For some of us September 11th had significance months before hand, as we planned and plotted to bring down the capitalist trade in death and destruction, with an action on that day.
The British government holds the Defence System Equipment International (DSEi) arms fair every two years . It is an MOD & DTI affair where domestic and international weapons manufacturers get to display all their dirt of the day: big guns, bombs, planes and boats. The lot. And they are in fine company as countries from all over the world come to make their latest procurements.
Traditionally protest and direct action against this event have been the preserve of established disarmanent NGOs and peace groups. This year a new collective called Disarm DSEi decided to get in on the act. Composed of activists from London Reclaim the Streets, Wombles, Campaign Against the Arms Trade and Earth First!, Disarm DSEi sought to bring the arms trade out of single issuedom and bring a focus to the post capitalist movement.
Entrance to this event is by strict invitation only, but many of us had positive experiences of gate crashing; the City of London on June 18th 1999 for instance. The 'Fiesta for Life against death' was to bring the bright, colourful, noisy, celebratory having-it-ness of street parties to Canning Town and the ExCeL Centre. We wanted to close the event in a positive way.
Best laid plans. It was undoubtedly one of the most visual mass actions for some time. The verve of everybody in their pink and silver costumes, the giant puppets and props and the samba music certainly brought the spirit of the fiesta to the ExCeL Centre. For one brief but predestined moment there was a push for the main gate but not even the Wombles or Tactical Frivolity could change the balance of the day. We had been from the start totally pigged out.
Away from the fiesta, and on succeeding days, there were numerous interventions by affinity groups which hindered and harassed the event further; but on a day when war broke out, the only significantly uplifting movements in Canning Town were those of the share prices of mercenary capitalists protected behind ever present and large numbers of police So who are the terrorists ?