Arms trade

24 January 2012Letter

Thank you for the article on the fate of those who refused to fill in the 2011 census forms. (PN 2540-41).

The statements they will make in their own defence will be very interesting and helpful. I hope you can print some of them in an issue of Peace News.

24 January 2012Comment

Jeff Cloves ponders the arms trade, the census, and the perils of not being on the electoral register

Small events in small towns happen everywhere in UK plc but they’re worth recounting nonetheless. At times it’s easy to believe that nobody cares about anything and nothing can be done anyway. Usually the arrival of PN is a corrective to such negative thinking on my part but occasionally there also occur what Tory prime minister Harold (Supermac) Macmillan once described as “events, dear boy, events”, and the world takes on a slightly rosier hue.

Events here in the People’s Republic…

24 January 2012Review

Hamish Hamilton, 2011; 672pp; £25

Andrew Feinstein’s The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade has been a long time coming. Anyone with more than a casual acquaintance with the arms industry will be well aware of its arsenal of libel lawyers, and the alacrity with which they descend upon all but the most cast iron of assertions against it. In this day and age it takes a brave publisher to put out such a book as Feinstein’s latest tome, and it is little surprise…

1 December 2011News

Refusers face trial for arms protests

A number of activists refused to fill in the 2011 national census because of their objection to the involvement of military firm Lockheed Martin in processing the data.

Census resister Judith Sambrook, 47, pleaded not guilty at Wrexham magistrates court on 11 November; her case was adjourned to Mold magistrates court on 8 December.

On 8 December, Sarah Ledsom, 56, is due to appear at Liverpool magistrates court for failing to complete the 2011 census form.
Former Oxford…

26 November 2011Blog

The freebies given away at DSEi arms fair in London are so extraordinary they need to be seen to be believed. Jill Gibbon has drawn and photographed a selection.

Air Boss Defense condoms given free to arms dealers

Jenrick grenade

BAE Systems jelly beans given free to arms dealers

Rubber toy tank for the boys from Bose

BAE Sytems boiled sweet given out to arms dealers

1 November 2011Cartoon

26 October 2011Blog

<p>Jill Gibbon reports from Britain's biggest arms fair.</p>


Appropriate clothing for selling weapons

A sign at the entrance to the Defense and Security Equipment International arms fair warns that visitors must wear business dress. The pinstriped suits, school ties and polished shoes shroud the event in sham respectability. However, the dress code does not extend to sales staff. Here, the main aim is to entice.


Women's clothing…

1 October 2011News

Dan Viesnik reports on the protests surrounding Europe's biggest arms fair.

The world’s largest arms bazaar returned to east London’s ExCeL exhibition centre from 13-16 September. The euphemistically-titled “Defence and Security Equipment International” (DSEi) exhibition opened its doors to dictators and merchants of death from around the world in the ultimate corporate celebration of killing.

Official invitations were, as usual, extended to such democratic and human-rights respecting nations as Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab…

22 September 2011Blog

This is the first of a series of drawings from DSEi 2011.

As the world’s largest arms fair, DSEi is part of a wider shift in the commercialisation of war. Although arms companies have always profited from conflict, military production was previously linked to the perceived needs of the state.

In the 1990s this changed. Arms companies responded to the reduction of military budgets at the end of the Cold War by expanding beyond state boundaries, merging into multinationals and…

1 September 2011News

Ian Pocock looks at the actions planned for this years DSEi arms fair.

Over 1,200 arms companies will attend the world’s largest arms fair this September to hawk their deadly wares to 25,000 buyers from around the world. The Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEi) exhibition is taking place from 13-16 September at the ExCeL centre in east London.

DSEi is organised by Clarion Events (who also run family-friendly events such as the Baby Show) and by the government’s UK Trade and Investment Defence & Security Organisation (UKTI DSO).

1 September 2011Letter

By the way, have you had much feedback from the census form campaign to make it difficult for Lockheed Martin [arms manufacturer and census processor]? We received a visit from a census “chaser-upper” who said our form hadn’t been received. We wondered if this was a genuine “lost in the post” or our form had been discarded due to prominent “No Trident” etc messages on all that lovely blank white space on the back of the envelope! We love you, PN, but hope you won’t have to be around for…

1 September 2011Letter

In a recent issue of Peace News I read about some protesters refusing to make out the census as it was run by Lockheed Martin, the same company that does the census in Canada. I am trying to resist this here and wonder what happened to the protesters in the UK. I very much appreciate your paper and have so much admiration for the continual actions of so many dedicated people. We need to do more of that sort of thing in Canada.
 

13 August 2011Feature

Where will the future arms trade profits be found? And who will be making a killing (again)? Bruce Gagnon looks at the development of space-based weapons.

Military victory in the Iraq war has emboldened the Pentagon in their claims that space technology gives the US total advantage in time of war. According to Peter Teets, under secretary of the Air Force and director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), American capability in space, “must remain ahead of our adversaries' capabilities, and our doctrine and capabilities must keep pace to meet that challenge”.

“I think the recent military conflict has shown us, without a doubt,…

13 August 2011Feature

Pressure continues to mount on Brighton weapons-component manufacturers EDO MBM, as Brighton anti-war campaigners identified EDO as a key link in Israel's military machine. Andrew Beckett reports.

The recent Israeli onslaught on Gaza and Lebanon has been conducted with the help of weaponry made in Brighton. In the last months, Israel has engaged in an illegal assault on the civilian population of Gaza, and has invaded Lebanon killing hundreds of Lebanese civilians. These are war crimes under international and English Law. Israel could not carry out these acts without the support of foreign corporations. We aim to “bring the war back to the factory floor”.

Smash EDO regularly…

13 August 2011Feature

The scenario is depressingly familiar, the outcome tragically the same. The feared Indonesian armed forces, TNI, are engaged in a massive military offensive in a territory strongly opposed to rule from Jakarta. Aceh, a province of 4 million people on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra, is being subjected to the TNI's largest operation since the invasion of East Timor in 1975.

There are many parallels with East Timor, not least the key support being provided by Britain.…