War Profiteers News

We cover a number of civil disobedience actions against war profiteers in this issue. There are many tactics to use against these corporations – lobbing, demonstrations, shareholders resolutions, divestment, boycotts, direct actions – we need a combinations to effect change. What this civil disobedience does is to create a conflict that makes what the corporations doing more visible.

On 11 June 2008, by a unanimous verdict of the jury, the Raytheon 9 were found not guilty of three counts of criminal damage at the Raytheon offices, Derry Northern Ireland on 9 August 2006.

Immediately afterwards, the defendants addressed supporters and press outside Belfast’s Laganside Court. Colm Bryce began:

On the 27th of July and an hour after a Wynnum magistrate found the activist not guilty of "disobeying a police direction", police rang the home of one of the activist to let her know that Raytheon did not wish to proceed with wilful damages charges resulting form another (their third) exorcism at their Brisbane offices.

Police arrested eight adults and one juvenile on the 2 of July after they chained themselves together and blocked an entrance at Alliant Techsystems in Anoka, the action was done by a new group in the US against war profiteering called "Project to Stop the War Industry".

Twin Cities-based Alliant Techsystems, also known as ATK, is an aerospace and defence company with 50 facilities across the country, according to its Web site. The Anoka facility is at 900 Ehlen Drive.

The United States this year will have spent $100 billion on contractors in Iraq since the invasion in 2003, a milestone that reflects the Bush administration’s unprecedented level of dependence on private firms for help in the war, according to a government report to be released Tuesday.

The report, by the Congressional Budget Office, according to people with knowledge of its contents, will say that one out of every five dollars spent on the war in Iraq has gone to contractors for the United States military and other government agencies, in a war zone where employees of priv

Palestine solidarity groups from many countries are increasingly putting pressure on financial groups to disinvest from Veolia Environment, company involved in the construction of the illegal tramway in occupied East Jerusalem.

BAE Systems, the British arms manufacturer under investigation in several countries for alleged bribery, paid at least £20m to a company linked to a Zimbabwean arms trader allied to President Robert Mugabe, documents seen by the Financial Times show.

John Bredenkamp, who has indefinite leave to remain in Britain, has had a controversial career ranging from supplying military equipment to the Zimbabwean military to mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

An US government audit has found the private military company Blackwater has obtained dozens of contracts meant for small businesses. The Inspector General of the Small Business Administration says Blackwater was awarded $110 million in small business contracts despite uncertainty over whether it qualifies as a “small business.” >From 2005 to 2007, Blackwater was awarded thirty contracts intended for companies with revenues under $6.5 million. Blackwater’s revenues exceeded $200 million for each of those years.

Exxon Mobil has broken its own profit record by making $11.7 billion during the second quarter—the most profitable quarter for any business in history. This means Exxon Mobil made about $90,000 per minute. Despite the record, Exxon Mobil’s profit fell short of Wall Street estimates, and the company’s stock fell about two percent. Meanwhile, analysts say Exxon Mobil spent just one percent of its $41 billion in profits last year on alternative energy sources.

Finmeccanica is determined to become one of the world’s leading aerospace and weapons producers. The company, publicly traded but controlled by the Italian government, has spent the past decade forming a complicated web of alliances with Europe’s other players in this field, and now it has its sights set on the huge U.S. military market. It already got a foothold when one of its helicopters was chosen to become the new Marine One used by the U.S. President.

In Colombia we do not know exactly the payment of which tax directly contributes to the war. All national taxes come together in a common fund and then the government redistributes it, sending more than 50% of the national budget to debt issues: Internal and external and militarisation.

August 1-31: Nuclear-Free Future Month

Take action and raise awareness about the ever-increasing threat from nuclear weapons and the environmental and proliferation dangers posed by the global nuclear power "renaissance."

For more information:

http://www.nuclearfreefuture.org/

European Peace Action at the European Social Forum

Malmo: 17 - 21 of September

For more information:

http://europeanpeaceaction.org/

International Day of A