Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Arms & Leg Dealers

Bristly Pioneer | 13.09.2003 11:58 | DSEi 2003 | Anti-militarism | London

A report (if a little late) of the Space Hijackers Arms Traders actions on 10/09/03

Arms & Nuclear War Heads
Arms & Nuclear War Heads

Arms Dealers
Arms Dealers

Arms Dealers
Arms Dealers


After having spent the last week constructing prosthetic limbs (ARMS) and cutting the heads off action men (War Heads), we dolled ourselves up in our most corporate attire and headed down to the docklands dressed as 'Arms' traders.

Our first journey on the tube consisted of four of us travelling in a carriage with a variety of suited arms traders heading to the ExCeL centre at Custom House DLR station. The aim was to act like arms traders from hell, to try and sell limbs to the real arms traders and also loudly let other passengers on the train hear about the disgusting trade that the people sharing a carriage with us were involved in.

Greenman started off the festivities by switching from respectable suit to pretending to use his umbrella as a machine gun and shooting down everyone on the platform. We boarded the train and started a discussion on what exactly we were all hoping to buy that day down at the fair. Cluster bombs, Baby maiming rockets, land mines, nuclear war heads etc. Pretty soon the arms industry members around us realised that this was not going to be a normal commute.

Greenman walked around the carriage attempting to get people to sign his petittion to kill the protestors and let us all 'Try before we buy' the weapons on sale by using the demonstrators as live targets. Chloe was busy doodling pictures of bombs, missiles, blood and severed limbs, and Boblonski and myself were talking about the great fact that 10% of British Tax money subsidises the arms industry.

As we got closer to ExCeL we began to cheer a variety of rallying chants such as 'KILL KILL KILL KILL' to try and warm up our fellow arms trading passengers before they got the the fair. We pulled in at Custom House and marched up the stairs to the main entrance with the traders. Unfortunately I was pulled over by police instantly (the case of arms might have given me away),Greenman and Boblonski were also pulled aside, however agent Chloe nearly wandered through the security in the confusion of trying to find the others. We were all eventually marched out of the DLR and told not to come back.

After a short trip to the convergence centre and cafe for some breakfast we learnt that protestors had shut down the DLR by locking themselves to it, and the trains to each other. This meant that there would be a load of dealers stuck on trains with nowhere to go. We decided the best form of action would be to catch a bus back up the line and get on the trains with the frustrated dealers.

Upon arriving at Canning Town we saw that there was a massive police presence, and that it would not be a great place to start winding up dealers. On the platform we bumped into Agents Kamui & Carnivorous Panda dressed in their corporate best. The trains were running in the opposite direction so we caught the train west to Limehouse where we could cross the platform and (as the protestors had now been cut free) get the train back to the fair with the dealers.

Second time around our banter was getting better, there were also more protestors on this train as well as arms dealers. We started up our obnoxious arms dealer routine letting everyone on the train know just how much we loved explosions, death and blood. The protestors on the train started ranting about how the arms dealers were responsible for making money on the back of an industry that kills people. That in the 1990's 90% of all war casualties were civilians, just like us on the train. One of the protestors started to mistake agent Boblonski for a real dealer and started shouting at him. He turned around and said that he thought it was important that the people going to the fair tried to back up their moral position, turning around and addressing the real dealer next to him. 'Come on' he baited 'tell the people on the train how you justify your job, tell us yor moral standpoint'. Unsurprisingly the dealer was silent, as was the man next to him. 'This is your opportunity to stand up to the criticism yor gettting, and you have nothing to say?', like a pair of chastised schoolboys the two suited arms dealers hung their heads. (You have to have a small rocket to be excited about buying big ones we think).

The train was about to pull into Custom House station again and so everyone on the train started a big cheer for all the arms dealers going off to ply their vulgar trade. 'Ooooh I'm so excited' called out or spoof dealers 'I can just smell the death'. As the doors opened the entire carriage was cheering and mocking the dealers, patting them on the back and looking at their red faces. Unfortunately the police were also waiting for us on the platform and pulled two of our dealers off the train. I was pulled off unfortunately by the very same officer who caught me trying to enter the fair in the morning. 'I'm sorry son, this is the end of your journey'. We were marched up away from the platforms and informed that if they caught us on the DLR again then they would remove our right to travel. 'You have been warned, if I see you again you will be in trouble'. Agent Greenman was questioned under the anti-terrorism act and we were all marched out of the station.

So we are banned from the DLR, luckily protestors had once again locked onto the trains and the DLR was shut down anyway! Also pulled of the train was a chap called Joel, dressed up as an arms trader with a saxophone case full of manequins arms. A short walk up to Canning Town and we bumped into Agent Ricky carrying a case of dolls heads with nuclear signs on them (Nuclear War Heads). By this point we had amassed quite a crew of arms dealers.

We got up to Canning Town Bus station and saw a bus filling up with arms dealers, quick sharp we were on board, and no sooner had the bus pulled out than our panto started again.

'So gentlemen, before we get to the fair, does anyone fancy a bit of black market arms dealing?'. No replies from the dealers, 'Are you buying or selling today', 'I guess causing' replied a man claiming to be a politician!

Soon enough we were talking of maimed children, murdered civilians, torture from oppressive reigimes that had been invited to the fair and other such pleasant chat. The dealers were once again silent and sinking into their chairs. More cheering and jeering as they got off, and we headed away from the police lines.

Later on we caught another bus full of dealers from Canning Town, although this one was to be by far the most successful. No sooner had we begun to pull out than protestors sat down in the road infront of our bus. We were trapped on a bus with the dealers. The police were so busy dragging protestors around outside that they paid no attention to the suited troublemakers on board. After a bit of comedy banter to break the ice with our fellow passengers, we asked the suited chaps on the bus if they were off to the fair today. 'Oh no, not at all' replied two. Another admitted that he was in the arms trade. 'So what do you sell?' we asked, 'I can't say' he replied, oh how very James Bond.

'I'll tell you what, I'll name things and you just nod' replied Boblonski. 'Do you sell civilian maiming anti-personnel mines? How about cluster bombs? Leg ripping schrapnel bombs? Children killing delayed timer bombs? Wait a minute I thought I saw a twitch then!'

The protestors were dragged away and our bus set off for ExCeL, the banter continued and soon the other public on the bus were joining in berating the dealers. As we pulled up to the stop outside ExCeL one of our crew announced 'Lets have a big cheer for all the people about to get off and deal in death, I hope they have a great day'. The whole bus was cheering as the dealers were getting off, the funniest moment was when the two that had denied even going to ExCeL had to stand up and march with red faces past mothers and children mocking them.

The protests outside were taking on the shape of cat and mouse games between police and protestors, chasing each other around and blocking roads, busses and trains. Transport for the delegates was chaos. Unfortunately the police's response was simply to out number the protestors and surround them. Up to 3500 police were on patrol around the fair. It seemed to us that it was a pointless exercise to simply chase around and wind up the police, when there were busses of the actual enemy travelling around.

The public transport system was largely un-policed, especially if you could slip by wearing a suit. Large shows of numbers on the streets are an important part of protesting, but we think that targetted actions on the people that count are as valid if not more. Hopefully next time we will attract more disguised protestors to join us in winding up, and making life hell for the dealers.

Bristly Pioneer.

Bristly Pioneer
- Homepage: http://www.spacehijackers.org

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. brilliant — bollockschops
  2. Good work — Simon
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech