Author: Ian Pocock

Arms sales on trial again

April 22^rd saw fantastic news as CAAT was granted permission to bring their legal challenge over arms sales supplied for use in the war on Yemen to the High Court. This is another chance to hold the government to account on these heinous sales and put a stop to them.

Six years of war fought with UK weapons has caused massive devastation to the country and killed at least 8,759 civilians. The government has ignored allegations of breaches of international humanitarian law and numerous attacks on schools, hospitals and funerals; claiming they are ‘isolated incidents’.

In 2019 legal action by CAAT forced the government to stop issuing export licences for weapons that could be used in the war in Yemen. The government was ordered to retake all its previous decisions in a lawful manner.

But in July 2020 the government resumed arms sales, and since then it has licensed more than £1.6 billion additional weapons sales in support of the war. Declassified also revealed recently that BAE Systems have sold £17.6bn of weaponry to Saudi Arabia during the war.

This permission to proceed puts more pressure on the UK government to end these sales once and for all. The Yemeni people cannot wait any longer. You can read more about the legal challenge here and you can still sign the open letter demanding that Boris Johnson stops the arms sales now.

Call on the London Mayoral candidates to Stop DSEI

September 2021 will see the Defence and Security Equipment International, the world’s largest arms fair, return to London. This fair hosts military and security delegations from some of the world’s most repressive regimes and will enable weapons to be marketed to these regimes, fuelling more death and misery globally. DSEI 2019 featured over 1,700 exhibitors, including all of the biggest arms companies, marketing their wares to more than 36,000 attendees. But we can put pressure on the mayoral candidates to oppose this fair. In conjunction with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, we are calling on the candidates to publicly say they oppose DSEI, recover the costs of policing the event from DSEI’s organisers and commit to doing everything they can to stop DSEI from returning to London.

If you are in London, please email the candidates here. If you are out of London, you can write to the Secretary of State for International Trade here. DSEI has darkened London’s boundaries for far too long and it must be banned from taking place ever again.

Holding the people of Yemen in the light

On the sixth anniversary of the start of the war on Yemen, we held a vigil for the people of Yemen, who have experienced so much suffering due to the Saudi-led coalition’s bombardment of their country. We played a video from the Yemeni journalist Ahmad Algohbary and read out a poem by the Yemeni–Scouse poet and activist Amina Atiq, which you can read on the last page of this fantastic CAAT zine. We then lit candles and stayed in silence as we held the people of Yemen in our thoughts. Our vigil was preceded by Stop the War Coalition’s rally, which you can watch here.

On a related note, CAAT have produced a new open letter to Boris Johnson calling on him to end UK arms sales for use in the war on Yemen. As the United States has frozen arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, this is a great opportunity to put pressure on the UK to do the same. You can sign the open letter here.

Support Bahrainis campaign for an inquiry into the Bahrain Grand Prix

24 human rights organisations, including our friends the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), and 61 MPs have called for an independent inquiry into the Bahrain Grand Prix over human rights concerns in the country. The Bahraini regime brutally crushed the pro-democracy uprising during the Arab Spring of 2011 and the human rights situation has grown worse over the last decade. Democracy activists have been tortured and jailed and even children have been tortured and convicted. 51 individuals have been sentenced to death and over 900 people have had their citizenship revoked. This is a form of sportswashing and Formula 1 should abide by its own human rights policy.

Lewis Hamilton has responded for calls to take a stance, including from an 11 year old boy who’s father is on death row, and said Formula 1 cannot ignore concerns surrounding human rights in the countries it visits. He said “There are issues all around the world but I do not think we should be going to these countries and just ignoring what is happening in those places, arriving, having a great time and then leaving”. You can read more about his stance here. Check out BIRD’s website for more information on how to support their #Race4Rights campaign.

As the war on Yemen enters its sixth year, join the rally calling for its immediate end

Six years ago, the Saudi-led coalition began a brutal and devastating bombardment of Yemen. This war has claimed 233,000 lives and it is estimated that 24 million Yemenis need humanitarian assistance. This was has been supported all of the way with UK-built aircraft firing UK-made missiles. The UK is fully complicit in this war and bears a great responsibility for the carnage in Yemen.

Join Stop the War coalition on March 26^th, the anniversary of the war’s start, to call for an immediate end to British support for the war, an end to the arms sales to the coalition and an end to all military support. Speakers at the rally include Ahmed Al-Babati, Jeremy Corbyn and Andrew Feinstein. You can find more details and sign up here.

We will also be holding a vigil to stand in solidarity with the people of Yemen and commemorate the lives that have been lost there since the war began. This will be immediately after the rally at 7pm. We will hear from the Yemeni journalist Ahmad Algohbary before reading names of some of the innocent civilians killed in Yemen and then light some candles in memory of them. You can find more details here.

Sign up for CAAT’s Digital conference!

CAAT will be hosting their annual conference online this year on March 19th-21st and they have put together an amazing programme that will be educational, interactive and inspiring. There will be panels marking 10 years of the Arab uprisings of 2011, rethinking security and on the role of art and creativity in our resistance. It’s bound to be stimulating weekend so please go here for more info and to sign up.

CAAT nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize!

We are very excited to announce that CAAT have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize alongside their partner organisation Mwatana for Human Rights, a grassroots organisation working in Yemen. This is fantastic news and testament to both organisation’s sterling work raising awareness about the devastating humanitarian crisis in Yemen and the UK government’s complicity in it through the arms sales and support it provides to the Saudi-led coalition.

Mwatana have done amazing work documenting human rights violations by all parties in the war and raising the voices of victims. You can check our their website here and read more about the important work they do.

CAAT have written a blog on what the nomination means for their campaigning and you can read that here. One of the main benefits is that it is an opportunity to bring to the world’s attention the suffering Yemeni people have endured since the war started. This is a war that is fuelled by western weapons, including £6.8 billion worth of arms by the UK alone.

We are grateful to The American Friends Service Committee and Quaker Peace & Social Witness for nominating CAAT and Mwatana.

‘The war must end’ – thousands globally call for an end to the war on Yemen

385 organizations from 25 countries signed a call to action against the war on Yemen, an end to the arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition and more humanitarian aid to the people of Yemen as well as organising various actions opposing the war. Yemenis themselves took to the streets in their thousands to protest against the ongoing Saudi-led assault on their country. There were also solidarity demos in Bahrain, car cavalcades in San Francisco and a students rally. The day ended with a massively oversubscribed global online rally where attendees heard from speakers such as Ahmed Al-Babati (the British-Yemeni Soldier who was arrested for protesting against the war), Dr Shireen Al-Adeimi (who as an Ontario citizen and Yemeni-American powerfully called on Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden to end the war), Jeremy Corbyn and Dr Cornel West.

London CAAT posted a statement highlighting BAE Systems’ complicity in the devastation of Yemen. Their weapons have caused large amounts of death and destruction in Yemen. Since the war started, they have made £15bn from sales to the Saudi Arabian regime, mainly through sales and maintenance of Tornado and Typhoon aircraft that the regime use to bomb the country. The statement urged BAE to stop selling such weapons to the Saudis and halt their involvement in the Yemen war. You can see the statement here.

The days afterwards saw positive moves towards ending the weapons sales to the Saudi-led coalition. Joe Biden froze arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE and Italy blocked arms exports to those same countries. Boris Johnson must follow suit and we can keep the pressure on – write to your MP regarding these sales here. You can also sign this petition calling on Biden to reverse Trump’s designation of the Houthis as a ‘terrorist’ organization, a terrible move which has blocked aid getting to Yemeni civilians. Yemen cannot wait any longer for this devastating war to end.

Say no to the war on Yemen, January 25^th

Over 250 organisations will be taking action on January 25^th to call for an end to the war on Yemen and for an end to western arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition. Since the war started, over 112,000 people have been killed and there have been many devastating attacks on hospitals, schools and funerals. This is a war run with western support, including billions of pounds of arms sales from the UK government and it must be stopped.

Due to the Covid-situation, all UK plans have had to move online but there are still events planned. London Students for Yemen are holding a rally with speakers such as Molly Mulready, a Former UK Foreign Office Lawyer and Andrew Feinstein. You can register for that here. This will be followed by a global online rally at 7pm, where you can hear from Ahmed Al-Babati, the Yemeni soldier who protested about the war outside Downing Street and others. You can sign up for the rally here and share it on Facebook here. More actions you can take and further information about the day of action are here.

The war on Yemen is carried out with UK weapons and support and we must end our involvement in this war now as Yemen can’t wait. The day of action will also put pressure on Joe Biden to keep his promise to stop the sale of weapons to the Saudis – a recent article indicates he might keep that promise but we have to keep the pressure on so join us to call for an end to this heinous war.

What a year of campaigning!

It’s been quite a year of campaigning against the arms trade and CAAT have had some notable successes. From taking the government to court over arms sales to Saudi Arabia to exposing the UK’s complicity in police violence globally and stopping arms fairs in places such as Liverpool, it’s been great to see such a wide range of fantastic and inventive actions. Thank you to everyone who contributed to CAAT’s important work. Read more about this extraordinary year of campaigning here.

Say no to the war on Yemen, January 25^th

London CAAT will join over 160 other organisations to take part in a global day of action on Yemen. Taking place on January 25^th 2021, organisations will come together to call for an end to the war on Yemen and an end to western complicity in the war. London CAAT will be carrying out our own action in support of the day so look out for more details on our social media pages and in next month’s bulletin.

The war is only possible because Western countries — and the United States and Britain in particular — continue to arm Saudi Arabia and provide military, political and logistical support for the war. Another level of UK support for the Saudis’ war was recently revealed in that British troops were secretly deployed to defend Saudi Arabian oil fields. The disaster in Yemen is man-made. It is caused by the war and blockade. It can be ended. Organizations from the US, UK, Yemen, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, India, Italy, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, and across the world, are demanding that our governments:

*Stop foreign aggression on Yemen
*Stop weapons and war support for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates
*Lift the blockade on Yemen and open all land and seaports
*Restore and expand humanitarian aid for the people of Yemen.

Individuals and organizations are asked to call for protests – with masks and other safety precautions – in their towns and cities on that day and make clear that the World Says No to War on Yemen.

You can sign up for the day of action here and add an event here.

Boris Johnson’s dangerous pledge on military spending

Boris Johnson has said he will increase defence spending to £16.5bn over four years – this is the largest rise in UK military spending for three decades. In the height of a pandemic, this is a totally irresponsible move. This money would be much better spent on the climate emergency, tackling poverty, preventing homelessness and providing free school meals, among other more socially beneficial things. This ludicrous amount of money will not provide security for this country and increases the risk of a new arms race. Read the response from various peace organisations to this dangerous move here and Andrew Smith from CAAT’s response here. See this page for actions you can take about this foolish move.

The government have also cut foreign aid, another short-sighted move that could affect Middle East countries most in need and won’t increase our security either – read more here and here You can sign Action Aid petition’s on this here.

London CAAT meetings

We are having one final online meeting of the year on December 15^th at 6.30pm. Do let us know if you would like to join us – please send an email to londoncaat at riseup.net and we will send you the details.

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.

Liverpool’s electronic arms fair shut down

After an excellent campaign by local campaigners, the Liverpool electronic arms fair that was due to take place in November has been cancelled. They set up a petition and called on people to write to the Mayor and local councillors. Even better, they secured a commitment from Liverpool’s Mayor, Joe Anderson, to establish an ethical events charter. You can read CAAT’s statement on this commitment here. You can also see a powerful message about the cancellation from the mother of the murdered Gaza paramedic Razan Al-Najjar here. Massive congratulations to all those who took action. The campaign was supported by Palestine Solidarity Campaign, CAAT, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and BDS National Committee.

British complicity in Saudi war on Yemen continues

The UK continues to be complicit in the death and destruction in Yemen. A UN report has warned that the UK could be ‘aiding and assisting’ Saudi Arabia war crimes through their arms sales to the Saudis. Also, Declassified has exposed that the British training of Saudi pilots is continuing despite the renewed bombing of Yemen. The hypocrisy of the Tories praising the UK’s aid contributions to Yemen while continuing these sales was laid bare in a recent parliamentary debate. You can write to your MP regarding these heinous arms sales here.

London CAAT meetings

Our meetings are still taking place online so if you want to attend a meeting, please send an email to londoncaat at riseup.net and we will send you details. The meetings are the third Tuesday of every month at 6.30pm.

Finally, you can also check out CAAT’s awesome new People Not War zine – download a copy from their homepage.

Soldier arrested over stand of conscience against the war in Yemen

Soldier Ahmed Al-Babati stood outside the Ministry of Defence on August 24th wearing a sign saying ‘I refuse to continue my military service until the deal with Saudi comes to an end’. He blew a whistle every ten minutes to signify the death of a child in Yemen as a result of the war as well as saying he did not want to be “part of a corrupt government that continues to arm and support terrorism”. He was arrested by military police.

London CAAT is in full support of Ahmed’s principled stand and we call for no action to be taken against him. Stop the War Coalition have a petition in support of his actions here and you can read more about his protest here.

Ahmed has set up an organisation called Stand for Justice “to make the world a better place” and you can listen to Ahmed’s passionate explanation of his actions here.

Getting ready for next year’s DSEI arms fair

In place of our usual meeting, we will have a roundtable organised by CAAT. It will be an opportunity to discuss the purpose of the Stop the Arms Fair network, reflect on and adapt our approaches to resistance, solidarity, and campaigning, and look ahead to the DSEI arms fair due to take place in September 2021. It will be on our usual meeting date of September 15th but at the slightly earlier time of 6pm. You can register for the roundtable here.

The awesome Quaker Roots are gearing up for DSEI as well and are having a series of workshops throughout September – check out their website for details.

Farnborough targeted online

The Farnborough International Airshow takes place annually in July and this year went online. That didn’t stop us from following it there and pointing out that it is an arms fair. When companies such as BAE Systems and Raytheon are giving talks and likely meeting military delegations virtually (in 2018 Farnborough invited representatives from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates Bahrain: all part of the coalition that has so devastated Yemen), you’re an arms fair.

There were also sessions on combat aircraft design and insights from young professionals in defence and aerospace, featuring companies like Boeing Defence, MBDA Missile Systems and Rolls Royce. Stop the Arms Fair’s Twitter actively targeted the fair, following their schedule closely and highlighting the true nature of the companies speaking at the show. Check out their Twitter feed for the fantastic series of tweets they posted.

Government resumes arms sales to Saudi Arabia

Last month the government made the ludicrous decision to resume licensing arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition bombing Yemen. These arms sales were put on hold following CAAT’s victory at the Court of Appeal last year. In light of this move, CAAT will be exploring all options available to challenge this decision.

The basis for this decision was the Secretary of State for International Trade Liz Truss’ written statement that said the government had completed that review, and concluded that war crimes committed in the attacks on Yemen were “isolated incidents”. Which is manifestly untrue – the bombings of weddings and funerals, schools and hospitals prove otherwise and are a pattern of repeated breaches of International Humanitarian Law.

The UK government is complicit in this through the licensing of at least £5.3 billion of arms sales since the war began in 2015. UK weapons – warplanes, bombs and missiles – are being used by the Saudi-led forces in Yemen. This has to stop for the sake of innocent civilians in Yemen.

Read more about the resumption of sales here.

Our meetings

Our meetings are still taking place online so if you want to attend a meeting, please send an email to londoncaat at riseup.net and we will send you details. The meetings are the third Tuesday of every month at 6.30pm.