What is DSEi?
Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEi) is one of the world’s largest arms fairs. It takes place every other year in East London. In 2005 it played host to 25,000 trade, government and armed forces ‘visitors’ from around the globe in addition to the 86 official delegations from 52 countries. There are already 1121 companies registered for this year’s DSEi. The thousands of buyers and sellers will mingle amongst the weaponry and disappear off into ‘hospitality suites’ for private discussions and negotiations. It all happens not only with government approval, but with its full political and financial support.
Taking to the streets over DSEi
One step closer to ending the arms trade
In campaigning, it’s not every day that we feel the sudden, exciting sensation of winning. Often our progress is marked by small, often hidden steps over years, even generations.
However, at the beginning of June, we did feel the excitement of success. Reed Elsevier, the global publishing company, announced that it had decided to get out of the arms trade. CAAT’s campaign had managed to do exactly what it aimed for – persuade Reed Elsevier to stop organising arms fairs. By the end of 2007, the company plans to have sold off its five international arms fairs, including DSEi, one of the world’s biggest arms fairs, which takes place in London every two years.
From the beginning, CAAT’s campaign had highlighted the incompatibility of Reed’s involvement in the arms trade with the company’s position as the number one publisher of medical and science journals and other publications.
The campaign victory was made possible because a huge range of people came together with a common purpose and put pressure on the company from all sides, from outside and from within. Also, the campaign never lost sight of our non-violent approach, always seeking to engage positively with the company, never alienating or demonising those involved.
In 2005, once we had launched the campaign, CAAT’s first challenge was simply to spread the word and alert people to the issue. Not many had heard of Reed Elsevier, and only a handful of those who had were aware that a small part of one of its subsidiaries was involved in the arms trade. The next step was to engage with Reed’s stakeholders (consumers, investors and employees). Because Reed Elsevier is a publishing company – providing information services for a range of different professional groups – we immediately had clearly defined and also very sympathetic audiences to work with. The ball really got rolling when this sympathy turned into public criticism and campaign action. CAAT coordinated several public letters signed by high-profile members of different professional groups who read, contribute to or are involved with Reed’s other publishing services. The letters had a dual effect: publicly condemning and embarrassing the company and also spreading the word about the campaign to new audiences.
Join the protests at DSEi this September
We must keep up pressure on DSEi in order to end Government support for the arms fair, and to dissuade potential buyers from taking on the event.
Tuesday 11th September: CAAT peaceful demonstration against DSEi
Meet at 11am, Plaistow Park, East London (nearest tube Plaistow). The demonstration will then move to the ExCeL Exhibition Centre (next to Custom House DLR station) for a rally at 12pm.
Monday 10th September
CAAT and ELAAF (East London Against the Arms Fair) are supporting a multi-faith candlelit vigil on the eve of the arms fair
Meet at 6:30pm, Royal Victoria DLR station.
Tuesday 11th September: One Day, Many Actions
Day of action against DSEi called by the Disarm DSEi direct action group.
For leaflets and more info see www.caat.org.uk or contact Anna@caat.org.uk
Doctors, writers, academics and investors all lent their support. Each week more and more people from all over the world began writing letters, gathering petitions and calling on the company to change – from librarians, to geographers, to legal professionals and teachers. A huge step took place when investors began to divest from the company, rejecting Reed Elsevier’s ethical investment rating. Other grassroots activists also played a big part in keeping up the pressure. Members of the London Catholic Workers maintained a weekly vigil outside the headquarters of Reed Elsevier for almost a year. Activists joined die-ins and spread the word at the London Book Fair, and supporters attended the company’s Annual General Meeting to ask questions and protest peacefully. The support of people both inside the company and out meant that eventually Reed Elsevier couldn’t ignore the call.
DSEi is almost certain to continue if a buyer is found. But Reed Elsevier is a global exhibitions organiser with vast resources, experience and clout. There is no guarantee that the arms fair will be as ‘successful’ as it has been in the past. But there is a wider threat to DSEi in that it has become a hot potato – a potential liability to any organisation that has an exhibition portfolio wider than arms fairs or deals in consumer products.
DSEi is beginning to gain the reputation it deserves. Those people who might have been sceptical of campaigners’ arguments may be less likely to dismiss the withdrawal of a FTSE 100 company’s involvement.
The UK Government, and specifically the Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO), co-organises DSEi. It must be at least a little embarrassing when your corporate colleagues pull out of a joint project on ethical grounds. This might be water off a duck’s back were it not for the fact that DESO is under pressure from all sides and this will add to the squeeze. In particular, it will support those in government who question why public resources are used by DESO to help international arms companies sell their wares around the world.
The exit of Reed Elsevier is another step towards de-legitimising a trade that is propped up by the handouts and favours of governments. Just as those organising arms fairs try to present them as being simply another business opportunity, the arms industry likes to present itself as just another business sector. As this fallacy is steadily dispelled, it is less likely that the industry will receive the freedom to act and the government support on which it depends.
Campaign highlights
April 2005 CAAT launches the campaign and attends Reed Elsevier’s AGM in order to question the board about the company’s involvement in arms fairs.
September 2005 Open letter appears in the Lancet, coordinated by CAAT and Medact and signed by senior doctors and healthcare experts. This prompts the Lancet‘s editorial board to call on Reed Elsevier “to divest itself of all business interests that threaten human, and especially civilian, health and well-being”.
March 2006 13 internationally renowned writers, including A.S Byatt, Ian McEwan and J.M. Coetzee call upon Reed Elsevier, organisers of the London Book Fair, to end their involvement in the global arms trade.
July 2006 London Catholic Worker begin weekly vigils outside the headquarters of Reed Elsevier on the Strand, London.
August 2006 Launch of two academics’ petitions. Nearly two thousand academics sign.
February 2007 The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust announces it is selling nearly £2 million worth of shares in Reed in protest at the company’s continued involvement in the arms trade. It also emerges that F&C Asset Management has divested from the company and removed Reed Elsevier from its ethical investment portfolios.
March 2007 In an open letter to the Times Higher Education Supplement, 138 academics from 17 countries call on Reed Elsevier to cease all involvement in arms fairs.
Three pages of letters from doctors and healthcare groups, including the Royal College of Physicians, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Doctors for Iraq and Medact are published in the Lancet. Again, the editorial board calls on Reed to cut its ties with the arms trade.
Editors of the British Medical Journal, often seen as the Lancet‘s closest competitor, lend their support to the campaign and, in solidarity with the Lancet, plead with Reed Elsevier to stop jeopardising the Lancet‘s good name by associating it with the arms trade.
April 2007 Peaceful protest outside Reed Elsevier’s AGM, and ‘token shareholders’ again question the board.
May 2007 Lawyers’ petition launched, highlighting the link between the arms fairs and Butterworths Lexis Nexis, which is owned by Reed and is one of the primary publishers of UK legal information.
June 2007 Reed announces that it is to get out of the arms trade
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