arms industry
US military researching microwave crowd control weapons
The United States military is still researching a controversial microwave weapon that could be deployed against crowds from aircraft.
The US military is to increase funding for the Active Denial System (ADS) from $2mil to $10mil despite the controversy surrounding the weapon. The ADS is described by the Pentagon as a 'non-lethal weapon' and is intended to be used a crowd control device.
Masters of war
As 2007 began, Robert Walsh looked into the world of arms dealing for Freedom newspaper as pressure piled up on BAE systems over their arms sales to dictators scandal.
A second major investigation into arms sales from BAE looks likely to run aground as South African government authorities have blocked investigators looking into the sale of Hawk Jet trainers and Gripen fighters to the state.
South African workers refuse to move arms bound for Zimbabwe
South African Transport Union members have announced they will not offload Chinese arms that are being shipped to crisis-torn Zimbabwe.
A boat carrying an arms shipment destined for Zimbabwe is anchored at the South African port of Durban. However the South African Transport Workers' Union has already announced that their members will not offload any of the cargo, nor will any of their truckers transport it.
US: Machinists to strike against Raytheon
Machinists working for Raytheon Missile Systems have voted almost unanimously to go on strike.
The machinists, who work at the company's plant in Tucson Arizon, voted 1,000-4 in favour of the strike yesterday at a meeting of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 933. Workers will be striking over a new contract which has yet to be agreed by the company.
1976: The fight for useful work at Lucas Aerospace
History of how arms company workers struggled against closure and for a change in their work from weapons manufacture to socially useful production.
In the 1970s workers at the Lucas Aerospace Company in Britain set out to defeat the bosses plans to axe jobs. They produced their own alternative "Corporate Plan" for the company's future. In doing so they attacked some of the underlying priorities of capitalism.
1986: The Iran-Contra Affair
Chomsky's brief account of the US selling arms to Iran via Israel in order to fund far-right paramilitary contras in Nicaragua.
The major elements of the Iran/contra story were well known long before the 1986 exposures, apart from one fact: that the sale of arms to Iran via Israel and the illegal contra war run out of Colonel Oliver North's White House office were connected.
MoD PLC - The sell-off of the Ministry of Defence's research agency
Arms trade. Government sweeteners. Tax havens. Dodgy corporations making a killing. Directors paying themselves a packet. Ridiculous company names. Welcome to New Labour’s first full blown privatisation.
In case you missed it while checking your portfolios(!), last week ‘defence research’ group QinetiQ was floated on the stock exchange, which even in the world of cut-throat capitalism raised quite a few eyebrows and mutterings of ‘rip off’ - even from those unconcerned about the whole profiting-from-killing-people business.
