Protest at BAE Systems AGM
Three Friends engaged in bold acts of protest this month as witness to their Quaker peace testimonies
Three Friends engaged in bold acts of protest this month as witness to their Quaker peace testimonies. Sam Walton, from South London Area Meeting, was thrown out of the BAE Systems Annual General Meeting when he stood up and said that the people in Yemen see the BAE management as ‘war criminals’.
Sam Walton told the Friend: ‘It was an opportunity to ask BAE Systems questions and to make them aware that their business is not legitimate. The last question was from my friend Ahmad from Yemen, which is bombed everyday. It felt super important to take the voices from victims of the arms trade and bring the questions they wanted to ask… I was the only one thrown out. The chair of BAE asked me if I wanted to be thrown out. I said it would be an honour to be ejected from a room of people complicit in war crimes.’
Phil Wood, from St Albans Meeting, and David Amos, from Wandsworth Meeting, also put their faith into action when they jumped the fence as Elizabeth II and a visiting Bahraini prince tried to present the Kings’ Cup, sponsored by Bahrain, at the Royal Windsor Horse Show. They were forcibly removed, but not arrested.
The Bahraini authorities have been accused of widespread torture and human rights abuses.
Sam Walton said that he thought that BAE Systems were ‘getting an increasingly rough ride in the press. There’s a lot more awareness of the damage done by the arms trade.’
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