The Accidental Anarchist. The Diary of a Hampstead Mum

When our institutions are in bed with arms dealers what do we do? …….We gatecrash the party

So last night we had a little fun at The London Transport Museum valentines night. It was Valentines and the Museum had decided to open late to show the love and serve up lots of delights of interactive workshops, drawing, balloon shaping and Chocolate cocktails for £10 a head. Our objections? That one of our institutions should be in bed with arms dealers.For those that are unaware The London Transport Museum is sponsored by Thales, the eleventh largest arms company in the world. Thales has used the Museum’s rooms for meetings about arms sales.

We met in a pub and discussed our action, we whispered as we scanned photo’s and maps of the layout. Deciding where would be the prime location for a banner drop and who was doing what. Banners stuffed down trousers and placards leaving ahead of us for the external protest we headed off. We mingled for a while and perused the art lined walls listening to a crap music montage. The time had been set and the location was perfect off the mezzanine for all the guests to see. We managed to execute a banner drop “LTM Sponsored by Death dealers” and throw lots of Love hearts over the lovely people attending with facts about the arms trade and asking LTM to break it’s ties. Postcards had been hidden in the shop amongst the postcards for sale telling of these involvements. We seemed to be standing there for ages before security even noticed with one security guard walking straight past us. The people on the ground started to stir as the love hearts floated to the ground. It was a beautiful sight. The security arrived and a representative from the LTM told us that our invites had been reneged. A little bit of pulling and a little bit of shouting we got chucked out by the security and police, who were more upset at the throwing paper love hearts than anything else. Funny as Fuck. After being ejected from the building we met our comrades that had been demonstrating out side. And a successful valentines evening was had. The message to the Arms Companies/Dealers you are not welcome here or anywhere.

If you object to this partnership please drop a note to:

Sam Mullins
Director
London Transport Museum
Covent Garden Plazza
London
WC2E 7BB

And tell him that we think it is wrong. Thales UK sponsors London Transport museum. 50% of Thales business is arms manufacturing. Thales makes missiles, drones, and aircraft carriers That it’s customers include some of the worlds worst Human Rights violators. And Thales has used the museums rooms for events promoting weapons sales. This is not acceptable. It is morally wrong. And we are demanding that they break all ties with the arms industry !!!!!!!!

LINKS:
Original Post: When our institutions are in bed with arms dealers what do we do? …….We gatecrash the party
http://www.caat.org.uk/
London Transport Museum