Banner Drop at DSEI: The Worlds Largest Arms Fair

Published: September 13, 2011 13:36 by Stopping the fair not playing games

So once again the nice, safe, non violent "join our march" protest at DSEi goes ahead. Nothing is achieved, the fair is not stopped, the police suffer only minor inconvenience, no arms deals are prevented and the rage and injustice felt by many is diluted. The job that Mi5 needed doing has been done by their agents within Disarm DSEi.

Meanwhile an attempt to mount a spikey protest was prevented when activists who had established a more aggresive convergence centre in London were grassed up to the police and their organisation rubbished and undermined in the activist media (including here).

The infiltration of the UK activist movement (in particular Animal Rights and Arms Trade Protest movement) must now be regarded as one of the best operations the State has ever undertaken.

Published: September 13, 2011 14:58 by KJ

The opportunity to close DSEI as an event has passed and we need to come to terms with that.

Protest at DSEI will now follow the pattern we have seen throughout the UK over recent years where numbers get smaller and support falls away until a new group emerges to take over. 'Disarm DSEI' is very fluffy and in real terms has achieved nothing, that we must accept and move on. We all know that but it may well provide the crucible for new groups/individuals that can emerge and take over the fight.

I have no idea if 'Disarm DSEI' has been infiltrated in the same way other protest groups have, I would be surprised if it hadn't but that's not really the issue. One spook reporting back can be easily isolated by ensuring only individuals well known to others are accepted and trusted with key information.

The time now must be spent planning the group that comes after Disarm DSEI, the group that can take the fight forward and not just repeat the tactics of the past.

Published: September 13, 2011 15:45 by one of many

I have just returned home having been involved in some of the actions this morning. I'm trying to maintain a positive outlook but in truth there was very much a feeling of 'going through the motions' rather than an expectation or desire to effect real change. The actions lacked 'energy' is the best way I can express it. When I compare this to the Climate Change movement which is my other primary area of political involvement there it is very much better, the people are younger, they truly believe they will win, they are prepared to put the work in and they get results.

I just read that DSEI 2013 will be bigger is already sold out, that's a sad statement on what we have achieved in 10 years of protest.

Published: September 13, 2011 16:49 by Polly

Readers may be interested in this (for Indy) unique perspective. My new Brother in Law is currently working at DSEi and I asked him of his view of the fair, the industry and of course us. This is what he said.

The show:
"DSEi is good show, not as important as it used to be because the Middle East market matters more these days however it's a show we will always attend. Costs for exhibiting are high but that's more to do with London costs rather than the show itself."

The arms industry:
"It's a fact of life, even those of us who work in the industry recognise that aspects of it are unpleasant but the reality is NATO and friendly nations need and want arms, people can wish it away all they want but it will never end."

DSEi protestors:
"Nobody really sees them these days, a few years ago they were a minor hassle when getting in and out but that's all changed now. We see them as a bit childish with their view of the world but I'm glad I live in a country where they have the freedom to protest."

Published: September 15, 2011 08:55 by Richard Lawson

Very poor turnout, lack of new ideas, no real disruption to DSEI, police in full control the entire time.

We need some new ideas

Published: September 15, 2011 14:38 by Marc

The way that we in the London Action Group have been treated by 'Stop The Arms Fair' and 'Disarm DSEI' has been nothing short of disgusting. Our convergence centre grassed up to the police via a fake posting on Indymedia, some "representitives" of Stop The Arms Fair deciding that our action should not take place because it was "in competition" to theirs, the attempt to control activists and make sure they were herded to the "official" demo events. Once again Disarm DSEI ran a nice safe, non violent, police approved, minimaly disruptive series of fluffy actions that achieved nothing while making sure that any support for our attempts to close the show was diverted.

State involvement ? We think almost certainly.

Well we have learnt our lessons and will ensure groups like Disarm DSEI and Stop The Arms Fair are excluded from our planning for DSEI 2013.

Published: September 15, 2011 15:33 by On behalf of Stop The Arms Fair

Marc,
We know all about your agenda, we told you time and time again that violent tactics have no part in the protest against DSEi. It is through publicity, media relations and the political process that we will see DSEi close. Violent confrontation with arms dealers will achieve nothing. Yes we did let the police know about your squat, we told you we would so it should not be a surprise.

By all means organise against DSEi 2013.

www.stopthearmsfair.org.uk/

Published: September 15, 2011 16:06 by Streetboy

"Yes we did let the police know about your squat, we told you we would so it should not be a surprise"

You people have lost the plot. Once we start grassing each other up because one group has got another plan to try an achieve the same thing then we are lost. This is not the movement I knew five years ago.

Published: September 16, 2011 13:45 by Protestor for 3 DSEI events

A lack of people
Fighting between different groups
Space Hijackers failure
Very little mainstream media coverage.

Let's face facts this years protest was a real fuck up

We need to do better

Published: September 20, 2011 22:47 by Spartacus

This is all a bit odd.

http://london.indymedia.org/articles/10143

My personal feeling is that by engaging in violence whilst protesting against an arms fair we lose the moral high ground......

That said, I and a number of others from far away were disappointed to find out that the convergence space and reported large group of enthusiastic protesters did not exist.

The space was advertised in London Indymedia 8.36am Sept 9th.
A friend (nothing to do with any of the organisations mentioned) went to find the space in the afternoon.
It did not exist.

10th Sept "Carl" says he was there all night. Where? In the "former Vegan restaurant" which was clearly still a very current vegan restaurant with very confused staff.

This seems to be a thread of trolls trolling trolls.
Or the whole thing was initiated by an undercover cop fed up of eating at the former/current vegan restaurant.

Get a grip

Published: September 22, 2011 09:44 by One that was there.

I'm not sure what happened re the alternative convergence centre set up by London Action Group, it was most certainly there because I knew somebody who spent the night there but it was not as the address in the London Indymedia post you reference. I heard that when the post was first put up it had the right address but this was later changed to a Vegan cafe.

When I got to DSEi there was a fair amount of, "come join our demo, those lot are not the real protest" etc and a few heated words between groups who clearly favoured different tactics. It's a shame that instead of working together some individuals tried to undermine other groups and ideas.

DSEi protest this time around was ok but it was clear that a lot less people attended compared to 2009 so that's a area that is key to disrupting DSEi 2013.

Published: September 23, 2011 10:04 by keen to do something

All of this raises the question of how we are going to stop DSEI in 2013. Clearly marches and demos achieve nothing, Disarm DSEI has been a useful umbrella organisation but its tactics have achieved little, Space Hijackers are great fun but they don't do much to contribute to the stopping of DSEI. As I understand it the London Action Group favoured a much more direct approach that included direct confrontation with arms dealers and the organisers of DSEI. This seems to me to be the way forward and I hope that the LAG comes back to Indy.