Defence Systems and Equipment International, or DSEi, is one of the world's biggest arms fairs and has been held in the ExCel centre in East London's Docklands since 1999. It is a "tri-service defence exhibition", which means it is a forum for selling military equipment of all kinds for land, sea and air. The arms fair is organised by a commercial company, and receives major support from the UK government: financial, logistical and political.
CAAT has long been campaigning for the closure of DSEi, and recently won an important victory. The current commercial organiser, Reed Elsevier, has announced it is to pull out of the arms trade and plans to sell DSEi by the end of 2007. This has sent a clear signal that DSEi is a liability and that reputable businesses don't deal with the arms trade. Read more.
However, the campaign to stop DSEi continues. If another buyer is found, we will continue to put pressure on them, and we will continue to call on the government to end its support for DSEi.
Join the campaign
CAAT peaceful demonstration against the arms fair
Tuesday 11th September: Meet at 11am, Plaistow Park, East London.
Plaistow park is between Balaam Street and Greengate Street, London E13 0AS. (Nearest tube Plaistow, District or Hammersmith & City Lines). Map.
The demonstration will then move off at 11:15am to end at the ExCel exhibition centre, where the arms fair takes place,. A rally will be held next to the Custom House Docklands Light Railway station at 12pm.
The distance of the demonstration is about 3 km, or just under 2 miles. People with limited mobility are very welcome to join the demonstration at Custom House for the rally if preferable. Custom House DLR station has full disability access and the rally will take place just next to the station.
The rally is expected to finish by 1pm.
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