DSEi and the arms trade 2004 - news archive

"14th December: Sarah from Oxford joined East London activists in Victoria to expose the hiding place of Lockheed Martin UK, part of the world’s largest maker of weapons of mass destruction, bunkerbusters and cluster bombs. This event was planned by the Muriel Lester Affinity Group. Previously they had D-locked the doors of the building shut for several hours but this being the season of good will they changed tack and eight of us, with an average age of around 65, dressed up in Reindeer Horns and red hats for a Christmas celebration. We handed out information leaflets and got people to sign cards for the Lockheed employees. These were handed in with a large card from Trident Ploughshares the anti nuclear campaign. So many people were keen to know more and supported us in asking to get rid of WDMs. Locals were surprised to know what was going on in this building and some were worried they could be a target of terrorism. The PSC Union brought us hot drinks which added to the cheer. "

"A Brighton anti-war activist awoke yesterday morning to a dawn raid from Special Branch. The anti-war activist was arrested for Harrassing company directors of Edo/Mbm. When taken to Hollingbury custody suite and placed before the desk sergeant PC AB394 Bialoszewski of special branch stated that the activist had been arrested and his address spun due to information being downloaded from companies house about Directors of Edo/Mbm Brighton and due to this he was responsable for Harassment of David Jones of Hastings ,company director of Bomb makers Edo/Mbm."

"Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has opened an international landmine conference with an appeal for more countries to sign up to the treaty banning them. The US, China and Russia are among 40 countries that have not signed the treaty, known as the Ottawa Convention, which came into force five years ago. An estimated 35 million stockpiled landmines have been destroyed, and another four million have been cleared from the ground. But every year an estimated 20,000 people still become victims of landmine explosions."

Green MEP Caroline Lucas has welcomed a vote by the European Parliament in Strasbourg to review of the EU's Code of Conduct on Arms Exports - and to retain its embargo on weapons sales to China. "The EU's founding principles of tackling poverty, reducing conflict and upholding human rights are undermined by arms sales from EU members states to the very countries whose records are worst in these areas," said Caroline Lucas, Green MEP for South-East England.

"CAMPAIGNERS in Swin-don welcomed the announcement from UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw that the UK supports an international treaty to control the trade in arms. Amnesty International and Oxfam campaigners launched the Control Arms campaign a year ago with support from South Swindon MP, Julia Drown."

"A five day protest camp was held behind EDO/MBM technology, on Home Farm Industrial Estate, Mouslecoomb, Brighton, last week. Activists from around the country came to take action against the company which has recently signed a $145 contract supplying hardware for the illegal occupation of Iraq. The company manufactures bomb release mechanisms for F16s, Hawks, Hurricanes and Tornados. Throughout the camp privat security were employed by the factory at a total cost of £80 an hour costing the factory over £20 000 over the week. Previous actions, according to the managing director, have cost the factory £20 000 in one day, doesn't it just make you feel all warm inside... "

"MBM/EDO, on the Home Farm industrial Estate, Moulsecoomb, Brighton has a $145 million dollar with the UK/US governments for the supply of bomb release mechanisms for the occupation of Iraq. Activists hope the camp will kickstart a grassroots campaign of direct action to disrupt production at the factory."

"Gordon Brown plans to cut 100, 000 civil service jobs in the next ten years. This has Non Governmental Organisations, as well as opposition parties, scurrying to suggest which civil service departments should be in the firing line. Not surprisingly campaigners against arms exports, like Campaign Against Arms Trade, suggest the Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO) and the part of the Export Credit Guarantee Department (ECGD) dealing with arms exports are suitable choices."

"We could have airdropped our leaflet into the Farnborough Airshow on the Saturday 24 July but we decided to do it the hard way. Handing out the ‘Take the arms fair out of the airshow’ leaflets to visitors was Ruth with Leyla, her knee-high daughter. There was Lysa with her smart red and white outfit – Arsenal Football Club would have been proud - emblazoned with ‘Peace’ and ‘Say no to the arms fair’, and the rest of us of course; ten in all. We welcomed the visitors: ‘Hi-ya’, ‘Good morning’, ‘Would you like a leaflet’; we answered their questions, and smiled. This was public engagement. We were surprisingly well received with only a few hostile remarks – the most perceptive being – ‘you’re got a nerve’. Too right we have, we take the courage of our convictions plus the training we’d undertaken a few weeks beforehand and tell it like it is. Farnborough is an armsfair, and it should have no part in a family day out to celebrate flight."

"Many public bodies, including NHS trusts, churches, local authorities, universities, trade unions and charities, continue to invest in the arms trade, despite their commitment to beneficial and ethical goals, according to a report published yesterday. They include Cancer Research UK, Mencap, the Co-operative Insurance Society, British Coal Pension Fund, and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Local authorities hold arms company shares while claiming to have ethical investment policies, the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (Caat) says. The report concentrates on bodies investing in seven of the biggest British arms companies: BAE Systems, Alvis, Cobham, GKN, Rolls Royce - which also makes a wide range of civil products, including engines for passenger aircraft and cars - the Smiths group and VT Group (formerly Vosper Thornycroft), which builds ships."

"Early in the morning on Thursday the 20th May 2004, around 20 anti-arms trade activists arrived at the premises of EDO MBM Technology in Brighton. EDO MBM manufacture bomb and missile release components for military aircraft; they are on record as being “proud” to support the ongoing occupation of Iraq. Five activists set up a ‘cage’ consisting of 7ft high fence panels blocking the access road to the small industrial estate where the factory is situated. Banners were hung from the cage with suggestions of what EDO may stand for, one offered a potential corporate slogan: ‘Every Death an Opportunity’. Shortly afterwards, five more activists ‘appeared’ on the roof of the factory. Banners reading ‘Arms dealers out of Brighton’ and ‘EDO MBM not welcome in our city’ were hung over the edge. It later transpired that one of the roof-occupying activists had broken his ankle before getting onto the roof, and somehow made it up anyway."

"Activists blocked the entrance to Home Farm Business Park in Brighton for 4 hours in protest at the arms firm EDO MBM (website: http://www.mbmtech.co.uk/) which has premises there. The blockade was an ingenious cage made out of several sections of builders' mesh fencing, with people locked on inside it. Five people climbed up onto the roof of EDO MBM's building and dropped banners demanding the arms dealers leave Brighton."

"The United Nations say that 90% of war-victims are civilians and at least half of these childern. Ironic then that Farnborough International 2004 should be using childern to foster acceptance of weapons systems at its 'air show' this year (Monday July 19 - Sunday July 25)."

"Students protested Tuesday at a careers talk given by Ian Macdiarmid of BAE Systems, over his company’s support for repressive and murderous regimes. A group of students went to the presentation on Tuesday night at St. Antony’s college; they distributed leaflets and held signs detailing some of the company’s activities. Mr. Macdiarmid was invited to continue his talk, but declined. Those who had come to attend the talk were sympathetic to the protestors’ position, and pressed the BAE manager for answers. The leaflet given out by activists is attached. Pictures available at http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/oxford/2004... "

"British defence firms risk becoming "metal bashers" for America, the chairman of BAE Systems has warned in a stinging attack on government policy. Sir Richard Evans told MPs the Ministry of Defence (MoD) was not spending enough on research and development. He also vigorously denied newspaper claims that BAE had paid millions of pounds to prominent Saudi Arabians in return for arms deals."

"On 30th April the offices of Spearhead Exhibitions, organisers of DSEi, Europe's largest arms fair, and Reed Exhibitons, their parent company were visited by protestors. At the Spearhead offices, the Apex Tower, New Malden, signs on the front windows stated that Spearhead had moved out, and one of the protestors was shown the empty 8th floor office space, to prove they had really gone."

"Britain wastes more than £200 million a year in subsidies to arms manufacturers, costing 30,000 lost jobs, says a former government adviser. Paul Ingram, a senior analyst at Basic and former adviser to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, said the 30,000 jobs were lost because of distortions in the market. 'If the money went to jobs in hospitals and schools it would create far more jobs than [occurs] in these highly capital-intensive industries.' "

"Mehdi Elhadi was convicted yesterday at Snaresbrook Crown Court of obstructing a Docklands Light Railway train heading for the DSEi arms fair on 10 September 2003, before the extremely biased Judge Nicholas Medawar QC. He was given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £611."

"This story is about American weapons built with Uranium components for the business end of things. Just about all American bullets, 120 mm tank shells, missiles, dumb bombs, smart bombs, 500 and 2,000 pound bombs, cruise missiles, and anything else engineered." Plus a long debate with a troll about whether or not DU is a hazard to health.

"Day of direct action: Sunday 25 July. Action against delegate’s dinner: Tuesday 20 July. Affinity Group actions throughout week. The biannual Farnborough Airshow is an important part of the arms trade calendar with exhibitors including murdering bastards such as BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, Rolls-Royce and Boeing queuing up to sell their latest weapons systems. However there is another face of Farnborough, that of fun days out for all the family with the weekend public days. We are therefore calling a day of direct action on one of these “family” days to show that Farnborough is primarily an arms fair and also to state that watching the latest fighter jets is not family entertainment."

"DSEi is only one of many exhibitions organised by Spearhead. Between 16- 19 March Oceanology London will be held at the ExCeL exhibition centre in London Docklands. We aim to raise awareness about the links between Spearhead, ExCeL and the arms trade amongst their exhibitors, delegates and the local community, with the ultimate aim of shutting down Spearhead and DSEi 2005. "

"EUROPE'S largest arms fair, held in Docklands last September, cost over £4million to police, The Wharf can reveal. The Metropolitan Police are set to ask the organisers of the bi-annual Defence Systems Equipment International (DSEi) to foot the bill next time. This year it reached £4,380,000, with over 1,600 officers here every day. The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) said it was looking at charging policing costs to organisers of commercial events like DSEi and David Blaine's 40-day stunt by Tower Bridge last summer. "

"On Monday 23rd February, hundreds of young christians knelt in a 50ft-long makeshift 'trench' outside the Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO) offices in Bury Place, central London. DESO is the controversial government department which markets UK arms exports on behalf of companies, and is behind the DSEi arms fair (Defence Systems Equipment International) - Europe's largest arms fair, last held in London's Docklands in September 2003."

"Bristol is at the centre of a new storm as Oxfam release a new report on British arms sales researched by Bristol academics. Kingswood MP Roger Berry who is the chair of a key House of Commons Select Committee will this afternoon take Jack Straw to task over major loopholes revealed in British arms export controls."

"The government is allowing British arms manufacturers to sell to some of the most dangerous and repressive regimes in the world, two charities claim. A dramatic rise in the sale of arms components to these regimes undermines the government's own ethical policies, say Oxfam and Amnesty International. The charities say parts made in the UK are reaching countries like Zimbabwe, Israel, Indonesia, Uganda, Colombia, Nepal and the Philippines, even though the sale of complete weapons systems to these countries is banned. "

"600 young Christians will kneel in a 50ft-long makeshift ‘trench’ outside the Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO) in central London today. Christian prayer and campaign network SPEAK is calling for an end to the public funding of DESO - the controversial government department which markets UK arms exports on behalf of companies - and for the millions of pounds currently being spent on this promotion of weapons to be put to better use. "

Debate on whether depleted uranium is harmful

"A group of non-governmental organizations have accused Spain of exporting shells to Africa under the guise of ammunition for game hunters. In 2002, Spain exported what it described as hunting and target shooting ammunition to 10 African countries, according to the report by Amnesty International, Oxfam, Greenpeace and the Spanish group Peace Culture School. Yet what were supposed to be cartridges for shooting wild animals were in fact shells weighing 40kg. Most of the exports went to Ghana. The other destinations were Guinea-Conakry, the Central African Republic, Mauritania, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Burkina Faso and Cameroon. The NGOs accused Spain of masking military exports as leisure equipment in order to avoid controls. "

"Four people who took part in a peaceful blockade at the Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEi) arms fair in East London on 9 September 2003 have been sent to prison for one day rather than go against their consciences and pay fines and court costs. The four were part of a group of eleven protestors charged with obstruction of the highway when they sat down in the road at the entrance to the arms fair for approximately 20 minutes. The group were on trial at Stratford Magistrates Court on 22 and 23 January. On announcing the verdict of guilty, the district judge said that the defendants were 'genuine, highly principled and motivated' and acknowledged that the spirit of the actions they took were 'important to a democratic society'. However, he chose to interpret the law rigidly and disregard the considerable evidence supplied relating to the reasonableness of the obstruction with regard to the seriousness of the protestors' concerns, the context of the protest and right to freedom of expression. "

"Thursday 22nd January, 10 am, Stratford Magistrates Court, London: A dozen anti-arms trade campaigners will put Europe's biggest arms fair on trial this Thursday arguing that, whilst they were arrested for attempting to peacefully disrupt the fair, the police were issued orders from "ministerial level" to ignore serious breaches of the law that were taking place inside the fair. The twelve were arrested for 'highway obstruction' outside the arms fair Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEi) last September for peacefully blockading the entrance with their bodies. "

"Mehdi El-radhi, a British Iraqi, faces trial by jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court during the week of 9th February, 2004, for taking non-violent direct action at the DSEi Arms Fair in London in September 2003. Mehdi has been charged under the Malicious Damage Act for disrupting the running of the Docklands Light Railway by locking himself onto the a train carrying delegates to this tasteless event. "

"The case against the samba player from Turin, who had been accused of three counts of assaulting a police officer, was dropped today due to police ineptitude. This was the trial that emerged out of the protest against the DSEI delegates dinner at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, on September 11th 2003. The police attacked the samba band, and then accused one member of the band of assaulting them. Investigations into police conduct at DSEI continue. "