arms trade

It's a Saturday afternoon, and inflatable kayaks are out on the River Thames. But these aren't just any boats- they're paddled by activists who are blocking the path of the HMS Dauntless, a huge warship on its way to dock outside the worlds largest arms fair. As the police chase down the boats, the battleship pulls into the Royal Victoria Dock in East London. This was one of many actions against the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEi) arms fair, and opened a week of creative action.

Each fall the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space organizes a week of local actions called Keep Space for Peace Week. This year events were held from October 1-8 and the theme chosen by our leadership was the expanding use of drones in U.S. wars in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa.

Protest actions took place throughout the U.S. and in six other nations at major space weapons installations and factories like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and General Dynamics.

Emerging trends

There was general agreement about the trends.

Governments face pressure on all budgets There are a lot of job losses, including in the arms industry, and workers fear for their jobs However in many countries there is a shortage of engineers There are now fewer arms companies than in the past because of industry consolidation Increasingly, arms are produced through joint ventures between companies in several different countries

International Seminar

Justícia i Pau (Centre Delàs), Fundació per la Pau, War Resisters' International and the European Network Against Arms Trade invite you to the seminar: “War Profiteering and Peace Movement Responses” to be held in Barcelona between 29 September and 2 October, 2011.

There are several new profitable developments in the defence business. This theme group will be addressing three of them: The privatisation of war, armed and unarmed drones and the growing market for “homeland security”.

Privatisation

Increasingly, governments are outsourcing military tasks that used to be done by the state. In Afghanistan coalition troops have deployed the largest mercenary army in the history of mankind. Even intelligence is privatised. Not only are western companies hired, but also locals. And not only local cooks but also armed personnel.

Press statement issued by the Ceasefire Campaign

Many governments say they have tough export controls, but, in reality, government support for export promotion and military companies is always the priority. For example, UK Prime Minister David Cameron led a delegation of eight arms companies to Egypt in February 2011 at about the same time as an arms embargo was being imposed on neighbouring Libya, itself a UK government "priority market" for arms sales until just a few weeks previously. Many governments have arms export promotion agencies to oversee such Government support. The UK's was set up in 1966. but others are much newer.

DSEi, the world's biggest arms fair, opens in east London on September 13, 2011. But arms fairs don't organise themselves - a lot of work goes into inviting the right mix of despots and dealers. So who makes DSEi happen?

On July 9, 2011 the BNC (BDS National Committee), the largest Palestinian civil society coalition, launched a call for a mandatory, comprehensive military embargo on Israel.

The BNC calls upon all people of conscience, movements and organisations worldwide to support the embargo and to pressure governments, multilateral bodies and the UN, as well as private and public companies and institutions, to:

Agneta Norberg

A military exercise area for war in northern Sweden, a commercially independent but politically very hot area where the US and NATO countries are testing their weapon systems on previously neutral, but now only “alliance-used” land. The exercises also disturb the residents in neighbouring areas, and occur without regard to the UN Indigenous Rights Declaration.

A call for urgent international action

Occupied Palestine, 9 July 2011 – While the Arab Spring for freedom, democracy and social justice has exposed and challenged the collusion of world governments with autocratic and oppressive Arab regimes, many states and corporations continue their business-as-usual arms trade and military cooperation with Israel. Cooperation with Israel is maintained despite its systematic resort to massive violence against and killing of Palestinian and other Arab civilians, including school children and peaceful activists, and in spite of its increasingly brutal colonial policies against the Palestinian people and the persistent flouting of international law. Seven years after the International Court of Justice advisory opinion recommending international cooperation to ensure that Israel dismantles its illegal Wall in the occupied West Bank, and on the sixth anniversary of Palestinian civil society’s call for a broad campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law, the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) calls for immediate international action towards a mandatory comprehensive military embargo against Israel similar to that imposed against apartheid South Africa in the past.

I have to admit feeling some envy as we at WRI followed, supported and joined the events around the Global Day of Action on Military Spending, which took place on 12 April, organised by the International Peace Bureau (IPB) and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). The envy is because for several years WRI has been pushing for more cooperation between groups campaigning against war profiteering worldwide.