War Profiteers

Turkish antimilitarists protest the IDEF arms fairOn Friday 8th May, ten protesters met in front of the IDEF 2015 Defense Industry Fair in Istanbul, Turkey. The protesters, who came together with the call from the Conscientious Objection Association were met with a heavy police presence including 15 civilian police, tens of riot police and one water cannon truck.

Around ten protesters met today in front of the IDEF 2015 Defense Industry Fair in Istanbul. The protesters, who came together with the call of Conscientious Objection Association were met with heavy police presence including 15 civilian police, tens of riot police and one water cannon truck.

Despite attempts to prevent the protest by the police, the protesters read their statement in front of the building. “President Erdogan opened the fair by saying 'I hope this fair will bring fortune to the peoples of the world'. But the weapons that are present here will bring only death to the people all around the world” told Merve Arkun, the co-president of Conscientious Objection Association. Arkun criticized the increase of defense budgets worldwide, reaching to 1.6 trillion Euro per year. “The taxes taken from the poor peoples are spent for developing weapons of mass destruction. We're calling the states to stop their arms race” she told. Arkun ended her speech by referring to the latest developments in the defense industry like self guiding bullets and autonomous UAV's and telling “Don't forget that these weapons are killing people all over the world every day. You can never know when you'll be the next target. Militarism kills”.

As national organizers of War Resisters League, and as people committing our lives to challenging militarism globally, we do not often experience moments when our work comes together; where people power is stronger than people in power.

In a globalized world, any analysis of militarization and repressive ideologies, methodologies and technologies has to take into account the dynamics of import and export of these concepts and tools across borders. One of the world’s most prominent exporters of ideology and technology of repression is undoubtedly Israel. With over sixty years of experience in repressing the Palestinian people and expelling them from their lands, Israel markets proudly its weapons for war and ‘riot control’ as ‘field tested’ - either during the repeated full-scale military aggressions against Palestinian territory or Arab countries or in the day-to-day subjugation of a people under occupation.

Terry Crawford-Browne

Terry Crawford-Browne is a former international banker who became a peace activist during the 1980s. He lives in Cape Town.

A summary of news and updates about War Profiteers and the arms trade, from international media outlets and industry newsletters.

Law enforcement agencies around the world regularly misuse so-called “less-lethal” weapons and equipment for torture and their use can also have deadly consequences, according to a new briefing by Amnesty International and the Omega Research Foundation.

Maren Mantovani (Stop the Wall) and Henrique Sanchez (MOPAT - Movimento Palestina para Tod@s). Originally published in WRI's 'Broken Rifle' newsletter, April 2015.

Wendela de Vries describes the action Stop Wapenhandel took against the presence of Dutch companies at the IDEX arms fair.

The Global Day of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS) is an annual, international day of action against the huge expenditure by governments across the world on militaries, this year taking place on the 13th April 2015. Last year, the Latin America Antimilitarist Network released a statement demanding that resources are invested in society, not the military. As in previous years, WRI will be supporting the day, and inviting affiliates from across the world to take action to challenge to challenge spending on the military in their own context.

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On 10 February groups in South Korea (World Without War), Turkey (Ban Tear Gas Initiative), the UK (Campaign Against Arms Trade and War Resisters' International) took action to demand that a shipment of South Korean tear gas to Turkey be stopped. In recent years, Turkey has repeatedly abused the rights of protesters with the weaponised use of tear gas at demonstrations. But despite human rights concerns, South Korea have issued export licences granting the export of nearly 1.65 million tear gas canisters and grenades to Turkey. At the action in Istanbul protesters were met by riot police, in the words of one of the organisers: "In front of the Korean embassy, 2 full buses of armed riot police, 1 water cannon vehicle, 10 cars of undercover cops were waiting. The consulate general is in a plaza and they didn't let us in. After the protest, the police tried to block us from entering but we reached the Korean embassy employees and delivered the letter to them. Too many press were with us!" (see photos).

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By Yesenia Barragan