use of their products on the battle field to use within society at large : a common phenomenon in the sector. A case to illustrate this is the high power BAE Systems night vision gear finding its way into the civilian surveillance camera market to advance the project making open prisons out of the urban centres and anywhere it is needed to protect the system and its commodities.
Need we write more to demonstrate how technological development under the civilised power structure is leading us to a desolate automated landscape of near total dominance and potential annihilation? The hour is late and the brave new world with amplified demand for submission will be the price for our indifference.
To go after them on what they thought was safe ground is what we decided to return in kind for the business BAE Systems have chosen. Through the attack we are with those incarcerated for their own path towards anarchy :
Gianluca Iacovacci and Adriano Antonacci
Marco Camenisch
Nicola Gai and Alfredo Cospito
Every year they spend inside, the destructive acts will multiply. Honour also to fighters of days gone by who walked armed against dominance in their time.
FAI “Sacco & Vanzetti” Circle of Propaganda by Life & by Deed
August 23-30, Anarchist Prisoners Global Week of Solidarity!