First it was nuclear Santa, now an armed baby?

By John Hill on February 26, 2009 5:58 PM |

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A man-sized missile-wielding infant will take on the arms trade at this weekend's Baby Show.

Campaign Against Arms Trade plans to highlight the organiser Clarion's link to the DSEi arms fair by dressing a member in a nappy and sending them out with heavy weaponry.

The eye-catching "armed baby" will be packing fake missiles and machine guns during the CAAT's protest outside the Excel centre from 10am on Sunday. The Wharf revealed last week that CAAT was committed to using "irony and humour" in its protest against the organiser at the weekend fair.

East London Against the Arms Fair will be demonstrating from 1pm on Saturday afternoon, while some anti-war protesters will be handing out leaflets from 9.30am on Friday.

Baby Show owner Clarion snapped up the international DSEi arms fair from Reed Elsevier last year, but has already faced protests at its other consumer events. Santa and his elves brought nuclear weapons to the Spirit of Christmas fair, while Bounty and UNICEF distanced themselves from the Olympia Baby Show after they were informed of the link.

DSEi takes place at Excel every two years, and is scheduled to return in September this year.

CAAT spokeswoman Kaye Stearman stressed that the group's approach would focus on "engagement and not confrontation".

She said: "We've always said that it's not going to be a confrontation. What we really want to is to get the people attending the Baby Show to understand the enormity of the arms trade and how selling arms is simply not right.

"One of our supporters will be dressed as a giant baby, armed to the teeth with fake machine guns and missiles. We want people to have a giggle, and come away with a serious message.

"We obviously don't think that exhibitors and visitors to the Baby Show are bad people. They're just ordinary people, turning up to try and get ideas, or exhibiting to make a little money. What's not ordinary is Clarion running a baby show as well as an arms fair. Arms fairs are just not ethical, and we're saying that Clarion can either run arms fairs or consumer fairs. It can't do both.

"If people want to come down and help out in a good humoured way, they're very welcome. More than anything, this is one of those events that really shows off the disparity between the events Clarion is running, and that gets people really fired up."