Economics is one of the key causes of war - wherever there is a military conflict, someone is profiting from it. We call this "war profiteering".
WRI looks at war profiteering in a broad sense - we consider all companies and initiatives that benefit financially from military conflict as war profiteers, in some sense. This includes the arms trade and companies profiteering for the privatisation and outsourcing of the military, but also those extracting natural resources in conflict zones, financial institutions investing in arms companies, and many others.
WRI publishes a series of war company profiles, and organises events to bring campaigners and researchers together to share strategies against war profiteering.
War profiteers are not only those that benefit from the arms industry, but also those that impulse military action and elaborate strategies to profit from war. Among war profiteers we can include:
Large private corporations
Here we refer to the transnational and multinational corporations that need control over our natural resources and our national territories in order to support their hegemonic project and so that relations of economic and political solidarity cannot be improved (which would permit true development of Latin American countries).
War profiteers depend mainly on government contracts. Imagine what Lockheed Martin would be without their Pentagon contracts! At the same time governments need an excuse for spending such huge sums of money e.g. "war against terror", "national security", "peace forces", etc. Since war profiteers depend on government contracts they need to be in the position to influence them. Through the years they have positioned themselves to have an immense political power within governments, and they enjoy privileged access to decision-makers that the general public can only dream of.
This issue of The Broken Rifle focuses on war profiteers. During War Resisters' International Conference "Globalising Nonviolence" that took place in Eringerfeld Germany between the 23-27 of July 2006, we had a theme group who worked on war profiteers. This theme group was an essential step in the develop of WRI's Global Initiative Against War Profiteers. Most of the material you will find in this issue comes from the work of that week.
During the last week of July War Resisters' International celebrated our International Conference "Globalising Nonviolence" with more than 200 participants from all continents and more than 30 countries.
The stated aims of the conference were:
- making nonviolence more central in the global movement of resistance to war and economic domination
- adapting nonviolent analysis and strategy to the threats we face today, and
- consolidating and reviving our antimilitarist, nonviolent, global network.
It can be questioned if it wa
Stopping the merchants of death
A Strategic Conference for Grassroots Activists
Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) – are publicly backed government or semi-government agencies which give financial guarantees to companies operating abroad – they are the single largest source of taxpayer support for private sector companies seeking to off-load on to the public the financial risks of their business projects in the South and Eastern Europe.
The world's #1 military contractor, responsible for the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes, F-16, F/A-22 fighter jet, and Javelin missiles. They've also made millions through insider trading, falsifying accounts, and bribing officials.
The Pentagon has taken an important first step by canceling the contract for Halliburton 's military logistics contract in Iraq and putting it up for open bid. Halliburton has only itself to blame for shoddy management, over-charging and thumbing its nose at military investigators.
We are happy to present our 2nd edition of War Profiteers' News.
In this edition, we highlight the cancellation of Halliburton's exclusive Iraq deal. At the same time we present what is happening in Cabinda where WRI affiliate Union Pacifiste from France is supporting a local campaign for the respect of human rights in Cabinda and against the pollution of the mouth of the Congo River. In this issue, we also inform about Caterpillar's shareholders meeting in Chicago, where the issue of the use of their equipment for demolishing Palestinians homes was again raised.
Globalising Nonviolence
WRI International Conference, 23-27 July 2006, Germany
- Are you interested in both nonviolence and globalisation?
- Are you campaigning against war?
- Are you involved in nonviolent direct action or curious to learn more?
The War Resisters' International conference Globalising Nonviolence will be a great opportunity to meet activists from all over the world, to get to know what makes them tick, and to see how you can help each make another