Photo: Worship at Telford International Centre.
Friends witness at Telford arms fair
Friends joined witness against the Specialist Defence & Security Convention UK
Friends joined witness against the Specialist Defence & Security Convention UK (SDSC-UK) arms fair in Telford this month. The Stop SDSC demo on 20 November included Meeting for Worship, as well as street theatre, drumming and wreath-laying.
According to the Stop SDSC website, the SDSC-UK focuses on military equipment for frontline infantry soldiers. The fair returned to Telford International Centre (TIC) this year, after protests in the past drove it from its former site in Malvern. Friends gathered alongside members of Campaign Against the Arms Trade, Extinction Rebellion, Stoke Palestine Solidarity and others in nonviolent protest.
Hazel Ball, from Stoke Meeting, told the Friend: ‘The event brings together delegates from a variety of “security and defence” companies such as Elbit/UAV Engines who manufacture drones.’
UAV Engines at Shenstone in Staffordshire is owned by Israel’s biggest arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.
‘The demo was well attended with many people travelling from across the Midlands and from Wales, despite the freezing and icy conditions, to highlight the event which I imagine most people in the local area know nothing of,’ Hazel Ball added. ‘It was great to see so many people come together to stand in peace against those who profit from death and destruction.’
The witness followed a five-day peace pilgrimage from Malvern to TIC in September, organised by Quaker Ralph Wallin, from Bournville Meeting. The octogenarian was inspired by Malvern residents who successfully campaigned for five years to rid their town of the annual SDSC-UK.
The pilgrims walked with a giant Dove of Peace puppet, visiting Roxel UK near Kidderminster, an aerospace company. On the last day of the walk, they took puppets of six people arrested for peaceful civil resistance at SDSC-UK’s Telford fair last year.
