Shut it down

Monday 16^th October

At 12 I cycled over to New Oxford Street from Queensway for “an action” around the Defence Export Services Organisation. Organised by Campaign Against the Arms Trade, the idea was to form a human chain around the building. About 250 people were said to have turned up and I saw a few familiar-ish faces but, though I’ve been a member for a few years, I only know one person’s name and I didn’t see her. Anyway, I stood around for an hour and held two women’s hands, with one of whom I made a joke (ok, I stole a Lenny Henry line) about it not meaning we were “sexually committed”. She blushed and told the guy next to her, whom she DID know…

DESO employs nearly 500 civil servants, headed by an arms industry executive, in the heart of the MoD to sell arms for companies and lobby for arms exports within government. As if the arms trade weren’t bad enough in itself, our taxes are being spent pushing arms to dodgy regimes and those in conflict. DESO doesn’t even have the defence of the state as its raison d’être: it is concerned solely with arms company sales and profits. No counterpart to DESO exists elsewhere within the British establishment: there are no civil servants running organisations trying to export food, medicine or even Scotch.

Mark Thomas, whose first book (about his “adventures” in the arms trade, “As used on the famous Nelson Mandela”) I’ve been reading ever since the night before I handed in my dissertation, turned up about 1.15 or so to gee up the activist pacifists/pacifist activists. It's the second time I've seen him at a protest. I said “alright” and he said he liked the T-shirt that I was wearing. He’s got that charm, ain’t he? The book’s a good intro to what’s wrong with the rules and laws surrounding the trade, Mark’s activities are well-described, but it is his similes that stand out – the one-liner from the stage stands up well in black and white. I recommend reading it but mostly I recommend getting involved with CAAT and writing to your MP to protest against DESO and help CAAT shut it down.