More Blood for BAe

by STEPHEN HANCOCK

<*> On Thursday 4 May, more than 100 people gathered opposite London's Marriot Hotel as British Aerospace (BAe) shareholders entered for the company's annual general meeting. Banners and placards explained our opposition to BAe's Hawk aircraft deal with Indonesia, to BAe's weapons trading in general, and also proclaimed our solidarity with the people of East Timor.

At 2pm, 20 people dressed in white came round the corner of the hotel and symbolically died across its entrance, while others poured litres of fake blood over the scattered bodies. Three portable stereos blasted out the sound of Hawk warplanes. Police moved quickly, dragging people onto the pavement, and then hotel workers came out with a hosepipe to wash the blood away. The 20 activists remained immobile on the pavement for half an hour. Shareholders passed by bemused and shocked.

During the die-in, two harnessed activists appeared on top of the hotel and unfurled a huge banner reading "BAe Murder by Proxy". Dressed in working overalls the two activists had gained access to the roof saying they had come to repair the lightning conductor. Despite a dangerous attempt to cut the banner down, it--and its two overseers--remained above the hotel entrance for two hours for all to see.

Concerned shareholders inside had a more frustrating time than those standing or lying outside. Questions from the floor--about the Hawk deal, about East Timor, about electro-shock batons and anti-personnel mines, and about ethics--were consistently dodged, although one of the board assured the gathered shareholders that BAe "deplored deaths around the world".

The arrival of someone dressed as General Augusto Pinochet caused a stir, as did someone serving an injunction on BAe on behalf of the people of East Timor. When one "dissenting" shareholder was racially abused by an "ordinary" shareholder, officials responded by asking the dissenter to move to another seat; he was then dragged out by three private security guards. Several others were dragged out while trying to lock themselves to the stage.

The day's protest and resistance finished with the departing dissident shareholders unfurling banners outside the hotel and leading a round of applause for the roof-top protesters. Police-- briefed by the hotel and BAe not to cause a fuss--made no arrests during the day.

It was a lively, eventful, emotionally tiring day for all involved. Surprisingly, given that it was also local election day in England and Wales, the event received a great deal of national press coverage.

As shareholders side-stepped the bloodied bodies during the die-in, and police dragged them onto the pavement, I was reminded how in East Timor a simple protest like ours, with hand-painted banners and placards, could turn into the sort of carnage which here was merely being acted out. These messy scenes are precisely what lies beneath the glossy surface of companies like British Aerospace.