Space Hijackers: Tank Update

You might remember the Space Hijackers and their quest for a tank, which I flagged up earlier in the summer. Well, they did it!



The Saracen Mk 1 was delivered last week and received its number plates from the DVLA on Friday. Apparently the owners of the venue where it was initially parked were put under a certain amount of pressure by the authorities - and the hijacker team has spent the rest of the weekend playing cat and mouse with the Met.

According to their press release, the plan is to drive the tank to the DSEi Arms Fair - taking place, rather tastefully, on September 11th - and auction it to the highest bidder:

If this so happens to be an angry teenager in a balaclava, then so be it. We don't see how destruction caused with our tank can possibly be our responsibility.

Several people have got in touch with us claiming that this kind of behavior is slightly reckless "what if someone drives over a police car in your tank?" Our response is simple: we are simply looking to make a profit, it's just business transaction. As with the arms dealers and their weapons, once the goods are out of our hands, how can we be held accountable for how they are used?

It's the kind of stunt that's bound to draw a certain amount of criticism - and given the trigger-happy track record of London's finest, I'd personally think twice about playing with military equipment in their vicinity...

But with organisers Reed Elsevier already quitting the arms fair business as a result of some impressive campaigning, it feels like, if enough attention is drawn to this year's event, there's just the scent of a chance that local politicians will decide it's more trouble than it's worth - and we could see this festival of death kicked out of London for good.

Buy the anarchists a tank!

Now, I'm not a big fan of tanks or military hardware in general. (Although I do have fond memories of driving around Cumbria with a forty foot Soviet missile my friend Ed had borrowed from his boss.) Anyway, I couldn't resist this request from the Space Hijackers:

There comes a time in every activist groups development when they realise that there is something missing in their set up. We have been striving to cause trouble, save the world and wind up the powers that be for 8 years now. However we still don't own a tank, or indeed any kind of armoured personell carrier! Please help us right this wrong!

Besides the generally usefulness of owning a tank if you're a collective of anarchitects, psychogeographic pranksters and sworn enemies of Starbucks, there is a more specific rationale at work:

Every two years the ExCeL exhibition centre in East London plays host to DSEi, Europe's largest arms fair. Representatives from all of the major arms manufacturers pimp their wares to rogue states, impoverished nations and invading armies with the full support of the UK government. In fact the police firearms squad tried to raid the fair in 2005 only to be turned back by the government.

On the last two occasions we have attempted to infiltrate the fair, embarrass the dealers and cause a ruckus. In 2003, we caught the trains to the fair with the arms dealers. Suited up and looking business-like we pulled prosthetic limbs (arms) from our cases and attempted to sell them to the dealers. In 2005, worried about their obsession with phallic objects such as rockets we attempted to sell sex toys to the dealers to make up for their lack of "weapons capabilities". Generally however we are escorted out by the police.

This year we have decided to take things up a notch or ten. We want to buy a tank, we want to drive it into the arms fair! We don't want to be shoved around by burly policemen any more. Can't really say much more at the moment, but you get the gist.

The totalizer's already approaching £1000, but there's some way to go. So please, give generously!

Maybe they could arrange a timeshare with the Rebel Clown Army...?