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Online petition launched against DSEi Arms Fair

James O'Nions | 06.06.2005 09:25 | Anti-militarism | London

Campaign Against Arms Trade aim to present a mass petition to Ken Livingstone against east London's Arms Fair, due to take place in September.

Campaign Against Arms Trade have launched an online petition against Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEi), the biannual London arms fair which is due to take place again in September.
The petition will be presented to Ken Livingstone and the London Assembly as part of a 'People's Delegation' towards the end of July, before the Assembly starts its summer recess.
The Arms Fair is organised by Spearhead Exhibitions, part of the information giant Reed Elsevier. It is supported extensively by the Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO), a government department with 600 staff and an annual cost of around £16 million, whose only objective is selling British arms abroad.
In addition to the online petition, CAAT will be organising protests and non-violent direct action training for DSEi 2005. In addition, CAAT are asking people to put pressure on Reed Elsevier to drop this dirty part of their business.

Sign the online petition here: www.caat.org.uk/campaigns/dsei/petition.php
Visit www.armsfairs.com for more on DSEi, and to help put pressure on Reed Elsevier.

James O'Nions
Homepage: http://www.armsfairs.com

Comments

Hide the following 7 comments

Wow !

06.06.2005 09:50

An on-line petition ! Well that should bring the event to its knees.

Seriously people, this type of campaigning is not working, Ken has already gone on record as saying he supports DSEI so what chance is there he will take any notice of this ? Have a look at the DSEI website, they are turning potential exhibitors away the event is so popular. We must deal with the root causes of why there is a world arms trade rather than empty gestures of thus type.

Cynic

ken? where?

06.06.2005 11:14

Please post a link to the article where Ken showed his support.

......

Fair enuff cynic

06.06.2005 11:20

And in the meantime a petition is just one tactic of many.

sign it

(there's) nothing worse than a cynic

06.06.2005 22:10

signing a petition is well worth doing as one tactic amongst many.

Blockading the event might have a bigger impact but it takes all day. Signing a petition only takes a couple of seconds. Let's attack these things from all angles rather than bitching about "my tactic's better than yours".

Petitions at least show that there is popular opposition from the general public.

Signing stuff really can have an impact anyway.

Political prisoners have been released because of stuff like Amnesty International.

It's a valid tactic amongst many. Sure it's dangerous to think that it's anywhere near enough on it's own, but it's a good tool as part of the wider struggle. By all means tell people to do MORE than sign a petition, but don't tell them not to sign it.

What should we do instead (apart from "overthrow capitalism" or "smash the state")?

(there's) nothing worse than a cynic

Give it up people .........wasting your time

07.06.2005 20:03

Petitions........blockades.........paint throwing.......name calling...chains and trains !!

What a waste of your time. You lot have been protesting against DSEi and BSI before it (remember the mud bath), and each year the event has got bigger. The only outcome of your protests is that you sad people feeeeeeeel goooood that you have done your little bit, but nothing changes.

Sorry - there is another outcome - the drums were quite an entertainment when we were walking back from the show last year.

Give it up - go and save the whale or something.

dealer

Re: Entertainment

09.06.2005 10:48

So you thought the protest was entertaining.

Well I heard a couple of dealers saying "So these lot are going to be here all week? That's a shame". Sounded like he genuinely thought it was a shame. So we didn't exactly make *him* happy.

You're not a dealer though. You're a troll.

And people won't be put off by stupid comments like yours. You and ilk tried and failed to dishearten people campaigning against slavery, for civil rights, for the vote for men and for women, against apartheid. And each time, the movements have prevailed.

One day even capital itself will fall.

you don't intimidate me, FUCKHEAD

Dear Entertainer

10.06.2005 21:25

Actually, I wasn't trying to intimidate you - intimidation is the activist's approach, not mine, I'm just a law abiding person.

Well, I stand corrected ! If you heard someone say "it's a shame" you must have really put the wind up them, and no doubt the capital is trembling as I write.

I'll tell you what IS a shame though, it's a shame that you couldn't actually put together a literate argument without finally resorting to the bad language. You almost made it, but not quite. I blame the teachers.

Dealer

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