Science Museum event prompts protests

Friends among protestors at the Science Museum

Friends protesting at the Science Museum. | Photo: Sunniva Taylor.

Friends were among those outside the Science Museum in London on 11 July, protesting at its involvement with the Farnborough International Airshow 2016.

The museum was the setting for the official welcome reception for the event, which, while better known for its public airshow, also hosts a major arms fair and civil aerospace exhibition.

Delegates’ details were not published in advance, but countries invited to send military delegations to the last Farnborough International event, in 2014, included Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Libya and Algeria.

Campaign Against Arms Trade called on supporters to join it outside the Science Museum ‘to say it is not okay to welcome arms dealers into a public institution’.

Sam Walton of Streatham and Brixton Meeting said: ‘War starts, repression starts, torture starts, famine starts, at events like the Science Museum hosted this evening. If it starts here, we can stop it here. Many arms dealers and buyers just gave up and got the tube home.’

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