arms trade

Two anti-militarist activists were found guilty of aggravated trespass in Brighton, UK. The pair had glued themselves to the gates of the EDO MBM factory in the early hours of 27 April 2011 in protest at the sale of bomb rack umbilical cables called Field Replaceable Connector Systems (FRCS) for use on US warplanes and also to the Israeli military.

EDO MBM is an arms factory in Moulsecoomb, Brighton which is wholly owned by the US company, ITT Exelis.

Terry Crawford-Browne

The Barclays Bank, HSBC and StanChart banking scandals well illustrate why the City of London is sometimes described as “the most corrupt square mile anywhere on the planet Earth!”
The British and the war business do corruption with panache. How apt that the villain in the Barclays saga is a man called “Diamond” -- for diamonds are symbolic of colonial conquest both in India and South Africa, as well as war and the passions of love.

Felix Padel

There is a lot of evidence that the arms trade is an epicentre of corruption, and that it fuels conflicts around the globe. Andrew Feinstein’s brilliant new book, The Shadow World (2011, review by Padel 2012) shows this clearly. Less scrutinized are the centrality of the arms industry to the world economy, the industry’s links with mining, and its outstanding greenhouse gas emissions. However much we limit our individual carbon footprints, will this make any difference unless we curtail our wars?

Rafael Uzcátegui

From 29 to 31 May the UDT (Undersea Defence Technology Europe) arms fair took place in Alicante, State of Spain. This is one of the most important fairs of the military industry, focusing - as the name says - on wars in the sea.

British Activists from Bristol Against the Arms Trade and Bath Stop The Drones claim a victory as Drone conference moved away from Bath

Following a raucous protest in Bristol, and a packed out public meeting in Bath, the Clarion Events UAV conference had to be moved to deepest darkest Wiltshire.

Jordi Calvo Rufanges

There are various reasons for the existence of war or organised armed violence. Amongst those that we can identify and understand with ease are economic reasons. It is difficult to demonstrate that the business people who benefit from the preparation and outbreak of war want the conflicts to occur. However, it is not completely outlandish to think that some businessman, greedy and lacking scruples, might uncork a bottle of champagne when he knows that an armed conflict is going to happen. He might even open two bottles if a long war is predicted. This joy that we presume of the arms industry executive might not even be a result of chance.

Wendela de Vries

European arms giant EADS is selling all over the world: From India and Pakistan to Colombia and Kazakhstan. In 2011 it made a revenue of 50 billion euros, a quarter of which was earned by arms trade. The 2011 arms profit was 11.6 billion euro. With that amount of money you could provide basic education for all the children in the world who presently cannot go to school. EADS also produces civil planes, for example the Airbus passengers plane.

On 27 April the Defence Review Committee appointed by the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans published its draft report. That report is available at www.sadefencereview2012.org. On 14 May the Ceasefire Campaign made a submission to the Committee, criticising the draft report. That submission is available at www.ceasefire.org.za.

So the no-news is that for the year 2011 the total world military spending amounted to $1,74 trillion ($1,740,000,000,000) as announced by SIPRI on the 17 April - which coincided with the Global Day of Action on Military Spending. This is just a "slight" increase from last year, just 0.3 percent. According to SIPRI, this figure means that for the first year in 13 years, the world military spending has leveled out.

Through four months of fruitful outreach, fortifying and expanding the network of civil society groups that make up the Global Day on Military Spending (GDAMS) coalition, the second Global Day last Tuesday, 17 April, was a tremendous success worldwide.

Sten Tolgfors may have resigned. But no one has so far taken responsibility for the scandal of the Saudi arms factory. The fundamental problems do not disappear with the resignation of the Minister of Defence. This is a systemic crisis on full public display, where the problems inherent in the Swedish defence and arms export policy have been made unambiguously clear to all, writes Anna Ek, president of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society.