Arms trade

Who are the biggest and most willing purchasers of arms? Tyrants. Why? They need to oppress their own people and to conquer others, to do this one needs the appropriate tools. Who are the biggest sellers and producers of arms? Democracies. Why? They have the market capacity to produce them. Strange bedfellows, but supply and demand brings them together. A cynic would contend that wars and violence are manufactured to make profits, because wars are boom times for almost all involved, except…

It's not often you read a book which does just what it says on the cover, but in this excellent little book - based on his years of research and activism in the UK based Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) - Gideon Burrows has succeeded in providing a very useful guide to “the arms trade for beginners”.

Masses of statistical information is threaded through chapters on the countries and corporations which control the arms trade; the impact of arms sales on conflicts, human rights and…

The legacy of world domination by Western powers continues with further advances in military technologies. Far from resting on their deadly laurels, Western governments are still at the forefront of progress in the sector - and non-lethal weapons seem to be the next generation receiving research and development (R&D) funds. From sticky foam to malodorants and high-powered microwave weapons, increasingly sophisticated weapons will bring into line those who intend to challenge Western…

In January 2003, as plans for war in Iraq mounted, US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld ruled out re-initiating the military draft, saying, “there is no need for it at all. It seems to me that the way we're currently organised and operating is vastly preferable. We have people serving today - God bless them - because they volunteered.”

In some sense he is right, the compulsory draft was eliminated in the United States in 1973. However, Rumsfeld's comment misses two important points…

Although Brazil is not officially at war, the country has the one of the highest homicide rates in the world, with more than 35,000 firearm deaths every year. Brazilians are about four times more likely to die by firearms than the general world population.

Armed violence in urban Brazil is an epidemic, and we can think of guns as a vehicle of transmission that multiplies and aggravates violence; we can even identify the main risk group: young males from poor neighbourhoods (favelas…

The Defence Systems Equipment International (DSEi) is the highly-visible tip of a very large murky iceberg of UK government financial support for arms exports. Two years ago, in July 2001, the Oxford Research Group teamed up with Saferworld to publish The Subsidy Trap, which outlined how £420m of taxpayers' money was being used directly and indirectly annually to support the export of arms from Britain. That amounted to £4,600 for every job supported in defence…

One of the world's most famous arms dealers, Sam Cummings, said of the arms trade almost forty years ago: “It is almost a perpetual motion machine. We all agree that the arms race is a disaster, and we all agree that it could lead to an ultimate conflict, which would more or less destroy the civilised world as we know it. The old problem is, who is going to take the first move to really pull back?”

Since those days the Cold War order, and the omnipotent bipolar hostility that ruled…

Cheap, portable and readily available: every year more than half a million people are killed through the misuse of small arms such as handguns, assault rifles and grenades. Millions more are crippled. With poverty providing an ideal breeding ground for small arms proliferation, African countries are currently the worst hit by a global epidemic of armed violence which threatens the safety and well-being of people in developed and developing countries alike.

The human costs of small…

Since 9/11 the word “terror” has become known the world over-- its impact has become more vivid, glaring on us.

The television pictures of the air strikes on the “mighty” World Trade Centre, or some of the recent powerful explosions in many pockets of the world, turning human beings to disjointed bodies in a fraction of a second, are still very stunning to us. The sheer severity and suddenness of the incidents create a lasting impression in our minds. The magnitude and gravity of…

In 1991, during the first Gulf War, I joined an ad hoc demonstration to protest at president Bush's visit to the Andover, Massachusetts, Raytheon plant. Bush choppered in for a photo op of himself congratulating the workers for making the Patriot missile, while secular and religious activists did their best to rain on his bellicose parade.

This was my first demonstration at Raytheon, but hardly my first protest. I participated in long campaigns against the Trident submarine, made by…

On 5 June 2003 a small group ofactivists managed to successfully blockade BAe Systems(BAeS) offices in North Edinburgh for three hours. The company refused to press charges and the police were extremely pleasant, although they stopped short of passing out tea and biscuits. A local news reporter showed up and stated that his editor would only run the story if there were arrests. There emerged an ironic situation where a peaceful protest against a developer and promoter of violent products can…

The South African “arms deal” has been described as “the betrayal of the struggle against apartheid” and as “the litmus test of South Africa's commitment to democracy and good governance”. The scandal has become the millstone around President Thabo Mbeki's presidency.

An opinion survey conducted last year by South Africa's leading pollster found that 62% of ANC voters want the arms deal cancelled, 19% want it cut and only 12% support it. On no other issue, including Aids, was the…

South Asia remains one of the most volatile regions of the world. Continued arms sales and weapons transfers only exacerbate both ongoing and potential conflicts in the area.

However, significant declines in the overall volume and profits of the global defence industry have increased domestic pressure on national governments to expand their market-share and continue arms sales to regions in conflict. Since1985, the overall total of global purchases of major weapons systems has…

Just in case anyone needed a reminder as to the motivation for any of us involved in taking action against militarism and all its symptoms, the British government published its own report into arms exports from Britain during 2001.

At once the Peace News office started getting odd emails from around the world containing some of the details in the report. The contents are of great concern to activists in many parts of the world. And so they should be, because the report -…

There may be more than one way to stage a nonviolent protest. We had our chance on the Monday, getting to Eurosatory at the crack of dawn, ready to greet visitors to the Expo as they got off the métro. The other team, the CRS, the French “heavy squad”, got there first and watched our antics with grim amusement - they would get their chance the next day.

The Expo visitors ran the gauntlet of our heckling, tomato sauce-letting and dying in front of them, for the most part…