Masked anarchists hold banner at RBS Aldgate for Disarm DSEi protest against companies heavily involved in the arms trade.
Disarm DSEi was a protest against the world's largest arms fair which opened that day at the ExCeL centre in East London, and it targeted the city offices of companies heavily involved in the arms trade. The protest stopped outside a number of their offices for short speeches about the company involvement and made a great deal of noise. Disarm DSEi provided an 'infopack', 4 A4 pages with a map listing over 25 companies - including arms traders, law firms, institutional investors and banks with heavy involvement in the arms trade. They stressed that this protest had "no organisers" and that it belonged to all those taking part who would together decide on its course of action. The event started outside the RBS in Aldgate ("the world's leading creditor to the arms industry ... over £ billion in the last ten years including loans to producers of cluster bombs and depleted uranium munitions." It also financed the purchase of Clarion who run the DSEi arms fair. From there it went to Barclays "the largest investor in the global arms trade with £ billion in shares." The next stop was at Legal & General at the top of Coleman St, where people stuck notices on the doors of the building. They own "£795 million worth of shares in the UK arms trade" and around three times as much in the international arms industry. Opposite each other in Gresham St were Schroders and Lloyds TSB, again with huge shares in the UK arms industry. Lloyds are "principal banker to BAE Systems and QinetiQ " and "have given £ billion in loans over the last ten years, including loans to produces of of cluster bombs and depleted uranium munitions." Next came BT who "hold £59 million worth of shares in the international arms trade", AXA Investments ("£2,259 million worth of shares in the UK arms trade and &6,207 million investment in the international arms industry") and the march appeared to come to an end at the Stock Exchange "where all the dirty dealing gets done."
Size: 5040px × 3354px
Location: London, England, UK
Photo credit: © Peter Marshall / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: aldgate, anarchists, arms, banks, banner, city, disarm, dsei, fair, firms, hard, hats, helmets, institutional, investors, law, london, march, masks, offices, protest, rbs, trade, traders
