The Peace PeopleA disarmament event was held at the City Hall, Belfast during the week leading up to the conference, when a 'rifle' and 'missiles' were symbolically disarmed. The symbolism here was direct but also linking the need for disarmament in the world with the need for disarmament in the Northern Ireland context. A letter was handed in to Invest Northern Ireland about allowing EU Peace and Reconciliation money to go to Thales Air Defence (Belfast and Ireland's largest arms manufacturer), and the need for Invest NI to have a proper ethical investment policy. Invest NI's policy currently only covers 'business ethics' so highly polluting machinery or torture equipment - or arms - would not be excluded. Photos and reports on the action appeared in a couple of local papers.
The conference itself took place at the Friends Meeting House, Frederick Street, Belfast and was attended by over thirty people. Photos of the disarmament event and/or conference are available on request.
The first speaker was Patrick Corrigan of Amnesty International who gave an overview of armed violence and outlined the Control Arms campaign which Amnesty is involved in along with Oxfam and IANSA, the International Action Network on Small Arms; Amnesty's objection is not to the arms trade per se but to its connection with human rights abuses. Every year there are half a million people killed directly by armed violence, one a minute by a very wide variety of weaponry. The aim of the Control Arms campaign is to have an international arms trade treaty which would provide a binding set of core minimum standards to stop the most irresponsible weapons transfers. A draft treaty is available on the Control Arms website at www.controlarms.org. The campaign has issued half a dozen detailed reports. There is currently a 'Million faces' petition, the world's largest photo gallery, in support of the arms trade treaty.
Both the UK and Ireland support an arms trade treaty, Patrick Corrigan saying that in relation to the UK this was a major achievement as it is the world's second biggest arms exporter, though continued pressure is necessary to get it implemented. Amnesty is interested in forming alliances with others, e.g. trade unions, on the issue. Research, to be published n the autumn, is currently being conducted on arms-related links in industry in Northern Ireland, following on research and a report in the Republic, 'The Claws of the Celtic Tiger' (available on the AI Ireland website at www.amnesty.ie).
Kevin Mullen of CAAT, the Campaign Against Arms Trade (www.caat.org.uk) spoke of how he had got involved with CAAT through the issue of arms being sold to Indonesia. CAAT tries to work locally and find partners to work with. CAAT publishes yearly figures on who invests in the arms trade. It asks the question of what drives spending - the industry or military need. The Ministry of defence in the UK has a revolving door with the arms industry, in some cases senior MOD officials dealing with an issue retire and suddenly pop up on the board of an arms company involved in that particular field. One aim of CAAT is to close the Defence Services export organisation which markets British arms overseas.
The arms trade and corruption go hand in hand, Kevin Mullen said, with in the case of Indonesia payments having been made to the relations of senior government figures. One area of arms sales growth is Latin America. Increasing transparency makes campaigning easier.
Tim Hourigan of Limerick and the Mid-west Alliance Against Military Aggression spoke about the realities of Shannon as a transit point for US military forces; 158,000 US troops passed through in 2004 (the number has increased, it was 128,000 in 2003) and it has replaced Frankfurt as the preferred US route to the Middle East. Using Shannon facilitates the US military because with carrying less fuel they can carry more military equipment. Many flights are 'civilian' planes carrying military goods and usage has also included a CIA torture jet which has stopped in Shannon at least 14 times (it was involved in the kidnapping and torture of 2 people removed from Sweden, a big issue there). Not only are the skies full of the US military but the Irish state pays for the US overflights to the aviation authority when it could opt out of so doing - in effect the Irish state pays €23 for every US military person passing through. Gate 42 at Shannon is exclusively military.
Tim Hourigan also highlighted arms related production within the Republic, e.g. Analog in Limerick which makes chips for a firing system for the Israeli military. Dual use products are common and Tim gave an instance of someone not knowing that he was making a system for weapons. In addition, pension trust funds and the like typically invest 15% of their money in aerospace and 'defence' - Paddy Corrigan pointed out that state pension funds in the Republic are similarly invested in the arms trade.
Henry Winkler from Raytheon in Derry gave a robust defence of the arms trade, speaking to a Powerpoint presentation. Arms are a necessary evil, he said and the arms industry provides job security. Raytheon, meaning 'light of the gods', is part of the fight for freedom and democracy and is present in Derry through the good offices of John Hume. The US is not trying to keep its standard of living to itself but share it. Raytheon is the world's largest missile manufacturer and fourth largest weapons manufacturer and has done tasks like design the US Command HQ in Iraq. Javelin shoulder launched systems were sold to the Irish defence forces. The Derry Software Development Centre enhances Raytheon's efficiency in global weapons design, sales and purchasing. Its work on IFF, Identifying Friend or Foe, is important in hitting the bad guys. After some persistent questioning and intervention from the floor, highly critical of Raytheon. Henry Winkler said that other speakers had been accorded the right to speak and he left the room. He shortly afterwards returned in his real guise as a member of FEIC, the Foyle Ethical Investment Campaign, which does actually invite Raytheon to events to dialogue but Raytheon never comes. Those present engaged in some soul searching as to whether they had reacted as they should have to a representative of the arms industry. Before lunch, visitors from Chicago shared some of the work they were involved in campaigning on Boeing's military involvement.
As the lunch provided by Food Not Bombs was late in arriving there was an extended informal networking opportunity and good interaction between those present - in other words, people chatted away.
The discussion in the afternoon was more informal and focused on research and action primarily. There was some discussion of what methods were ethical in arms campaigning with varying opinions expressed. The tax paid to the military was another issue. In response to Kevin Cassidy saying a taxi driver had called out to him, when engaged in the disarmament action earlier in the week, "What about the water rates?". Jim Keys pointed out that given global agendas, the privatisation of water (separate water charges being introduced in Northern Ireland to get the industry into 'profitable' shape for privatisation) was not separate to issues of the arms trade. Another point raised was the use, in the UK context, of the Freedom of Information Act to get information, and the fact that with global connections, information can often be gathered in one jurisdiction about activities in another.
The morning session was chaired by Lindsay Whitcroft and the afternoon by Kevin Cassidy. Those who wished to network further after the formal close adjourned to a friendly local hostelry.
[Report by Rob Fairmichael]