Say no to the Malvern arms fair
Another arms fair but another chance for resistance. Join Three Counties CAAT and others to take action against the Malvern arms fair (otherwise known as the 3CDSE Defence and Security Expo) on November 4th. With delightful companies such as BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and Thales attending, they are but three reasons to join the actions against the fair. Full details here. You can also sign the petition against it here.
Some inspiring ways the arms trade has been resisted recently
The last month has seen some excellent work to take on various aspects of the arms trade and related issues of oppression. Firstly, a group of lawyers have filed a dossier on war crimes in Yemen to British police and prosecutors, calling for the arrest of 20 people from two Gulf countries if they step foot in the UK. Read more about that here.
The wonderful media organisation Declassified UK released an excellent short film about Britain’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, primarily focusing on an arms factory in Lancashire that sends a supply flight to Saudi Arabia every week. In another example of the UK supplying weapons to countries with dubious human rights records, Byline Times exposed that the UK government has approved sniper licences to three countries on its own list of countries of concern. Read more about that here. In Bahrain, the jailed academic Dr Abduljalil AlSingace has embarked on a hunger strike to protest against his poor treatment in jail where he is a serving a life sentence due to his role in the pro-democracy uprising in 2011. You can read more about his case here and sign a petition calling for his release here.