Campaign Against Arms Trade
Andrew Smith reports from our visit to the BAE Systems AGM.
This article originally appeared in Red Pepper.
diary of campaigners against the arms trade
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 Brian Larkin and members of the Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre hand the petition to divest from arms manufacture to Cllr Chas Booth, Convener of Edinburgh Council’s petitions committee. Campaigners in Edinburgh are calling for their council to end its investment in arms companies. Yesterday our friends at Edinburgh CAAT and the Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre presented a 400 strong petition to Councillor Chas Booth, the Convener of Edinburgh Council’s petitions committee. Andrea Needham writes: On 29 January 1996, I was one of a group of women who disarmed a Hawk warplane at BAE’s Warton factory in Lancashire. The plane was destined for Indonesia, where it would be used in the ongoing occupation and genocide in East Timor. Exactly 21 years later, and now in the era of social media, I was idly perusing Facebook on a Sunday morning when I saw that two men had broken into the very same factory, with the intention of disarming warplanes being sold by BAE to Saudi Arabia, for use in their crimes against humanity in Yemen.
Activists released on bail after attempt to disarm BAE fighter jets bound for Saudi Arabia. Daniel Woodhouse, a Methodist minister from Leeds, and Quaker activist Sam Walton have been released on bail pending charges after breaking into BAE’s Warton site. The pair were arrested at BAE Systems’ airbase in Warton, Lancashire, in the early hours of Sunday 29 January after entering BAE Systems’ Warton site in order to disarm warplanes bound for Saudi Arabia.
The aircraft are part of a multi-billion pound deal between BAE Systems and the Saudi regime, and were due to be shipped to Saudi Arabia within weeks. Their action came as a panel of UN experts warned that the devastating Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen, which have caused a humanitarian catastrophe, may be part of “a broader policy of attrition against civilian infrastructure” which may “amount to war crimes.” Amy Clark-Bryan of No Pride In War was one of many activists that took part in actions urging the organisers of Pride in London to end its associations with the arms trade.  No Pride In War Campaigners outside the BAE office in central London Tuesday 24th May was a day packed full of action, as LGBTQI campaigners united to say loud and clear “No Pride in War!” Amy Clark-Bryan was among 30 activists who challenged BAE Systems at its AGM earlier this month. Last night I joined activists from several groups including the Network for Police Monitoring, Global Justice Now, Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants, London Mexico Solidarity, London Campaign Against Arms Trade and Stop the Arms Fair for a protest outside the Home Office to call for an end to the ‘Security and Policing’ arms fair.  Photo by Sophie Mawson
If you were in London this weekend and travelled on the Underground, you may have spotted some adverts exposing the UK’s complicity in Israel’s crimes against Palestinian people. Read more »  Should arms companies like BAE Systems be involved in educating children? The idea of Europe’s biggest arms company running a school may seems like something out of an Orwellian nightmare. However, it may be about to happen in Barrow, Cumbria, where BAE Systems is on the verge of taking over the faltering Furness Academy. Twickenham residents don’t expect to see armoured vehicles – complete with gun turrets – on the streets of their town. But people in some countries are not so fortunate. For one week in January 2015, the Twickenham Rugby stadium has been playing host to an international conference on armoured vehicles. But protesters are asking the stadium chief executive not to hold arms trade events there in future. |
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Campaign Against Arms Trade, Unit 4, 5-7 Wells Terrace, London, N4 3JU
Tel: +44 20 7281 0297
Email: enquiries(at)caat*org*uk
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