MEDIA RELEASE
FROM MAYDAY TO DSEi
2nd May 2003, for immediate release

Now that yesterday’s Mayday protests are over, anti-capitalists are preparing to target DSEi (Defence Systems Equipment International), the largest European arms fair of 2003. It will take place from the 9th to the 12th September at the Excel centre in London’s Docklands.

Thousands of protestors from all over the world are expected to descend on London for DSEi. They plan to take action on the scale of protests such as those
against the WTO in Seattle, the G8 in Genoa and the EU in Thessaloniki, Greece, this June. Their aim is to shut down the arms fair and disrupt business at the offices of companies involved in the weapons industry.

September 10th has been chosen as the day of direct action where protestors will attempt to close down DSEi and damage the arms industry by whatever means necessary. Mass actions are being planned along with assorted affinity group actions.

Direct action will also take place between now and September, targeting companies who will be exhibiting at DSEi and the organisers of the arms fair.
The call to action put out by the Destroy DSEi direct action group says:
"This call invites you to take part in the day of direct action and to focus actions to hit the death merchants at their multinational offices and military bases throughout London and Europe between now and the end of the fair."

Destroy DSEi is a supporting group for Disarm DSEi – a broad coalition of groups ranging from NGOs to antiwar organisations and from anarchists to pacifists that is coordinating events and actions against DSEi and the companies that exhibit there. A range of events is planned leading up to and through the week of the weapons fair including a march and a day of non-violent civil disobedience as well as the day of direct action.

The Destroy DSEi direct action group can be contacted by email at:  dsei_da@london.com


NOTES FOR EDITORS

Supporting groups for Disarm DSEi include: CAAT, the WOMBLES, Rhythms of Resistance, Revo, Disobedience, CND, Women in Black, Anarchist Youth Network, Hackney Refugee and Migrant Support Group, D10, Carnivalistas, SOAS People & Planet, SOAS Stop The War, Global Women’s Strike, Youth & Student CND and Destroy DSEi.

The arms trade, of which DSEi 2003 is an important part, is an international political business made up of multinational companies which make products 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.

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!

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. Holding Europe's largest weapons fair of 2003 at an exhibition centre that overlooks the already impoverished working class estates of Canning Town is no surprise. In fact it's exactly the kind of boot in the face ordinary people have come to expect from Britain's pseudo-Labour government – creating a massive boom in the international weapons industry alongside the global demolition of already pathetic public services.