The march leaves Plaistow Park
On Barking Road
A clear message
At Custom House
Excel Arms fair and Swedish stealth corvette
At Custom House, we were joined as expected by other demonstrators, and a little later by Critical Mass, bringing the total numbers to around 250.
Speakers included Len Aldis and Bill Perry from the local area who have been demonstrating against the arms fair since the first one in 2001, along with local councillor Alan Craig. Other speakers were the Green Party's Sian Berry and Ian Prichard from CAAT. Mark Thomas gave a powerful performance that hit out at many of the underlying half-truths and deceptions behind the event and trade.
Afterwards, while waiting for the Space Hijackers tank to arrive somewhere, I tried unsuccesfully to get into the arms fair, then took a walk around the outside of the dock to photograph the fair from the outside, particularly the rather ugly Swedish stealth corvette Nykoping moored there.
More pictures from the event on 'My London Diary',
http://mylondondiary.co.uk shortly. Images are copyright, but free licences available for suitable non-commercial use.
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