Quaker Roots new strategy aims to get Clarion, the organiser of DSEI arms fair, to stop running the arms fair.
Clarion also organises many non-military events around the UK and across the world. One of these is a Baby Show, held at three locations in London & Birmingham each year. People across Britain crafted beautiful baby items to help highlight the contradiction between the sale of products for children and the sale of weapons that harm children.
We travelled to the NEC in Birmingham, and had a good a day holding positive conversations with attendees (and the gluten & free-from show which it turned out was happening at the same time!) Many thanks to all the craftivists, the lovely items really helped engage people and create a positive atmosphere when talking about a difficult topic.
This was just the start of our Clarion campaign, we learned a lot, and people’s warmth and creativity have been a real boost to take this campaign forward. Right now, we would love Friends help with a follow-up action contacting the sponsors and exhibitors – if you’re interested, join our mailing list, or get in touch at hello@quaker-roots.org.uk.
We’re pausing on the crafting for now. There are future baby fairs (including one at the Excel, home to DSEI itself) and actions involving Clarion where we could use items if people are keen to keep knitting. However, we do still have some left over from the existing action, and won’t be able to use them immediately, so we’re not doing a big push for that at the moment. If you’re keen to keep crafting with a purpose, why not get in touch with a local baby bank / warm space / refugee welcome project, and ask what items they would find useful?