DSEI

Nine peace activists were arrested on ‘No Faith in War Day’, on 7 September, in front of the the ExCeL Centre in East London, where preparations were being made for the Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms exhibition and conference, Europe’s biggest arms fair.

Earlier, several hundred people had attended a Quaker meeting for worship, followed by an Anglican service and, later, a Pax Christi liturgy of resistance, at one of the gates to the ExCeL Centre. People…

Preparations have started for the days of action against the Defence and Security Equipment International arms fair (DSEI), to be held in East London in September 2023.

The Stop the Arms Fair (STAF) coalition had a day-long planning meeting on 24 September at Friends House by Euston, London, with about 40 people.

It was decided to set up a number of working groups which will meet on Zoom, in order to be able to include people from around the UK.

If you’d like to join the…

Before the start of the DSEI arms fair in East London on 14 September, there were several arrests as many protesters attempted to blockade the two service roads used by vehicles carrying military hardware into the ExCeL Centre.

A great variety of groups organised a great variety of actions against DSEI this year, though numbers overall were smaller than in recent times.

This year, the mostly autonomous protests were co-ordinated by a coalition called ‘Stop the Arms Fair’ (STAF…

As part of the two weeks of protest against the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair held in London’s ExCeL Centre, Stop the Arms Fair organised a Festival of Resistance on 11 September. They were joined by activists from Extinction Rebellion (XR), Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), Trident Ploughshares and others – there were even jointly-produced flyers available in the information tent (along with copies of PN). The XR activists I talked to all spoke…

One group has been working with the local community to raise awareness about the arms fair and to keep up the pressure on the organisers.

East London Against the Arms Fair (ELAAF) is a group of people who live in London's Docklands area and have protested against the arms fair since it was first held in the area. One of our aims is to inform local people about what is happening on their doorstep and to encourage their support.

To this end we have been…

CAMPAIGNS

In 2003, the global arms trade was worth around $40 billion. As in any trade, the deals which make up this figure are facilitated by bringing together potential buyers and sellers. It is this role that is fulfilled by the glossy corporate arms bazaar due to take place in London's ExCel Centre from 13-16 September: Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEi).

Organised by Spearhead Exhibitions, now a subsidiary of information and education giant Reed Elsevier, DSEi does much to…

On the basis of the official invitations from previous DSEi exhibitions, we can say with certainty that representatives from countries engaged in conflict, with poor human rights records and with major development needs will all be in attendance again this year.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office's annual Human Rights Report for 2005 considers twenty countries in detail, in which it considers that human rights are a particularly serious problem. Six of these; Afghanistan…

Regardless of the outcome of our protests at this year's DSEi, we want to make sure that the arms fair doesn't come back to London in 2007. The DSEi organisers have booked themselves into the ExCel Centre biennially until 2011. Moreover, Reed Elsevier, the company responsible for organising DSEi, currently organises seven other arms fairs around the world - in Brazil, Taiwan, Singapore, the Netherlands and the UK.

What can be done? We must continue to pressure Reed Elsevier to give up…