Solidarity with Yemen: Worst Sights of London Tour
Visitors to Trafalgar Square, Pall Mall and The Mall don’t realise they are near some of the worst sight seeing in London: arms company offices!
MDBA, maker of missiles; Leonardo maker of helicopters, drones, munitions; BAE Systems maker of fight jets have all seen their products used vs schools, hospitals, factories and housing in Yemen. Thousands have been killed in the war, while the UK has sold more than £23 billion of weapons to the Saudi led coalition since it began. In this time, 370,000 people have died through direct and indirect causes, according to the UN.
London CAAT will be taking part in the Solidarity with Yemen Day of Action. Join us as we visit these sites and give them the attention they don’t want. We will hear about their involvement in Yemen, share their stories with passers-by via banners/leaflets, perhaps even take some selfies.
The tour will take about an hour and involve some leisurely walking (under 2 miles).
We will start at MBDA’s offices at 11 the Strand (between Charing Cross Station and Trafalgar Square) at 2.00pm
More information and updates can be found here.
This action is part of a national day of action so if you’re not in London, there are plenty of ways to get involved. Check out this page for resources, ideas for action and a social media campaign guide. There is a Solidarity With Yemen Fund, which is available for groups of activists to apply for funding to take creative action wherever they are. There is also a Facebook event here.
Activists recently took an open letter signed by thousands of people to Liz Truss as Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister over the last year asking her to stop the arms sales to Saudi Arabia. You can see a video of this action here. The war in Yemen has gone on for nearly eight brutal years and it must be brought to an end.
CAAT takes the government to court again
CAAT will be in court between January 31st and February 2nd 2023 to challenge the government over the supply of UK weapons for the war in Yemen. A previous legal action in 2019 forced the government to stop issuing export licences for weapons that could be used in the war in Yemen but they resumed sales in 2020. So CAAT applied for a new Judicial Review application and in April 2021 was granted permission for its legal challenge to proceed to the High Court.
The law is clear – arms sales should not not be allowed where there is a “clear risk” that a weapon “might” be used in a serious violation of International Humanitarian Law. Judges will now consider whether the government’s decision to resume arms sales is lawful. Check out this page for more information about the court case and how you can support it.