Author: Ian Pocock

People show support for the victims of the Yemen war

For obvious reasons, we couldn’t hold our vigil for Yemen at the UK Trade and Investment Defence and Security Organisation, so we held an online day of action (as well as partaking in the Europe-wide day of action). We asked people to post about the devastating effect of the war on the Yemeni people and the UK’s complicity in it as well as asking them to write to the Attorney General to ask him to move forward with the prosecution of Airbus on corruption charges regarding a deal to supply communications equipment to the Saudi Arabian National Guard – you can do that here. With the situation in the country still dire, the country would struggle to cope with a coronavirus outbreak. It is also in danger of being forgotten about. The vigil got a lot of traction with many people posting messages highlighting the ongoing crisis in the country and calling on the UK government to stop fuelling the war with arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition. Thank you to all those who took action.

Lots of shocking developments in the arms trade

The last fortnight has seen an unfortunate bonanza of concerning developments regarding the arms trade. In another incident of the revolving door between the arms trade and government, the Guardian highlighted that a number of employees from arms companies such as BAE Systems. MBDA and General Dynamics UK have been on secondments within the Department for International Trade. Their secondments in influential positions has no doubt influenced the government’s export strategy, supporting arms sales at the expense of the Yemeni people and more important issues such as the climate crisis. Read more here.

Continuing with the Yemen war, Physicians for Human Rights and the Yemeni human rights group Mwatana released a report outlining that hospitals and doctors in Yemen have been targeted at least 120 times during the war. This has obviously had a devastating effect on the country’s healthcare system, leading to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. It was also revealed that a third of all airstrikes on Yemen were hitting civilian targets. Emily Thornberry also wrote an article about the war’s anniversary which included an excellent suggestion for taking decisions about arms exports away from politicians. Finally, in a skewed sense of priorities, the government has drawn up plans to lend other countries £1bn of public money to allow them to buy British-made bombs and surveillance technology – read more here. It is unbelievable that in a time of a global pandemic, the UK government is STILL trying to sell as many weapons as possible. And using taxpayers money to do it.

London CAAT meetings

In light of the coronavirus situation, all London CAAT meetings have been cancelled for the moment. There will also be no outdoor activities for some time but we will still take action against the arms trade where we can, for example for the Global Day of Action on Military Spending so do get in touch if you want to be involved and keep an eye on our social media pages for any actions we do take.

Join us on the anniversary of the Yemen war for a candle-lit vigil, March 25^th

Join us on March 25^th to mark the fifth anniversary of the start of the Yemen war with a candle-lit vigil. We will mourn the lives lost in this heinous, brutal war and call on our government to stop arming the Saudi-led coalition that has so devastated the country. Our government has supplied £5.3bn of weapons to the Saudi regime since the war started five years ago and thus bears a great moral responsibility for the deaths in Yemen.

We will be outside the UK Trade and Investment Defence and Security Organisation, the government body responsible for promoting arms exports to oppressive regimes such as Saudi Arabia on March 25^th from 6pm. We will call for these sales to stop and for the government to abide by the court ruling that said these sales are illegal. Please bring a candle if you have one. More details are on the Facebook event – please share it.

Next London CAAT meeting, March 17^th

Join us on Tuesday March 17^th for our monthly meeting where we will continue to make planes for this year. We meet at 6.30pm in the CAAT office in Finsbury Park – the address is Unit 4, 5-7 Wells Terrace, N4 3JU. All welcome.

Arms dealer dinner opposed with passion and fervour

Every year, the UK arms trade holds a fancy dinner in London – while UK arms sales fuel death, destruction and violence across the globe. And every year protesters are there to remind them of the immoral and destructive nature of their trade. Arms companies pay hundreds of pounds a head for the chance to network at “this prestigious black tie event” with drinks reception and three-course dinner – dining out on the profits they have made from the bombing and starvation of Yemen.

This disgusting hypocrisy was challenged with inventive interventions such as eco-grim reapers, glue blockades, powerful speeches read out on behalf of those affected by the arms trade, a myriad of on point chants (e.g. Arms dealers dine while Yemeni starves) and a candle lit vigil for the victims of the arms trade. In a campaign win before the dinner took place, Clare Balding pulled as the key note speaker after representations to her advisers by CAAT. You can read more about the demo here.

Call for the establishment of a committee on arms export controls

After the dissolving of all parliamentary committees after the election, there is an opportunity to call for the introduction of acommittee on arms export controls. The previous one was toothless and chaired by Graham Jones, who was pro-Saudi and didn’t challenge or scrutinise arms exports effectively. With Jones no longer an MP, we have a golden opportunity to have a new committee set up and led by someone who will take this role seriously and analyse all arms exports properly. Read more about the reasons this committee needs to be set up in Anna Stavrianakis’ excellent article here and write to your MP about this here.

Next London CAAT meeting, February 18^th

Join us on Tuesday February 18^th for our monthly meeting – we will be thinking about what actions we will take this year, including another walking tour of arms companies. We meet at 6.30pm in the CAAT office in Finsbury Park – the address is Unit 4, 5-7 Wells Terrace, N4 3JU. All welcome.

Trump’s in town and must be resisted

Tuesday 3rd December sees Donald Trump come to London for the NATO Heads of State summit. NATO is an aggressive military alliance and Trump is a dangerous president with no morals – what’s not to protest against? As the Queen hosts a reception for NATO leaders at Buckingham Palace, we must challenge the world’s largest nuclear-armed alliance and say Trump and his fellow members of the alliance aren’t welcome here.

The summit is a great chance to call for a more peaceful world and oppose the interventionist, militarist alliance that is NATO. Assemble at 4pm in Trafalgar Square for a rally before heading to Buckingham Palace to make some noise – bring glow sticks and fairy lights etc for visibility as well horns, whistles, pots, pans and other instruments. See the Facebook event for more details.

DSEI arms fair court support

The trials against protesters who took action against the horrendous DSEI arms fair have started and the next ones are on December 5^th and 6^th. Please go along to Stratford Magistrates Court if you can to show solidarity with those on trial and also to call for no more arms fairs in London. Details can be found on the Facebook events here and here – do check them in case the dates are changed.

BAE and BP told they are not welcome as sponsors of New Scientist Live

We teamed up with BP or not BP and Demilitarise Kings to ask why on earth New Scientist Live thought it would be a good idea to have the destructive companies BAE Systems and BP as sponsors. A few of us turned up on a wet day to protest against these companies’ involvement in the event. We had good support from the public, including a person who said they worked for the government but supported us on this issue, and our placards got a lot of attention. You can contact the New Scientist magazine’s Chief Executive to ask them to drop BAE and BP as sponsors here.

Come learn with us!

We think it’s good to expand our knowledge on the latest issues related to the arms trade and peace. With that in mind, two of our upcoming meetings will have guest speakers. First up in our November 19^th meeting we have Sam Cutler from the Guardian, who will be sharing what he knows about the situation in Syria, with a focus on the Kurdish people and actions of the Turkish military, as well as the involvement of NATO. Then for our January 21^st meeting we are delighted to have Jenny Dathan from Action on Armed Violence to talk about their work. We meet at 6.30pm in the CAAT office in Finsbury Park – the address is Unit 4, 5-7 Wells Terrace, N4 3JU. Do join us for what are bound to be fascinating talks.

Say no to NATO and Trump

The warmongering Donald Trump is coming to London next month for a NATO Heads of State summit. The world’s largest nuclear-armed military alliance must be resisted, especially as it overseen by one of the worst, warmongering US Presidents in history. Join the protest on December 3^rd to protest against Trump and the dangerous role NATO plays globally with its interventions in Afghanistan and other countries. You can see details of the demo here and there’s also a counter-summit on November 30^th.

Powerful resistance to the DSEI arms fair

Hundreds of people gathered outside the ExCeL centre in east London to take action against the awful and immoral DSEI arms fair last month. The sheer breadth and inventiveness of the actions to impede the fair was amazing to see. There were countless locks on, people clambering onto military vehicles to stop them entering ExCeL, drag aerobics and meetings of worships plus so much more. The set up of the fair was disrupted, with the No Faith in War day blockading the fair for over seven hours, which has to be a record! As for the amazing activists who used a kayak to disrupt a BAE Systems boat display, well, kudos! There was some media coverage, for example in the Guardian and Morning Star. You can also see videos of each day of action here. Sadiq Khan again condemned the fair. Over 100 people were arrested during the fair so do keep an eye on the Stop the Arms Fair website for the court dates and go and support them if you can.

BAE Systems and BP have no place sponsoring New Scientist Live

BAE Systems are returning to the ExCeL centre after last month’s DSEI arms fair with another heinous company BP as part of New Scientist Live. The companies are sponsoring this event about the joys of science, thus dragging it down to their level. Having two of the world’s most destructive companies as an integral part of your event is definitely not a good look. We shall be there from 12pm on Saturday 12 October, along with BP or not BP and Demilitarise Kings to protest these awful companies involvement in the event. See the Facebook event here and do joins us!

Next London CAAT meeting, October 15^th

Join us on Tuesday October 15^th for our monthly meeting where we will plan future actions. We meet at 6.30pm in the CAAT office in Finsbury Park – the address is Unit 4, 5-7 Wells Terrace, N4 3JU. All welcome.

Get involved in the week of action against the DSEI arms fair

The heinous DSEI arms fair is darkening our shores again. Military delegations from human rights abusing regimes such as Saudi Arabia, Israel and Bahrain have been invited to the ExCeL centre in east London. They will browse the latest weapons and do deals with arms companies. The deals done here will cause much harm globally and innocent civilians will be on the receiving end of them. All this is being done with the full support of our government, primarily through the fair’s co-organisers the Department for International Trade’s Defence & Security Organisation.

Fortunately, there will be a whole week of action prior to the fair starting in an attempt to stop the fair before it starts. From September 2^nd, there will be themed days of action (see the full list below) that will disrupt the set up of the fair while also linking the myriad issues that the fair impacts on. Art the Arms Fair are also back with their exhibition of peace-orientated art works – after auctioning a Bansky last time, they have secured art work from Shepard Fairey this time. There will also be vigils and so much more! – check the Stop the Arms Fair website and please share the Facebook event as well as this film about the week of action.

Monday 2nd September: Stop Arming Israel
Tuesday 3rd September: No Faith in War
Wednesday 4th September: No Nuclear
Thursday 5th September: Conference at the Gates
Friday 6th September: Climate Justice
Saturday 7th September: Festival of Resistance
Sunday 8th September: Borders & Migration

Next London CAAT meeting, September 17^th

After DSEI has packed up for another couple of years (unless we’ve stopped it of course!), our September meeting will focus on what we do next (we have some ideas but do come along and share any you may have). Join us on Tuesday September 17^th at 6.30pm in the CAAT office in Finsbury Park – the address is Unit 4, 5-7 Wells Terrace, N4 3JU. All welcome!

Arms companies in London exposed

With the DSEI arms fair looming large on the horizon, we took an interested group of people around some of the arms companies that are likely to exhibit at the fair. On 6 July, visits were paid to Boeing, G4S, Rolls Royce, BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin as well as Buckingham Palace (due to the support the Royals have provided in securing arms deals).

We left blue plaques at each of the companies to recognise their horrific acts. Attendees discovered which company made bombs that killed civilians in Yemen (Lockheed Martin), which Royal participated in a sword dance that helped secure the sale of fighter jets to Saudi Arabia (Prince Charles) and who said that ‘weapons sales encourage peace’ (the chair of BAE Systems).

We shone a light on these immoral companies that many people don’t realise have buildings in the centre of London. We plan to do at least one more before September. Keep an eye here or on our Facebook page for the next one. Also check out the Stop the Arms Fair website for details on the DSEI protests that aim to shut the fair down (2-13 September).

Join the Hiroshima and Nagasaki commemorations

Between August 6th and 9^th, there will be several actions to commemorate the dropping of atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Deaths in the two cities are estimated to be between 150,000 and 280,000. This year is the 74^th anniversary of the bombings and people will be taking part in various actions such as a peace walk to say never again. Check out the CND website for more details.

Next London CAAT meeting, August 20^th

Join us at our next meeting on Tuesday August 20^th at 6.30pm in the CAAT office in Finsbury Park and the address is Unit 4, 5-7 Wells Terrace, N4 3JU. We will discuss future plans. All welcome!

With the DSEI arms fair looming large on the horizon, London CAAT took an interested group of people around some of the arms companies that are likely to exhibit at the fair. Visits were paid to Boeing, G4S, Rolls Royce, BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin as well as Buckingham Palace, the latter due to the support the Royals have provided in securing arms deals. We also left blue plaques at each of the companies to recognise their horrific acts. Attendees discovered which company made bombs that killed civilians in Yemen (Lockheed Martin) and who said that ‘weapons sales encourage peace’ (the chair of BAE Systems). We shone a light on these immoral companies that many people don’t realise have buildings in the centre of London and we will do at least one more before September so watch this space!