Protesters to Man Front Lines at Weapons Show

Anti-war protesters will infiltrate the enemy’s camp next week when an international weapons show comes to Orange County.

When the International Military Defense Exposition convenes at the Anaheim Convention Center on Wednesday, members of the Orange County Alliance for Survival will be sitting at a table at the convention center entrance.

The anti-nuclear group has agreed not to engage in civil disobedience in exchange for permission to greet convention-goers at the door, alliance director Marion Pack said Wednesday.

“Really, our goal is to reach the military contractors,” said Pack, whose group distributed flyers portraying the event as an “international weapons swap meet.”

Pack said the alliance wants to show delegates what they could be producing instead of weapons--peaceful aerospace technology, for example. They hope to staff the table with experts on the defense industry.

Pack said her group, along with the Orange County Coalition for Peace and Justice, an umbrella group of 19 organizations, will picket outside the convention from noon to 1 p.m. on April 2, 3 and 4 and stage a symbolic “die-in” on the final day of the event, April 5.

Marc Belfortti, spokesman for Sundance Corp. of Santa Monica, the convention promoter, said he tried to convince Pack not to demonstrate because of the possibility of violence. He also said demonstrations would be “embarrassing.”

The exposition, which is not open to the public, will present arms from handguns to automatic weapons and communications satellites, but no heavy artillery or nuclear weapons. Delegates from about 15 nations--including Israel, El Salvador, Italy, China and Great Britain--are expected to attend, he said.

The four-day exposition will include seminars on the Strategic Defense Initiative, or “Star Wars,” and on buying and selling weapons. On Saturday, the promoters have invited police chiefs from Los Angeles and Orange counties to view the hardware, Belfortti said.

The conference will give U.S.-based corporations a chance to increase sales and help the economy, Belfortti said. The convention will not promote war, he said, but will bring together representatives of nations in a peaceful setting without the pressure of government.

He said his firm lost money promoting the convention but laid the groundwork for future conferences.

The agreement with the coalition was reached one month after the annual Winter Conference on Aerospace and Electronic Systems conference on military technology, where protesters were arrested as they attempted to block busloads of delegates en route to the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

“If we are given a forum (at Wincon), we might very well say no demonstrations,” Pack said.