The BAE AGM is one of the constants of the CAAT calendar. Every May we mobilise our supporters to line up to ask the sort of questions the BAE Board definitely do not want to answer. 2009 was no exception.

This year we decided to focus on what happens inside the AGM, rather than outside. Even so, the day started with a small group of CAAT supporters holding posters highlighting BAE’s rising profits and ethical record. As usual, the area outside the giant Queen Elizabeth 11 Conference Centree was heavily policed and we were confined to a small holding pen, made even more frustrating by the narrowed pavements and extra barriers thrown up by roadworks. Hopefully, the Korean tourists and French schoolchildren who passed by understood at least some of our message.

At least you can see our messages in our photos. Although BAE faithfully recorded the entire AGM on film, shareholders cannot use recording equipment inside the meeting.

We were faced with the usual bland setting. The BAE Board – all male, almost all white – sat on the rostrum. Most stayed mute, letting Chairman Dick Olver dominate the meeting. Apart from a report from Chief Executive Ian King, and a few short replies from others, it was Olver all the way.

He started by talking about BAE’s commitment to “total performance” which also meant a “commitment to corporate responsibility and high standards of business conduct” and “behaving responsibly is the right thing to do”. In fact, we heard a lot about ethics throughout the meeting, mainly because CAAT shareholders asked question after question about it.

Among the questions asked by CAAT supporters were issues of BAE participation in DSEi (“yes”), human rights in Saudi Arabia (“not as bad as people make out”); arms sales to India and Pakistan (“yes” to both”) ; job losses in the UK (“yes, because of MOD requirements decreasing with withdrawal from Iraq, but still the UK’s largest employer of graduates”; manufacturing enviromentally-friendly weapons (“I am sure this is a possibility”) ; continuing corruption allegations in South Africa (“We dont have agents; on occasion we use advisors appointed by a panel chaired by an external lawyer”; previous commitment to a budget for harnessing weapons for civilian use (“nothing has happened with that budget”); business turned down for ethical reasons (“I am not going to tell you because of competition”).

There were questions that even the dominating Dick Olver could not answer. A CAAT question elicted an answer that showed Olver was not aware of what was written in BAE’s own Corporate Responsibility report. Another question on the number of SFO investigations BAE was still facing got the initial answer: “Probably four or five – I don’t know”. Pressed further Olver named Romania, the Czech Republic, Tanzania and South Africa, and said that he wished that the investigations would come to a “speedy, rigorous solution”.

Asked about BAE’s stake in MBDA who are involved in the manufacturing of French nuclear weapons, Olver confirmed that BAE had a 37.5% stake but didn’t make nuclear weapons but nuclear-powered submarines but that “that [nuclear] information is classified – we are not allowed anyway near that”. However, in answer to a later question, Olver confirmed that BAE was manufacturing nuclear-powered attack submarines and that BAE “is involved in discussions about plans to replace Trident”.
For CAAT the day wasn’t completely satisfactory. We didn’t have a chance to ask all our questions.  But it was good to see the steely Dick Olver steadily lose some of his formerly impenitrable sang-froid. By the end he was distinctively techy while the Board seemed more uncomfortable than ever. We got revealing answers to some questions and a few laughs as well.

Dick Olver told the meeting that he will stay on as Chairman till 2013. Well, CAAT will be there every year till 2013 and beyond. Thanks to everyone who attended, inside and out – and see you again next year.

CAAT media co-ordinator Kaye Stearman writes…

Monday morning, 30 March, at 8.30am. and the pavement outside Kingsgate House, the unlovely concrete box that houses United Kingdom Trade and Investment (UKTI), was in deep shadow. I had volunteered to do the early shift at CAAT’s UKTI demo and was freezing as a result. As the wind whistled down Victoria Street I almost envied the civil servants, arriving for work in a warm building.

As those same civil servants pushed through the rotating door (the title of one of CAAT’s earlier campaigns) they were puzzled to be handed a copy of UKTI’s Defence and Security Organisation (DSO) “performance report”. Like most civil servants they are familiar with glossy government reports. They know that most are exercises in box ticking, highlighting perceived successes and hiding more dubious activities – or spin as we laypeople call it.

One confident chappie declined to take the report. “I already have a copy. I know this report because I wrote it”.

No he didn’t! The “performance report” was actually a carefully crafted spoof concocted by CAAT, to mark the UKTI Board meeting scheduled for later that day. The report contained sections on DSO’s disproportionate staffing, poor value for money, support for arms fairs and for companies like BAE Systems (still under SFO investigation in several countries). I won’t detail the iniquities here – you can read all about them on CAAT’s website.

As the morning wore on, the pavements warmed up a little and so did the reception from passers-by who stopped to listen to our reasoned arguments (hard when your teeth are still chattering) and take our UKTI postcards. But one of my CAAT colleagues found a novel way to keep warm. Not only was Claire seven months pregnant but she was prepared to dress up as a giant cuckoo, complete with beak, wings and two rather scrawny looking chicks (not an indication of her own mothering skills I hasten to add). A few hearty squawks and she was the best show in this part of town. Billy Elliot just down the road could not compete.

By lunchtime I was ready to leave for the comparative comforts of the CAAT office. But by now word had spread that the report was not all that it seemed and staff were heading downstairs to get extra copies. After a few snaps of the camera lens, I left Claire squarking happily on the pavement, secure in the knowledge that when the novelty wore off, there would be more volunteers to take over.

I might have guessed that who they would be since both had form. Ian had been a hit only a month before as CAAT’s “armed baby”, demonstrating outside the Baby Show at the ExCel Centre. You can see how convincing he was from the photos on CAAT’s website (NB this may scare small children). The other was Todd who has impersonated a civil servant, a BAE business executive and a pixie at various times for CAAT (you can find him in various guises on the CAAT website).

I am told that both made fine cuckoos, although not being heavily pregnant, I don’t believe that they could bring the same poignancy to the role as Claire. In any case, they must have been effective as a few days later CAAT received a signed postcard from a passer-by saying that he received the card from a giant bird in Victoria Street.

Our spoof UKTI DSO report proved to be a great success. Once the spoof was rumbled, many UKTI workers were happy to take copies. Some told us how unhappy they were to have such unsavoury goings-on in their department. Demand for the report was so great that our supply was exhausted by 4pm.

But don’t despair, we want to share the report with everyone. Just look on CAAT website at: www.caat.org.uk.

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London CAAT members descended on the Excel Centre on the weekend of the 27th February as Clarion Events, owners of the DSEi arms fair, were holding a Baby Show there. Two hours of leafleting took place on the Friday and there was a musical protest by East London Against the Arms Fair on the Saturday. But the main London CAAT action was on the Sunday, when a particularly angry baby turned up laden with missiles, guns and a globe which he proceeded to destroy with the aforementioned items. Some passers-by and even exhibitors were drawn towards this strange sight and gladly took leaflets and/or signed the petition we had. There was a preview article by the local website Wharf, which can be found here (http://www.wharf.co.uk/2009/02/first-it-was-nuclear-santa-now.html) and they also sent down a photographer to cover the action. Photos can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/londoncaat

On Wednesday 11th February, a group of students staged a die-in protest to highlight the University of Nottingham’s extensive links with arms companies. This protest was held as part of a national day of action against the arms trade, called by Campaign Against the Arms Trade Universitys Network.

Click here for the full story on Indymedia

Barnaby Pace updates us on the current wave of anti-arms activism to sweep the nations universities: -

Since 12.30 yesterday a number of Warwick students have occupied our SO.21 lecture theatre. We are demanding firstly that the university help the victims of the Israel-Palestine conflict by sending textbooks and computer equipment, restoring the ability of students in the region to use their right to education. The university should inform students about the issues by funding a series of talks on the conflict. Importantly we feel that the university should end its complicity in the conflict by severing its ties to the arms trade. Our university promotes arms companies in an unquestioning positive light at careers events, does research for arms companies in our academic departments and has university finances invested in funds which do not preclude arms trade investments, and this is an unacceptable status quo.

We have been expressing our solidarity with both the students trapped in the Gaza conflict who can no longer continue their education and all the victims of the war. The feeing of solidarity with the other universities where occupations have taken place is also very important. SOAS, LSE, Essex, Birmingham, Sussex, Kings College, Oxford and Newcastle have all had occupations or have ongoing occupations. Messages of support have been hugely empowering we have had a constant stream of messages from other students, Campaign against the arms trade activists, trade unions, political groups, private individuals like Tony Benn and academics like Avi Shlaim.

Right now this feels really big, with this wave of occupations sweeping the country, re-invigorating the anti-war movements in universities that many thought had ended decades ago. It harks back to the days when Warwick University was known as Red Warwick for its campaigning and activist culture. We hope that through these occupations and new generation of student activist will be inspired to resist and campaign against the injustices of our world and fight against the arms trade.

We have been putting on some fantastic talks with representatives of the International Solidarity Movement, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Socialist Party, Stop the War Coalition and others speaking tonight. We were all deeply moved by our speaker last night. Manal Timraz who owns a restaurant in Coventry, the outskirts of which Warwick University is built. Manal spoke about the experiences of her own family in Palestine and experiences as a UN aid worker. She emphasised the uniting nature of humanity and how although we can be personally touched by the people we know who suffer and lose their lives in conflicts,  but every life is unique and special and should be mourned, no matter what side of a border they are on, what god they pray to or what their ideas are. We must always remember that every number in the death count is a person with dreams, ambitions and a life to lead. We can hope that maybe if the person who pushed the button to drop the bomb that killed a human being thought about what that bomb would destroy they might reconsider. We hope that those in a factory in England making a small part, that goes into a military aircraft that drops bombs on fellow human beings, will think about what their own work leads to, and might think again about the validity and morality of their work.

We have had our motives questioned by our Jewish-Israeli society, but we have succeeded in convincing them of our genuine belief that every life is precious, and that we can recognise that we are united by our desire for peace in the region. Although we are all deeply political about the issue of Israel-Palestine we understand that we all share this one ideal, and that in our reclaimed space on campus we can discuss the politics and learn about everybody’s positions.
In Coventry the city of Peace and Reconciliation, which has suffered so much from the horrors of war 60 years ago, we should be mindful of the consequences of war were there are only victims.  It seems fitting that as part of this national and international effort to help the victims of this conflict   we can hope that in some small way our protest might contribute to the ending of the cycle of violence in the region.

We hope that you can support what we are doing and hope that you will follow our protest on our blog at www.warwicksolidaritysitin.wordpress.com

Barnaby Pace is the coordinator for Weapons out of Warwick

Barnaby Pace writes

On Thursday 15 January a group of Warwick University students, in opposition to the arms trade and in solidarity with Gaza, protested at a recruitment event run by BAE and Warwick University Careers Service.

Why BAE? Is it especially unethical? Just look at their record. BAE is the third largest arms manufacturer in the world. So much has come to light in the last few years with the discoveries, investigations and court cases surrounding the Al-Yamamah arms deal to Saudi Arabia, in which BAE systems was the primary supplier of weaponry. It is alleged that BAE paid over £1 billion in bribes to members of the Saudi regime.

But this case is not unique – BAE is currently being investigated over bribery allegations Arms companies are often not willing to disclose who their customers are (especially for arms components); this may be common practice among many businesses, citing “commercial confidentiality”. However, most businesses do not need to hide that they sold fighter jets to Robert Mugabe (as BAE and Rolls Royce have) or torture equipment for Guantanamo Bay (BAE subsidiary Hiatts). Nor are reputable business alleged to give a cool £1 million in bribes to the late, but not lamented, General Pinochet (BAE again). All good reasons for protesting and the inclusion of Israel in its (very colourful) list of customers made action particularly important at this time for us.

On their way into the recruitment event, attendees were leafleted with our BAE alternative careers guide. At the start of the presentation, a group of students stood up, with one delivering an excellent and emotive speech about the darker side of a career with BAE. During the talk itself a second group disrupted the presentation with another speech, heroically ignoring the pleas of the Careers Service to be quiet. The many students keen to ask questions about the unethical nature of the company led to the group question session being abandoned.

It is strengthening to be part of a broader campaign across universities against companies such as BAE and after our action we had much excited chatter about activism over a pint or two. And many thanks to all those in the CAAT office who worked to research and write the information used in our handouts.

Want to know more: See http://weaponsoutofwarwick.wordpress.com/

Remember: Universities Day of Action on 11 February 2009

Eight O’clock one rainy morning outside Victoria Station, a crew of CAAT activists assembled with high hopes and higher necked woolly jumpers. Their aim, to descend on the unwitting offices of Kingsgate House, the home of UK Trade and Investment, and alert them to the rather clandestine and immoral activities now taking place within.

Considering the keenness of the hour and the biting frost, spirits ran high. In the moments to be grasped before the zero hour, we debated whether or not it was credible to combine ridiculously base pop anthems with a catchy acronym to achieve a campaign chant. In the case of Daphne and Celeste’s turgidly dire “U.G.L.Y.” the answer was deemed no. It seems however well one could substitute “U.K.T.I you ain’t got no alibi you ugly” into its insipidly feverish brogue, the price of being associated with such bilge was deemed too high. The decision was postponed, but it was decided to float the idea of a new workshop at the next national gathering entitled: “the art of incorporating acronyms into catchy campaign chants.” We did however congratulate ourselves on having higher standards and considerably more scruples than your average pop music producer.

Thus having bantered away fifteen minutes waiting for everybody to assemble, we embarked upon our task with a ferociously pacifistic intensity. Props arrived, hats were donned and postcards and flyers set to stun as we mounted our positions outside the offices of the uncivil service. The spectacle of a bunch of bowler hat clad g-men brandishing missiles and bazookas attracted a satisfying number of intrigued onlookers with whom we could impart our moral misgivings.

Indeed things moved on swimmingly. The plan to pique the interest of those who worked alongside the government’s arms dealers at UKTI, who may have little knowledge of the appalling conduct of their co-workers, seemed to pay off. Many of the staff were very approachable and scanned our campaign leaflets with a keen intensity in the lobby. There can be no doubt that our irreverent presence would replace the usually banal office gossip around the water cooler. Hopefully rather than discussing who turned up late with a hickey on their neck, they now be gabbling about who turned up early to help sign a deal with a despot.

This will include those members of staff recently transferred from DESO, who already know how effective CAAT’s campaigns are. They will now realise that the campaign is continuing to put pressure on those in the government who seek to maintain arms exports to regions of conflict and oppressive governments. Plus the many interested passers-by who will have been alerted to the vast amount of taxpayers money that continues to facilitate and endorse such an ill-advised enterprise. And all of this has been achieved before we have even managed to co-opt a catchy campaign chant. Surely once such a compelling ditty has been penned, the campaign will be unstoppable.

For just over two years now I have been campaigning together with other students at University College London (UCL) to get our university to ditch its shares in arms company Cobham and adopt an ethical investment policy.

And now…just before Christmas…victory has finally come. UCL has announced its ethical investment policy, which will come into force on 1 January 2009. It feels great ! Over the past two years many of us put a lot of effort into the campaign to Disarm UCL. It was a great campaign: I have made many wonderful friends, our photo stunts in UCLs main quad have become legendary and I feel I learned more from this campaign (media work, communication skills, lobbying and the ins and outs of ethical investment) than throughout my entire postgraduate degree at UCL.

Disarm UCL: Graduation from the University of War

Of course the were the bad times, too: The times we got frustrated with each other, the times the Provost accused our campaign of not being based on the truth, the times right-wing students wrote nasty things about us on facebook and the times we thought the campaign was about to loose its momentum and just dissolve into thin air.

Looking back it’s all been worth it of course. I really hope other students at other universities will take courage from our campaign: You can make a real difference campaigning against the arms trade at your university. In my opinion you need to make sure you do two things: Think strategically and don’t give up. If you do this I’m convinced you’ll get there in the end. Don’t expect an easy ride but there’s also a lot of fun to be had along the way.

Make no mistake of course: I’m in a state of euphoria but I’m aware that our job at Disarm UCL is not quite done yet. We need to monitor the situation closely and make sure UCL does indeed sell its arms shares now. Most people I have spoken to are still very distrustful about the ethical investment policy. I can understand this. UCL has not been exactly open about the process of adopting the policy and students have only been consulted when we pushed our opinions forward during the rare occasions we managed to speak to someone in charge.

Disarm UCL: Arms dealers in the quad

I still think that overall the policy, despite its flaws, is a major victory for UCL students and alumni. We now have an ethical framework to work with and can campaign to improve it. I guess as a campaigner you’re never really done. Once you’ve had your major victory you need to make sure it’s not just on a paper. But l’ll look on the bright side: now we’ll have more things to bragg about in the pub after the campaign meetings

Click here for more info about Disarm UCL.

Looking through the media after arriving in the CAAT office this morning, I was greeted by unexpected coverage of UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) - a government unit that is the focus of CAAT’s new core campaign.

UKTI promotes exports – including arms exports.  However, the news today was not about the arms trade.  It was about golf.

Tory MP Humfrey Malins discovered that UKTI has spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money on branded golf balls - £12,030.50 in the last three years to be precise.

However, wasting taxpayers’ money seems to be par for the course at UKTI.  Although arms make up less than 2% of the UK’s visible exports, UKTI employs about as many staff in its arms promotion unit as in all its civil industry-specific sectors combined.  

That’s before we’ve even considered the human costs involved in the export of arms to conflict areas and oppressive regimes. 

When I first began campaigning on the arms trade years ago, and people replied with comments about the economy, I used to think that economic arguments were something to be overcome.  In recent years I’ve come to realise that there are sound economic reasons for opposing the arms trade.  Economics and ethics combine in making clear the absurdity of UKTI’s support for arms exports. 

It was arguably the increased emphasis on economics that led to the success of CAAT’s campaign for the closure of the infamous Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO), which had previously been a “one-stop shop” for arms companies’ access to government and promotion of the arms trade.  It was DESO’s closure – greeted with howls of outrage from the heads of BAE and Rolls-Royce – that led to responsibility for arms promotion being moved to UKTI. 

DESO’s closure was the first time that arms dealers in the UK didn’t get things their own way.  I’m convinced we can build on that advantage to end the uncivil service at UKTI. 

You can sign CAAT’s petition’s here.  And let’s remember that economic arguments are an aid not an obstacle to fighting the arms trade.

Spirit of Christmas Fair

A group of 8 CAAT staff members and volunteers took part in a media stunt outside the Spirit of Christmas Fair run by Clarion Events on Wednesday November 5^th..    Steve Tully utilised his bushy beard to play a very convincing Santa, accompanied by three mischievous elves (Anne-Marie O’Reilly, Ian Pocock and Sam Walton) who just loved playing with the missiles on hand as props! 

After a photo opportunity attended by the Hammersmith Gazette, we headed down to the fair at Kensington Olympia to hand out some leaflets (brilliantly designed by Ian Mackinnon).  The security guards at the Olympia tried to keep us corralled in a pen out of the way of the fair’s visitors but once again the elves’ mischievous spirit came to the fore and they broke free from their confines to hand out leaflets to members of the public, most of whom took one and same engaged us in conversation about Clarion’s links with the DSEi arms fair. 

All in all, it was a productive and fun day.  Also in attendance were Rhiannon Rees, Ceri Own, CAAT staff Symon Hill and Selina Larsen.  Big thanks has to go to Sam for making the elves costumes and acquiring the santa costume.