DESI protests, why was there so little support ?
Published:
September 20, 2013 08:08
by Craven A |
Neighbourhoods:
DSEI 2013 was the fourth DSEI arms fair I have protested outside, the sickening site of well fed and smug arms dealers engaging in deals that will lead to maimings and the death of thousands never fails to move me to the point of vomit.
How could anybody not be moved to action by this I have always thought and yet every DSEI the level of protest and the numbers of those standing outside has declined. DESI 2013 had at most 150 people when the first DSEI I attended had close to 2000 with various complimentry actions at other sites. We protested the arms dealers dinner and there was about 15 of us despite the venue being well known and shared weeks in advance !
I spoke with one of the coppers in duty and he said the police numbers were also the lowest ever because, "there are hardly any protestors these days" He was a bit upset because there were no longer the overtime opportunities there once were at DSEI.
I'm not claiming to have any answers to the problem and I will always attend DESI as long as it exists even if I am the only person standing there, these bastards must not think their work is acceptable in our society but I wonder of we are having any effect on the event at all. The level of disruption we caused was minimal, the blockades we tried to set up inconvinienced nobody and the arms dealers clearly did not give a toss about us or what we had to say. Local people I spoke with were now resigned to the event every two years and several welcomed it because there was some casual work that it seemed was quite well paid. The number of exhibitors and attendees was the highest ever for a DSEI so clearly we are not influencing the event itself and we are not doing much to change minds in the local area.
Where are we going wrong, I simply have no idea but if I read one more post or website congratulating us on a job well done I will scream with frustration.
Comments
Falling support or apathy
Published: September 20, 2013 13:38
by
A supporter of 'Shut Down H&K'
As Craven A says we have struggled to get support for anti arms trade protests for most of the last two years. All of us who have been involved in the protests against H&K are frustrated at how few people seem willing to make even a small commitment. I too was surprised at how few people made it to DSEI compared to previous years with many of the familiar faces missing. The lack of any involvement from the Space Hijackers was very disapointing and I have no idea what has happened to 'Stop DSEI' - they seem to have just gone.
Mass arrests
Published: September 20, 2013 21:56
by
@
Remember that 280 odd people had been nicked on the anti-edl demo the day before, with some not realised until sunrise. Add to that all the people who stayed up to provide copshop support, and that's yer sunday written off for a lot of people.
Sorry to say but I think the police tactics, in many cases, achieve their obviously desired intention: to induce protest/cop fatigue and keep people away from the action.
I appreciate that it's not an excuse - we are hardly dealing with major repression - but this year's DSEI should be considered in that context.
Stop DSEI
Published: September 21, 2013 07:52
by
Was involved
Stop DSEI fell apart when the two key people (let's not call them leaders) decided to call it a day after recieving a lot of critisism because of the way they organised the protests at DSEI 2011. They were really pissed off and with good reason, having people coming up to you and saying things like, "the food was shit, you need to do bettter" is enought for anyone.
We don't help ourselves sometimes.
History of Actions
Published: September 24, 2013 15:58
by
Sad
2003
•Warships coming into docks harassed and temporarily stopped by boats before opening
•CAAT demo first day of opening
•On the trains: Buddhists communicating with arms dealers, and others selling arms (and legs)
•Multiple actions stopping trains all week
•“Affinity group” did action inside ExCeL, having booked a stall!
•Blockade of East entrance on “fluffy” day (according to non-violent guidelines)
•Large moving blockades all day on “no guidelines” day, helped by a roving Critical Mass
•Day culminated in an RTS-style street party that was fairly quickly surrounded by police
•Rafael (arms dealers) office briefly occupied same day
•Various affinity actions also through day and week, including at dealers’ hotels
•Mass demo at arms dealers’ Thursday dinner, including Critical Mass
•Red dye in the fountains the night of the dinner
2005
•Street Party Saturday before opening
•Spoof paper delivered around Newham
•Attempt to block incoming warship with small boats prevented by cops
•CAAT march
•Family friendly “Baby Bloc” got close to ExCeL
•Day of Blockades, including invasion of Custom House station, road-block with lock-on and car, and roving posses
•Mass demo outside arms dealers’ dinner and red dye in fountain
•Several effective train actions during the week
2007
•About 20 activists attempted to storm DSEi; invaded the car park at ExCeL but didn’t make it inside
•London Catholic Workers poured fake blood and enacted a “die-in” at an entrance to the arms fair
•Critical Mass bike ride to ExCeL
•Space Hijackers’ took a tank to the entrance of the arms fair and “auction” it to the highest bidder
•Princess of Wales fountain was dyed blood red to remember victims of cluster bombs
•Bikes Not Bombs Critical Mass tried to get to Dorchester Hotel to join demo of about 150 against arms dealers’ dinner
2009
•Roving demonstration to target financial institutions that back the arms trade, including RBS, Barclays, Legal & General, Schroders, Lloyds and BT
•Banner drops outside Barclays and Legal & General and shoes thrown at both companies
•People write messages on window of Legal & General, including including “Wake up, your work kills people”
•BT offices invaded
•CAAT takes coach-loads of campaigners from ExCeL on an arms trade tour of London, ending at the headquarters of UKTI DSO – the government arms sales departments – where they hold a “fayre“
2011
•On Sunday 10th September Disarm afficionados in five kayaks took to the Thames to confront the state-of-the-art warship HMS Dauntless. The planned banner never had a chance to be unfurled, but a cat-and-mouse game followed
between the police launches and protesters’ kayaks as the extremely large battleship “ground” to a halt. Canoists were prised from the water one by one (apart from a single escapologist who features in an iconic photo). However Warships have a very short time when the tide lets them get into Victoria dock and the action delayed the Dauntless entering the dock until the next tide.
•On the Monday ELAAF held it’s traditional candlelit vigil. On Tuesday, day of action dawned to reveal a subvertised billboard as well as a huge ‘Destroy DSEi’ banner hung between cranes. A critical mass of cyclists was out and about all day with explosive sounds and various groups blockaded entrances to the arms fair as well as the offices of death dealing companies such as Aerospace Defence & Security Group.
•Actions in Westminster during the day included a CAAT ‘supermarket shopping’ event and a Christian demonstration against drones with street theatre. This later moved on to General Atomics, which makes the British
Reaper drone. A priest from Bradford was allowed to reach the main DSEi entrance after announcing that he’d come to perform the official exorcism.
•Many other actions and visual events took place in and around Docklands. Police Forward Intelligence (Surveillance) Teams were everywhere, some thinly disguised as ordinary cops, with FIT watchers keeping a closeeye on them. There were die-ins all over the place culminating outside the BAe Systems buildin
•Protesters adjourned to the National Gallery, where an unannounced special dinner for arms fair participants was held in the evening. Guests, including high ranking military from assorted countries faced enraged protesters. (The Chinese delegates were among those that made a swift departure! Two arrests were reported during the day, one for spray painting anti- arms fair slogans and one for fence climbing. Several more arrests were reported outside the National Gallery in the evening.
•On Wednesday, around 15 people marched from central London to the Excel centre. Despite a blanket 30-day ban on marches still in place in the City of London and the borough of Tower Hamlets, there was no police harassment
•Thursday was the traditional dinner. Determined to avoid facing reminders of their obscene behaviour, arms dealers ate on a moored battleship in the dock outside Excel. Their ploy failed as music and commentary bellowed out from the other side of the dock and nervous police boats raced back and forth evidently wanting to prevent anybody from going for a swim!
•Earlier in the evening there was a brief blockade of the West entrance road and a critical mass.
•Friday ended the week of protests with the traditional wreath-laying in the dock, commemorating the victims of the arms trade.
2013
•Small demo of 150 people on the main day of the show
•13 people bothered to attend the DSEI arms traders dinner
Says it all really :-(
Re - History of Actions
Published: September 26, 2013 07:43
by
Happy
Glad to hear you are unhappy with the current state of anti arms trade action in this country, I agree with you it is pitiful.
What will you be doing to change that ?
Latest articles feed
Did not go this year
I went down to London for the last DSEI in 2011 as my first experience of a large scale arms trade protest. I decided not to go this year because none of the people I had travelled with last time were intending to go, the mood was much the same for all of them; a recognition that we were doing very little to stop the fair and that there was a lot of rose tinted glasses among those from CAAT and Stop DSEI who seemed to think they had the event at the point of closing when obviously nothing could have been farther from the truth. The amount of protest against the arms trade seems to be declining across the country and we really struggle to get supporters for the regular protests outside Heckler and Koch here in Nottingham. In my view this is because the current economic crises is focussing people's mind on other issues.