The involvement of US arms giant Lockheed Martin (LM) in this year’s census – due to take place on 27 March – has spurred calls for both a boycott and creative obstruction. One of the world’s largest arms companies, LM makes cluster bombs and Trident nuclear missiles, and is involved in surveillance for both the CIA and the Pentagon.
That its UK subsidiary has been awarded a £150m contract to process the census questionnaires for England and Wales has therefore angered many peace…
In early March, it became apparent that BAE Systems, Britain's biggest military manufacturer, was about to be punished by the US state department after the arms company's admission last year that it conspired to defraud the US and made false statements about its anti-bribery compliance programme. The guilty pleas, made to a US court, came as part of legal settlement with the US justice department on corruption-related allegations.
The admissions resolved conflicts with the justice…
US Arms Manufacturer Lockheed Martin has the contracy for the 2011 UK Census in March this year.
The US arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin makes Trident nuclear missiles, cluster bombs and fighter jets and is involved in data processing for the CIA and FBI. It has provided private contract interrogators for the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. Lockheed Martin has the UK Government contract to process the data for the 2011 census in March. (Observer, 20 February 2011)
…(Updated as at 18-03-2011)
US Arms Manufacturer Lockheed Martin has the contract for the 2011 UK Census in March this year.
The arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin US makes Trident nuclear missiles, cluster bombs and fighter jets and is involved in data processing for the CIA and FBI. It has provided private contract interrogators for the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. Lockheed Martin has the UK Government contract to collect the process the data for the 2011…
As we go to press, the British government’s systematic, sustained and deep-rooted support for repressive Arab regimes is being exposed by the wave of grassroots pro-democracy movements in the Middle East, and by anti-arms trade campaigners at home. Late on 18 February, the British government was forced to cancel more than 40 arms export licences to Bahrain, after the Gulf state’s security forces fired on peaceful pro-democracy activists, killing four people, and the Campaign Against Arms…
As the latest wikileaks show, the royal family is deeply involved in the military-industrial complex. While Prince Andrew acts as a blunderbuss, mouthing patriotism and interfering in anticorruption investigations against BAE Systems, the queen plays a more subtle and perhaps insidious role. On 18th November she ‘launched’ construction work on the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre outside Sheffield. Described as a “factory of the future” it will house research projects…
This month’s drawings come from a graduate recruitment fair, held at the NEC, Birmingham at the end of October. The impact of the recession was clear – the show barely filled one of the twenty exhibition halls, and it was dominated by defence. Exhibitors included BAE Systems, EADs, Rolls Royce, Selex, the army, air force, GCHQ and M15. In spite of this, defence was curiously absent from the list of careers in the show guide.
BAE Systems appeared, instead, under almost every other…
Edinburgh students shut down their university’s career fair for 30 minutes on 6 October during protests against the presence of leading arms dealer BAE Systems.
Student pressure led the university to divest from BAE Systems in 2005, but the company – which is known to have supplied parts for the F-16 aircraft used by Israel to bomb both Lebanon and Palestine – continues to be invited to the fair.
A Ban BAE Campaign Pack – including an “Action Guide to Disrupting arms company…
A mass siege of the EDO arms factory in Brighton took place on 13 October.
The Hammertime demonstration effectively closed the factory for the day. However, with massive resources and the invoking of public order powers, the police kept control of the streets.
At the start, over 100 police surrounded the convergence centre, and demanded everyone go to a “designated protest area”. Protesters insisted on going to the announced start point, which the police had to…
On 30 June and 2 July, the seven remaining defendants in the EDO Decommissioners’ case were found not guilty of conspiracy to cause criminal damage despite their admission that they had damaged £180,000 worth of property on 16 January 2009 in a plant producing weapons for Israel. On 30 June, a unanimous jury acquitted five of the activists, and on 2 July the judge cleared the remaining two defendants of wrongdoing. The court found that the activists broke in with “lawful excuse,” as the…
In a stunning vindication of their disarmament action, seven defendants in the EDO Decommissioners case were found “not guilty” at Hove crown court, despite admitting causing £180,000 damage to the EDO/MBM arms factory in Brighton. (See PN 2506.)
Five of the activists – Simon Levin, Bob Nicholls, Ornella Saibene, Harvey Tadman and Tom Woodhead – were cleared by unanimous verdicts of the jury on 30 June, and the last two defendants – Chris Osmond and Elijah Smith – were cleared by…
British prime minister David Cameron’s heavy-weight ministerial and trade mission to India at the end of June was accompanied by the announcement of a £500m BAE Hawk jet contract with India. The 57 jets would be manufactured under licence in India with BAE’s Indian partner, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), with technical and other support from BAE in the UK.
Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) spokesperson Kaye Stearman responded: “This announcement comes just a week after it was…
The EDO Decommissioners (see PN 2506) spent the first week of their trial grilling the head of EDO/MBM, Paul Hills, on the firm’s supply of vital components to Israeli F-16 fighter jets (which Hills denied).
After nine days, on 16 June, Brighton peace activist Rosa Bellamy was cleared of conspiracy to participate in the property destruction inside the EDO/MBM arms factory in January 2009. The action took place as Israeli F-16s were bombing Gaza, killing hundreds of civilians.…
At the end of May, seven anti-arms trade protestors were found “not guilty” by district judge Quentin Purdy at Westminster magistrates court.
The seven were arrested in September 2009, as they demonstrated outside the Park Lane Hilton while a dinner was being held inside for delegates attending the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEi) arms fair at the ExCeL centre in east London.
The protestors refused to obey the direction of the senior police officer to confine…
BAE Systems, the world’s largest arms manufacturer, is to develop lead-free bullets for the British army. This more environmentally-friendly bullet (lead poisoning is apparently a danger at firing ranges, don’t laugh) is a response to the army’s call for greater stopping power in Afghanistan. A longer bullet will cause more impact against unarmoured targets such as lean Taliban footsoldiers, and have a longer range.
