Taking action against the arms trade

Andrew Dey

In September 2013, 30 anti-arms trade activists in the UK were arrested following actions at a huge arms fair held in London1. A coalition of different groups – under the banner of 'Stop the Arms Fair' - held peaceful, nonviolent and often disruptive actions to impede or de-legitimise the activities of the 30,000 arms dealers descending in the east end of London for the week-long event. The coalition produced a fantastic video summary of the actions that took place throughout the week, available online: http://www.stopthearmsfair.org.uk/video-report-week-of-action-2013/

Of those arrested, some were offered cautions or fined immediately, others admitted guilt rather than face long periods of time awaiting trial (read a fantastic statement to the court here: http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/news/16787-dsei-defendants-put-arms-dealers-on-trial), and throughout February others have been due in court. On the 4 February, a group of five Christian activists who blockaded one of the entrances during the fair were found not guilty of any crime, and more recently, several other activists who blockaded entrances to impede the set up of the fair before it started have had their cases dropped. It is thought that the authorities were worried about the kinds of questions that the activists were demanding answers to, such as why dealers who were removed from the fair were not investigated. Others continue to face trial (you can find updates on the Stop the Arms Fair twitter account - @StopTheArmsFair)

DSEi

Defence Security and Equipment International (DSEi) is a huge 'defence and security' event which takes place at the Excel Centre, in London. DSEi takes place every two years, most recently in September 2013, when it was attended by over 32,000 visitors from all over the world. Visitors include arms dealers and members of the military, police forces and private security companies. In 2013, representatives from 67 countries attended; 14 of the countries invited were classed by the United Kingdom as 'authoritarian', six were at war, and nine - Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam – were classed by the UK Foreign Office as countries with “the most serious, wide-ranging human rights concerns.”2

Exhibiting at the fair, as well as companies selling 'legal' equipment for war – including drones, tanks and fire arms – are companies who build and sell illegal cluster munitions and torture equipment. This year, Magforce, a French company, were removed after advertising the sale leg irons and electric stun guns, and Chinese company MyWay International were expelled for advertising the sale of electric shock batons and leg irons.

In 2011, 'Pakistan Ordnance Factory', and Pakistan's 'Defence Export Promotion Organisation' were both expelled for advertising the sale of cluster munitions4, despite concerns about the same company being raised in 20095. In some of these cases, the companies were not investigated and expelled until after members of parliament – in particular Green MP Caroline Lucas – visited the fair and raised concerns. There have been breaches of UK export law at every DSEi event since 2005.

Taking action and asking questions

The Christian affinity group - those acquitted on the 4th February - had used super glue to stick their hands together, before sitting on the floor and forming a human chain at one of the entrances from the underground tube network, seriously impeding the flow of arms dealers into the fair for over forty minutes.

They were found not guilty after it became clear that the police had not provided them with all of the necessary information about where to move their protest to before arresting them. Throughout their action and in court, they asked questions about how the actions of arms dealers were being policed; while blocking the entrance, they repeatedly asked the police in attendance to investigate the fair and make sure no illegal activity was taking place. Under cross examination, one of the arresting police officers said he had only been briefed about possible protest activity at DSEi, not on the sale of illegal weapons that has taken place there over the years. One of the activists on trial, Chloe, testified that one of the officers had declared investigating the fair would be “above my pay grade” - it appears that at DSEi 2013, only nonviolent activists were to be arrested!

Many of the other activists were arrested during a 'day of action' to impede the set-up of the fair, and had been arrested for obstruction of the highway, having used lock-on tubes to block one of the gates to the exhibition centre. Others stopped a lorry from entering by climbing underneath it as it waited to move through the gates. Throughout the day, there were scenes of large military equipment unable to enter, and many more than those arrested helped to keep entrances shut and deliveries delayed. On hearing that their case had been dropped by the prosecution, the activists released a statement which read: Since our arrest, we have taken steps to try and uncover the true extent of profoundly criminal activities at DSEI. We have sent Freedom of Information requests to the Metropolitan Police and to HMRC. We asked whether any criminal investigations had taken place against the arms companies kicked out of the arms fair for breaching UK law (in the words of Clarion, the arms fair organiser). We asked how many investigations have taken place in relation to previous DSEI arms fairs, and about enforcement action generally. The response to all our questions from both the Police and HMRC was ‘neither confirm nor deny’, even though some of the information we asked them to confirm was already in the public domain. ‘Confirm nothing’ seems to be the approach they are determined to maintain. The questions are legitimate and of the highest public interest. We have appealed the decisions and the authorities again refused to disclose, citing more or less every exemption available under the Freedom of Information Act. We are continuing to press for that information (see our Freedom of Information requests here and here). We understand that there has been no action against the arms companies who committed crimes at DSEI 2013, and that there never are any prosecutions when crimes take place at DSEI arms fairs.”

The international arms trade acts under a thin veneer of legitimacy, upheld by governments around the world – the actions of organisers, dealers, traders, the police, and other authorities at DSEi are all testament to this. The arms trade will continue to act with impunity until public pressure is applied to de-legitimise it's activities wherever they occur – this is particularly important when so much of it's work is supported and advocated for by political leaders. While it is fantastic news that activists have been able to 'block the fair and get away with it', in the words of the same statement as above; "It’s not a cause for celebration that the case against us has been dropped. The celebration will come when the arms fair has been shut down for good. We urge people to support Stop the Arms Fair in opposing the DSEI arms fair and what it represents, through direct action and campaigning. We look forward to a world where people can live free from oppression and exploitation, in peace with each other and the natural world. We are not afraid to offend our oppressors to bring this about.”

1 http://www.stopthearmsfair.org.uk/

2 http://www.caat.org.uk/issues/arms-fairs/dsei/delegations/

3 http://metro.co.uk/2013/09/11/illegal-torture-devices-on-sale-at-arms-show-3960074/

4 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/16/ejected-arms-fair-cluster-bombs

5 http://www.article36.org/weapons/cluster-munitions/cluster-bomb-promotion-at-dsei-reveals-serious-shortcomings/

6 http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/20093

7 http://newint.org/blog/2014/02/10/dsei-arms-fair-protesters/

8 http://www.stopthearmsfair.org.uk/on-trial/charges-dropped/