textfiles/politics/SPUNK/sp001360.txt

DON'T ARMS 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.'