Supporters of an anti-arms campaign that has cost people in Sussex £1 million have complained their organisation is broke.
Smash EDO has appealed for donations to fund their next protest against the EDO factory in Home Farm Road, Moulscoomb, which they claim produces weapons parts used by Israel in Gaza.
The plea comes less than a week after their last action brought parts of Brighton to a stand still.
Sussex Police, who are expected to make £52 million in cuts in the next four years and has already announced projected job losses of 500 officers and 550 staff, still do not know how much policing last Wednesday’s protest cost.
But it is believed the bill for about 250 officers will run to hundreds of thousands of pounds and take the total spend on Smash EDO protests to £1 million.
Smash EDO spokesman Andrew Beckett yesterday said the organisation needs funds to print flyers ahead of its next Halloween-themed protest on Wednesday October 27.
He added: “We are broke.
“We are grass roots campaign run off practically nothing. We are very often broke.
“We need funds for printing flyers and stuff. We are run on a shoe string, but we do have some costs.
“Our costs are much less than the police’s costs for the protest.
“What we would say about the police’s costs is that they spent a huge amount to repress the public. We think they were acting outside the interests of the people of Brighton and Hove in spending that money on pre-emptive arrests to people who represent legitimate anger against the factory.”
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