Sam and Dan will discuss how the decision to try and prevent war crimes, which has led them to face trial, was rooted in faith. As well, how you too can take action, in small ways and big, against injustice.
Sam Walton is a Quaker working for equality, justice & peace. Earlier this year he was in the news after placing Saudi Arabian Major General Asiri under citizen’s arrest for his role in war crimes in Yemen. Boris Johnson felt a need to call the Saudis to apologize for Sam’s action. The state of Bahrain also outed him as a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard – which he was unaware of.
Art the Arms Fair is a current focus – using art the make the world’s largest arms fair visible (it’s this September in London). His other focus is preparing his defence for his upcoming trial for breaking into an airbase to disarm UK made planes that were going to be used to bomb civilians in Yemen.
Sam has worked for years on police violence towards protest and racism. He co-founded the legal support network Green and Black Cross and NetPol, the Network for Police Monitoring. His police file says he also co-founded UKUncut, but he insists that’s not true.
Sam works for Quakers in Britain as a Peace & Disarmament Programme Manager, though he is speaking at Greenbelt in his own time. You can troll him on twitter at @SamWalton.
With a heart for community and activism Rev. Daniel Woodhouse is a newly ordained Methodist Minister currently serving in Leeds.
Community and activism, with a focus on anti-arms, became central to his faith in his late teens/early twenties. Then, generally finding a frustrating lack of both in the church, formed a large part of his call to ordained ministry.
He now lives in a small community house in Leeds whilst serving three Methodist Churches.
He was in the news during his formal ministerial training for having been arrested, alongside friends, for blockading DSEI, one of the world’s largest arms fairs held in the London Docklands every two years.
More recently Dan, along with Quaker friend Sam, made headlines for breaking into a BAE Systems airbase in Lancashire. The base is currently producing and maintaining warplanes for use in war crimes in Yemen by the Saudi led coalition.
This year Dan has finally slipped into the #darkabyss of Twitter and still doesn’t really know what he’s doing. Find him @revdanwoodhouse.
When not campaigning or ministering to the folk in Leeds, Dan enjoys creating art and music and is currently attempting to learn the violin.