At about 11.30 on Saturday 5th of September, members of VFP held a demonstration in Whitehall. Opposite the entrance to Downing St. The members were Liz Heaton, Neil Harvey, David Collins and Alan Chick.
This was to support Yemeni born L/Cpl Al-Babati, who held a demonstration in the same place the previous week, to protest about arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The arms are used to continue the war on Yemen. He stated that he refused to continue his military service, while arms sales continued. He blew a whistle every 10 minutes, to signify the death of another child in Yemen.
We attached some posters to the wall and blew a whistle every 10 minutes, just as L/Cpl Al-Babati had done, we also had a hand held banner mad by David Collins.
However we were soon rather swamped by a demo of people from the Ivory Coast, protesting about corruption in their country. There must have been over a hundred of them. The first group hung banners alongside our posters. Then another large group of them came along with more banners which they hung over our posters, despite our protests. We did not want to have a fight with them, so we went up to Trafalgar Square for a coffee. When we went back to the protest site, they had all gone and so had our posters.
At least we got some photos for the web site and it was good to meet up with old friends.
Veterans For Peace UK 
Sharing posts is a great way to help. You can also organise local actions – A couple of flyers in the village newsagents may surprise you! Best of luck! VFP UK is with you all the way!
This was a fantastic action in support of a very brave man who stands in defiance of the shocking contracts that the government continues to hold with arms companies locally and, sadly, worldwide. |The contracts are worth billions of Pounds/Dollars and we really don’t stand a chance in defiance unless we all stand together united and say loudly that “There is no fucking way that this is OK”
And Lance Corporal Al-Babati… What a damn brave man. Get behind him immediately please.
Well done. Essential support.
How can the government expect Ahmed to serve the country that is actively killing his own people? Surely the Yemeni authorities could charge him as an ‘Enemy Combatant.’ That’s what Britain does to it’s citizens.
Well done you all.
The Ivory Coast protesters may well have cause to protest their own cause, but their conduct here was deplorable!
Well done to you all.
I’d like to become more involved but I live so far from London. Any ideas?
Sharing posts is a great way to help. You can also organise local actions – A couple of flyers in the village newsagents may surprise you! Best of luck! VFP UK is with you all the way!
Also the dreaded Zoom might be a way forward. To be fair, we have definitely tired of it during Covid but we’ve certainly seen some benefits of it…
yo …. it’s things like this that make me proud to be a member of VFP
Well done everyone. 😊
Brilliant.
Excellent. Well done
Thanks to the VfP folk who acted here – “corruption in their country” ? Very much like in this country, of course, especially where the Saudis etc are concerned !
A reminder that the attempted extradition of Assange is/should be in the news today.