SOME CALL-TO-ACTION DEADLINES AND OPPORTUNITIES COMING UP NEXT WEEK

Ask your MSP to meet CAAT at the Scottish Parliament and discuss what part Scottish Enterprise might be contributing to the pernicious and inhumane arms trade here in Scotland Final days for submissions to Beyond Human Rights and to RSVP to JARA, a new Quazaqstan,feminist film from Aigerim Seitenova, Garvald Edinburgh news, and a call out to environmentalists with a difference

Edinburgh CAAT is challenging the use of Scottish taxpayers’ money given to Scottish Enterprise, used to fund arms dealers.

Edinburgh CAAT has a stall inside the Scottish Parliament 10th-12th June, 2025. in the Garden Lobby and we want MSP's to come and speak to us. We are asking everyone to write to their MSP's to encourage them to do this.

There will also be a silent vigil outside 10am -12 noon Tuesday and Thursday. Please come!

The background:

Scottish Enterprise is an arms length agency of the Scottish government, given taxpayers money to make business grants to support the Scottish economy.

Since March 2019 it introduced a due diligence procedure following criticism for funding arms firms selling to countries with poor human rights records. However, of 199 checks no arms company has failed!

In January 2024 the U.N. International Court of Justice in the Hague declared Israel’s actions in Gaza to be akin to genocide. Leonardo’s laser targeting system, made in Edinburgh, is used in the F-35 combat aircraft currently bombing Gaza. Leonardo has received Scottish Enterprise money.

In November 2024 Amnesty International’s Scottish programme director, Neil Cowan, wrote to Kate Forbes, MSP, Deputy First Minister. He stressed the lack of clarity around Scottish Enterprises’ due diligence checks and that they don’t follow the U.N. Guiding Principles (UNGP) on Business and Human Rights adopted by the Scottish Government!

Under pressure from the Green Party, 26th February 2025, the Scottish Government promised a review of the due diligence process used by Scottish Enterprise including its human rights checks.

Edinburgh CAAT, along with these other organisations, demand

• The review is independent.

• The panel of reviewers is independent.

• The process is transparent

• The process is in line with the United Nations GP.

• The start date!

Please write to your MSP’s to come to the parliamentary stall or give you their views on the issue. Replies can be sent to CAAT Edinburgh
You can find your MSP’s via They Work for You

The Soviet Union conducted 456 nuclear ‘tests’ (detonations) at Semipalatinsk, a huge region of Qazaqstan from 1949 until 1989 with little regard for their effect on the local people or environment. The full impact of radiation exposure was hidden and has only come to light since the test site closed in 1991.Qazakh experts estimate that 1.5 million people were exposed to ionising radiation (fall out) with disproportionate impact on women and children.

Aigerim Seitenova is visiting Scotland to share her short film, "JARA – Radioactive Patriarchy: Women of Qazaqstan" , in the Scottish Parliament Nuclear Disarmament Cross Party Group on the 11th June at (email scndcpg@yahoo.com if you are interested in attending) and also at Words and Actions, EH9 1ST at 6.30 p.m. on the 12th of June (see securescotland.scot/events). An opportunity for learning and discussing about the Russian tests, the impact on the environment, the lasting legacy and how that is very much a women’s issue.

A square image with text and a plant extending from each corner.. In the centre of the image are the words; “Calling disabled, chronically ill, neurodivergent environmentalists”. Two of the plants are thin and in black and white, the other two are green and yellow, and wobbly, with holes in the leaves like a Monstera. In the background are curved two-tone patches of pale green that overlap each other. 

Hi! My name is Hannah (she/they). I am a disabled researcher, conducting PhD research in Edinburgh this spring and summer focused on disabled knowledge, environmentalism and design justice! As a disabled, chronically ill, Mad, and neurodivergent person, I’d like to learn alongside other disabled environmentalists, and uncover how our embodied knowledge can help us in constructing better futures for the environment. All while centring disabled people and our knowledge rather than erasing and excluding us! I am looking for other people to get involved in some interviews and workshops, where we can creatively engage with the future of the planet and the designs that support a thriving future for us all, human and nonhuman alike. So if you:

• Live in Edinburgh or the wider Lothian area. 

• And identify with the any of the labels; disabled, chronically ill, mentally ill, Mad, crip, b/Blind, d/Deaf, neurodivergent, or similar.

• And have an interest in the environment and the arts including, but not limited to, painting, design, illustration, textile arts such as crochet or sewing, poetry and other written word, or otherwise. You do not have to have experience with any of these things, simply an interest!

• And are able to provide 4 to 6 hours of your time, spread out over 2 to 4 months.

Please get in touch with me! :

Here is a link to the website that can give you a more in-depth overview of the research if that would interest you: I have made a page that provides a more in-depth overview of the project, a page about me, and a page for other resources such as a glossary, reading, and listening lists that may interest you.  If you would like any of the above information, or anything included on the website, in another format please don’t hesitate to reach out

BEYOND HUMAN RIGHTS

EXHIBITION OPENING SOON - SORTING AND ENJOYING SOME AMAZING IMAGES, POEMS, AND MORE - TO SHARE SOON!

Th new Secure Scotland - open exhibition and event  In “The Age of Insecurity” Astra Taylor points out that the wreckage we are making of the climate and the ecosystems arises from an exclusive concentration on human security without regard for the rest of reality. And, of course, an exclusively human-centred approach to security is chain-sawing the branch on which we precariously perch. (Book is available to buy from WandA)

While you wait for Beyond Human Rights, get accross to vist Summerhalll on or from 31st

Despite help from some of you costs are very limiting for Secure Scotland, Especially welcome are regular monthly payments to be able to plan and budget. The details are on the donate page of the website. One-off donations are also appreciated, as well as offers of financial support in cash or by card in the shop, bank transfer or card online

Words and Actions for Peace (WandA), is hosted by Secure Scotland, which receives financial support from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust

WandA is the drop-in gallery and resource base - available for public or private meetings, film and acoustic music nights

General enquiries contact@wordsandactions.scot 

Open Monday - Friday 10.00 - 16.00 

(Secure Scotland, Peace & Justice Scotland, Scottish WILPF, CAAT and others work from WandA )

Secure Scotland Media enquiries +44 (0)7795594573

or +44 (0)7876593016

Secure Scotland Project enquiries hello@securescotland.scot  

Socials : @securescotland on Substack, instagram, Youtube, X , Facebook