Occupy vs. the Arms Fair brought together supporters of Occupy and anti-arms trade activists in London on a recent Sunday to organize against what was described as the "world’s leading defense and security event."
The arms fair was coordinated by the British government through its Defence Export Services Organisation, a Ministry of Defence department that focuses solely on promoting arms sales. Situated on a 100-acre site, the ExCel Centre in London’s Docklands was the venue for the September 9-13 showcase of the U.K. military industrial complex, known as Defence Systems and Equipment International, or DSEi.
Information published by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) revealed who the U.K. government invited to the arms extravaganza. Attendees included a Russian weapons manufacturer that is supplying over three-quarters of the Syrian regime's arsenal, and manufacturers of the tear gas used against protesters recently in Bahrain, Egypt, Turkey and Brazil. A company that promoted illegal cluster bombs at the last weapons event was also asked to return.
At midday on Sunday, September 8, the day before the fair, activists and campaigners occupied the main vehicle entry space outside the ExCel Centre. Three activists blocked the east gates with a "lock on." Over 20 pop-up tents were erected along with a kitchen and tech tent. Cyclists from London’s critical mass took the roundabout and a samba band gave the growing crowd energy.
Lying in the front of the vehicle entrance and chained up with two other protesters, Mark Weather told me, “We’ll be locked on as long as possible to prevent vehicles carrying weapons, munitions and props needed to set up the arms fair.”
Two high-speed armored boats, on the back of flatbed trucks, were halted from entering the fair by the well over 100 people who arrived to join the action. Weather explained his motivation for blocking the entrance:
“For me as a person in the Occupy movement there are many things that are wrong with the system. Not least the City of London, the stock exchange and the DSIE arms fair: I’m here because you cannot create democracy down the barrel of a gun.”
The three people locked-on had thick metal pipes from wrist to elbow, a technique to shield their locks from any police attempts to disconnect them. They were covered with photocopied cash, colored red to represent “blood money,” and surrounded by prop CS gas canisters.
“The arms fair brings together thousands of arms dealers with the world’s most oppressive regimes, invited by the U.K. government who are propping up this dirty trade rather than spending money on public services,” said Sarah Reader, who was in the middle of the group with both of her arms locked on.
“In Britain the government says the cuts are a necessity, yet it continues to subsidize the arms industry, which shows cuts are a choice: so they can change.”
British government subsidies to the arms industry are around £700 million ($1.1 billion) per year, while its spending on arms is double the amount cut from the National Health Service. The trend prioritizing the arms industry and arms sales is mirrored by Greece, whose bailout measures included the country's continued purchase of arms while making severe cuts to vital services. Official figures for 2012 showed that Greece's military spending rose 18% while its social spending fell by 9%.
Turkey faces a similar situation. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute ranks Turkey as the fourth largest importer of arms -- and it is also a country whose citizens face severe repression and cuts to public services.
“The weapons will be used against people in Bahrain, Egypt, Syria and Turkey to suppress movement against democracy.” Reader continued. “It’s disgusting that countries that suppress their people are invited to shop here.”
The British Foreign Office lists countries that pose serious and wide ranging concerns, yet government publications show that 16 countries with some of the worst records are still purchasing arms from the UK, including Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Egypt. Mass democratic movements such as in Turkey, Brazil and across the Arab Spring nations are seen, rather, as an opportunity by the weapons industry. According to the Guardian, the Arab Spring increased the internal security business by 18% in 2012.
But the U.K. weapons industry isn't simply profiting from regimes that suppress their people -- more to the point, the U.K. government targets these human crises as potential places to boost sales. Investigative NGO Corporate Watch reveals that the government’s arms department lists Turkey as a “priority market.” Prime Minister David Cameron can be visibly seen on "arms tours"; during the initial stages of the Arab Spring, it was widely reported that Cameron headed a trade delegation of U.K. arms firms while claiming to be helping “create the building blocks for democracy.” Cameron has been on weapons selling missions to Oman, India, Egypt, Kuwait, Burma, Brazil and Saudi Arabia to name a few.
Selling arms to despots, tyrants and oppressive regimes has a long history within Britain’s arms industry. Recently published research from the Jubilee Debt Campaign shows that the U.K. government armed both sides of the Iran-Iraq war. Other examples of support include General Suharto of Indonesia, military dictatorships in Ecuador and Argentina, and Egypt’s successive regimes where it has armed Anwar Sadat, Hosni Mubarak and, most recently, the deposed Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The discussions and speakers at Occupy vs. the Arms Fair cited numerous reasons for their opposition: one speaker was a veteran imprisoned for refusing to serve a second term in Afghanistan, while others talked about the immoral element of profiteering and encouraging war.
At the same time, statistics dispel the U.K. government’s argument that it needs the industry economically. Research published by CAAT shows that arms exports can be attributed to just 0.2% of total U.K. employment -- yet the government invests over one quarter of its research expenditure on arms research, and over half of the government staff promoting industry are committed to selling arms.
“The hypocrisy is the U.K. promotes democracy around the world, but at the same time promotes arms to rich governments that are often deeply undemocratic and abusive of human rights," said CAAT’s media coordinator, Kaye Stearman. One example is Saudi Arabia, which has bought £4 billion of arms from Britain over the last four years. Human Rights Watch’s annual report criticized the Saudi regime for increasing its repression of peaceful dissidents, responding with force to demonstrations and continuing to suppress women living in the country.
Stearman said that selling arms to countries like Saudi Arabia “sends out a message that the U.K. is legitimizing their actions to the whole world.”
The tension between the government's action and its rhetoric was, in fact, at the heart of the issue for many participants.
“The arms fair exposes the hypocrisy of the British government,” said CAAT's outreach coordinator, Anne-Marie O’Reilly, responding to the current question of how to deal with Bashar al-Assad and the civil war in Syria.
"On one hand it threatens war against a dictator, but on the other invites this country’s main arms suppliers to sell him weapons and also invites many more dictators to buy arms.”
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