Top 10 Highlights of 2013

This year, David Cameron's pulled out all the stops to push weapons sales to repressive regimes. In his desperation to secure more sales for BAE Systems he has supported tyrants, instead of human rights and democratic reform.

But he hasn't succeeded in 2013 – and public opinion is against him. Only 14% believe that the UK is justified in selling military equipment to governments that have a poor human rights record.

Grassroots action is turning opposition into impact. Take our whistle stop tour of some of the amazing things that you have helped achieve this year however you've supported Campaign Against Arms Trade.

1 Daily direct action impeded and disrupted London's arms fair In September, 30,000 arms dealers arrived in London for one of the world's largest arms fairs. But the fair faced daily direct action: gates were blocked for hours and military equipment turned away; the main visitors' entrance was blockaded on the opening morning; protesters meeting and greeting arms dealers at the airport managed to send them in completely the wrong direction. One industry source suggested protesters ended the week happier than a lot of the arms companies!

2 AGM much worse than usual for arms company BAE Systems BAE Systems responded to the increasing pressure on arms trade events by relocating its AGM from a prestigious London venue to an aircraft hangar in Farnborough, but as The Independent's entertaining article put it: CAAT easily took over [the] meeting.

Ammar Abdul-Rasool , CC BY-NC Photo by Jeroen Oerlemans Photo by 3 Increased parliamentary scrutiny of the UK's weapons sales to repressive regimes Our work to expose the role of UK weapons in suppressing democratic uprisings has had a big impact on the views of the Committee on Arms Export Controls. Its report this year concluded that it is fundamentally anomalous for countries that the Foreign Office says are of human rights concern to also be priority markets for government arms promotion.

4 Putting Cameron's arms selling in the news David Cameron won't speak out on human rights abuses in the Gulf because he's touting for arms deals (though not very successfully it seems.) CAAT has helped ensure that no arms sales trip goes unnoticed and has successfully mobilised public opinion against them.

5 Our data applications expose how the UK arms the world Over the years, we've won increasing transparency on what weaponry the UK is sending around the world. But the way the figures are published means only the most determined researcher or journalist could interpret them. Our data applications are making that information accessible in seconds. Company map

UK arms exports

EU arms exports

[View the story Challenging the arms fair in the headlines on Storify] 6 Arms fair exposed in the headlines CAAT helped create a huge level of media coverage of the arms fair – which hosted 1500 arms companies, including Syrian President Assad's main military suppliers and the companies supplying teargas to Bahrain, Turkey and Brazil, as well as over 50 of the world's militaries.

7 Arms dealer bookings cancelled and events under pressure People are throwing a wrench in the machinery of the arms trade; its lobbying, networking and public relations machinery. Using prestige venues and public institutions helps normalise a business whose costs can be counted in its death toll. That's why when arms dealers have met in recent months, campaigners have been there to disrupt their events.

8 Tens of thousands of people share the message that it's Time to Shift Priorities UK military spending is the fourth highest in the world. It's been protected from the savage public spending cuts which have seen hunger and homelessness rocket. When we took part in the Global Day of Action on Military Spending, the tens of thousands of people who shared these images showed that ordinary people know it's time the government shifted its priorities to meet human needs instead.

9 Arms dealers kicked off campuses Disarm Leeds won a Student Union vote to ban BAE Systems from campus and urge the university to end any financial ties with the arms company. Students persuaded Edinburgh University to pull their £1.2m investment in Ultra Electronics who help make drones. A threatened student protest at Portsmouth University was enough for BAE Systems to cancel a recruitment event. Just a few examples of how students have been pushing arms companies off campus. This video of Sheffield's anti-arms group being removed from a careers fair after staging a die-in was one of the first in a series of heavy-handed university reactions to democratic protest this year. In spite of Sheffield University's ban on campus protest, the group are still going strong.