arms trade

This is the first WRI-Info in preparation for the upcoming International Seminar: War Profiteering and Peace Movement Responses, which will be held in Barcelona between 29 September and 2 October, 2011.

Barcelona, 29 September - 02 October, 2011

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.

War profiteering is one of the main pillars that support war. The military-industrial complex has a long record of pushing for the development of a war industry and of battlefields to test its products. War profiteering has many forms and a wide range of impacts. The most notorious forms of war profiteering are the arms industry and the arms trade, but there are also many other forms, such as companies involved in war “reconstruction”, companies to which military functions are outsourced, financial institutions backing warfare, companies profiting from the extraction of resources in conflict areas and many more.

Although Finland is not a very big arms producer, it still has its share of the market of death. During the past decade, arms exports from Finland have doubled, but still only reach about 1% of all the EU exports. Many of the new arms deals have been made with countries in the Middle East, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

17 - 19 June, 2011, Helsinki, Finland European Network Against Arms Trade (ENAAT) Annual Meeting

This year annual meeting will focus on the responses in different European countries to the use of European arms in repression of the Arab uprising. There will be updates on arms export figures, analysis of industrial trends (notably in response to the crisis and the European military budget cuts) and also a lot of inspiring stories.
For information on the Helsinki meeting please contact Jarmo Pykälä: jarmo.pykala@saferglobe.fi.

Jürgen Grässlin

With hardly any arms-producing company are claim and reality further apart than with EADS. While - in the directive "integrity and transparency" - the Board of Directors declared ethical responsibility to underlie their actions, even dictators and sham democrats are equipped. A serious example of a purely profit-oriented business policy include arms transfers to Libya where in the war between the dictatorial regime of Gaddafi and the Western-dominated "alliance of the willing" EADS weapons are used on both sides. War is good for business - at EADS.

Rafael Uzcátegui

Theme groups New developments in war profiteering: (Coordinator: Wendela de Vries, Campagne tege Wapenhandel, the Netherlands)
How do we respond to new developments such as Privatisation of war, (the growing use of commercial companies instead of national armed forces.) the use of Drones (you don’t go to war, you just take your joystick) and homeland security as a new profitable branch, used for crowd control, catching refugees and spying on opposition. How do we develop arguments, can we make new strategic connections with other campaigns?

Wendela de Vries

The European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO) and its Greek member organisation, the Greek Association of Conscientious Objectors (GACO), made an open call to other organisations and groups in Greece and a successful joint action was organised on April 12 in Athens, at the Parliament Square by EBCO, GACO, Antinationalistic-Antimilitaristic Initiative, World Without Wars and Violence, Antigoni, World Women March, Synaspismos Youth, Greens, Young Greens, Iliosporoi, Kokkino, Ksekinima and AKOA Youth.

Malaysian NGOs are concerned about the carte blanche given to the Ministry of Defence for arms purchases while health, education and other social services are still so deplorable. The total security allocation under the Tenth Malaysia Plan is RM23 billion. Through the years, the allocation for security (internal security + defence) has been as high as 15.9% and 15.0% under the 3rd and 6th Malaysia Plans while the allocation for health has been as low as 1.6% and 1.0% under the 4th and 5th Malaysia Plans respectively.

Colin Archer & John Feffer

On April 12, 2011, the Institute for Policy Studies and the International Peace Bureau co-organized the first-ever Global Day of Action on Military Spending. We accomplished our major goal of making more visible the issue of military spending. Our GDAMS events generated considerable media coverage with stories in the Christian Science Monitor, Huffington Post, Russia Today Television, Telesur, Voice of America, and many national and local outlets. We also accomplished our secondary goal of creating a global network of organizations and individuals committed to working on the reduction of military spending worldwide. Finally, we forged an important partnership with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute that we plan to continue in future years.
There were GDAMS events at the international, national, and local levels. Activists produced videos, constructed powerful public displays and performances, held press conferences and seminars, and mobilized public opinion in favor of reducing military spending.

On April 12, 2011, the International Peace Bureau (IPB) and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) co-organized the first-ever Global Day of Action on Military Spending. We judge the Day to have been a great success, both in terms of the number and geographical spread of the activities undertaken, and the rich variety and inventiveness of the actions. We felt we accomplished our major goal of making visible the issue of military spending.