Spunk Library

WS 47: The arms trade

   from Workers Solidarity No 47

    paper of the Irish anarchist
    Workers Solidarity Movement

DON'T ARM THE WORLD FEED IT!

ARMS DECOMMISSIONING is in the news.  The IRA
is being asked to give up its weapons.  So
are the Loyalist hit squads.  The ways and
means commission, chaired by the US senator
George Mitchell met to investigate the thorny
issue of paramilitary arms decommissioning.
As it did so, both the US and British
governments were continuing with their long-
standing plans to upgrade and expand their
own armed forces.  This year alone the
British Government will spend #6.3 billion on
the procurement of new weaponry, either as
replacements or as additions to its present
force. Meanwhile, the US government is set to spend
nearly #40 billion in a similar drive.

These figures seem very large and they are.
Britain, for instance, has increased its spending on
weapons by nearly 10% on the previous year, 1994.
In July alone it put in an order to buy 67 Apache
Attack helicopters from the USA.  This might sound
unbelievable but it is just the tip of the iceberg.

Apart from buying arms, British and US firms
(along with the French) are the only ones to have
registered a massive increase in arms sales in the
past few years. This, it must be emphasised, is
since the end of the Cold War.  Between 1985 and
1989, the USA supplied 30% of the world's arms; now
it supplies just under 48%.  Similarly with Britain.
Between 1985 and 1989 it supplied just over 10% of
the world's arms; now it supplies just under 15%!

This situation is rarely reported on and, if one
looks closer, it is easy to see why.  In both the
USA and in Britain, some of the top companies in the
economy are arms manufacturers: British Aerospace,
Boeing, Lockheed, General Electric and Westington
House to name but a few.  Many of these companies
make massive profits from arms.  Take the firm,
British Aerospace (BA).  According to its financial
records, 64% of all the money BA handles comes from
defence contracts - in total just over #5 billion.
If this company didn't sell arms, its shares would
plummet as would the shares of many other companies
across Europe and the USA.

What countries are the arms being sold to?
Firstly, a considerable amount of armaments are
traded between rich countries.  For instance,
Britain will buy its Apache Attack helicopters from
the USA.  Alternatively, it could have bought the
new fighter-helicopter under development in Europe
know as The Tiger. Similarly, the USA buys a certain
amount of its arms from Europe.

Secondly, and most importantly, arms are sold
to what are called poor countries.  For instance
Pakistan spent 110 times more on weapons in 1990-91
than it did on education and health together.
Similarly with Myanmar (210 times), Angola (200
times) or Nigeria (40 times) - to name but a few.
Together with France, China and Russia, Britain and
the USA supplied 86% of all weaponry sold to poor
countries in the period 1988-92.  Most scandalous of
all, perhaps, is the fact that many of these
countries sold their weapons on as part of their aid
for development.

It is often said that poor countries need these arms
for self-defence.  But even a routine analysis shows
this to be untrue.  The United Nations Development
Report counted 82 armed conflicts in the world
between 1989 and 1992 (only wars where 1000 or more
are killed are counted!) Of these 82, nearly 79
took place within borders - two examples being
India's war in Kashmir and the civil war in
Afghanistan.  The reality is that most arms are
turned on ordinary people by forces in the
government or close to it.  Rwanda is a case in
point.  Right up to and after the slaughter began,
both South Africa and France were selling weapons
into the conflict - everything from small arms to
mortars to light artillery! It was largely
civilians who were killed in that conflict.

There is huge money to be made in weapons -
that is the basic fact about arms manufacturing.  In
1994 alone, the developing world spent close to #90
billion on weapons.  Yet the United Nations has
estimated that just #11 billion of this money would
pay for all the primary health care needs in all
countries that are considered to be developing
countries today. This includes catering for all the
immunisation requirements in these countries and for
the removal of all serious malnutrition, as well as
providing safe, clean drinking water for everyone.

Apart from high profit margins, defence
manufacturing is also highly subsidised and
protected by individual governments.  Across Europe
today a huge number of projects are up and running.
Some involve co-operation between private defence
companies and various governments.  Others involve
joint work between different governments.  For
instance, at present France is working on almost 40
joint projects with Germany in relation to common
defence programmes These have the approval of both
governments and may, in time, be run as part of the
Western European Alliance - which Ireland is being
invited to join.  Last July, France launched the
iHelios 1ai photo-reconnaissance satellite.  Plans
are currently under way for a joint consortium to
build Europe's first independent spy capability.
This project alone will cost #3.5 billion!

When did Europe ever vote for this? Do you
remember voting for an independent spy capability
for Europe? Who are we going to be spying on? Why?
Towards what end? While huge money is being
wasted, these issues are being decided on by the
very people who will gain financially from these
projects - business.  More than ever the real
terrorists need to be identified: Major, Clinton and
Chirac.

Decommission the arms!

Uncle Sam's Torture Trade

>From September 1991-December 1993, the U.S.
Commerce Department approved over 350 export
licenses, worth more than $27 million, for torture and
police equipment under "commodity category 0A82C".
According to the Export Administration Regulations,
this broad-ranging category includes: "saps,
thumbcuffs, thumbscrews, leg irons, shackles, and
handcuffs; specially designed implements of torture;
strait jackets, plastic handcuffs, police helmets and
shields; and parts and accessories."

Another export category, 0A84C, combines electric
shock batons and cattle prods with shotguns and shells.
Over 2,000 licenses were granted for these items.  This
information was obtained under a Freedom of
Information Act request for data on gun exports.

By lumping controversial items (like thumbscrews)
together with non-controversial ones (like helmets)
into broad general categories, the U.S. authorities hope
to hide their squalid little deals with torturers.  This
makes many suspect the worst, especially when these
commodities are licensed for export to governments
with well-documented records of human rights abuse.
For example, Commerce approved $10.5 million to
Saudi Arabia, where government officials "continued
to torture and otherwise abuse detainees, including
citizens and foreigners," according to the State
Department's latest human rights report.

Source: Federation of American Scientists Fund

That's Capitalism

According to the International Labour Organisation
women's hourly wages in Ireland are still only 68% of
men's.  This shows how little has changed over the last
ten years, in 1985 the figure was also 68%.  Women are
being kept in lower paid jobs.  Among the countries
with a better record than Ireland are Paraguay, Sri Lanka
and Turkey.

*****

Politicians are full of hot air.  It's official.  After
complaints by deputies who were feeling ill the Israel's
parliament was found to have high concentrations of
carbon dioxide. This is the gas people exhale when
breathing - or speaking.

*****

Smith Kline Beecham, the drug company with a
manufacturing plant near Ringaskiddy, in Cork, made
profits of #6.94 billion in the year ending 1995 - an
increase of 7% on profits from the previous year.
However, while share dividends are set to increase by
8%, the Cork plant could only 'afford' to give its
workers the PCW wage increase this year - 2.8%.

*****

The death penalty is under review in the USA. But this
has nothing to do with the fact that it is a fundamental
breach of human rights.  Rather, the problem is money:
executions are just too expensive.  California alone
spends $100 million on executions each year.  But, worst
of all, a recent assessment of the costs involved found
that the price of one execution is equivalent to keeping
three prisoners in a maximum security prison for 40
years.

*****

Drinks firm, Cantrell & Cochran reported a 26%
increase in sales and a 28% increase in profits in their
last six monthly report.  The reward promised  for their
staff is "job losses at the Dublin plant".

*****

A recent report into the operations of the European
Union found that, of the top 300 jobs, all but four are
held by men.

*****
Politicians are usually willing to make any wild
promise and tell any lie to get elected.  Harbi Bdeir,
standing in Gaza for a seat in the Palestinian Authority,
will try anything.  He promised to make the area a new
centre for the international airline meals business.  A
neat trick, as Gaza has no airport.

*****

Among America's crazier laws are a ban on whistling
under water in Vermont and the offence of riding an
"ugly" horse on the streets of Wilbur in Washington
state.

*****

Profits are booming everywhere.  Fortune 500 magazine
has already declared the financial year ending in 1995 as
'one of the most profitable ever' for business.  Here's
why:
        Hoechst Chemicals(Germany) - 104 percent
increase in profits on 1994
        ICI(UK) - 126 percent increase on 1994
        Rhone-Poulenc(France) - 65 percent increase on
1994
        Dow Chemicals (USA) - 158 percent increase on
1994
As a group of companies, the Fortune 500 companies
had an overall average increase of 54% in profits on the
previous year (1994).  The famous magazine said of the
year to date in conclusion: 'Even an anxious Broadway
producer couldn't hope for a better opening.'

**************
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  RBR