United Kingdom

This year's WRI Council meeting will take place in London in September, coinciding with DSEI - Defence & Security Equipment International - the biggest arms fair in the world. We will take part in actions before and after Council to disrupt the fair.

UK activists: see how you can help international activists to stop DSEI!

The schedule for our events is as follows:

Wednelda de Vries

Originally published on the 'Explosive Stuff' blog. The original article can be found here: http://stopwapenhandel.org/node/1955

In the UK, WRI affiliate Trident Ploughshares have held a month of nonviolent action against the construction of nuclear weapons at Burghfield Atomic Weapons Establishment. WRI affiliates from Finland, Germany and Belgium joined Trident Ploughshares for an international blockade, which led to the construction gate being blockaded for over ten consecutive days. Other actions included a successful attempt by faith groups to blockade every entrance, and a mad hatters tea party!

Read more...

Today we're into the third day of a blockade of the Burghfield Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berkshire, Britain.

The construction gate is hosting an impromptu pop-up peace camp! Here's Tristi from France explaining why she's travelled here - joining WRI members from Trident Ploughshares, DFG-VK (Germany), AKL (Finland) and Agir Pour La Paix (Belgium).

On 3rd May, a group of 15 women and non-binary gendered people took direct action against the MBDA missile factory in Bedfordshire, UK. Below is a personal account from one of the activists involved.

We stayed overnight at a friend’s house near the Bedfordshire factory; slumber party style. We got up first thing (4am!), ate a quick breakfast, and headed straight to the factory. By 5.45am we had chains and locks around both gates, and two people locked on. The factory was shut down! Nobody could get in to work.

Nick Buxton

For anyone concerned with militarism, news of the terrorist attacks in Brussels brought a familiar sense of dread. We ache as we hear the stories of more innocent lives lost, and we feel foreboding from the knowledge that the bombings will predictably fuel new cycles of violence and horror in targeted communities at home or abroad. It creates the binary world that neocons and terrorists seek: an era of permanent war in which all our attention and resources are absorbed – and the real crises of poverty, inequality, unemployment, social alienation and climate crisis ignored.

Alongside other peace activists, WRI members from around Europe are in court in London from next Monday on trial for their disruption of the DSEI arms fair in September last year.   Anyone available to join us in solidarity in the Court next week, check out Stop The Arms Fair Facebook event for info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1716179711938981/   Use #stopDSEI to share you solidarity with Javier, Bram, Luis and others in the run up to their court appearance next week.

Militarism is guns, armored tanks and drones, but it’s also a state of mind. Militarised mentalities have permeated many police forces and amplified dramatically the force of police violence against our communities.

“Every bomb that is dropped, every bullet that is fired, has to be made somewhere. And wherever that is, it can be resisted.”

Smash EDO

For anyone involved in anti-militarist campaigning, the Seeds of Hope action has almost mythical status. Not only as an extremely radical and inspiring action; but as an example of how a jury's verdict can be decided on moral grounds on the basis of trying to prevent a greater crime. I have been running direct action trainings for a few years and I don't think there's a single one where Seeds of Hope didn't get mentioned, and its reach extends far beyond the anti-militarist movement.

The rise in mercenaries fighting on the front line in conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East is a frightening return of the ‘Dogs of War’, according to a new report published by War on Want.

Israeli conscientious objector Taya Govreen-Segal, currently interning in the WRI office in London, is speaking at various events over the coming weeks around Britain.

Events include: 30th January - Palestine day in Portsmouth, 1st February - Glasgow; 2nd February - Edinburgh; 5th February - Godalming; 13th February - 
Britain and Palestine Conference, Sailsbury (talk on the Israeli arms trade).

See more info here.