News Shorts and Other Busyness

Arms Fair Protest

Squall 11, Autumn 1995, pg. 12.

Twenty six people were arrested for aggravated trespass (CJA Section 68) at a demonstration against the arms trade in early September.

Around 100 people marched through Aldershot town centre on their way to the Royal Navy & British Army Equipment Exhibition. The arrests were made as the demonstration reached the perimeter fence. Amongst those arrested was Chris Cole, a member of the Christian-inspired ‘Swords into Ploughshares’ group and the man who fights fighter planes with hammers (See SQUALL 10 interview in prison).

Twenty five of those arrested were later released without charge although one woman, Juliet McBride, is to be charged with aggravated trespass with intent to disrupt the arms fair, after obtaining entry to the site for 30 seconds. Ironically, she was bailed under condition that she did not go within three miles of the arms fair, although the court house was in fact within the exclusion zone. The police consequently had to give her a special escort to and from the court room.

The demonstration was co-ordinated by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade. They plan to hold a mass lobby of Parliament for an embargo on arms sales to Indonesia on December 7.

According to a BAe diary leaked out from the arms fair, countries with appalling human rights records invited to attend by the British Government include both Chinese and Indonesian Army military hardware purchasers.

Contact CAAT: 0171 281 0297.