Two Catholic Workers Convicted for "Rivers of Blood" Protest at DSEi Arms Fair

"On Friday 15 February Ms Zelda Jeffers and Fr Martin
Newell cp were convicted of "criminal damage" at
Stratford Magistrates Court, for pouring fake blood
on Excel Centre, East London on the first morning of
the DSEi (Defence Services Equipment International)
Arms Fair, 11th September 2007. The Custom House
entrance to the Arms Fair was closed for at least 4
hours as a result. The DSEi Arms Fair is one of the
world's largest Arms Fair.

The two admitted pouring fake blood, but denied that
it was criminal damage. Ms Jeffers had held up a
banner saying "Get the Guns Out of London" and then
poured fake blood on herself before being arrested. In
speaking to the court Ms Jeffers made some moving and
powerful arguments.

She 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."

Fr Newell said that he poured out five litres of red
paint, to represent the '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.
fr Newell mentioned the Nuremberg Trials which
established the principle of International Law that a
citizen has a duty to act in defence of innocent
people, even where that involved breaking the laws of
a particular country. He also said that the criminal
damage act allows a defence of 'lawful excuse' where
to prevent a greater crime from being carried out it
was the duty of a citizen and necessary for him to do
what would otherwise be a criminal act. He gave the
example of a firemen having to break into buildings to
save lives. What he was doing at ExCel was trying to
prevent great crimes being carried out by those who
purchased the weapons of offer. He mentioned the
Cluster Bombs which were on display at DSEi 2005, and
the sale to Israel of weapons used to attack Lebanon
during the 2007 Arms Fair.

Both Fr Newell and Ms Jeffers stated that if fined
they would not pay. After consideration Ms Jeffers was
given 12 months conditional discharge with a total of
£240 costs and compensation. Fr Newell, who has a
previous record of nonviolent direct action for peace
was fined £200, in addition to the £240 costs and
compensation. Both were told that if they did not pay
they would have to return to the court at the on 18th
March

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 destitute 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, Dorothy Day House, on
tel: 020 7249 0041, or 07973 221 965

LCW website: www.londoncatholicworker.org

US CW website: www.catholicworker.org"