Creative Potential

Wednesday 9th March 2005 saw the launch of CAAT's new campaign "Call the Shots" and the first outing of CAAT's latest street-theatre prop, a life-size revolving door. We also had our very own civil servant/arms dealer (played by CAAT supporter David) pushing his way through the door. David was representing Alan Garwood, the current Head of DESO, who is also an arms industry boss. He wore a badge saying 'Alan Garwood, Head of Government Arms Promotion and Arms Company Chief' to highlight the fact that DESO is an example of the revolving door as it always seconds its Head from the arms industry and often returns them there afterwards. Protestors held a giant banner which read "Lock the revolving door" and depicted a giant key.

The Call the Shots campaign has real potential for all kinds of creative local action and you don't need to make a life-sized revolving door to make that happen - though it's a fun project if you'd like the challenge! If you don't want to construct a door, you can easily plan a visual protest using an actor dressed up as a civil servant/arms dealer and show his dual roles with badges or placards on his front and back. Just make a banner saying 'Lock the Revolving Door' and you are all set! Or you could use street theatre to illustrate the revolving door spinning... the options are endless. Don't forget to tell your local media what you are planning - order a copy of CAAT's local media guide for tips on getting media coverage.

Collect keys to lock the revolving door!

One way you can take effective action to lock the revolving door is to collect keys locally. Not ordinary keys of course, but the pop-out keys you will see on the Revolving Door campaign postcard. The first step is to send us the pop-out key in this pack. The next step is to collect as many more of these as you can...

An effective way to do this would be to organise a stall in your local High Street where you can ask people to fill in a postcard to their MP and pop out the key at the same time for you to send on to the CAAT office. You could also lay a big sheet on the ground and draw a massive key shape on it, and ask passers-by to draw or paint a key themselves. This is a great crowd-puller, especially for children and their parents!

We want to end up with a huge creative petition that the government can't ignore and that will catch the attention of your local media and members of the public. We will eventually be handing all the keys and pictures of keys in to the government as a way of showing how much demand there is for locking the revolving door. Meanwhile we hope to put photos of local groups or campaigners collecting keys on the Call the Shots web site. So it is a great solidarity action too!

The keys symbolise both locking the revolving door and also the access to government that we hope to reclaim through this campaign.

What you will need:

• A large sheet
• A black marker pen (to draw a huge key shape onto the sheet)
• Lots of felt-tip pens or paints (for passers-by to draw/paint their keys with)
• A pop-out key for people to draw around
• Some information - leaflets, postcards, posters, briefings - to give out to interested people

What to do:

• Write the slogan "TAKE THE ARMS COMPANIES OUT OF GOVERNMENT - LOCK THE REVOLVING DOOR!" on the sheet
• Draw a giant key on the sheet (for people to draw inside)
• Organise a stall in a good location where people will see you.
• Tell the local press you will be there.
• Take a photo of your group holding the finished sheet up and send a copy to the local press and a copy to the CAAT office (for CAAT's campaign web site photo gallery!)

Sample letter

Dear (Name of your MP),

I am writing to express my concern at the high numbers of Ministry of Defence ministers and staff seeking employment in arms companies, which amount to a 'traffic' according to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA). Particularly worrying are the high-profile figures: since the start of the 1990s, three Defence Secretaries and three Defence Procurement Ministers have gone on to work for arms companies.

This 'revolving door' phenomenon can mean that government arms export policy, and wider military or foreign policy, is skewed in favour of arms companies. Ministers and government officials might act with a view to securing employment or, having left, take advantage of personal contacts to obtain preferential treatment or privileged access to government.

The revolving door gives rise to grave concerns about conflicts of interest and the abuse of public office for personal gain. The seemingly disproportionate access to, and influence over, government that arms companies enjoy is to the detriment of democracy.

I urge you to call for greater transparency - the ACBA should sit publicly - and mandatory restrictions on the movement of ministers and government officials where there could be a conflict of interest. In particular, I would like to see:

• a five year ban on working for arms companies they have had direct dealings with in the last two years of their public office;
• a five year ban on making representations to any department or individual they have had direct dealings with in the last two years of their service;
• a permanent ban on 'changing sides' in any ongoing proceeding they have been involved in.

Please use your influence to lock the revolving door and take the arms companies out of government.

I look forward to hearing a response from you.

Yours sincerely,

(NB: If you decide to copy and paste any of the text above into your letter, paste it in as 'unformatted text' to avoid pasting in an ugly table too. In both Microsoft Word and Open Office, choose Edit/Paste Special/Unformatted Text.)

Countering the myths surrounding arms exports

A recent opinion poll commissioned by CAAT found that 50.6% of those surveyed oppose the use of 600 civil servants to promote arms exports in the government's Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO). Only 15.8% said they support this.

However, it also showed that many people still believe the myths surrounding arms exports to be true. When asked to give the main reason the government supports arms exports, 21.9% said 'to contribute to the security of the UK's friends and allies overseas', 15.7% said 'to help maintain a strong UK arms industry', and 23.8% said 'for jobs and the economy'. These are the three main justifications the government churns out (see www.deso.mod.uk/policy.htm). 22.8% said the government supports arms exports 'because arms companies have a lot of political influence'. This can give us hope that while we still need to work hard to keep disputing these myths, many people are beginning to realise that there is a more sinister reason that the arms trade is flourishing.

The opinion poll also showed that the majority of people feel they have little influence over the government's arms export policies in comparison to arms companies. Yet 61.9% of people surveyed think that the government should pay more attention to the views of MPs and the public than the views of arms companies. Only 8.5% thought the government should pay more attention to the views of arms companies. Many people do care about this issue; we just need to convince them that campaigning CAN make a difference.

You can help CAAT raise awareness of the real reasons behind the government's support for arms exports by:

• Talking to people you know. It is important to challenge the myths of the arms trade in our everyday conversations and this can have a big knock-on effect. We are happy to send a free copy of the Call the Shots campaign pack to anyone who is interested;
• Asking if you can put up a display in your local library, church, university, or other public space;
• Inviting a CAAT speaker to any group or organisation that you are involved in, for example a peace group, church group, Women's Institute group, trade union branch or constituency group of a political party.
• Taking other action suggested on this action guide!