Disarm DSEi Refuses to Negotiate With the Met

Defence Systems & Equipment International (DSEi) – the world’s biggest arms fair takes place next week at the ExCel convention centre in London. As you would imagine there are protests being prepared in advance, and Disarm DSEi, as Climate Camp before them, have refused to negotiate with the Metropolitan Police, given the force’s past repressive and violent behaviour towards them:

we are writing this open letter to explain why we do not feel able to enter into negotiation regarding the 8th September Disarm DSEi protest in the City of London.

The right to protest is one of the civil liberties we are supposed to hold dear, one of the civil liberties not afforded to many of the citizens of the countries the UK sells arms to.  However, this right has to come without interference from the very state we are opposing.  The UK government support the global arms trade, and it controls the police force –ensuring that the arms dealers reach their destinations and their investors are not embarrassed or inconvenienced will always come before allowing public dissent.

I would tend to agree with them. The police have been (and will continue to be) used to guarantee the interests of the state, rather than the interests of the civil liberties of individuals. Remember G20? Kingsnorth? Ratcliffe-on-Soar? So the Met behaved better at the Blackheath Climate Camp, but we shouldn’t be surprised. Their potential for another high profile embarrassment notwithstanding, there was no state interest being threatened – I’m sure not only their direct action in October, but today’s protest at Heathrow will have a very different result. The same is likely at ExCel next week, making them probably right in not talking to the Met beforehand.

You can follow Disarm DSEi’s plans and direct actions next week on their Twitter profile.

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