Virtual tour of companies that have supplied weapons used on BLM protesters
The deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, among others, sparked a wave of protests across the US. These protests were met with a violent response from the police. London CAAT and Rainbow Collective produced this video to highlight the companies that have supplied weapons used on these protesters. These companies are complicit in the violent reaction to the protesters and help maintain the structural racism and violent nature of the police. On top of the companies mentioned in this video, it has also been proved that UK shields from the company DMS Plastics were used by the US police in confrontations with protesters.
The video contains a number of actions you can take, such as using CAAT’s arms companies database to contact any of the companies that may be near you as well as writing to your MP about the cancellation of arms export licences to the US. There is also a petition you can sign and a crowdfunder to support. We also urge you to support organisations campaigning on wider issues of structural racism and police violence such as Black Lives Matter UK and the United Families and Friends Campaign.
CAAT launches new legal challenge to Saudi arms sales
As the UK government continues to ignore clear evidence that violations of international humanitarian law are being carried out by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, CAAT have launched a new legal challenge to stop the sale of UK weapons for use in this war. The government resumed sales to the coalition in July, a frankly ludicrous and astonishing decision.
UK rules explicitly prohibit the sale of weapons when there is a “clear risk they might be used in violations of international humanitarian law.” Thousands of civilians have been killed and schools and hospitals have been targeted. These awful incidents have been carried out with UK-made bombs and CAAT estimates the value of sales to the Coalition since the beginning of the war to be at least £18 billion.
The government’s review of these sales was a whitewash and somehow concluded that any violations of International Humanitarian Law committed by the Saudi coalition were ‘isolated incidents’. This shocking decision cannot be allowed to stand and the legal case will hopefully stop these sales once and for all. Read more about the legal challenge here.
Oppose the Immigration Enforcement Centre in Newham
The Home Office are proposing to open an Immigration Enforcement Centre in Newham, one of the most multicultural boroughs in the UK. People whose immigration status is being assessed by the Home Office would be required to sign in here (and could be booked onto deportation flights).
This is an awful move and would create a hostile environment for the residents of Newham. The proposed site for the centre is Warehouse K at the Royal Victoria Docks. This sites the centre right next to the ExCeL centre, where the DSEI arms fair takes place every couple of years. This fair is where deals to sell weapons to countries with dubious humans rights records are made, weapons that then cause people to flee their countries. This makes the proposed move from central London particularly cruel.
Black Activists Rising Against Cuts have organised a petition against the proposed move, which you can sign here and the Newham branch of Stand Up to Racism organised a demo against the centre.