War Profiteers

In recent years, Turkey has repeatedly abused the rights of protesters with the weaponised use of tear gas at demonstrations. But despite human rights concerns, South Korea has authorised a huge shipment of tear gas to Turkey. On 10 February, Ban Tear Gas Initiative (Turkey), Campaign Against Arms Trade (UK), War Resisters' International and World Without War (South Korea) carried out actions in Seoul, Istanbul and London to stop the shipment!

War Profiteers' News, No 45, February 2015

By Chris Cole

On January 5 I was part of a small group of four people that entered RAF Waddington, the home of UK drone warfare, to protest the growing use of armed drones. British RAF pilots began operating armed US Predator drones in Iraq just over ten years ago before the UK acquired its own Reaper drones in 2007 for use in Afghanistan. Since then UK pilots have launched hundreds of drone strikes in Afghanistan before returning to Iraq, in November 2014, to begin launching strikes there once again. Along with the US and Israel, the UK is a key proponent of the idea of remote ‘risk free’ warfare.

 By Rafael Uzcátegui

In Venezuela, the left and the right agree on one thing – it is a country which is very rich in oil and mining reserves which must be sold as quickly as possible, ignoring the social and environmental consequences of further using the development model based on extractivism.

By Colin Archer

European arms are present in wars and human rights abuses worldwide. Whilst Europe pleads for peace and civilisation, European arms are changing hands in the Middle East.
This is not surprising. Our arms export rules aren't watertight at all.
I stop the arms trade .eu gets the arms dealers out of anonymity and intervenes in the places where we can stop the arms trade.

Rafael Uzcátegui

En un reciente viaje a la zona, y tras reuniones con organizaciones
sociales locales, pudimos corroborar las denuncias sobre
criminalización y militarización en el territorio wayúu.

War Profiteers' News, November 2014: Special Gender Issue, No. 43

by Julie L. Arostegui, J.D.

There is no doubt that the group commonly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) must be stopped. The brutal tactics of this violent, extremist, archaic group that aims to establish a seventh century style Islamist caliphate have been made clear to the world: beheadings of civilians, mass executions, killings, and abductions of non-Muslims and ethnic and religious minorities. Especially disturbing is the horrifying sexual violence that is being committed against women and children as a tactic of war. United Nations officials have condemned the “barbaric acts” of sexual violence and “savage rapes” that ISIS has perpetrated on minorities in areas under its control.

Planned for the week of the Small Actions, Big Movements WRI conference, this installation in the middle of Cape Town's grand parade was delayed due to the inclement weather. Three months on, we're delighted to see it finally take shape! The broken AK-47 is covered in money, to highlight the corruption amongst those who profit from war.

Description from the artists: "Resistance" is a giant wheat paste public art installation; a world record spanning more than 100 meters. The image is of a broken AK -47. Resistance was born from a conversation between Ralph Ziman and (anti-arms activist) and Terry Crawford-Browne (one of the organisers of the Small Actions, Big Movements WRI conference).

Resistance was inspired by War Resisters' International - an anti-war organization founded in the wake of the First World War. War Resisters has existed for almost a century and has branches all around the world. The logo has always been a rifle, broken in half by a pair of hands.

Photos and footage thanks to the Resistance project and MUTI films.

4 September 2014

We, the undersigned, call on members of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development
(IGAD) to immediately impose a comprehensive arms embargo on South Sudan. We also call on
IGAD to issue a communiqué requesting the United Nations (UN) Security Council to adopt a
resolution imposing a comprehensive international arms embargo.

Press Statement by the spokesperson of the campaign Action outcry - Stop the arms trade!

The campaign "Action outcry - Stop the arms trade" criticized the decision made by the Federal Government, to upgrade the weapons of Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq with German war weapons. The campaign spokesmen Jürgen Grässlin and Paul Russmann spoke emphatically of "the disastrous consequences of the pending arms transfers".

"German arms supplies to the Kurdish peshmerga are false and fatal in their effect. Whoever supplies weapons to a war party, is adding fuel to the fire of war" said Jürgen Grässlin, national spokesman of the German Peace Society - United War Resisters (DFG-VK) and for the campaign 'Action outcry - Stop the arms trade"!

By Angela Cuenca Sempértegui

The Bolivian economy is traditionally based on the extraction and export of large volumes of unprocessed natural resources, and this type of economy is called 'extractivist'. Mining and hydrocarbons are the most representative economic activities of this type, but what is often forgotten is that it is a case of extraction and exportation of non-renewable resources, resources that we are losing and thi is far worse if the exportation of raw materials (minerals) is controlled by others.

98% of extractive mining industry is run by the private sector (cooperatives and transnational companies). Just 2% is run by the state, meaning that the state has not regained sovereignty over mineral resources. Bolivia is facing serious environmental problems and violation of collective rights that have impacted water supplies, polluted the soils, and effected the health and quality of life of the people that live in territories with mining activities. Mining code Nº 1777, which favours the miners economic interests – and was approved by the ex-president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, himself a mining businessman (COMSUR) - is still valid.

By Sunniva Taylor

The London-based British Museum was (peacefully) invaded by uninvited guests four times in June: one Saturday afternoon people – many dressed as Vikings - erected a mobile long ship in the museum's Great Court in an act of vocal performance poetry initiated by the group BP or not BP; on separate lunchtimes visitors to the museum found a group of Quakers and friends holding a Meeting for Worship, surrounded by posters about BP; and on a weekend afternoon members of the Dharma Action Network for Climate Engagement (DANCE), a group of active Buddhist practitioners, held a walking mediation around the museum, reflecting on the link between big oil and climate change.