No 10 / December 2007
War Profiteers' News
The email newsletter of WRI's Global Initiative against War Profiteers || Index of past issues
Editorial
This is the 10th issue of War Profiteers' News, and also the last one for the year 2007.
In this issue we look into economic conversion, with an article by Joanne Sheehan. One of the biggest challenges the antimilitarist movement faces is to work building alternatives to militarism not only opposing it. With this article we start exploring this aspect. We are interested in learning more from other experiences on economic conversion, to share and learn from each other. So if you or your group has done work on economic conversion please send us the information, and we would make it available for others to learn from it as well.
The War Profiteer of the Month in this issue is Rio Tinto Alcan corporation, just formed after Rio Tinto bought all the shares of Alcan. This makes Rio Tinto Alcan one of the biggest producers of aluminium in the world. Here we look at the connections between aluminium and the arms trade. It is important that in the movement against war profiteering we can cooperate with other movements, for example in this case with the movement denouncing the crimes from the mining industry – bringing displacement to local communities and huge environmental impacts. WRI is planning to organise a Seminar in December 2008 which will look at the issue of displacement produced by over/development policies, with a especial eye on the impact and responsibilities that mega corporations - including war profiteers – have in these crimes. We report one example of this in WPN, of what is happening in the Orellana Province in Ecuador. A province very rich in oil resources, and where a state of emergency has been declared. This state of emergency is mainly to stop the local community demonstrating to ask for better access to public services. Also to secure the interest of the oil corporations based in the region.
Also we announce a number of reports related to war profiteering that have come to our notice in the last month. They show how important it is to carry out good research in our work to stop the war profiteers.
Last but not least I would like to wish you all the very best for the coming year!
Upcoming events
22/03/08 NATO Game Over:
Resist Military Globalisation!
Five years after the Iraq war started: an international action weekend at NATO's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
Followed by the seminar organised by Bombspotting and War Resisters' International "Military globalisation and nonviolent resistance in Europe"
Interested? contact: international[at]bombspotting.be
http://vredesactie.be/
http://wri-irg.org
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War Profiteer of the Month
Rio Tinto Alcan
On the 15th of November 2007, Rio Tinto Canada Holding, an indirect owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto – one of the biggest mining corporation in the world – acquired all of the common shares of Alcan world leading producer of aluminium. This makes now the new Rio Tinto Alcan the biggest producer of aluminium in the world.
Rio Tinto & Alcan have spent lots of resources in public relations which has been successful, despite the company's reality as a leader in dirty industry (strip mining, smelting, hydro electric dam), well spent money on image provides the veneer of a clean and conscious corporation with impeccably clean hands. In practice however, Rio Tinto & Alcan are a much less successful at following their own rhetoric. That is why it is important to profile Rio Tinto Alcan as The War Profiteer of the Month of December.
Rio Tinto Alcan – former Alcan – and the arms trade
In 2004 Alcan's Engineered Products Business group Aerospace business unite generated $ 1,155 billion in operating revenue. Sixteen percent of this total came from sales to customers in the military and space industries. This financial data is not insignificant, and given that the former Alcan claimed to be a "key supplier to both European and North American military markets", it is clear that the company now own by Rio Tinto and call Rio TInto Alcan is involved in the arms trade. Through a company acquired in 2003, Baltek, Alcan is supplying some of the world's largest builders of military equipment. Some of Baltek's main customers include: Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed Martin.Aluminium and the arms trade
The world's most lucrative and powerful companies are those producing arms in “defence” or “aerospace”, and these are the aluminium producers highest-paying customers. The whole history of mining and metal technology is connected closely with the history of weaponry, which has motivated and funded inventions since the Bronze and Iron Ages. The industrial revolution led to a huge arms build up during the first half of the 20th century, which was among the causes of the two world wars.
“War was good to Alcoa” – Alcoa was one of the main aluminium producer in the early 20th century. Alcoa flourished during the two world wars, when about 90% of aluminium went into military uses. In the 1920s, lobbyists for arms companies scuppered a League of Nations motion to ban the selling of arms for private (company) profit. At that time there was a widespread understanding that arms companies were a prime cause of wars. Where is this understanding now? Aluminium's “strategic” value to the arms companies – to America's “permanent war industry” in particular, which Eisenhower called its “military-industrial complex” – is obviously a key reason that the real costs of producing aluminium are hidden and transferred. Britain too, while closing down most of its manufacturing industries during the Thatcher era, kept “aerospace” or “defence” as a cornerstone of its economy, as the most lucrative and “strategic” sector.
One reason for aluminium's strategic value is thermite, a little-known invention at the dawn of the 20th century in 1901, that virtually defined the violent course of the 20th century. While smelters require huge supplies of electricity in order to split aluminium from its bonding with oxygen in molecules of aluminium oxide, thermite reverses this process: a bomb is packed with iron oxide and aluminium powder. When the fuse ignites, the aluminium leaps to the high temperature of its “heat of formation” to re-bond with oxygen, making the explosion huge. This was the basis of the first world war hand grenades, second world war incendiary bombs and napalm, and the “daisy cutters” used by American planes for “carpet bombing” from the Korean and Vietnam wars to Iraq. Aluminium is also basic to the technology of nuclear missiles.
Dewey Anderson's words in 1951from his report "Aluminium for Defence and Prosperity" remain true today: the aluminium industry is “at the very core of the military-industry complex… Aluminium has become the most important single bulk material of modern warfare. No fighting is possible, and no war can be carried to a successful conclusion today, without using and destroying vast quantities of aluminium… Aluminium makes fighter and transport planes possible. Aluminium is needed in atomic weapons, both in their manufacture and in their delivery… Aluminium, and great quantities of it, spell the difference between victory and defeat…”
Although the aluminium percentage in war-planes has diminished, the complexity of aluminium alloys used has increased, alongside a new range of composite fabrics blending oil or plastics with aluminium. These alloys and composites are crucial for aircraft, missile technology, and satellites, as well as war-ships and tanks. In other words, military might is a driving force and key source of profit behind aluminium production, now as much as before.
Ronald Graham in 1982 gave the percentage of aluminium used in the arms industry at around 30%. Lists of aluminium consumption by sector miss out arms manufacture now, and when “defence” or “aerospace” is given it does not rise above 4%. If this is correct, it is still substantial, since it represents aluminium's most complex and highly-priced alloys. However, we believe the figures have been considerably “massaged” through listing many defence applications under “auto”, “construction” etc., and not taking account of stockpiling. The US started its aluminium stockpile in 1950, and the Defence Production Act of 1959 prioritized this and classed aluminium as one of 4 “controlled metals” for defence. The stockpile reached nearly 2 million tons in 1963, and was again prioritized in the first year of Reagan's administration in 1980, and since.
How much aluminium is being consumed and destroyed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars? What kinds of profits are these wars bringing to the aluminium producers as well as arms companies? The faster the military hardware is consumed, the bigger their trade. War is still probably the aluminium producers best business, although the contracts and statistics proving this have long been hard to access.
Rio Tinto Alcan being one of the mayor producers of aluminium in the world and their business relation with the weapons industry makes it a worthily deserver of the War Profiteer of the Month profile.
For more information:
http://www.riotinto.com/riotintoalcan/
http://www.alcantinindia.org
http://www.minesandcommunities.org/
Campaign of the Month
Stop CATerpillar
For the last four years, activists and socially responsible investors have targeted the annual Caterpillar shareholder meeting in downtown Chicago to attempt to hold the company accountable for human rights abuses and war crimes committed with their equipment. The campaign has been successful in educating about the illegal and unjust uses of CAT equipment and putting pressure on the company to change its business practices. Every year, the shareholder meeting is dominated by activists and investors questioning the President and Board of Directors and urging them to take action. Every year, the sidewalk outside the meeting is crowded with protesters decrying CAT's practices and urging the company to take action.
Cat and the occupation
The Caterpillar Corporation's machinery is directly implicated in grave abuses of human rights and humanitarian law by the Israeli army;
The Israeli army has used Caterpillar equipment to uproot hundreds of thousands of olive trees as well as orchards of dates, prunes, lemons and oranges, causing widespread economic hardship and environmental degradation in rural areas of Palestine.
Since 1967, the Israeli army has used Caterpillar equipment, including specially modified D9 and D10 bulldozers to destroy over 12,000 houses in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, leaving tens of thousands of men, women and children homeless.
Since September 2000, the Israeli army has used Caterpillar equipment to destroy more than 3,000 homes, hundreds of public buildings and private commercial properties and vast areas of agricultural land.
Home demolitions are usually carried out without warning, often at night, and the occupants are forcibly evicted with no time to salvage their belongings. Often the only warning is the rumbling of the Israeli army's US-made Caterpillar bulldozers beginning to tear down the walls of their homes.
The Israeli army has continued bulldozing homes even when notified that residents were still inside the targeted homes.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in such instances, such as Nabila al-Shu'bi, who was seven-months pregnant, as well as her three young children and four additional members of her family, left to die under the rubble of their Nablus home when it was bulldozed on April 6, 2002.
On March 16 2003, 23-year-old US peace activist Rachel Corrie was murdered by Israeli soldiers driving a Caterpillar D-9 bulldozer, while she was standing in non-violent protest of a home demolition in Rafah.
All these home demolitions and civilian deaths are illegal under international law, specifically violating the Hague Regulation of 1907 and the Fourth Geneva Convention;
The Israeli army uses Caterpillar bulldozers to build a separation wall with significant portions of it inside the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The International Court of Justice considered the construction of such a wall to be contrary to international law-specifically violating the Hague Regulation of 1907; the Fourth Geneva Convention; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; and the Convention on the Rights of the Child;
The sale of Caterpillar bulldozers to the Israeli army is carried through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales Program and is in violation of the U.S. Arms Export Control Act, U.S. Public Law 90-829, which prohibits the use of U.S. weapons against civilians and for anything outside of "internal security" or "legitimate self-defense".
The sale of the Caterpillar bulldozer to the Israeli army contravenes the United Nations' Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights, which stipulate that transnational corporations "shall not engage in nor benefit" from war crimes or other violations of human rights and humanitarian law (article C3); and that transnational corporations "shall refrain from actions which obstruct or impede" the realization of basic human rights, such as the right to development, adequate food and drinking water, adequate housing, and the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (articles E11 and E12).
Caterpillar's involvement in the above-described abuses has attracted the attention of the United Nations and leading human rights organizations.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights has written to Caterpillar CEO James Owens that "allowing the delivery of your. . . bulldozers to the Israeli army. . . in the certain knowledge that they are being used for such action, might involve complicity or acceptance on the part of your company to actual and potential violations of human rights...";
All of the facts described above are a matter of public knowledge.
The sale of the Caterpillar bulldozer to the Israeli army contradicts Caterpillar's own Code of Worldwide Business Conduct, which states that "Caterpillar accepts the responsibilities of global citizenship" and recognizes that Caterpillar's "commitment to financial success must also take into account social, economic, political, and environmental priorities".
Spokespeople for Caterpillar, Inc. have acknowledged that Caterpillar is aware of the Israeli army's use of Caterpillar equipment to destroy civilian homes, infrastructure and agricultural resources but Caterpillar has, nevertheless, refused either to condemn these practices or to take actions necessary to halt the sale or transfer of Caterpillar equipment to the Israeli army.
Stop Cat calls for:
- Caterpillar to stop selling bulldozers to Israel until Israel stops using these machines to destroy Palestinian lives and livelihoods in contravention of human rights and humanitarian law;
- Caterpillar to establish transparent and credible mechanisms for independent monitoring and verification, with the assistance of human rights ngos, to establish when these conditions are met;
- Caterpillar to adopt a code of conduct which complies with the UN Human Rights Norms for Business and ensures the application of Article 11, which states that Trans National Corporations and other business enterprises should take stringent measures to prevent any products or services they produce or supply from being used to commit violations of international human rights or humanitarian law.
- Civil and human rights activists, faith-based organizations, peace activists, Arab-American organizations, Jewish groups, students, and others who promote peace and justice in Israel and Palestine to join us in our efforts.
For more information:
http://stopcat.org
http://cat.com
Economic Conversion - new challenges and opportunities
By Joanne Sheehan
If our goal is to close down weapons production and military bases, we need to consider what happens to the workers, the facilities, the land and the economy of the community. Economic conversion also called defense, conversion, arms conversion or peace conversion, is the planned redirection of resources from military to socially useful civilian activities, primarily new product development. It is a participatory process involving business, government, labor, and the community. It is constructive program.
“Jobs” are the main concern in a community where the possibility of closing a weapons facility or a military base is raised. Corporations remind the effected community of the “importance” of their role in helping the economy. Politicians fear that job loss will effecting their own job. Fear takes over.
Economic conversion is a vision we put forth, but how can we make it a reality? Learning how we can move economic conversion from rhetoric to reality is crucial to really stopping war profiteers.
Much has been written about economic conversion. It has been promoted by scholars and activists. Seymour Melman (1917-2004), a professor at Colombia University in the US, wrote much on conversion including the “The Permanent War Economy”. Others have followed in his footsteps. Unions and community groups in several countries have done studies on what else workers could be making if they converted the facility, taking into account the workers skills.
Military production has traditionally gone through boom and bust cycles. While it is our responsibility to continue to find ways to stop military production, it is during their “bust” cycle that the possibility of economic conversion is obviously strongest.
After the Cold War there were cuts in defense spending and a realization of new budget priorities.
The cuts in certain weapons systems created opportunities for grassroots activists to engage in the process of economic conversion, or in some cases economic diversification. Economic diversification does not necessarily mean moving away from war profiteering, but focuses on diversifying the economy so that it is not as dependent on the boom and bust cycles of military industries. It is a far less radical approach.
Some grassroots campaigns, including the Community Coalition for Economic Conversion of Southeastern Connecticut, which I was involved in, organized in the wake of cuts in the submarine program which cut thousands of jobs in the community in the early 1990's. Grassroots activists organized a “Listening Project Community Survey on Economic Conversion”, interviewing people in the community to bring them into the process. We held forums that highlighted examples of conversion and community economic development and worked with local development groups and unions. Recognizing that the weapons facility had no interest in converting, our goal was the diversification of the regional economy, away from being one of the most defense-dependent regions of the country, with an emphasis on community control of economic development and the expansion of non-military manufacturing.
Nationally, a network of grassroots activists and academics exchanged ideas which strengthened local work and addressed nation policies. There are a number of successes stories where laid off workers were retrained, and in some cases communities developed more jobs where military bases were closed. Case studies of those efforts are important to gather for future organizing, as is a list of resources on economic conversion.
Challenges
The response to September 11, 2001 brought on a super boom cycle for war profiteers. In “Post 9-211 Conversion: Lessons from U.S. Demobilization and Conversion after the Cold War 1990-1998” Greg Bischak, Former Director of the National Commission for Economic Conversion and Disarmament wrote: “Post 9-11 Anti-terror planners have succeeded in imposing their view that the nation's security is best protected by continuous mobilization at home and abroad, as well as modernization of weapons and forces to maintain U.S. Military's qualitative superiority over all potential foes.” In the process, the US is giving military aid to allies, creating another arms race. Bischak reminds us that “A national siege mentality has preempted genuine public discussion of alternative security policies and rational national budget priorities.” While he was speaking of the U.S., this statement is true in many countries.
War profiteering is the biggest profiteering. Corporations make more money producing weapons than making other products. Governments are willing to pay large sums and cost overruns for weapons. Combined with the “anti-terror” justification used by many countries, economic conversion seems like a far off dream.
Another challenge is that economic conversion needs to be worked on at all levels to be effective. While grassroots organizing in the community is essential to successful conversion to civilian activities, it must be a collaborative effort. Organizers need to work with local authorities and businesses. This can be a challenge for anti-authoritarian groups who prefer working on a grassroots level. Can we stick to our principles and engage in the collaboration? Is it reform or constructive program? We found that we could bring participatory processes to a community that had been a reflection of the military - “don't rock the boat”, “do what you are told”, “don't organize”. Our own Listening Project brought local residents and “defense workers” to the coalition while politicians and economic development professionals opposed us. As we brought models of conversion from our national network, even they were forced to listen.
A Growing Opportunity
On one hand it looks like the post 9-11 situation makes economic conversion impossible now. However the crisis brought on by the recognition of the seriousness of climate change provides us with possibilities. As said in “War Profiteers' News #8,” the need for renewable energy systems provides an opportunity for job creation. New products are being developed that need to be manufactured. There is a recognition of the importance of local production. The need for production of energy alternatives is recognized increasingly by people throughout the world. People working against war, war profiteering, and those working against the war on the environment need to be working together. Jointly working against global war and global warming may be able to create the strength we need to make the changes we want.
Ecuador: Oil corporations helping to militarise the Orellana province
During the first two weeks of December, a state of emergency was declared in the Orellana Province in the Amazon region of Ecuador.
This state of emergency is carried out through the militarisation of Orellana which took place after representatives of the town of Dayuma (area in the country that brings in more resources to the nation) started protesting about the complete abandonment from the government in which they live, as they have almost no access to any public services.
What is the main reason behind for the Ecuadorian state to militarise this province? Major oil corporations: Repsol – YPF, Petrobell, Petrosud-Petrorivas, Petroriental, Perenco, SIPEC/ENAP, Petrobras, Petroecuador to name some of them, are based in this province.
The Ecuadorian government states that nobody can stop the “development of the nation” and therefore it is necessary the exportation of the Ecuadorian oil.
The power of the oil corporations in Ecuador is so big that, for example, when a soldier arrives to a community to arrest someone in most of the cases the soldier comes together with a representative from the oil corporation, showing who really rules there.
At the time of this writing more than 26 protester are being held at the prison in the city of Tena.
Fore more information:
http://inredh.org
Action at Bank of New York Mellon (Brussels) to oppose investment in Uranium Weapons
Brussels 6 November:Activists from the Belgian and International Coalitions to Ban Uranium Weapons, Netwerk Vlaanderen and Friends of the Earth organised a “radioactive buffet” for staff in the entrance hall of the Brussels offices of The Bank of New York Mellon. The buffet was organised to oppose the involvement of the bank in funding the production of controversial depleted uranium weapons. These weapons are both chemically toxic and radioactive, and have caused serious health consequences for both military and civilians.
Download the new report 'Risky Business'
Download the action photos
New report: Baghdad Bonanza
The Center for Public Integrity is releasing their latest investigative report. Following up the Center's highly acclaimed 2003 Windfalls of War, which profiled U.S. contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, their staff have worked to expose further information about what's behind those contracts:
KBR, Inc., the global engineering and construction giant, won more than $16 billion in U.S. government contracts for work in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2004 to 2006 -- far more than any other company, according to a new analysis by the Center for Public Integrity. In fact, the total dollar value of contracts that went to KBR -- which used to be known as Kellogg, Brown, and Root and until April 2007 was a subsidiary of Halliburton -- was nearly nine times greater than those awarded to DynCorp International, a private security firm that is No. 2 on the Center's list of the top 100 recipients of Iraq and Afghanistan reconstruction funds.
To read the full report go to:
http://www.publicintegrity.org/WOWII/
Study War No More
New report on universities funding from the arms trade in the UK
This new report reveals that 26 top UK universities have received contracts for at
least £725 million over six years from arms companies and public military bodies. The report, Study War No More, is published jointly by the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FoR) and CAAT.
To read the full report go to:
http://www.studywarnomore.org.uk/
Bank Secrets
New report reveals alarming investment practices by financial groups
December 11, the financial watchdog Netwerk Vlaanderen NGO (B) launches the report ‘Bank Secrets'. The dossier details the investments by 121 financial groups in companies violating fundamental human rights. The investors channel money to 13 companies selling weapons to dictators, denying people access to land and clean water, co-operating with armed rebel groups and being involved in forced relocations and heavy and irreversible pollution.
To read the full report go to:
http://www.netwerkvlaanderen.be/en/
Join The Arms and Security Initiative E-Newsletter
The Arms and Security Initiative offers a regular E-Newsletter covering the arms trade, military budget developments and foreign policy issues. It is punchy -- informative and stimulating without being too wonky or too gloomy. It will also include their new feature: “What's Good,” which will highlight successes, victories and great ideas.
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The email newsletter of WRI's Global Initiative against War Profiteers || Index of past issues