AXA

In September every other year London's antimilitarist scene is dominated by DSEi - the Defence Defence Systems & Equipment International, the largest arms fair in Europe. One problem in organising such regular events is that it is virtually impossible to keep the numbers growing every time, and this year numbers were again down.

In a press release AXA announes to pull out investments of companies that produce anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions. This is surprising good news from the Paris headquarters of this bank-insurance company. For last years AXA has shown heavy reluctance to adopt stricter weapon investment policies.

For more information: http://www.netwerkvlaanderen.be/en/

Statement by AXA

This statement is available as a PDF file by following this link:

http://wri-irg.org/news/2007/Com VA AIHI 050307.pdf

Response to the AXA statement

This communication by AXA on investments in producers of antipersonnel landmines and cluster bombs offers no concrete news on the point of view of AXA. The facts behind and within this communication are still shocking :

With this issue we celebrate the first year of the War Profiteers' News - an effort by War Resisters' International to provide resources for and about campaigns against war profiteering. We hope you find it a valuable resource.

One of the main sections of the newsletter is the “War Profiteer of the Month”. In this past year we have profiled:

a company providing services to the military - Sodexho;

Annual General Meetings:

4 May:

Serco - Join the actions at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London at 11 AM.

For more information:

http://www.aldermaston.net/

9 May:

BAE Systems - Join the action inside or outside at :

The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Broad Sanctuary, London SW1P 3EE, UK

For more information:

www.caat.org.uk

14 May:

AXA Financial Protection is a French financial group, that offers to their customers - individuals as well as small, mid-size and large businesses – a wide range of product and services that include insurance, protection, savings, retirement and financial planning.

They provide a variety of services:

AXA Assistance:

An international network of assistance and services for Corporate and individual clients.

AXA Assistance is present in more than 30 countries, on

Amnesty International France and Handicap International France decided to break off all their insurance contracts with the French group AXA. This rift has been caused by AXA’s ongoing investments in producers of cluster munition and anti-personnel mines. These investments are strongly opposed to the struggle of the two organisations against these civilian-killing weapon systems. The decision was made public on the 1st of March, on the 8th anniversary of the activation of the Ottawa Treaty against anti-personnel mines.

For more information:

http://www.netwerkvlaanderen.be/en/

With this issue we continue with our section on resources for developing your campaigns against war profiteers. In our last issue we presented a list of useful links for doing your research on the companies you want to campaign against. Now we move into developing your campaign. First looking at how to describe and analyse what you are campaigning against and for. And what is the change that you want to bring. The article in this newsletter is a shorter version of an article that will be included in the Handbook for Nonviolent Action that the WRI's Nonviolence Programme is working on.

War and tensions imply a very profitable arms race for arms traders. Banks know this well, and are very keen to profit from it. The only problem is uncertainty, which the market doesn't like.