Summary of my week

Monday 7 September - Arms trade conference, silent vigil, etc

I vigiled outside the arms trade conference at the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre in Westminster for two-and-a-half hours, from 8am. I later visited Brian Haw, Barbara, Aqil and Maria, peace campaigners living in Parliament Square. I accompanied Maria to the Foreign Office to show solidarity with the Camp Ashraf hunger strikers. In the evening, I took part in the silent candlelit vigil outside the ExCel Centre, venue for DSEi, organised on the initiative of local churches and supported by East London Against the Arms Fair.

Tuesday 8 September - CAAT events, UKTI

Joined rally organised by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) near the ExCel centre, before jumping aboard one of the two red Routemaster buses bedecked with anti-arms fair slogans hired by CAAT. This took us on a tour into central London, with the buses dropping us off at UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) offices in Victoria Street, where they remained parked and visible to the public for a good hour or so. CAAT had organised an anti-arms trade fayre, complete with games like decommission the duck (arms company), pin the peace dove on the DSEi white elephant and guess the number of arms dealers (lollipops) in the building (tub).

I switched between staging a one-man die-in outside the front doors to UKTI and holding out my empty bowl for "food offers" (none were forthcoming). The fayre disbanded at 3pm, and I stayed until around 5pm, accompanied by Lesley and Erica. Afterwards, Lesley and I went to Parliament Square to chat to the peace campaigners and film-maker "da100th monkey" did a video interview of me talking about the fast (you can see it here: http://current.com/items/90905344_dan-viesnik-international-arms-trade-hunger-strike.htm ). I then went home to rest and have a cup of herbal tea (without sugar) to nurse my cold.

Wednesday 9 September (9.9.9) - Waking the establishment from its moral slumber

Spent the day touring around bastions of the establishment in Westminster:

UKTI - In place by 8.40 to meet and greet DSO staff arriving for work. One can only admire their unwavering dedication to securing dodgy deals with repressive regimes on behalf of the arms industry.

Wednesday was 9.9.09, so from 9 - 9.09am I observed 9 minutes' silence to remember the victims of the arms trade and war.

At 10am I headed off towards the Department for Business, where I stayed for half an hour accompanied by a pair of slightly edgy coppers.

I then proceeded to Parliament Square, where I stayed for 45 minutes. An ironic demo was taking place with Charlie from "Everything is Okay" films, Chris Coverdale from the "Make War History" campaign, Charity Sweet and others. I didn't entirely understand the message of the demo, but Charlie's mickey-taking through his megaphone of the coppers guarding Parliament and sheep society in general was amusing.

I proceeded to the Foreign Office, were I compensated for the lack of passing punters by shouting ironic chants like "Bombs not Food, Long live the arms fair!" up at the offices. Who knows, maybe Dave Miliband heard my utterings, or at least some of his underlings. I certainly noticed the odd head peering out of the window.

Next stop Downing Street. My SOCPA authorisation stipulated the following conditions:

"1. That your protest be sited in Richmond Terrace opposite Downing Street

"2. The area of the site associated with your demonstration be kept within the Barriered area which will be set up for your demonstration."

These conditions were imposed because the Superintendent believed that they were necessary to:

"prevent disruption to the life of the community...; prevent a security risk in the designated area...; and prevent a risk to the safety of members of the public (including any taking part in your demonstration..."

I decided that I would not obey these conditions because:

a) They had not been personally imposed by the Met Commissioner, as specified in the legislation

b) They seemed unreasonable, given that it was just me on my own carrying out a peaceful vigil.

c) I had given notification that my vigil would be outside Downing Steet, not opposite Downing Street. If I had wanted to be opposite Downing Street, I would have said so.

As I began my routine near the gates of Downing Street, one of the machine-gun armed coppers from the Diplomatic Protection Group approached me and said that I couldn't hold my demonstration there; that I had applied for permission for the demo (I immediately corrected him, stating that I had notified, not applied for permission; that there is no law requiring permission to be sought from the police; and that I would not ask the police for permission to demonstrate in a public place, which is every citizen's right in our wonderful democracy). Seeking to avoid the risk of arrest, I announced to the copper that since he objected to my static demo, I would instead make it a spontaneous procession, which is not covered by SOCPA or any other legislation to my knowledge. So I filed repeatedly to and fro past the hallowed gates of Babylon. Charlie (with megaphone) and Charity (with placard reading "bollocks") joined me in my procession for a short while, before leaving me to it for the rest of the hour.

Next came the Ministry of War (often euphemistically referred to as the "Ministry of Defence"). The police had kindly set up a nice little pen for me outside the main entrance, which I obligingly climbed into to avoid having one of their large machine guns being pointed in my face. It was lunchtime, so many staff were coming and going, giving me the opportunity to "engage" them for three-quarters-of-an-hour with more ironic slogans, such as "What do we want? More state-sponsored murder and terrorism! When do we want it? Right now!", "Warfare not Welfare" and "War is Peace, War is Freedom".

I proceeded to Buckingham Palace, where I freely mingled amongst the tourists with my placard, flowers and flyers, before eventually being challenged by some beefy-looking police officers asking lots of questions. I explained that I was there because Prince Andrew goes off on tax payer-funded junkets around the world to secure arms deals with dictators. The officers seemed broadly sympathetic, but directed me to go round the corner to the visitors' entrance because of some Royal Parks by-law. I reluctantly complied (eventually), but the alternative spot turned out to be a good one, with passing traffic, visitors to the palace and palace stewards all able to see me in shackles and my placards. Towards the end of the hour, four people from London CAAT came to join me having just completed their "Merchants of Death" tour of arms companies in the area. Ian M wanted to take pics of me / us back by the front gate, so we went back round, but the police officers re-appeared, explaining that Ian's camera looked too professional for him to be allowed to photograph someone with a placard in front of the gates to Her Maj's official residence. He seemed to be inventing the rules as he went along, but not desiring to be whisked away to the cop shop, we grudgingly retreated back to where photography would be tolerated. When one of us suggested that they might arrest the Duke of York for arranging arms deals with dictators, I thought I heard the officer utter under his breath, "maybe one day but not today". I was most surprised.

We continued back to UKTI at Kingsgate House and were joined on the way by Lyn, a self-proclaimed hippy from Glastonbury. She was miffed at having just missed the Merchants of Death tour, having arrived a few minutes late and not having anyone's contact number. But she seemed pleased to at least be able to help out with some leafleting outside UKTI for an hour and a half. We stayed until about 5.30, before leaving for the day.

Thursday 10 September - Merchants of Death part I

Vigiled and leafleted outside UKTI from 8.40 to 10am, then moved on to a building further down Victoria Street housing private military security firm Aegis and arms company Finmeccanica, as well as the Labour Party offices. I proceeded to Parliament Square, where a pair of police officers kept an eye on me from a distance. When it was time for me to leave to head to Downing Street, they accompanied me across the road and followed me down Whitehall. Since I had understood that my presence was not wanted outside Downing Street (boo hoo), I proceeded to walk down Whitehall with my placard and flyers. The police kept stopping me, telling me the demo I had notified for was to take place across the road, etc, and I in turn explained that I was not happy with the conditions placed on this demo, so was instead processing up and down Whitehall, which I continued to do. The police claimed that I was committing an offence, but could not tell me under which Act of Parliament, so I continued. After three-quarters-of-an-hour of this, I continued on to Trafalgar Square, outside the SOCPA zone, after which the police left me alone at last. In the course of the afternoon, I visited Matra BAE and the army recruitment office on the Strand, and the offices of arms giants Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems and Boeing, finishing back at UKTI for the last hour or so, where I was accompanied by Hilary from Kingston Peace Council and Silvia from the World March for Peace and Nonviolence UK co-ordination team.

Silvia and I then proceeded to the Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane, where the arms dealers' gala dinner was due to take place. We then found out that it had been moved to the Hilton down the road, so we went along there to find about 30 protesters from Disarm DSEi and other groups standing outside the main doors with banners, many of them wearing hoods and masks. Eventually the police decided they wanted everyone in a pen at the front and at first formed a cordon around the protesters. I and a few others left voluntarily, but most sat down and refused to move, and a number of people were arrested. I carried on vigiling and chanting round the front for a while.

Friday 11 September - Merchants of Death part II

Spent the day at UKTI, Rolls Royce, Qinetiq, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin. Ian P from London CAAT joined me at UKTI in the morning, and Silvia and Jon joined me there in the afternoon, dressed in white overalls and masks to symbolise "invisibles" - people with no voice -  and carrying a banner promoting the World March. Jon and I took it in turns to "die" outside the front doors. We left shortly after 4pm, when the arms fair was due to close and I had completed my five day (120-hour) fast. I broke the fast with Jon and Silvia at a nearby cafe with some black grapes, and later met Erica who treated me to some Indian food (not too spicy!). Job done - I'm sure they'll never have an arms fair again now!! We live in hope...

 Dan