One year to the next DSEI arms fair
The DSEI arms fair will be returning in September 2023 to darken our shores again. The 2021 edition saw over 30,000 arms buyers and dealers gather to network and make deals. Governments and military delegations from countries with dubious human rights records and those involved in military conflicts and at war browsed the wares of 1,600+ arms companies selling everything from guns and bombs to fighter jets and warships. This is where war starts but it is also where we can stop it.
The Stop the Arms Fair network (STAF) are having a planning meeting on September 24th 11am-4pm at Friends House in Euston to discuss the future of STAF and how they can plan the opposition to DSEI 2023. This is a kick off meeting and there will be other meetings in the year running up to DSEI to further plans to take action against the fair. You can find out more about the meeting here or if you’re not on Facebook here. Please share details about the meeting widely.
No to BAE Systems advert in Westminster tube
We did another leafleting session at Westminster tube station to promote our petition calling on TfL to remove the advert for BAE Systems from the station. As the situation in Yemen continues to be horrendous and the lasting peace the citizens of Yemen so direly need is denied to them, having an advert for a company that supplies billions of pounds of weapons to the Saudi regime that is carrying out the brutal bombardment of Yemen is morally reprehensible. The public were again receptive to the message behind the petition and signatures are still going up. We have other plans surrounding the petition with the next action in October so please reply to this email if you want to get involved.
Liz Truss asked to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia
On the day Liz Truss took office as the UK’s new Prime Minister, we joined CAAT and numerous activists to hand in an open letter to Downing Street, signed by 7385 people, calling on the new Prime Minister to stop arming the Saudi-led coalition. As stated above, the war in Yemen is ongoing and the value of UK arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition since the war began is at least £23 billion. Thousands of innocent civilians have been killed by the coalition’s indiscriminate bombing including 232 in the last month.
Liz Truss was Secretary of State for International Trade leading on military and security exports during the period CAAT took the government to court over UK arms exports to the Saudi-led Coalition. Despite the Court of Appeal finding in CAAT’s favour, in July 2020, Truss determined that any violations of international law were “isolated incidents” and the arms sales continued.
After talks from Andrew Feinstein, author of ‘The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade’ and others as well as some loud chanting we handed in the petition and will keep the pressure on Truss and the goverment to end the arms sales.