Quaker Roots plans peace pilgrimage
54: The percentage of UK weapons exports that went to repressive regimes such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
A Quaker group preparing witness against a major arms fair this autumn is planning peace pilgrimages in the run-up to the event.
The call follows news last month that British arms exports doubled during 2022 to a record £8.5bn, according to the only publicly-available official figures. More than half of weapons exports were for repressive regimes such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Members of the grassroots Quaker Roots network are inviting Friends to join them for a Zoom session to discuss the pilgrimages on 6 June. The plans are part of preparation for Stop The Arms Fair resistance to the DSEI arms fair in Excel London this autumn, which is held every two years.
Peter Doubtfire, from Quaker Roots, told the Friend that the idea of the peace pilgrimage is ‘to set off on foot, on an adventure, with the intention of sowing seeds of peace in our own hearts and in our war-torn world’. People can organise local pilgrimages, between now and September, or join a longer pilgrimage from Oxford, arriving at DSEI for the opening of the arms fair on 12 September. Friends are also supporting the No Faith In War day on 7 September, which will begin during the set-up of the arms fair.
Earlier last month the group gathered online to hear Anthea Lawson talk about her book The Entangled Activist. In it she writes ‘I’d been an activist for years. I’d marched, protested, blocked the road, been arrested… My research had contributed to the cluster munitions ban and a treaty to control the arms trade. But despite these efforts, my discomfort about activism was growing. Was I part of the problem too?’ The session explored how some of Lawson’s ideas might apply to peace activists during this challenging time, and how ‘transforming ourselves is unwaveringly part of transforming the world’.
Previous witness against the DSEI arms fair, which includes arms manufacturers selling to some of the world’s most repressive human rights regimes, has involved hundreds of Quakers, with many arrested. There were no arrests last year.
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