As part of the protests against DSEI in London a number of use managed to get a one night booking at the Novotel which is inside in the security barrier and was a popular hotel with arms dealers.  We had planned to leave leaflets and stickers inside the hotel and perhaps even have some fun sending a few of them in the wrong direction :-)

Much of the above we did but in the evening while having a drink in the bar we had the opportunity to speak with some of them.

 

We spoke with four guys, two were from Chemring, one from a German small arms company (didn't get the name) and the fourth from Land Rover. Speaking with them directly was a big surprise, the human element I suppose, they discussed the same sort of things we would do - the time away from family while travelling, the shit state of hotels like Novotel (bad food, lumpy beds) and the pressure to meet sales targets. We slowly turned the conversation around to the moral issue of what they did and it was clear they have no problem whatsoever, three of them were ex military and they regarded the arms trade as simply an extension of the military with many of the same people involved they had been in the army with. They all regarded the idea of the end of global conflict as laughable.

My colleague raised the issue of the protestors, some of which which we could still see across the river and their reactions surprised me. The guy from Land Rover said he was proud that he lived in a country where protest was openly allowed as he had seen regimes where the oppositive was true, the two from Chemring said they never really thought about them describing the protests as "background noise" and the man from the German company said he never really thought about them describing them as "stupid students we never take notice off". When I asked if the protests had ever made them question their choice of jobs there was genuine amazement, it was clear that they simply didn't understand the concept. I asked would would happen if there were violent protests and they were faced directly with protestors, to a man they thought this would be great fun ! As it was pointed out to me,

"80% of the people at DSEI at former soldiers, do you really think they will be worried by a few skinny vegetarians ?"

When I pointed out that many people regarded what they did with disgust I was met with shrugs and indifference, as the man from LandRover said, "war is a fact of human life, soldiers need guns and the rest and disgust with us will not change that".