The G8 coincided with Spain's most famous fiestas at San Fermin in which youths dressed in white with red neckerchiefs run with bulls in the streets of Pamplona. Antimilitarists from KEMMOC (Movement of Conscientious Objectors) linked the two by launching a campaign against arms manufacture at a Sener factory on the outskirts of Bilbao.
Sener, who make missiles, guidance systems and turbojets, is one of 14 arms manufacturers supported by Basque government investment. Referring to…
On Saturday 13 August, shoppers in Brighton town centre witnessed the extent to which our right to protest is being curtailed, when a peaceful demonstration against arms manufacturer EDO was abruptly halted by police using heavy-handed tactics.
Around 50 peace campaigners - including the elderly and mothers with children - met at 12 noon in Churchill Square where they were greeted by police officers carrying surveillance equipment. Whilst some protesters had travelled from London,…
On 11 June, a demonstration against arms manufacturers EDO/MBM Technology was held by campaigners in Brighton. Smash EDO claim the company manufactures components for weapons used in the Iraq war.
In 2004 Raytheon s
The Mole has another tale to tell of the exploits of indefatigable peace campaigner Gwyn Gwyntopher.
If you've forgotten the last time Gwyn's name featured in this column, just think back: army tanks at Heathrow Airport in an officially convenient “security scare”; buckets of wallpaper paste hastily transported on the Piccadilly Line tube. Remember now?
The latest tale relates to a group called East London Against the Arms Fair, of which Gwyn is a key member. The…
Campaigners scored a partial victory in the courts at the end of April when an attempt by EDO/MBM Technologies - Brighton's resident arms manufacturer - to create an exclusion zone around its factory, was temporarily thwarted (see PN2461 cover story).
Recent weeks have been a peak period for big corporations' AGMs, many of which have been targeted by demonstrators and by (very) smallscale shareholders claiming their legal right to attend - and to embarrass the directors by raising issues they would rather weren't talked about.
BAE SystemsAnna Jones reports: More usually known by their former name, British Aerospace, BAES attracted activists from the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and elsewhere to their AGM - at…
Five students and one graduate are facing “aggravated trespass” charges after taking part in a demonstration outside the Lancaster University's “George Fox” building in September 2004 during a convention attended by BAE Systems and other defence technology groups. Although the police did not intervene at the time, six months later they decided to bring charges against the group, possibly at the request of the university. The six are due for trial in September.
As Peace News went to press, a High Court hearing into the injunctions demanded by Brighton arms manufacturers to restrict anti-war protests was still continuing. Richard Purssell reports... The injunction is being sought by EDO/MBM Technologies Ltd, subsidiary of the giant US arms manufacturer EDO Corp, under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.
It seeks to create an exclusion zone, which would restrict all protest activities around the claimant's factory to two-and-a-half hours…
On Monday 21 March, the second anniversary of the war on Iraq, activists all over the world took part in a day of direct action against the arms trade.
Companies that profit from war, death and destruction through the unscrupulous trading of weapons were targeted.
Reed International are the organisers of the world's largest arms fair, Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEI). The activist collective Onkruit glued locks and threw paint at Reed's head office in the…
Here we give you a roundup of some of the good stuff that’s going on ... yes – it really does exist! Two recent US opinion polls have shown that most Americans think the Iraq war was a mistake. A USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll showed that 52% of Americans believed it was a mistake sending troops to Iraq and a Washington Post/ABC News poll showed that 55% felt the Iraq war was not worth fighting. Meanwhile, a poll commissioned by the Campaign Against Arms Trade has blown away government myths…
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…
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…
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…
