Nonviolent Direct Action training: various dates

As Quakers we take an anti-war and pro-peace stance to action, and are compelled to take action against the violence of the global arms trade and the DSEI weapons fair. Come to a preparatory session ahead of actions against the DSEI arms fair.

Training will include:

• spiritual and physical preparation
• strategies for calming and de-escalation
• speaking truth to power: communication skills for engaging with the public and arms fair attendees

Wednesday 13 August. In person in the Elizabeth Fry Room, Friends House, Euston Road, London

• Morning session: 11am-1pm
• Afternoon session: 2-4pm with optional 1-2pm meeting for worship

Registration is essential, sign up here.

Sunday 17 August. In person in the Ada Salter Suite, Friends House, London

• 11am - 1:30pm, including optional half hour for Quaker worship (subject to demand). Registration is essential, sign up here.

Tuesday 19 August

• 7-9pm, online on Zoom. Register here.

Wednesday 3 September

• 7-9pm, online on Zoom: Register here

Please note that we are repeating the NVDA training several times in-person and online. You only need to come to one session – they are all the same. The training sessions will go ahead providing there is a minimum signup reached.

Session trainer

Lyndsay Burtonshaw is the Peace Faith in Action coordinator staff member at Quakers in Britain, focusing on the Quaker peace testimony, Palestine/Israel, and our Quaker commitment to reparations and racial justice. She/they have been part of nonviolent direct action movements since she was a teenager, including at Yarls Wood, with Sisters Uncut, Reclaim the Power, BP or Not BP? At the British Museum, Brighton Reclaim the Night, a Stansted airport migrant justice & anti-deportation action, anti-privatisation occupations, bike trains and Manchester Critical Mass. Read more about Quaker Peace & Social Witness at www.quaker.org.uk/action and Lyndsay at www.gatherwithus.co.uk.

About DSEI

DSEI is a point of intervention in the global weapons trade. At DSEI, tanks, planes, drones, rifles, ammunition, surveillance technology, and weapons such as tear gas, pepper spray, and other chemical weapons are marketed and sold. Illegal cluster bombs have been on show. Amnesty International has identified nine companies that violated UK law at DSEI events between 2005 and 2013, and in 2011, they obtained brochures marketing illegal shackles – such as leg irons and waist chains. In 2013, two companies – MagForce International and Tian Jin MyWay International Trading – were found to be marketing leg irons and electric batons, often used in acts of torture. The companies were only removed when Caroline Lucas MP raised the issue in parliament. And In 2017, nine of the countries invited were authoritarian regimes, six were identified by the UK government as 'human rights priority countries', and five were at war. DSEI is point of sale and point of profit of war. Read more about DSEI here.