Editorial

Welcome to our 40th issue of War Profiteers' News:: 40 issues reporting on resistance to war and to profiteering from war. In these 40 issues we have highlighted the importance of people taking action against profiteering from war, and have reported on a wide range of activities people have taken to confront the merchants of death. We have also made it clear that we oppose all forms of war profiteering and that we are for the end of profiting from war - not just for its regulation.

40 issues means that we have profiled 40 campaigns and organisations striving against war profiteering. Some of them no longer exist, but some have grown bigger and stronger along the years. We have also featured 40 war profiteers of the month - I hope one day I will actually struggle to find a profiteer to profile!

One important development we have seen over the years is how organisations and campaigns are increasingly making the full connections of the economics of war and conflict, manifested by networking across sectors, which is crucial since change will not happen by campaigning on a single issue in isolation. The arms trade will not end purely by putting pressure on the arms producers - it also needs active resistance to the militarisation of conflict which provides a justification and market for it.

In this issue we report on the impact of the extractive industry in India and Latin America, which fuels local conflicts. In the words of the Uruguayan writer Raúl Zibechi "There is no extraction, no mining, no soya, no monoculture, without militarisation of society... This is not an error, militarisation is part of the model. There is no open cast mining, mega mining, without militarism. If one lives in the city, it's not apparent, but if you get a bit closer to it you will see an ever more militarised environment." Militarism is not just the physical presence of soldiers or the arms trade. As the Mexican Ana Cerceña said, 'Capitalism militarises in different ways, you must understand that militarisation is not just putting a soldier or military base in some place. Instead, it converts politics into politics with a military mindset, into politics with visions of the enemy.

Another important development we have seen through these 40 issues is how organisations and campaigns are making connections between communities resisting the use of weapons and militarisation of their society with campaigns against specific industries or weapon systems. What better example that the resistance to tear gas, which connects groups where tear gas is being produced, with where they are being used. In the last weeks we have seen actions in London at the South Korean embassy demanding that South Korean companies stop selling tear gas to Bahrain, where they are being used against unarmed protesters. The action is co-organised by anti arms campaigners and Bahrainians in London, and at the same time followed up by antimilitarist activits in South Korea. The report in this issue on the protests in the US against the Facing Urban Shield event goes in the same vain: resisting the militarisation of policing in the US and around the world.

Finally a few words on arms fairs. In the last couple of months we have seen actions against several arms fairs. In this issue we highlight the series of action to stop the DSEi arms fair in London. The richness, diversity of actions taken against DSEi were truly inspiring - so inspiring that it made our friends in South Korea use some of the same action concepts against the ADEX fair in Seoul. This again shows how international solidarity works, and confirms how we can be more effective if we work together. In a small way the 40 issues of War Profiteers' News is doing that: connecting people resisting war and profiteering from war.

Javier Gárate