Profiting from War Then and Now
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THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE FOR CAMPAIGN AGAINST ARMS TRADE CAAT NEWS JULY – SEPTEMBER 2014 • IssUE 233 The arms trade ARMING and World War 1 ALL SIDES Image © Peace Pledge Union Archives PROFITING FROM WAR THEN AND NOW BAE Systems Swiss ‘no’ to Arms trade PLUS AGM P12 arms deal P7 in schools P11 There’s plenty here to get stuck website, which goes live on July 10. into over the summer months, and If you’ve got a holiday planned to plan towards for the autumn. and are after some reading The First World War is likely to then you might like to consider be covered by a wide range of Nicholas Gilby’s book on arms C AAT media during this time and we hope trade corruption (see page 11). that you find CAAT’s perspective It may not be light reading but an interesting complement to it’s highly engaging and very mainstream coverage – see page 3. well-informed – and will certainly NEWS If you get a chance, have a look at have you primed to carry on JULY – SEPT 2014 information and resources on the campaigning come September! CONTENTS P14 3 First World War 4–5 Arms Trade Shorts P6 © O r h a m Arms trade in schools i 6 l t o n / f l i c k Swiss arms deal referendum 7 r 8–9 Disarm public institutions Parliamentary; Comic Relief 10 © Interview: Nicholas Gilby G 11 s o A 12–13 Updates 14 Fundraising; DSEi prosecution P7 15 Eurosatory; Action dates 16 Donate EDITOR Melanie Jarman The content and views Campaign Against Arms Trade DESIGN Chris Woodward expressed in articles, works to end the international advertisements and promotional arms trade. The arms business PROOFREADER John Moseley material included within CAAT has a devastating impact on LEGAL CONSULTANT Glen Reynolds NEWS by other organisations human rights and security and PRINTED BY Russell Press on 100% recycled are not necessarily endorsed or damages economic development. paper using only post-consumer waste. supported by CAAT. Any related Large scale military procurement enquiries or concerns should and arms exports only reinforce THANK YOU also to our dedicated team be addressed to the a militaristic approach to of CAAT NEWS stuffers. relevant organisation. international problems. Campaign Against Arms Trade, Unit 4, 5–7 Wells Terrace, London, N4 3JU Tel: 020 7281 0297 Email: [email protected] Web: www.caat.org.uk To receive this issue of CAAT NEWS in large print please call 020 7281 0297 2 SELLING TO ALL SIDES : THE ARMS TRADE THEN AND NOW CAAT is challenging the use of the First World War to promote militarism, focusing instead on inspiration to challenge the arms trade. For the next four years the a licence to German firm Krupp to Arms companies now First World War may be used to make Maxim guns, while in 1902 Arms companies exist to sell promote militarism. But to use Krupp licensed Vickers to make weapons, irrespective of the war to promote military their fuses. national boundaries, and selling spending and justify conflict to all sides in a conflict has not is a miserable legacy for those Remembering how people abated since the First World War. who died. CAAT is challenging opposed the arms trade The conflict in Libya in 2011 is this militarism, which helps to a case in point. Arms from one sustain the arms trade now, by after WW1 will inspire us company, MBDA, were used by exposing the profiteering of © to challenge it now. Gaddafi’s forces, the Libyan O r the arms trade during the First h a rebels and the UK and French m i World War, and the opposition to l t o Turkish contract military. n / it that followed. A new website f l Armstrong and Vickers (which To challenge the arms trade i c k armingallsides.org.uk will be r were incorporated into what is we need to counter the myth launched in July to expose the now BAE Systems) both built that arms companies act in the arms trade in that period, and a super dreadnought for the national interest. Exposing their draw parallels with current times. Ottoman Empire in 1911–1912. behaviour a century ago will help Parallels In 1913 the companies signed us to counter those trying to lucrative deals with the Turkish teach the wrong lessons from By the time of the First World government to maintain two naval the First World War: remembering War arms companies had already bases. No foreign worker, unless how people opposed the arms developed the characteristics they were British, was allowed trade then will inspire us to that they have been criticised to be employed there. British challenge it now. for ever since: corruption, creating war scares and selling to potential opponents or to both To challenge the arms trade we need to sides of a conflict. counter the myth that arms companies Meanwhile, there had been a high level of cooperation amongst act in the national interest. companies across national workmanship and technicians boundaries. In 1901 Vickers gave For more information and to help were thus unwittingly responsible challenge pro-military voices for the slaughter of British troops around the First World War: and their allies at the Dardanelles, • Visit armingallsides.org. Anzac Cove and Cape Helles. uk from 10 July for more Opposition information and resources. In the 1920s, public questioning Get in touch with CAAT to: of what the war had achieved • Book a speaker in your and opposition to the arms trade area on the arms trade and was growing. By the time a Peace the First World War. Ballot, organised by the League • Write to your local of Nations Union, took place in newspaper to highlight 1934, arms trade profiteering the profiteering of arms was considered to have been one companies during the war. of the causes of the war and 10 million out of the 11.25 million • Organise a creative action people polled voted to prohibit the locally, such as re-staging private manufacture of arms. the Peace Ballot. Courtesy of University of Glasgow, Special Collections WW1 • 3 ARMS TRADE SHORTS FRANCE-RUSSIA AFRICA Arms company Saab has As conflict continues in Ukraine, The US has called for a break in expanded its presence in sub- Russian sailors are due in France to the contract, while Russia has Saharan Africa through a new begin training on the first of two threatened a financial penalty. office in Botswana. One of the Mistral-class carriers from a 2011 A major contract for German products Saab is keen to sell deal worth $1.6bn. firm Rheinmetall to build a locally is the Gripen fighter jet. The second carrier is not yet fully combat training facility in Russia Defenceweb, 13/3/14 paid for and France is exploring was suspended in March due to the option of withholding delivery, developments in Crimea. Eurocopter Southern Africa while weighing implications for its defensenews.com, 23/5/14; Ltd is to establish a permanent reputation as a reliable supplier. DW.de, 19/3/14 base in Kenya to work on Airbus helicopters in Africa and parts of the Middle East. The military and civilian helicopter market in the developing world, including the Middle East and Africa, is predicted to rise to $146.8bn between 2014 and 2022. The estimated value of European and North American markets for the same period is $9.7bn. defensenews.com, 16/3/14 Russian President Vladimir Putin © World Economic Forum GERMAN EXPORTS A German minister has signalled BAE SUB SPAIN interest in a more restrictive Saudi Arabia and Spain have signed arms export regime, raising INVESTMENT a co-operation agreement covering concerns amongst the industry The UK government is spending £300m future arms sales between the two and a threat from Airbus to move on BAE Systems’ submarine yard at countries. production lines abroad. Barrow in Cumbria, making it more likely Spain’s 2013 military export figures In particular, the minister that the company will be given the received a huge boost from sales to called for restrictions on small £14bn deal to build the Royal Navy’s countries on the Arabian peninsula, arms that could be used for civil next generation of nuclear missile doubling to €3.9bn from €1.95bn wars. He said weapons exports submarines. The Government is due to for 2012. The rise was propelled by should be guided by foreign decide in 2016 whether to approve this increased output at Airbus military and security policies, not Successor programme. aircraft plants. economic policy. Telegraph, 6/4/14 Janes.com, 20/5/14 & 27/5/14 defensenews.com, 31/5/14 4 • ARMS TRADE SHORTS EU MILItaRY EXPENDITURE AS A PERCENtaGE OF GDP, 2013 Sweden 1.2 Finland 1.2 Estonia 2.0 Latvia 1.0 Denmark 1.4 Lithuania 0.8 UK 2.3 Neth’lands 1.3 Poland 1.8 Ireland 0.5 Belgium 0.81.0 Germany 1.4 Czech Rep. 1.1 Luxembourg 0.5 Slovak Rep. 1.0 Austria 0.80.8 Hungary 0.9 France 2.2 Slovenia 1.2 Romania 1.3 Croatia 0.81.6 Bulgaria 0.81.6 Italy 1.6 Spain 0.9 Portugal 2.2 Greece 2.4 Cyprus 0.82.1 Malta 0.6 Figures are taken from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), sipri.org NATO has an unofficial military spending target of at least 2% of GDP. Countries spending less than 2% are shown in green and those at or greater than 2% are shown in red (broadly after Defense News, bit.ly/1juD1rk).