DON’T TALK ABOUT Y***N national day of Solidarity with Yemen comes to Southampton on December 3

by Sally Churchward.

As part of the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) National Day of Solidarity with Yemen, campaigners will be on the streets of Southampton for ‘”DON’TTALK ABOUT YxxxN.”

Protesters will be gathering outside Southampton City Art Gallery from noon for poetry and reflection, before marching to Leonardo, an arms company whose weapons have been widely used in the eight years of conflict since the beginning of the Yemen civil war.

Saudi Arabia has been at war with neighbouring Yemen since 2015. Since then, the Saudi and UAE-led Coalition has carried out scores of indiscriminate and disproportionate air strikes on civilian targets with homes, schools, hospitals, markets, mosques, weddings and funerals being hit, with numerous coalition air strikes that appear to have violated international humanitarian law, many of which amount to war crimes and have resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths.

Saudi Arabia is the UK’s largest arms customer, with £23 billion worth of arms being sold to the country since the beginning of the war in Yemen.

CAAT argues that these sales are illegal and will be taking the government to court in January (CAAT’s Judicial Review against arms sales to Saudi Arabia will be heard at the High Court of Justice from 31 January to 2nd February 2023). 

More information about the Southampton protest and  updates are available  via CAAT’s events page.