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DSEi Organizers Office Occupied

ciderpunx | 21.08.2003 08:04 | DSEi 2003 | Anti-militarism | London | Oxford

Activists from Oxford have today occupied the head office of Spearhead, the company organizing Europe's largest arms fair, Defence Systems Equipment International (DSEi).

---BEGINS---
For immediate release 2003-08-21

Around 15 people arrived at Apex Tower, in New Malden High Street, at 9 o'Clock this morning. Some protesters hung a banner from the front of the building, and did a 'die-in'. 3 people managed to get inside the building where they handed out leaflets asking staff to consciensiously object to spearheads role in organizing DSEi.

Leaflets were handed out to passers by, and office staff, explaining the role of Spearhead in organizing DSEi, and asking staff to consider conscientiously objecting to the event.

One of the protesters, Sally Mander said, "We believe Spearhead's involvement in the promotion of armed conflict is a crime against peace. The arms trade fuels war and terrorism. We could feed the world 14 times over on the amount spent on weapons. This arms fair is a hideous market place of weapons of mass destruction and we're not prepared to stay at home and ignore the trade in death that's going on right under our noses."

---ENDS---


---NOTES FOR EDITORS---

At the first DSEi in 1999 the Pakistan Ordnance Factory and a Romanian arms firm were both prepared to supply land mines, anned under international law, to undercover journalists. The exhibition has dealers from organisations including BAe who sold hawk jets to the Indonesian government who then used them to commit genocide in East Timor, and Defence Science and Technology Laboratories (dstl) which includes Porton Down - manufacturers and researchers of Chemical and Biological Weapons.

At the last DSEi in September 2001 arms dealers from countries well known for abuses of human rights like Saudi Arabia, Israel, Algeria, Turkey, Colombia, China and Nigeria were invited, and it is thought that they will again be present.

According to the UN Human Development Report, world governments spend £719 billion a year on the arms trade, 14 times more than is needed to eradicate absolute poverty from the world.

There is an ongoing campaign against the DSEi event, see www.destroydsei.org, www.dsei.org

---CONTACT---

07792 840 256
 babylons_burning@linuxmail.org

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ciderpunx

Comments

Hide the following 16 comments

Great reportage

21.08.2003 08:23

Just logged on at 9.15am to discover this report about the inspiring action at Spearhead war profiteers, which had happened just 15 minutes ago. Moral of this story: visit indymedia to get the hot news first! Keep it up.

richarddirecttv


An Update

21.08.2003 08:55

People were still barricaded inside the office about 15 minutes ago. Riot cops were seen going in to the building, presumably to try and get them out....

ciderpunx


Mental

21.08.2003 09:44

You are all just mental, this years show is going to be bigger and better then ever :)
All you are doing is creating free advertising.

Bob


Respect!

21.08.2003 09:53

Yo! Respect to these demonstrators, this is what we need to see more of, lots of little actions that nibble away at the base that supports the arms trade. Inspiring stuff, and hopefully will wake more people up to getting out on the 9/10th Sept.

(Cheers for demonstrating your irrelevance to world issues, Bob!)

Col Buendia
- Homepage: http://us.geocities.com/bozavine/can/


What happens the UK never had weapons companies

21.08.2003 10:10

I want to see who protests if the UK or America or some 1st world country did not have weapons companies or a defence force. Lets see who protests if some bright spark decides to wage war on the UK then? Personally I like the arms trade its a job and it feeds a lot of people? What would the protestors have said if america stood back and did nothing after sep 11, or what would you have said if Iraq did have weapons of mass destruction and no-one did anything. What happens if North Korea decides to take on the world, and all we have is sticks and stones because we have no weapons companies?

I bet the protestors outside of Apex would be the first ones complaining?
Hey just my 2c

Good luck to them, they believe in a cause and thats good, I just think that if they have so much free time, it would be better spent working in a soup kitchen giving food to the poor, or working in Angola clearing mines?

Remember people are the ones using the weapons?
...



Bob


Well done

21.08.2003 10:36

Well done for the action, really good. They may have loads of police at the ExCel, but they can't be everywhere all the time :-) We need to keep reminding them of that. Well done again.

Keep us in touch with police charges, they're coming out with some corkers lately. It'll be good to know how you you all are later.

B

PS ignore Bob, the art of a good troll is to provide an arguement that doesn't just annoy, but leads to an arguement, which they can seruptitiously leave....

bozavine
mail e-mail: bozavine@yahoo.co.uk


Inspiring action!

21.08.2003 11:11

Enough action like this and Spearhead will decide it's not worth putting on arms fairs!

A LOT more action like this, of course...But that's what the big anti-DSEI week of action is important.

Let's not concentrate in one place...let's be everywhere.

anarchist


bob is a pigscum...

21.08.2003 12:49

....from the new malden pigscum shop.

That is the only explanation for some one who displays such idiotic logic.

ram


CONGRATULATIONS & answer to Bob

21.08.2003 12:52

WELL DONE!!Fantastic successful action.

In answer to Bob: Who sold and continues to sell weapons to unstable countries and dictatorships? If we did not have an arms industry or even had a more responsible arms industry and an ethical foreign policy terrorism and oppression by dictators would be reduced. Ethics before profit would be nice.The bright spark that decides to attack the UK is likely to be using wweapons we or the US sold them.

The arms trade feeds people and Bob likes it. It also contributes and gives the ability of regemes to violate human rights and create genocide. So he is trying to justify this by saying it is giving jobs to 'our'people. What crap. Hit men get good money and can support their families. Should we support genocide because it gives us a better standard of living?

Bob uses a lot of ifs. It is not whether America did nothing after Sept 11th but what action it took. Lookig at the causes of terrorism may have been more constructive rather than fueling more terrorism.

Surely the point is that the arms industry ensures that countries have weapons? The rogue state with an undemocratically elected leader and the greatest threat to the world is America.

People doing this action do not have lots of free time to use up. They are giving up money and time to do what they believe is right. They are willing to stand up and make sacrifices for their principles. However, if Bob works in a soup kitchen then respect to him. I have a funny feeling he doesn't. Many of these people are working for NGOs for little money trying to make a difference as well as doing actions like this.

He asks us to remember that it is people using the weapons. Does this mean that those selling weapons knowing how they will probably be used have no responsibility?

Paul


It just goes to show................

21.08.2003 12:57

What absolute beauty can be tapped into
and that we a s humans
as loving beings of light and yet more love
are just beginning to
tap into our enormous potential
to flood this suffering planet
with loads and loads of love
and yet more of it.....
It is the absolute ingenuity
inspired by events like these
that will simply not "vibrationally"
allow the destructive souls
that we have allowed though
some of our collectively programmed fear and obedience
to be born again.....
Now is this great time when together
and united we stand
in ridding our collective human soul
of the ugly mass unconcioussness of war
and the kind of FEAR-BASED-REALITY
that has been propogated and
needlessly garnished by the Blairs,powells,and bussh'ss
all we need continue to do as love
is be love and then collectively
thier fear based reality will just simply dissapate
or vanish....
The kind of arguments of "what if the uk was attacked" by bob
are still primarily based in fear
and show a deep unintelligence
That we actually do not need a struggle
we just need love
and lots of it
and loads of it..........
Yippppeeee

Bollockschops


No war but the class war.

21.08.2003 14:06

We need to broaden the campaign against militarism and start a campaign to stop working class people joining the armed forces in the first place. Under a campaign called "no war but the class war" we need to explain to young people that the armed forces of each country exist to protect the interests of the ruling class and that the working class have no interest in fighting their bosses wars or defending the bosses interests. We need to promote international working class solidarity as an alternative to nationalism and war!

Rockwell


Protesters ALL released without charge !!!

21.08.2003 14:06

Just got off the phone to the protesters, who have all been released without charge and are heading off to the pub for a well earned pint.

Don't get sucked in by trolls like bob ;-)

ciderpunx


Bob the Troll

21.08.2003 14:12

Ignore bob the troll.

Trolls just jealous coz they can't get laid.

Boohoo lonely sad troll lose again.

acab


I didn't think arming Syria was defence Bob!

21.08.2003 14:22

thought they were a major threat to us? sponsored terrorism? why were we arming them at DSEi in 2001? That wasn't defence was it?

pauliolioni
- Homepage: http://www.dsei.org


the guardian on arms

21.08.2003 19:19

just to say aside from all the ngo websites, the guardian has got a good archive / report section about arms industry:

Special report: the arms trade
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/armstrade/0,10674,519643,00.html

Arms trade: archived articles
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/armstrade/archive/0,10674,519644,00.html

Ethical arms policy?
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/ethical/0,2759,181072,00.html

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General comment on the action

24.08.2003 15:55

"3 people managed to get inside the building where they handed out leaflets asking staff to consciensiously object to spearheads role in organizing DSEi"

Only one small problem.

All of the "staff" in question are involved in the industry, a very small handful will work for Spearhead, the majority will work for the main tenant of the building who have a slight vested interest in DSEi taking place and who will be well aware of the implications of what they do.

Watcher