The arms fair which is due to take place from September 15-18, involves more than 1,000 companies and 30,000 attendees.This is where those who profit from war, repression and injustice do business. The results are felt around the world, as people are killed, economies are devastaed, refugees traumatised, and peaceful protest is crushed.
The full list of countries officially invited by the government to attend DSEI is here. But it’s a long list including many countries with appalling human rights records and/or currently engaged in conflict.
Just as fences are erected to stop victims from seeking refuge, fences have been erected outside London's Excel centre, to help the global arms trade to do business and fuel repression and conflict across the globe.
We must stop these companies profiting from conflict and repression. Join people week for a week of action in the run up to the arms fair to make it as difficult as possible for the arms dealers from going about their deadly business.
A #StopArmingIsrael protest will kick off the week of protests. The call to action states that DSEI will:host a specially designated area for Israel’s arms companies to display and market their weapons – weapons which are labelled “battle-tested” due to them being tested on Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Then, on 3 September, there’s a ‘Borders and Migration’ day of action. It asks people to:Join us, and bring your own placards, banners, and creative actions. There will be talks, performances and actions, celebrating the future we want to see, where migrants and refugees are welcomed, not arms dealers.
And it stresses that “solidarity smashes borders”.
There will also be a day of climate action on 6 September. Plan C and the Kurdish Solidarity Network are planning: workshops on social ecology and the Kurdish Freedom Movement’s eco-socialist paradigm, as well as Kurdish music and dancing.
The groups are planning on two days of action as part of an international #RiseUp4Rojava initiative (see more on the progressive revolution in Rojava, northern Syria, here). As its call states:
So if you stand against all the horrors of capitalist modernity, with its endless exploitation and domination, and countless gendered, class-based, racial and national violences, and if you desire a free and equal life for everyone everywhere, where we collectively, directly and democratically control our everyday lives, and can develop freely in ecological balance with the world around us, then join us on the 6th and 7th of September, and #RiseUp4Rojava.
On 7 September, this will be part of a Festival of Resistance. The festival points out that: 1 in 25 people in Newham are homeless. Instead of providing public housing, investing in public healthcare, and protecting workers rights, the government prefers to support an industry of death. One of the world’s largest arms fairs, DSEI, is returning to our doorstep (at the ExCel) and we’ll be there to resist! Support
Organised by Campaign Against the Arms Trade. More information below.
https://www.stopthearmsfair.org.uk/join-in/#
