Campaign success - DESO to close!

The Defence Export Services Organisation, the Government's arms sales unit, is to be shut down by the end of 2007. The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, announced DESO's closure on 25th July 2007. Campaigning to shut DESO has been going on ever since CAAT started in 1974.

• Posted on Aug 17, 2007

This is a massive success for anti-arms trade campaigners. Shutting DESO is hugely symbolic - it sends a very clear message that the arms industry is not a special case deserving much greater public support than that enjoyed by other industries. It also means an end to the arms companies' base within government from which they were able to lobby and distort other policies, particularly those with regard to arms control and human rights. Evidence that the decision to shut DESO is a serious blow to the arms companies came on 28th July 2007 when the Daily Telegraph reported the anger of the industry. It also published a "furious" letter from BAE Systems' Chief Executive, Mike Turner, to Gordon Brown.

A huge thanks and well done to all who have helped to bring down DESO!

For more on DESO's closure, see www.caat.org.uk

Take Action

Please write to the Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, Prime Minister, 10 Downing Street, London SW1 2AA or email him saying how delighted you are that DESO is to shut and expressing your hope that this is the first step towards ending all subsidies for arms exports.

Thanksgiving service for DESO's closure

The Christian Network of CAAT, along with the Fellowship of Reconciliation, SPEAK, Pax Christi and others, will be holding a thanksgiving service to mark this campaign success. It will be held at 6pm on Wednesday 26th September, at Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church, 235 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8EP. BCBC is where we began our DESO action day last October and is just round the corner from DESO. It is very central and well-served by tubes and buses. For a map and directions see http://www.bloomsbury.org.uk/about/location.html. Please let us know, if possible, if you are planning to join us.

DESO closing party

CAAT has organised a party to celebrate this amazing campaign success, and we would like to invite all who have been part of the campaign to shut DESO to join us. Please join us if you can and forward this invite on to anyone you know who has been involved in the campaign - the more the merrier!

When: Wednesday 22nd August, from 6.30pm
Where: The Queen Boadicea Pub, 292-294 St John Street, London EC1V 4PA (www.thequeenboadicea.com)
What: We have hired a lovely function room. Buffet food will be provided and there will be a pay bar.

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