In the last issue of CAATnews we reported that the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and F&C Asset Management had both divested from Reed Elsevier in response to the company’s involvement in the arms trade. Soon afterwards, CAAT went along to Reed Elsevier’s Annual General Meeting. As with BAE Systems, CAAT holds a number of token shares that enable us to attend the AGM, ask questions of the board and speak face to face with board members.

On the morning of the AGM, reports emerged that the defence minister of Sudan, a regime condemned by the US for sponsoring the “genocide” in Darfur, was invited to IDEX in February this year. IDEX is possibly the biggest arms fair in the middleeast and is owned by Reed Elsevier. Not only that, but land mines and cluster bombs were also on sale at the event. A spokesperson for Reed said that the company’s policy was that cluster munitions could not be marketed at its arms fairs but conceded that there was an “incident” of this happening at IDEX 2007. CAAT has repeatedly shown that Reed Elsevier has been unable to stop cluster bombs from being promoted at its arms fairs and that these “incidents” are by no means unusual or infrequent.

Critics make their feelings known CAAT

But the revelations didn’t stop there. The Telegraph also revealed that an Iranian company named by the United Nations as contributing to the country’s nuclear programme was exhibiting arms at LAAD (Latin America Aerospace & Defence) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which had opened its doors that very morning.

However, it seemed that as soon as Reed Elsevier got wind of the Telegraph article, the Iranians were told to leave.

At the AGM, after presentations on the financial outlook for Reed Elsevier (Chief Exec Sir Crispin Davis was very pleased to report that all Reed’s online and published information services are doing very well), we put our questions to the board. These focused on the issues highlighted above – why had Reed invited, not only known human rights abusing regimes to their arms fairs, but also suspects of genocide? Did Reed not know that there was a UN arms export embargo on Iran? Would Reed concede that they could not control the arms fairs sufficiently and stop cluster bombs and torture equipment from being promoted?

The real issues were dodged by board members. Reed responded to most of the questions by claiming that the concerns raised were isolated incidents and that whenever Reed had found out about breaches of the rules, those who were guilty were dealt with. Unfortunately, it seems clear that Reed Elsevier only tend to find out about the “incidents” when a journalist makes it known.

Accompanying CAAT to the AGM were Dr Richard Smith, ex-editor of the BMJ, and Jenny Jones, Campaign Director at Medsin, the student healthcare group. Both were able to provide eloquent and impressive challenges to Reed Elsevier – highlighting the contradictions between its involvement in the arms trade, which does untold damage to human life, and its role as the largest publisher of medical journals.

Again the board got around the questions by saying how open the company was to “discuss and debate” the issues with its critics. Reed should certainly be commended for not censuring criticism from its employees, but Reed has not yet really acted upon the grave concerns of some of its product providers and users.

Unlike actual arms producers, Reed Elsevier’s discomfort at its continued involvement in arms fairs is evident. Therefore, keeping the pressure on is vital. Already, several professional groups who use Reed’s products –academics, doctors and librarians – are calling on the company to get out of the arms trade. We will continue to highlight Reed Elsevier as an ‘unethical’ investment choice and would love to hear from anyone who uses or contributes to Reed’s products and would like to get involved in the campaign. You can also attend a weekly vigil outside Reed’s headquarters (see back page) and we would encourage everyone to join the protests at DSEi in September.

The DSEi arms fair is due to take place in September. CAAT is planning to hold a major demonstration - more details will be available soon but please put the dates in your diary!