Campaign Against the Arms Trade is a grassroots organisation that has been doing just that since 1974. Recently a London local group was set up, determined to highlight the immorality of the “defence” industry, and I undertook to create this map (using CAAT resources and the British Defence Industry Directory (Online)) as a resource so as to begin to pinpoint those involved in making London the capital of the world arms-broking trade.

Certain things are immediately obvious and the first is the concentration of the big arms companies in the centre of the city. Companies like BAE, Raytheon and Rolls Royce are as much a part of the establishment as they can physically be: not surprising when the Defence Export Services Organisation, based on New Oxford Street, is a government agency that identifies potential opportunities for arms sales, then works with the companies and other elements of government to push for deals. In other words, civil servants are paid for with our taxes to encourage the export of death.

Until now, many of these death merchants have basked in anonymity. LRLIH, which owns the company responsible for selling UK-made Bedford trucks that ended up being used by the genocidal Janjaweed in Darfur, has an office on Haymarket, a couple of minutes from the tourists of Leicester and Trafalgar Square. The fact is that we walk by these companies on our way to theatres, pubs and shops without even knowing they are there. This map is the beginnings of an attempt to redress that.

See the map (and add to it if you can) at
 http://www.platial.com/boringlovechild/map/14398

For more information on CAAT:
 http://www.caat.org.uk

CAAT London will be holding a series of demonstrations on Monday 19th March outside London Arms Dealers with links to arms used by the Janjaweed in Darfur, the Israelis in Palestine and Lebanon and the Indonesian government in Aceh. All welcome.