Posted on Tuesday 4 August 2009
Disarm DSEi has announced Barclays will be a target during protests planned to take place in the City of London next month, stating that Barclays, having messed up the economy, is now dependant on financing one of the most destructive trades on earth in order to maintain their directors big pay cheques and bonuses.
Barclays has helped to bring the economy to its knees, and deprived millions of decently paid work, but Barclays Directors and senior staff are profiting. Board members pocket around £1m a year, and the BBC has revealed that there are at least 200 senior staff members who rake in even more – not including bonuses.
One of the main props to their inflated salaries is the money they are making from investment in the international arms trade, with the investment arm of Barclays contributing towards a third of their profits.
Sophie Williams, who is part of the DISARM DSEi collective stated:
“Barclays do not care they have contributed to the 740,000 deaths that occur every year from armed conflict. They do not care that their investments helped Israel to carry out a massacre in Gaza at the beginning of the year. We are not prepared to let Barclays bosses and other major investors get away with living in luxury while they are causing untold suffering, homelessness, forced migration, and many thousands of civilian deaths and injuries.”
Disarm DSEi will be heading to the City on 8th September 2009, to coincide with the start of DSEi, Defence Systems and Equipment International, the world’s biggest arms fair which takes place at the ExCeL centre every two years.
In previous years Disarm DSEi has coordinated protests in and around the Excel centre. This year they are focussing instead on the investors who finance and promote and international trade in death and misery, and will assemble somewhere in the City at midday on September 8th.
Sophie further stated:
“In previous years we have co-ordinated protests at the ExCeL Centre. This year we are targeting the investors who finance and promote this international trade in death and misery, and we will hold them to account for their actions, even if it means bringing the rivers of blood they create to The City.”