Campaign against the Arms Trade Annual roundup

Dear Friends,

As we come to the end of 2024, all of us on the CAAT staff team would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all of you – members of local groups, campaigners, funders, and partners – for your support, tenacity, confidence and encouragement. We just wouldn’t exist without you.

We would not be able to have the impact we do without your support – whatever form that takes. Whether you’ve written to your MP, made a donation, shared a post on social media, picketed an arms fair, spoken to friends, or helped in another way – thank you! 

Please continue your support by giving now, so that we can be well prepared to work strongly against the onslaught of DSEI in the summer, and keep all our campaigning alive and spirited throughout the year.

Here we share some of the highlights, as a reminder of all that you help us to achieve in 2024. It was the year we turned 50 and has been one of our busiest: more talks given than ever, and more media appearances and mentions than ever. CAAT’s dedicated grassroots activists, joined by staff, have turned out in great numbers, in all weathers, to protest against the arms trade using creative and diverse tactics. You can read about some of these actions below.

Israel & Palestine

A message to arms dealers attending their opulent annual dinner in Mayfair

Mapping Arms Exports to Israel

In January, we launched our interactive map of F-35 component manufacturers, based on responses under the Freedom of Information Act. The map enables campaigners to find the genocide profiteers on their doorsteps, and has empowered local groups to take action. In November, following information received from Freedom of Information requests, we updated the map to include other companies profiting from arms exports to Israel.

CAAT in Parliament and at the Courts

We briefed parliamentarians in person a number of times this year, including at an evidence session on international law and UK arms exports to Israel organised by Richard Burgon MP and Imran Hussain MP in March to more than 20 MPs and their staff. CAAT spoke alongside our colleagues from Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights organisation based in the West Bank, and the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) – both of whom are taking legal action against the UK government over arms sales which CAAT is supporting.

This evidence was included in a dossier on Israeli war crimes in Gaza, submitted to the International Criminal Court in the Hague by Richard Burgon and Imran Hussain.

CAAT also helped to coordinate a letter led by Zarah Sultana MP calling on the former Conservative Government UK government to ban arms sales to Israel in April. The letter was signed by over 130 parliamentarians and was a key source of pressure which eventually led the new Labour government suspending some arms licences to Israel.

Protest outside the Royal Courts of Justice

CAAT submitted an Expert Witness statement on UK arms to Israel to the High Court in support of the Al-Haq and GLAN legal case challenging UK arms exports being used in Israel’s genocide. In June CAAT, along with our partners GLAN, War on Want, and the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, put companies involved in manufacturing the F-35 jet on notice of their criminal liability for failing to prevent war crimes if their companies continue to sell military equipment to Israel.

CAAT’s Campaigning Leads to a Partial Success

In September the Labour government finally admitted that Israel was not committed to complying with international humanitarian law, and there was a clear risk that UK arms exports might be used in serious violations of international law in Gaza by Israel. Around 30 arms licences have been suspended. However, UK-made parts for the F-35 jets that are dropping 2000 lb bombs on Gaza have been classed as exempt.

While this admission came far too late, and the F-35 exemption is unforgivable, it was the direct result of almost a year of campaigning from grassroots activists. Thank you for every action you have taken to push the government to admit that Israel is committing violations. We will not rest until the F-35 licence is suspended as it should be.

The Business and Trade Committee conducted two evidence sessions with Ministers on UK arms to Israel, most recently in December, where CAAT’s research paper and advocacy was referenced and used to question Ministers on the F-35 exemption.

In December we submitted evidence to the call by the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine on the role played by UK arms companies in aiding and abetting violations of international law in Palestine. We will publish that submission on our website in the New Year.

CAAT in the News

CAAT’s research and analysis has been used extensively in national and international media in 2024 with well over 150 specific citations. We have continually highlighted successive governments’ complicity in Israel’s genocide and the lack of transparency in the UK arms export system. CAAT staff have regularly been quoted in publications ranging from the Guardian, to the Financial Times and Declassified, and have been interviewed for Al Jazeera, LBC and NPR amongst others.

Policing

CAAT continues to work on issues around protest policing and the increase in draconian legislation used against protesters. We have worked in partnership with Netpol to provide detailed information to campaigners about the National Security Act and its implications for those protesting at arms companies. The use of terrorism legislation against Palestine Action and the lengthy sentences given to Just Stop Oil protesters this year is alarming and we will continue to stand with those facing oppression.

Reports Published

In October, CAAT launched a major report in association with the World Peace Foundation, From Revolving Door to Open Plan Office: the ever closer union between the UK government and the arms industry. 

CAAT’s report launch and panel discussion

This was a hybrid event (watch here), with a panel and audience in London and a large following online. The panel included: Dr Sam Perlo-Freeman (the report’s author and CAAT’s Research Co-ordinator); Andrew Feinstein (Shadow World Investigations); Dan Sabbagh (Defence and Security Editor, The Guardian); Nico Edwards (doctoral researcher, University of Sussex); and the Moderator was B Arneson (Director of the Arms Trade and Miltiarization Program at the World Peace Foundation). This was followed up by a further report comparing how the arms industry influence operates in different countries

CAAT jointly published, with dED_ucation, a report on the involvement of UK universities in research collaborations with the arms industry and military. Two follow-up case-studies of additional universities were also published.

Scotland Gathering

The first annual CAAT Gathering brought together activists from across Scotland to Glasgow’s East End to strategise and build momentum against the arms trade. With support from the CAAT staff team, we held fantastic workshops like “Not on our Doorstep! Scotland and the Arms Trade,” which highlighted the arms industry’s impact on communities and parliamentary priorities, and “We’re All Changemakers: Advocacy 101,” equipping participants with the skills to effectively engage elected officials. A research session introduced valuable tools like our F-35 browser and the arms company database to equip local activists with the tools they need to take action in their communities.

CAAT Scotland Gathering workshop

The day concluded with collaborative campaign planning, addressing issues such as Qinetiq’s activities on the Isle of Rona, Lockheed Martin’s role in Scottish spaceports, and campus organising at the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde. Held at the Scottish TUC, the gathering fostered solidarity, shared knowledge and practical strategies on how we move forward. This will be the first of many gatherings to support activists from across the country to dismantle the arms trade collectively.

Strathclyde Case Study and Events

In autumn we pulled back the curtain at Strathclyde University to reveal how its close ties to arms companies like BAE Systems shape research priorities toward military applications. Throughout freshers’ week we were everywhere on campus engaging with students, faculty and even the University board to demand stricter ethical guidelines, transparency in funding, and divestment from military-linked projects. This is only the beginning of this campaign and we’re looking forward to continuing this collaboration with students and staff in the coming year.

Arms Fairs

Arms fairs and industry dinners were a particular focus of campaigners in 2024. The arms fairs in Twickenham received such determined resistance organised by our friends at Richmond and Kingston PSC that they decided not to return to the Rugby Union stadium in 2025.

By contrast, the campaigns against the arms fairs in Farnborough and Telford held creative gatherings, including street theatre and outreach work: creating peaceful spaces to contrast with the violent world created by the arms trade, and to mourn its victims.

London CAAT took campaigners on a tour of arms industry HQs in London over the summer, and went back to L3 Harris’s offices in the run up to Christmas to let shoppers know about the deadly trade being carried out in their midst. Edinburgh CAAT and campaigners in Southampton blockaded their local Leonardo facilities: the company makes the laser targeting system for the F-35.

Barclays Bank

Our joint campaign with Palestine Solidarity Campaign(PSC) and War on Want (WoW) saw Barclays challenged across the country. The bank funds arms companies, including BAE Systems and Elbit, making it deeply complicit in the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Whether at Wimbledon or Sadler’s Wells where Barclays attempt to launder their reputation through sponsorship money, outside and inside court where the bank found its takeover plans challenged, at speaker events hosting its Chief Executive, and at its branches, Barclays was told to Stop Arming Genocide. Find out more in our joint research with PSC and WoW published in May.

Protest outside Barclays

CAAT@50

CAAT was founded in November 1974 by a group of well-respected and well-known peace organisations – specifically to campaign against the arms trade. We have done this in a dedicated manner – through thick and thin – with our staff, volunteers, activists and a wide range of supporters. Yet the problem is still here and, with your help, we must keep true to our mission and vision: a just, peaceful and sustainable world built on foundations of equity and solidarity; a world where the arms trade ends. The violence, oppression and corruption that it perpetuates ends with it. The people and institutions that support it stop causing suffering, death and destruction.

We didn’t feel that the time was right to celebrate our half-century with any party. But we did mark the occasion with CAAT’s anniversary lecture, delivered by Sam Perlo-Freeman at the LSE Library in June, entitled Campaign Against Arms Trade at 50: Adapting resistance to a changing world.

Also for our 50th anniversary, CAAT was invited to take part in the LSE Library’s exhibition A Say in the End of the World: solidarity and nuclear defence in the Cold War. The exhibition, running from March to September, highlighted the history and solidarity between campaign groups focusing on peace, nuclear, arms trade, and national self-determination. The turnout was impressive, with many attendees sharing lived experiences and reflections on campaigning and the arms trade, as well as positive feedback on the informative displays and engaging discussions.

We are delighted to announce that our archives, safely lodged at the LSE Library, were opened for public research in the autumn.

Funding

We are so grateful to the small number of grant-making trusts who have confidence in our work and help fund our charitable work (education, research, etc.), and to the large numbers of individuals who support us with donations of all shapes and sizes to help us continue our campaigning work (which doesn’t count as charitable).

If one gauges the success and stability of a non-profit-making organisation by the number of its supporters – both financial and in other ways – then we can be very proud of the help we have received over the past fifty years. Please help us to continue campaigning against the arms trade.

We wish you a happy and peaceful New Year.

The CAAT office is now closed and will re-open on Monday 6th January.

With best wishes from us all,

Charles, Emily, Emma, Jon, Katie, Kirsten and Sam