March against Europe's biggest arms fair
eileen | 07.09.2003 16:16 | DSEi 2003 | Oxford
Oxford contingent ready for off
Unfurling the banners
Banners 2
Start of march
Embankment
Embankment 2
Oxford contingent on embankment
Oxford contingent on embankment 2
Pink and Silver Samba Band
Sheffield Samba Band
Blood on your hands
Butterfly man
Samba bands at the rally
Samba bands join forces
After the rally
Outside the Imperial War Museum
Cannons
A coach load of Oxford peace activists travelled to London on Saturday morning to protest against the week-long DSEi arms fair. Though numbering no more than an estimated 2000, the march was a relaxed and enjoyable event with colourful costumes, banners (including several splendid Oxford ones by the local artist Maureen Wilsker) and a couple of energetic samba bands. The weather was mainly warm and sunny, despite a few drops of rain, as the marchers wended their way along a leafy Victoria Embankment, past the Houses of Parliament and the Ministry of Defence, to the Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park on the South Bank, next to the Imperial War Museum. Here a rally was held with a number of well-known speakers such as Green Party MEP Jean Lambert, Paul Ingram of Oxford Research Group and Martin Hogbin of CAAT (Campaign Against Arms Trade), the group organising the march.
The march marked the first day of a programme of activities lasting until September 12, in protest against the holding of the arms fair in London’s docklands. For a comprehensive background briefing see CAAT’s website at:
http://www.caat.org.uk/information/publications/other/dsei-2003-intro.php.
eileen