Friends in Central England joined Quakers and other across Britain to craft baby items, to campaign against the arms trade. Pete Doubtfire, of our project Peace Hub, reflects on this creative approach to a difficult topic.

Over the past few months, it has been wonderful to receive a steady flow of beautifully crafted baby items at the Peace Hub office. As the May approached, I was receiving several packages of items a day, filing me with hope for our action led by Quaker Roots, at the National Exhibition Centre.

Quaker Roots has long been supporting Friends to take action against the DSEI arms fair, held every two years in London. We have held powerful witness during the set-up of that fair, and during the fair itself – holding a grounded worshipful presence in the midst of confrontation with the machinery of death and destruction. With two years of ‘fallow time’ between these moments of witness, Quaker Roots have been reflecting on where we are being called, and how best to direct our energies. Roots’ new strategy aims to get Clarion Events, 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 the 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 on the middle day of the Birmingham Baby Show, and had a good a day holding positive conversations with attendees (and those going to 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. The video was my immediate reflection on the day:

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, Quaker Roots 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.

There is also ongoing witness at the NEC, calling on them to stop directly hosting the SDSC arms fair. Contact Peace Hub if you’d like to know more about getting involved in these regular, simple acts of engaging the public.

If you’re thinking that this all sounds interesting, but you’re not sure how to get involved, why not come along to the Peace Hub Action Group, where we share ideas and concerns in a friendly, supportive online group. The next meeting is Weds 27th May at 6pm.

Finally, Quaker Roots are 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?