**PRESS RELEASE** International Protestors to Target UK Arms Fair
MEDIA RELEASE. 15th August 2003, for immediate release
Thousands of people, from all over the world, are expected to travel to London in September to shut down Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEi), Europe’s largest arms fair, which is to be held at ExCeL, London Docklands from 9 – 12 September 2003.
Sponsored by the British Government, DSEi will host exhibitors and buyers from all over the world including countries renowned for human rights abuses.
During the 1990s, civilians made up 90 percent of all war casualties. The arms trade is an international political business made up of multinational companies that kill and maim for profit. These companies play a leading role in the unjust global economic system which causes poverty and abuse of human rights around the world.
The demonstrations at the ExCeL Centre will also serve as a European focus for protest in solidarity with those in Cancun, Mexico demonstrating against the World Trade Organisation which is meeting at the same time.
DISARM DSEi, an umbrella organisation currently representing over 50 groups, is co-ordinating a week of protest and resistance against the arms fair. Groups are organising demonstrations and actions against the arms fair, the companies that exhibit there, the buyers and the governments that pay for the whole show.
To contact DISARM DSEi:
Email: media@dsei.org
Tel: 07817 061183
To contact supporting groups that are organising individual demonstrations:
Campaign Against Arms Trade Tel: 020 7281 0297
Destroy DSEi Tel: 07810 192 905
East London Against the Arms Fair Len Aldis, Flat 2, 26 Tomlins Grove, E3 4NX Tel + Fax: 020 8980 7146 Tel: 07796 571 017
Fluffy DSEi Tel: 07901 950 067
Globalise Resistance Amy: 07930 998 127 Nikki: 07815 998 127 John: 07734 466 970 Hugh: hugh_jones303@yahoo.co.uk
Notes for Editors
1. The full list of supporting groups of Disarm DSEi at this time: Anarchist Federation, Anarchist Youth Network, CAAT, Cambridge Students Against War, Camden STW, Cardiff Anarchist Network, Carnivalistas, CND, D10, Destroy DSEi, Disobedience, East London Against the Arms Fair, Espacio Horizontal contra la Guerra, Fluffy DSEi, Globalise Resistance, Global Women's Strike, Gluaiseacht, Hackney Refugee and Migrant Support Group, Hackney Socialist Alliance, Hackney STW, Hastings CND, Humlar Kultur, Leeds Coalition Against War, London Greens, London International Socialist Resistance, London Region CND, London Rising Tide, LSE People & Planet, Merseyside STW, National Young Greens, Nihilist Assault Group, Oxford People & Planet, Reclaim the Streets, Revo, Rhythms of Resistance, Sheffield Samba, SOAS People & Planet, SOAS STW, Socialist Alliance, Socialist Resistance, Stop the War Coalition, Surrey Anarchist Group, Surrey DISARM DSEi, Tower Hamlets STW, War On Capitalism, West Midlands Anarchists, Wicca UK, Wildfire, WOMBLES, Women in Black, Workers Power, Youth & Student CND.
2. DISARM DSEi will run from the 6 – 12 September. The arms fair itself will be held from the 9 – 12 September.
3. At the last DSEi arms fair in 2001 there were 664 exhibitors and delegates were invited from 68 different countries to buy guns, bombs, military planes, small arms, mines and tanks. It took place over 11th September 2001, the day of the attacks on New York and Washington in America. While many businesses around the world closed, the arms fair was not halted. For three more days, countries including America, Israel and 14 different Arab nations continued to shop, side-by-side, for weapons to attack each other with!
4. The arms business in the UK harms local communities. The London borough of Newham, where DSEi is taking place, is one of the poorest in the country. The people of Newham do not want this fair for weapons of death to come into their community. They want better education, health and job creation.
5. DISARM DSEi is an umbrella organisation and is not organising any of the individual protests. It exists to facilitate communication and co-ordination so that groups as diverse as the Quakers to the black bloc can work together to make DISARM DSEi the biggest ever protest against the arms industry.
international |
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press release
Saturday August 16, 2003 11:33
by Disarm DSEi
media at dsei dot org
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Comments (8 of 8)
Jump To Comment: 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1will someone who is going be checking on the irish companies which make weapons/military stuff to see which ones are there? it would be interesting to read a report on indymedia. Or maybe even one of the mainstream journalists who reads this could do the investigation?
So how do you explain 9/11 and the the war in afghanistan?
We need weapons, we do. In fact, weapons have saved us from war between the Soviet Union and Europe/US.
Having more efficient weapons than the others actually prevents war.
The the we need weapons to defend ourselves argument does not justify arms fairs or arms R&D.
We [the West] have weapons.
lots. The tippy top best weapons in the world ranging from mass destruction to psychological.
We don't need anymore, and no conflict has been shortened since ww2 by the use of more advanced weaponry, rather conflicts have been made worse in many ways as the West has moved from conventional to tech type weaponry.
As a simple example the use of DU (depleted uranium) to make heavier shells has ensured that only two of the Serbian tanks were destroyed rather than all and that the Balkans has DU in the soil and water supply. Remember that the DU ordinance was fired to penetrate Serbian tank armour but the Serbians had craftily hid their tanks and left cardboard models out in the target area. Thus the USAF could have used just an old fashioned molotov cocktail to take out the tank.
When we're most likely going to to be gassed and battoned by the storm troopers
I see all the usual suspects are jumping on the bandwagon - these protests would be taken seriously if everyone put down their crudely drawn banners and proetested as human beings rather than "workers", "anarkists", "marxists" or whatever you're having yourself.
If I were you people I would be far more concerned about the illegal arms traders operating out of eastern Europe, people like Victor Bout who is willing to sell anything to anyone. I'd also be pressing the embassies of Romania and Bulgaria to crack down on their corrupt arms manufacturers who happily sell weapons to thse kind of people.
Lastly, don't forget that we need weapoms in this world of ours, unfortunately, Tne freedom you enjoy to protest at Dsei has been won with weapons in the last century and has to be defended with weapons until we have an entire world which is united in democracy and free trade.
They're carefully selected to combine just the right amount of moronity with the perfect measure of sneering obnoxiousness.
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