DSEi City demo visits Arms Trade investors as police keep a low profile
Kill the Arms Trade | 08.09.2009 14:53 | Anti-militarism
Next up was Legal & General (Coleman Street) with £795m in the UK arms Industry and £2199m in the global arms trade. Post it notes were placed on windows telling the company what protestors thought of them, and more shoes were thrown.
On then to Lloyds in Gresham Street, where the entrance of one of their buildings was blocked. Lloyds are principle bankers to BAE and Qinetiq and have £717m oif shares in the UK Arms sector.
next up BT, whose building was entered by many who wanted to take BT up on their slogan "Its good to talk". They wanted to talk about the £59m of shares that BT has in the global Arms Trade.
Next up was AXA, a huge investor with investments of £2,259m in the UK Arms Trade and £6,207 in the Global Arms trade. Axa had some damage to their front doors, and a red paint bomb thrown at their sign.
The protest wound up at the back of the Stock Exchange, in Paternoster Square where activists chilled to tunes for a while before dispersing. Throughout the poilce kept a low profile, and I witnessed no arrests.
We should have taken DSEi protests to the City years ago, Make the most of post-G20 policing - the repression is likely to be even harsher when the pendulum swings back.
Kill the Arms Trade
Additions
Videos of demo
08.09.2009 14:57
http://qik.com/video/2822415 - meetup http://qik.com/video/2822855 - Barclays http://qik.com/video/2822889 - BT http://qik.com/video/2822951 - AXA
linka
LH TWIT TIMELINE
08.09.2009 15:29
# People have started to head home.about 2 hours ago from txt
# Sound system is playing dead prez. In paternoster square. People making speaches about arms trade.about 2 hours ago from txt
# Now on warick lane.about 2 hours ago from txt
# AXA Window smashed.about 2 hours ago from txt
# Now at Newgate st at AXA who invest 6207 million in arms trade.about 2 hours ago from txt
# Leaving BT. Police still in little numers.about 2 hours ago from txt
# Claps from cattring staff in bt buildingabout 2 hours ago from txt
# Bt building invaded!about 3 hours ago from txt
# Now on Newgate st.about 3 hours ago from txt
# Coming down cheapside.about 3 hours ago from txt
# On Wood st.about 3 hours ago from txt
# Passing shroders and Lloyds buildings both have connections to the arms trade.about 3 hours ago from txt
# Heading down gresham st.about 3 hours ago from txt
# Still on London Wall coming up to museum of London.about 3 hours ago from txt
# Banner dropped reading legal and general invests in the arms trade.about 3 hours ago from txt
# People writting messages on windows of Legal and General including 'wake up your work kills people'.about 3 hours ago from txt
# Shoes thrown at legal and general who invest 2199 million in arms worldwide.about 3 hours ago from txt
# Moving down London Wall. Shouts of 'bankers bankers blood on your hands'.about 3 hours ago from txt
# Shoes being thrown at barclays.about 3 hours ago from txt
# Moving down wormwood st. Passing barclays. Banner drop off bridge overhead.about 3 hours ago from txt
# On camomile st. Numbers are around 150.about 4 hours ago from txt
# Heading down dukes place.about 4 hours ago from txt
# Moving off down aldgate high st.about 4 hours ago from txt
# Small black block setting up. Photographers trying to get thier money shot.about 4 hours ago from txt
# Numbers are still small compared to previous years.about 4 hours ago from txt
# Just arrived in front of the RBS building for disarm dsei protest. Protest is due to start at 12.about 5 hours ago from txt
# Off to cover dsei protests today.about 7 hours ago from txt
lh
Account of the day
08.09.2009 17:56
The demonstration focussed on the investors in the arms fair and in the global arms trade. RBS, the start point of the demo, is the largest financier of the global arms industry, having loaned £44.6 billion to the arms trade over the last ten years.
The march moved on into The City. Police, afraid of another embarassing G20 style confrontation, kept a minimal presence. A banner, saying 'Barclays Invests in the Arms Trade' was hung from a bridge over London Wall close to Barclays Head Office. Barclays are the largest UK investor in the global arms trade with £7.3 billion in shares in arms companies. It also helped fund the purchase of Clarion, the organiser of the DSEi arms fair, by investment company VSS. Demonstrators hurled shoes at the building as an expression of disgust and contempt at Barclays complicity in the arms trade.
Next up was Legal and General, who hold millions of pounds worth of shares in the UK and global arms industries. Again, the building was pelted with shoes and demonstrators pasted notes on the building's windows calling for divestment. A banner was hung from a road bridge to let the public know about Legal and General's investments.
Lloyds bank on Gresham Street was besieged by demonstrators expressing their anger at the bank's provision of loans to producers of cluster bombs and depleted uranium munitions.
Scores of demonstrators poured through the doors of British Telecom, who have £59 million in share in the arms trade, and occupied their lobby.
Demonstrators then surrounded AXA, another large investor, threw paint bombs and smashed a window.
The demo finished in Paternoster Square, Outside the London Stock Exchange
disarmer
Policing on Disarm DSEI march
10.09.2009 11:22
CD 206 (Sussex), Fatboy Discombe, Chief Inspector Matt Twist
Terrified vsitors in BT foyer
Public order notes
FIT officers notes
more images from Disarm DSEI on
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38303892@N05/sets/72157622327513636/
geoff
Comments
Hide the following 23 comments
Timeline, photos and video
08.09.2009 15:10
More reports including pictures and video coming soon on
Last Hours
Homepage:
http://www.lasthours.org.uk
Excel vs City
08.09.2009 15:35
I respectfully disagree. DSEi is not the G20; there is a flow of delegates in and out which means getting to and blockading the entrances at Excel is much more feasible and effective. No world leaders, no ring of steel perimeter. With enough people and a variety of tactics such as lock-ons, stopping the DLR, or just sitting in the road at different gates, disrupting and even stopping the fair should be possible.
DSEi protestors have a lot of experience with Excel as a venue now, and this year some of the entrances are closed due to building works which means there are less routes in and out for the delegates anyway.
Before anyone asks, no I wasn't there today, and I would like to point out that this is NOT a criticism of today's actions. By all accounts it was a good day and maximum respect to all those who attended.
dicey
vid caps from axa
08.09.2009 15:41
tfox
city much better
08.09.2009 15:48
city boy
trolling?
08.09.2009 15:57
(A) Sab x
re: Trolling
08.09.2009 16:02
Kill the Arms Trade
I don't get it
08.09.2009 16:41
It's a shame that the opportunity wasn't taken. There's been more damage caused to investors prior to the DSEi event than at it. Just goes to show that more damage is caused during the night than the day if people don't act. If this was a simple case of naming and shaming then it should be done at least weekly (like SHAC demos) otherwise it's going nowhere. A few demos similar to this with less people would of been just as effective, if not more so.
reader
'Too violent' ?
08.09.2009 17:34
Pete
To Reader
08.09.2009 22:06
If you weren't on the demo you really cant comment on the tactics used. For the number of people in attendance allot happened.
Me
CAAT should dissolve
09.09.2009 02:47
CAAT’s problem is that it has almost become a bureaucracy that it now exists for the sake of existing and it is perhaps not a coincide that its senior full-time staff member is a former Stalinist. It is too small to have as much impact as the larger campaigns such as Christian Aid, which have got involved in anti-arms trade campaigning, and it is now too reluctant to say or do anything too controversial, for fear of frightening off its funders or provoking a legal action.
I have heard it suggested (not seriously, I hope) that CAAT is so ineffective and now so divisive that British Aerospace would be wiser to start funding it rather than trying to infiltrate it – but I see what they mean. I am sure that CAAT can claim a huge number of successes in its 30+ years of campaigning but I cannot think anything that it has achieved. Even its ill-fated attempt to seek a judicial review of the SFO decision not to investigate British Aerospace came to nothing except absorb a huge amount of time of its staff and volunteers.
There was a time when small single-issue campaigns such as CAAT had a role but I think that has now gone. CAAT should accept that it can no longer command the respect of hard-core activists and can longer exert the kind of political pressure of the larger campaigning organisations. It therefore needs either to dissolve itself and pass its resources to the far more effective Smash EDO, which could evolve into a true activist-led campaign, or it should allow itself to be absorbed by one of the larger organisations and stop diverting energy and spitting protests.
Mike
Dissolve?
09.09.2009 08:50
I had also heard reports that CAAT people had been bad mouthing rival campaigns, and Smash EDO in particular, and that it had been reluctant to have anything to do with its protests.
Josh
You’re right about CAAT
09.09.2009 09:34
Before the Disarm DSEi protest CAAT’s Sarah Waldron was busy contacting everyone to urge them to support its protest which started at the Excel Centre (with the apparent agreement of the cops) before the Disarm DSEi protest, then travelling into central London on a bus for a demo outside DESO. No mention was made of the protest in the City.
Why did CAAT deliberately organise its protest to start on the same day but exactly one hour before the Disarm DSEi protest and then afterwards divert people well away from the City?
Anon.
Mmmm!
09.09.2009 09:47
rings a bit hollow. Only one window got broken, while I was there. Still worth doing, but
I wish this had been down at the Excel center despite the difficulties. Disarm DSEI must
rethink its tactics, it has become marginalised. 200 peeps is not enough.
Participant
Inside BT - a corporate take
09.09.2009 16:56
"A witness at the BT building said: "They came running in and jumped over the security barriers, smashing glasses and telephones.
"Some of them went up to two floors above, having a look round and writing graffiti.
"It could have been really frightening but when they started shouting about BT being involved in the arms trade I knew that they didn't know what they were going on about. Then they must have got bored and left."
It took me 23 secs to find that the figure comes from a War on Want report, and details of BT's holdings in the Arms Trade are outlined in the appendix of the report. BT is likely to be a popular target for a sustained campaign in the future, and can look forward to a few more visits.
Evading Standard
CAAT was right
09.09.2009 17:11
Simply because the banks have links with arm s companies is not a reason to ignore the arms companies. So far as I can see, all that this achieved was to break a window. Wow. I bet bank directors are going to have a lot of sleepless nights as a consequence of that.
What DISARM DSEI has done is to split the protest movment and sImply because the police didn’t do anything is not a reason why the action was a success. Of course CAAT liaised with the police in advance. So what? It doesn’t negate the protest – it only makes it more effective.
Nick
CAAT
09.09.2009 17:20
CAAT did not "tell some of its supporters to boycott the Disarm DSEi protest because it was “too violent” whilst organising its own protest this week" and has not passed judgement on whether Disarm DSEi's actions would be, or were violent. CAAT has a policy of non-violence on its own actions – but we welcome all action aimed at disrupting arms production and promotion and the violence inherent in the military equipment being produced.
CAAT has in fact publicised Disarm DSEi's actions:
* I facilitated a workshop jointly with someone involved in Disarm DSEi at the PeaceNews camp, where all the actions taking place were promoted.
* CAAT listed, and linked to, Disarm DSEi's activities alongside all promotion of our plans
* CAAT's leaflets for DSEi included details of Disarm DSEi's actions – and all the other protests planned for the week.
We did this because we believe we need a strong, diverse movement, using a variety of tactics, if are to combat the forces of the global arms trade. Personally, I think we have much more important targets than each other.
Sarah Waldron
CAAT
09.09.2009 19:11
Chris
Disarmingman
Some Clarifications
09.09.2009 23:39
The accusation that Disarm DSEi has split the movement is plainly ridiculous. Disarm DSEi started as an umbrella organisation bringing together over sixty different groups to fight against this disgusting fair.
Regarding numbers - of course more would have been good - however we'd have got far less if we'd decided to revisit ExCeL - as has been shown in previous years.
We never said anyone should ignore the arms companies. We produced a map of arms dealers around the country and encouraged people to take action against their local companies in the run up to DSEi.
Want to do something different? Get involved now and start planning for DSEi 2011.
Disarm DSEi
e-mail:
disarm@dsei.org
Homepage:
http://www.dsei.org
Not far enough
09.09.2009 23:59
Why did CAAT time its protest to take place at exactly the same time as the Disarm DSEi ‘Smash the Banks’ action?
Was it:
a. A coincidence.
b. Trying to keep its supporters away from the Disarm DSEi protest.
c. Done in the belief that having two protests in different places was more effective than one.
Or am I missing the point?
Josh
Disarm DSEi, CAAT and Indymedia
10.09.2009 08:15
Throughout the several years of anti arms fair campaigns and actions there were always protests scheduled at the same time and in different locations. People do different things. In the past christians and other faiths have met outside the arms fair to sing, pray and protest, others have climed onto DLR trains and stopped them, others have marched through the streets, others have entered the arms fair and protested inside etc etc etc
Two main demos this year - fine.
But here on Indymedia several of the comments again return to what can be viewed as a mix of infighting and trolling designed to spread mistrust and deter solidarity (or at the very least simple grumpy disrespectful sniping and criticism).
There certainly has in the past years been concerted efforts to post infactual disinformation about Disarm DSEi and CAAT. This has mostly been correctly identified and hidden - such as the post the other day saying the Disarm DSEi march had been kettled and prevented from moving. Comments are a different matter however.
Are most of the comments useful or not? Under these reports some are valid additions to the reporting of the event. Others to me seem more about spreading mistrust. I think it's time Indymedia UK started having logons for comments.
Anyway, well done to all who made it off the internet and into the streets to protest the arms fair, whichever of the various protests they went to.
you, me, or anyone i pretend to be
I'm not sure
10.09.2009 08:36
Idiot
Homepage:
http://idiotbarnes@yahoo.com
Nick
10.09.2009 16:29
Firstly, it's not ignoring arms companies by targeting their investors, it's targeting them indirectly. Secondly, by targeting the investors of arms companies in no way means the arms companies are ignored. It's done complimentary to targeting the companies directly.
This didn't just achieve a broken window, it achieved a new direction that the anti-arms movement can take as well - targeting investors. Yes first time round only a broken window (and damage at BT I hear) was 'only' achieved, but in time this damage can and will increase. Not to mention that sabotage actions against EDO, Barclays (x2), HSBC and RBS were carried out in the run up to DSEi, which hopefully will continue and spread.
Finally, looking at the animal liberaiton movement will tell you that secondry targeting is highly effective (especially when it becomes illegal to demo at the primary target) and has led to companies like HLS being $100 million in debt, no bank, insurance or investors. Not forgeting the number of animal lab breeders that have been closed down using this method.
The fact that the anti-arms and climate movements are learning from these examples is great news. It'll just take a while for activists to get these tactics working en mass.
veg@n
Re Not far enough
10.09.2009 22:08
I can see no advantages to option (b).
It was (a): definitely not a deliberate decision. Talking to a member of Disarm DSEi earlier in the year, it emerged that we'd both opted for the same day – and both partly because we'd assumed the other would be focusing its action on another day. We recognised the drawbacks at the time, but also that there were some advantages to (c). Perhaps it was the wrong judgment for neither of us to change the timing – and, if so, hopefully we can learn from that if we need to come back in 2011.
As for CAAT keeping 'its supporters' away from the Disarm DSEi, I'd emphasise again that we can see no advantage to that, but also that CAAT supporters are a diverse bunch who make their own decisions and were given the info to do so – and some chose to be in the City. It's good news for all of us that there are plenty of people that identify with, and actively participate in, a range of different groups who take action against the arms trade.
I'm not going to comment again here - not because I want to avoid questions - but because this thread was about actions in the city (well, that's what I came here to read about!), not about CAAT. Happy to pursue other constructive discussions elsewhere.
Sarah Waldron
e-mail:
sarah@caat.org.uk