On Wednesday 5 May, British weapons manufacturer BAE Systems held their AGM at the Queen Elizabeth 2 Conference Centre in Central London.
Visitors to the event were greeted by protesters waving placards denouncing the arms company - the largest in Europe - for its "deals in death". Anti-arms trade protesters also made their voices heard inside the AGM, where many of them asked awkward questions of the board regarding the company's sales of armaments to human rights abusing regimes as well as the hefty profits they make from the suffering of others.
Actors from Theatre of War posed for photographs with a giant revolving door - illustrating the close relationship between arms companies and government, and the easy exchange of personnel between the two sectors. The "revolving door" is the focus of the latest campaign from Campaign Against Arms Trade whose latest report "Call The Shots: Take the Arms Companies Out of Government" makes it clear that the boundary between the UK Government and arms companies - BAE Systems in particular - is extremely blurred. As CAAT says BAE "continues to maintain its dominating position not least because of its massive influence over the British government".
