Arms Sales to Dictators, Displacement, and Militarised Borders: UK Arms sales in and around Syria film launch event, April 24th
We have made a film about the UK government and the UK arms industry’s involvement in and around the Syrian Civil war. It critically tracks the UK government’s issuing of chemical licences to companies selling to Bashar al Assad, who would go on to gas Syrians. It then examines arms sales to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose border guards shoot at and kill Syrians trying to flee and is accused of ethnic cleansing of the Kurdish population. Finally, it looks at how the UK choses to support a policy of militarised borders in Lebanon and Jordan which has made it even harder for Syrians to escape. Sign up for the online launch event here.
We will show the film and then have a panel including speakers from Refugee Action (more to follow) who will talk about the issues raised in the film. There will be time for questions.
The film was made by the wonderful Rainbow Collective and we thank them for their help with making it.
A solemn vigil to mark eight years of the war in Yemen
On March 26th, we gathered opposite Downing Street to mark eight years of the war in Yemen. This war has devastated the country and killed hundreds of thousands, with the aid of UK weapons. We heard speeches from Sayed AlWadaei (Bahrain Institute of Rights and Democracy), David Wearing (University of Sussex) and Terina Hine (Stop the War Coalition) as well as playing a message from the Yemeni freelance journalist Ahmad Algohbary. The Raised Voices choir provided some songs and we read out the names of people killed in some of the many horrendous bombing raids on the country. We finished with eight minutes of silence, one for each year of the war. We call for an end to the war, an end to UK arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition and justice for the Yemeni people.
We went to Westminster tube to say no to BAE Systems ads on London Underground
BAE Systems have had an advert at Westminster tube for years. We find this unconscionable – why is a company complicit in the war on Yemen through its weapons sales allowed to advertise on the underground system? So we paid a visit to the station but were unfortunately joined by some unpleasant guests. Watch the video here and then sign the petition to get the ad removed. You can also read more about this in this blog post on the CAAT we