War Profiteers

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.

Shut DESO Protest and Petition Hand-in

CAAT, together with the Fellowship of Reconciliation, have collected thousands of Shut DESO petition signatures. They will be handing these petitions to the Treasury on Wednesday 7th March, the day on which DESO holds its annual conference.

7th March - 11 AM outside Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre.

ATK — Alliant Techsystems is a $3.1 billion advanced weapon and space systems company with approximately 14,000 employees and operations in 23 states. The company is the world's leading supplier of solid propulsion systems and the nation's largest manufacturer of ammunition.

Alliant Techsystems, Inc. supplies aerospace and defense products to the U.S. government, U.S.

Tuesday, 06 February 2007

Recent research conducted by Netwerk Vlaanderen has revealed that Belgian banks that offer sustainable investment products invest less of this money in arms producers than foreign banks operating on the Belgian market. The research also revealed significant differences between Belgian banks.

For more information:

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

On the 14th of December the Attorney General announced that the Serious Fraud Office was dropping its investigation into bribery allegations involving BAE Systems in Saudi Arabia. A wide range of individuals and bodies have since voiced serious concerns, including MPs, the OECD, Institutional Investors and 130 non-governmental organisations. Campaign Against Arms Trade and the Corner House in the UK have informed the government of their intention to judicially review the decision.

For more information:

On February 1st, a group of peace activists gathered in the undersized Hennepin County Courtroom in Edina, MN to once again face charges of "criminal trespass" for entering the property of Alliant Techsystems, a local war profiteer and notorious manufacturer and seller of indiscriminate and illegal weapons such as cluster bombs, depleted uranium munitions, land mines, as well as rocket motors for delivery of nuclear bombs via missiles.

With this issue we start a series of articles to help you in your campaigning against war profiteers. A first step in a campaign is to research the corporation you want to target, so we focus on researching war profiteers in this issue. We are not researchers ourselves, but we recommend various sources for campaigners. We especially encourage you to use the guides for corporate research. An important strategy for obtaining good information is to develop relationships between organisations that research corporations and peace movement organisations. So we can share and combine skills.

One of the main pillars that supports war and militarism is economics. It is in war times when war related corporations make their big killings.

In Africa this becomes very clear, where governments that are "promoting peace" for the region at the same time are facilitating the trade of small arms and the exploitation of natural resources

Warring groups compete for rich resources. This includes gold, diamonds, copper, uranium, and perhaps most significantly, coltan. The DRC has 65 percent of the world’s coltan deposits. This mineral is valuable for production of electronic devices from cell phones to video game consoles.

The way coltan reaches the market is very unsettling. The military, local militias and rebels are all involved in smuggling. Illicit profits fund these violent groups.

There are many corporations profiteering in DRC; the mining industry is one of the most involved in the destabilization of the country.Following there is a list of some of these corporations, and from all of them we will highlight one: The Forrest Group

The Forrest Group has the longest history of exploiting the Congo, gaining its first mining concessions before the Congo declared independence from the Belgians. The group, which includes the Ohio-based OM Group, has numerous concessions in Katanga (Shaba).