Stop the Arms Fair Week of Action Day 4: Conference at the Gates

An academic conference with a difference! Students, academics & community organisers are (un)/learning from each other, whilst protesting at the gates of an arms fair. "We want the arms trade to be exposed for what it is – a system that upholds racist, colonial, patriarchal, oppressive systems"

It’s an academic conference with a difference!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQCcCOdfjFI

https://twitter.com/StavrianakisA/status/1169309281075830784

Learning doesn’t have to happen in traditional institutions. Here students, academics & community organisers are (un)/learning from each other, whilst protesting to #StopDSEI – working collectively to re-think and act on the militarisation and securitisation of the spaces that we occupy in society and the consequential impacts.

Two groups of people sitting in circles on the ground having discussions. Police are nearby.

The day particularly focused on understanding the arms trade in relation to state violence, shedding light on the issue of race that has for far too long been ignored.

Our struggles are connected and therefore resistance must be too.

This year at Conference at the Gates (CATG), we’re focusing on understanding and resisting DSEI collectively: we want this fight to be a collective one; we want the arms trade to be exposed for what it is – a system that upholds racist, colonial, patriarchal, oppressive systems whilst it demands various oppressions to operate.

Couldn’t make it? Find out more about what you missed :

Sessions covered:

Read more here from Unis Resist Border Controls

  • The Myth of Business as Usual in War’ with Shahd Hammouri
https://twitter.com/CrisisSoas/status/1154346138004271114
  • State violence and the arms trade, making a zine with @daikonzine
https://twitter.com/daikonzine/status/1169702048398553089
  • Carceral universities: how migrant workers are fighting back
https://twitter.com/UnisNotBorders/status/1169623041485283330
  • Post Colonial policing: from Slavery to Serco, with Dr Adam Elliott-Cooper
A group of people having discussions sitting on the ground next to a road.
  • ‘Empire in Arms’ with Amrit Wilson (on behalf of South Asia Solidarity Group), Dr David Wearing, and Prof. Anna Stavrianakis
Someone speaking into a microphone alongside other people
  • ‘How to investigate your university’, with Huda Ammori
  • Dismantling the Institution – Lola Olufemi + Waithera Sebatindira .
A group of people listening to someone speak, seated in a circle next to a road. Police are nearby
https://twitter.com/daikonzine/status/1169702069848223744

How are arms companies involved in educational institutions like universities?

  • arms companies are investing in universities
  • they are funding departments
  • syllabus and curriculums too often advance the interests of corporations
  • they are militarising the spaces and using them for recruitment

Follow @caatunis for more (un)/learning and resistance

Join the action to #StopDSEI:  stopthearmsfair.org.uk/join-in/

CAAT would not exist without its supporters. Each new supporter helps us strengthen our call for an end to the international arms trade.

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