arms trade

Hiroshima Remembrance Day , August 6 2014, 11 am. The blockade at the Lutzerather Gate of the Büchel nuclear base was cleared at about 6.30 am this morning to allow vehicles entry to the nuclear weapons base. Of the 12 activists blockading the gate, one could not be immediately removed because he had locked himself to the gate with a bike lock around his neck. The police had to lift him and open the gate with him still attached. After attempts to break the lock, the police were forced to cut the gate itself in order to remove the protester. He and two other activists without ID were arrested and taken to Cochen police station, one of them is under-age. All the other blockaders were let go after their personal details were recorded.

http://www.enaat.org/news/IsraelGaza.shtml

As the conflict in the Gaza Strip continues to escalate, and the body count continues to increase, the European Network Against Arms Trade (ENAAT) has called for an immediate end to all European military support for Israel and for the EU to declare a comprehensive arms embargo on all parties in conflict. Pending such an embargo, all EU states must immediately suspend all transfers of military equipment, assistance and ammunitions to the parties in conflict.

14 April, 2014, Athens: Global Day of Action on Military Spending action in Athens, Greece, organised by World without Wars and Violence with the support of the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection, to demand the decrease of military spending and the increase of social spending.

14th April marked the Global Day of Action on Military Spending.

Latin American antimilitarists shared this declaration: No queremos más armas para Latinoamérica!

Find below the report of an action against the Las Palmas Naval Base, and see here some photos of the evening action in Athens.

International activist enter water of the Spanish military to denounce military expenditure and infrastructure, pointing out that “War starts from here: let's stop it from here!”

Today, on 14 April, the Global Day of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS), 40 antimilitarist activists from groups coming from Britain, Germany, the United States, and from several Spanish cities and the islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria, took part in a nonviolent direct action at the Navy Base (Arsenal Militar) of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. They visualised the global threat posed by military spending with a huge banner marked with yellow marks along which to “cut” definitively military spending and military infrastructures, penetrating military water by 200m. The activists approached a quay where the war ships Tornado and Meteoro of the Spanish navy where moored, in front of which they let two helium balloons of a diameter of 2m rise marked with antimilitarist symbols.

Declaración de la Red Latinoamericana Antimilitarista por el día mundial de acción contra el gasto militar

La Red Latinoamericana Antimilitarista, red definida como una coordinación que promueve a través de diversas acciones el antimilitarismo en la sociedad, cuestionando la estructura militar y las prácticas de dominación en la región; hace un llamamiento a celebrar el día mundial contra el gasto militar diciendo: No queremos más armas para Latinoamérica.

The International Peace Bureau is happy to announce that the 4th edition of the Global Day of Action on Military Spending will be held on Monday, 14 April 2014. The GDAMS initiative was co-founded in 2011 by the International Peace Bureau and the Institute for Policy Studies. 

This year’s day of action coincides, once again, with the release by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) of their annual statistics on global military spending.  In the USA, Tax Day actions will be held on 15 April and some groups will combine the GDAMS actions with those. Peace Action through Judith Le Blanc, is the U.S./North America  Coordinator.  In other places, activists may prefer to do an action on the weekend, i.e 12-13 April. This could be followed by an extra activity on the Monday, and/ or the release of an action-report to the media on that day, together with the latest SIPRI figures.   So there are a number of options available in terms of timing. Whatever works for you!

Terry Crawford-Browne

Introduction:

One is familiar with the “criminal underworld” of thieves, gangs, drug lords, the Italian Mafia, and other manifestations of organised crime.

More serious is the “criminal overworld” of corrupt politicians, corrupt bankers, corrupt lawyers -- in other words the world’s elites. Historically, this is not a new phenomenon. In recent years however, it has become more pervasive and blatant in which privileged members of society fleece the public, evade taxation and lobby vigorously for even greater benefits.

Emily Masters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a four-month campaign, the international Stop the Shipment campaign succeeded in stopping a shipment of over a million canisters of tear gas to Bahrain on 8 January.

The government of Bahrain has been using tear gas to repress pro-democracy demonstrations since the Arab Spring spread to the Gulf state in February 2011.

Andrew Dey

In early January, #StopTheShipment – a campaign launched by human rights organisation Bahrain Watch, and supported by many other human rights and anti-arms trade groups to stop the shipment of tear gas used lethally against opposition protesters - announced that the South Korean 'Defence Acquisition Program Administration' had denied two requests to export tear gas to Bahrain due to the “unstable politics in the

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The Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition 2013 (Seoul ADEX 2013) started on 28th October, 22 civil society organizations in South Korea engaged in a series of actions targeting the largest arms fair in the Asia-Pacific region.