Love and solidarity to campaigners in Brighton who said no to the “RAF Town Show” earlier this month (10-12 April). They were there to oppose the “family friendly” militarism of the show, and remind the public that the RAF has flown hundreds of reconnaissance missions over Gaza, in support of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians.
Also on display a Chinook helicopter, made by Boeing, whose aircraft have been used extensively in the attacks on Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.
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B. from Brighton Mutual Aid and Social Change Collective reports on the action:
“The action: Myself and another comrade were just outside the space RAF rented on the seafront, Friday and Saturday 9am till 4:30 pm, and Sunday 10 am till ~1 pm. We had a few other comrades from various local groups join in on and off throughout those three days. We did sit-ins, a die-in, placard holding, chanting, speeches, and leafletting. We had banners at the entrance to their ‘careers info’ tents, and did an improvised walk around and leafletting with grim reaper outfits.
The town show: The town show was advertised as a family-friendly ‘children’s event’. RAF rented out a space next to the i360 on the seafront, and set up about 20-30 tents. They also brought a demo chinook helicopter. They gave tours of the inside of the chinook for kids to go in and explore, and had the helicopter’s gun poking out of the edge for photo-ops. Each tent featured a different activity, demonstration, or info booth. They had a skateboard section, basketball hoop, VR experience booth for children, shooting range with toy guns, demos of equipment, and other ‘activities’, as well as staff to chat about recruitment and careers in the RAF. They also had stickers, toys, teddy bears, rubber ducks etc.. at their booths.
Reactions from RAF staff: RAF staff were quite flustered by our presence, particularly on the last day where they continuously harassed and tried to intimidate us. They called the police to try and get us to leave, who told us that we were allowed to peacefully protest.
Reactions from the public: We got mixed reactions from the public. Most of the people we encountered were neutral, and ignored us. We met quite a few folks who thanked us for doing the action, and shared sentiments that they too didn’t think RAF should host their ‘child-friendly’ recruitment event in our town. We met a few members of the public who were upset by our presence at the recruitment event. On the last day, 3 members of the public stole our banner and we failed to retrieve it back. ”
The town show is in Wrexham this weekend to 26th Apr and then goes on to:
- Lancaster: Fri May 8 to Sun May 10
- Wadebridge – Royal Cornwall Show: Thu June 4 to Sat June 6
- Inverness: Fri June 19 to Sun June 21
- Bradford: Sat July 4 to Sun July 5
- Luton: Fri 24 July to Sun July 26
- Bristol TBC
- Enniskillen, NI: Fri Sep 4 to Sat Sep 5
- Sunderland: Fri Sep 25 to Sun Sep 27
- Coventry: Fri Oct 9 to Sun Oct 11
- Manchester: Fri Oct 23 to Sun Oct 25
If you were planning to take action in solidarity with Brighton campaigners and could use a costume or banner or leaflets, get in touch! [email protected]
