Brighton to host the Great Arms Trade Debate

By Mia Marzouk

An eclectic mix of activists, artists and academics will converge at a public meeting to tackle one hundred years of continuous war.

The meeting at the Brighthelm Centre, Brighton, on Saturday 17 May brings together local celebrities and national campaigners for heated debate on what strategies have worked best in protesting against the arms trade.

Whether it’s through diligent research on arms companies in 1914, or a public sewing of a six-metre tapestry in 2014, the centenary of the start of the First World War provides a time to reflect on the diversity of actions against the arms trade.

When British troops withdraw from Afghanistan later this year, there is a chance that UK forces will not be involved in a conflict for the first time in 100 years.

Davy Jones, the Green Party’s parliamentary candidate for Brighton Kemptown, who will speak at the event, views this as an opportunity for reconsidering the UK’s defence position.

He said: “The meeting will address really basic issues that usually get overlooked – peace and war.

“For 100 years we have been at war somewhere around the globe.

“It’s time to ask whether this is right and whether the vast cost – both in money and human misery – is justified.”

International activist Lindsey German, convenor of Stop the War Coalition, which organised the one-million strong protest march against the 2003 Iraq war, will join the meeting to argue for mass protest against wars.

In keeping with the Festival atmosphere, Sussex’s favourite protest singer Robb Johnson will perform songs about his family’s experience of the First World War from his hit album Gentle Men.

And controversial yet sublime Kemp Town poet Naomi Foyle will read her “Open Poem to Fred Voss – True Poet and Aerospace Engineer”.

The astonishingly original tapestry by a collective of groups painstakingly stitching an updated version of Picasso’s horrific war painting, Guernica, will be on display. London’s radical Bookmarks will also bring their mobile book shop.

Campaign Against Arms Trade’s Hannah Hills will present her detailed research on how people protested 100 years ago.

Dr Idrees Ahmad, author of The Road to Iraq, will talk about how the internationalisation of protest movements presents opportunities but also risks for campaigns against tyranny and human rights abuses.

The meeting will be held from 5.30pm to 7.30pm on Saturday 17 May at the Brighthelm Centre, North Road, Brighton, and is co-hosted by the Green Party and Stop the War Coalition.