Margie Pestorius

Facilitating Exports: The Global Supply Chain and Landforces Brisbane

Will you prepare to stand with us in at Landforces in Brisbane, June 2021?

The weapons industry in Brisbane is rapidly developing.

We inspected three Brisbane-based companies: Boeing, Rheinmetall and Nioa.

Being onsite gives us ordinary folk concrete information. We encounter real people going about their everyday preparation for … war crimes.

The Global Supply Chain: GSC=Weapons Exports

Boeing, Rheinmetall and Nioa are all involved in Global Supply Chain deals: Australia gives the world’s largest corporations special status and lots of money to groom smaller Australian companies to export weapons. Rheinmetall’s partner Nioa is a previously small but now-growing-quickly-with-your-tax-dollars ammunition company.

Boeing build ‘aircraft for war crimes’. There’s the list above.

Boeing has taken unknown $$$ in incentives by Qld Labor to set up in Brisbane. Our money for their war crimes. Or, our money for their corporation. Period.

We went to Boeing with the message that Boeing is ‘Out of Control’.

“Spokesperson Greg Rolles said “We are here today because Boeing builds aircraft for war crimes. The attack helicopter that killed journalists in the infamous ‘Collateral Murder’ video was Boeing’s. Boeing aircraft have destroyed civilian infrastructure in Yemen, enabled an unlawful campaign of extra-judicial assassination, and left countless people in fear of their own skies.”

Mr Rolles said “Boeing’s further research into artificial intelligence will take humanity even more out of the loop. Boeing is now building armed drones in Brisbane and siphoning money out of Australian communities into the production of weapons designed to kill. Boeing is out of control.”

You can read the whole media release here.

Rheinmetall and Nioa

Rheinmetall is another of eight ‘PRIME’ contractors involved in the Global Supply Chain Program. There’s a prize if you can list them. Is Saab in or out? Leidos?

“Disarm Rheinmetall!”, Kassel, Germany.

In Germany, our friends at Rheinmetall Entwaffnen [‘Disarm Rheinmetall’] conducted a weekend of actions against Rheinmetall in Kassel Germany where they make tanks and ammunition. Activists blocked two factories for 3 days.

We visited Rheinmetall in Brisbane in solidarity with the German actions. It is an immense facility on some of the last free river land in Brisbane representing further militarisation of Indigenous lands.

Watch our video to hear the story of Rheinmetall in Australia

Rheinmetall’s weapons business takes money and support from both tiers of government.

State Labor provided $170million according to a rusted-on Labor supporter on Twitter.
Federal Governments have rewarded Rheinmetall with “Global Supply Chain” status for weapons exports plus various contracts such as the 225 ‘Boxer’ armoured vehicles.

Rheinmetall have their Military Vehicles Centre of Excellence (MILVEHCOE) – in the suburb of Redbank. You may have seen the PM riding in a tank there last week. MILVEHCOE sounds like a glorified mechanic’s pit-stop but it is a weapons dealership facilitating “additional builds and design programs”. They assemble weaponised vehicles and make munitions all the while searching for ‘markets’ (read communities of ordinary people) where their weapons and ammunition can be used.

A major concern for the German activists are Rheinmetall’s weapons transfers to Turkey which is initiating dangerous airstrikes in Kurdistan.

But our focus is Indonesia. Rheinmetall are already trading weapons to Indonesia which will NOT #MakeWestPapuaSafe. We see Indonesia buying weapons and using those weapons on their own people in law enforcement and military contexts. Indonesia is involved in distinct and increasing human rights abuses in West Papua.

Rheinmetall will be a big player at the LANDFORCES 2021 weapons trade event in Brisbane in June where everyone will be #makingakilling.

NIOA with Rheinmetall – a team making ammunition for war crimes.

Where would the PM go next? Thinking we might catch the media associated with a prime-ministerial visit, we visited Nioa which has teamed with Rheinmetall to take money from the people of Queensland. Nioa was set up by Robert Nioa in the 1970s for the manufacture of ammunition for “sport” but they have … expanded.

Watch our video at Nioa, on Lomandra Drive near the BITA at Pinkenba

NIOA are also beneficiaries of the Global Supply Chain Program.

Nioa’s factory has just received $11 million from the Feds to build a 5 story office building. That is a free office building as far as we can tell.
The new partnership Rheinmetall NIOA Munitions is set to make munitions – bullets and automatic machine-gun chains – for export, including ammunition for the US F-35 Joint Strike Fighter programme.

(Interestingly, Mr Nioa is married to Bob Katter’s daughter Eliza who is a major financial supporter of the Katter Party). We presume these exports will go to

Indonesia to the police and to the TNI Indonesian Defence Force via Prabowo the Minister for Defence who is already a designated war criminal
The Philippines which has a known systematic human rights abuser in President Duterte. He is likely to use weapons on his own people, to suppress both journalists and community based actions against injustice: against people in movements for the poor, ethical trade, justice, climate and environment.
And maybe they can stir up some trouble in the Solomans again, or Bougainville or PNG and score some deals.

What next? Landforces 2021.

We must never stop exposing the weapons’ companies interest in promoting violent conflicts to sell their products. Truly they are #WarProfiteers.

You are our friends, colleagues and followers. You are the people MOST INTERESTED IN the RISE of MILITARISM in Australia.

We need you to actively work with us in making plans to disrupt this militarism at every point. We need you with us when we take action. We need new forms of action beyond social media. It is not enough to know what is going on.

Will you prepare to stand with us at Landforces 2021?

Boeing is trying to sell attack helicopters to Australia now. Rheinmetall is fixing arrangements with Indonesia. They will be pushing for contracts and dealing with dictators at Landforces 2021 a massive land-weapons trade event in Brisbane in June 2021. They will be joined at Landforces by our old friends EOS who are also exporting in the region.

Join us as we organise toward Landforces 2021. Are you interested in being on our core team for Landforces?

Which targets would be best? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Yours in peace,

Margie and Miriam, Zelda, Cate and the team.

References:

Bankrolling the Qld parties

Boeing.com.au Boeing offers Apache helicopter program

Rheinmetall disarm

Benarnnews.org Prabowo human rights

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WEAPONS CAMPAIGNER AT WAGE PEACE

Budget a setback for Australia and the region

Frydenberg’s 2020-21 budget confirms a profligate spend on Australia’s military capabilities that is unjustifiable from every view point: strategic, economic, environmental and social.

The addition of a further $3 billion to the already allocated $42.2billion for 2020-21 will see Australia acquire a military capability grossly disproportionate to its defence needs. The planned capability will work less as a deterrent to adversaries and more as provocation and destabiliser, undermining national security. It also undermines security by diverting money from priority areas such as health and the environment.

“The military budget is one place where we can afford to cut our expenditure as we face no enemies and are not under any threat of direct or indirect attack by any state. Instead the Government has caved in to the pressure from US and European arms corporations and decided to spend on weaponry like there is no tomorrow” said Denis Doherty from the Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition.

“The Treasurer promised us a budget ‘all about jobs’”, said Mr Doherty. “What in fact his budget does is propose very inefficient, uncertain and expensive means to generate jobs, and the military component of the budget exemplifies this.”

In 2017, US researches compared the number of jobs created by the investment of $1 million in various sectors: for every $1 million spent on defence, 6.9 jobs were created. The same amount invested in health care produced 14.3 jobs and in clean energy 9.8 jobs.

The Australian Government plans to spend $45 billion on defence. If ten per cent of that amount were transferred to healthcare, something like 64,000 jobs could be created in our struggling health care system and, in addition, we could be better equipped to combat the pandemic. If another ten per cent went to clean energy, we’d have about 45,000 jobs and could help address the nation’s major security problem, the environmental crisis.

“Australia’s limited resources would clearly be better spent on shoring up our health system than it would on upgrading military hardware.

“Australian taxpayers may ask if spending more than A$80 billion on 12 new submarines, which security specialists say will be out of date before they are delivered, is a sensible use of scarce resources when there are more immediate and compelling threats to our community,” Mr Doherty said.

“Where is the massive public housing spend? Where is the major health initiative? Where are the environmental protection measures?

“The Morrison Government’s budget has delivered a massive setback to the people of Australia which will make us poorer but not safer or healthier,” Denis Doherty concluded.

Budget a setback for Australia and the region, Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition

Raising Peace

Speech for Raising Peace event: LEE RHIANNON 20 September 2020

I do acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and pay tribute to their history, their culture and their ongoing struggles for justice in the face of the many crimes that continue to be perpetrated against First Nations peoples.

Thank you for the invitation to join today’s seminar on “Raising the peace” held to mark both the United Nations International Peace Day and the 100th anniversary of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and International Volunteers for Peace.

The first marches to mark International Peace Day where held in Sydney in the early 1980s. I was working with the Union of Australian Women at the time and together with WILPF we organised some excellent events. So it warms my heart to see this important occasion still being celebrated.

I congratulate both WILPF and IVP for reaching 100 years. It is not easy keeping an organisation going and to do so for ten decades is fantastic. Advocating for world peace is vital, essential and tough work.

I am often asked how do we rebuild the peace movement. I am old enough to remember the great days when the peace movement brought more than 100,000 onto our streets. This was in the 1980s when our call for nuclear disarmament rang out loud and strong. There is no simple answer to this question – how we rebuild the peace movement – but I am sure that having conversations like what WILPF and IVP have organised today are a key part of building the awareness of why our call for disarmament and world peace needs to be a demand of all progressive movements.

In my talk today I will cover issues to do with the military industrial complex, current conflict hot spots, and if building world peace is compatible with capitalism. I will also offer some thoughts on the status of the peace movement in today’s world.

Politics has its complexities. Our campaigns can gain support from unexpected quarters. The then US President, Dwight Eisenhower, three days before he handed over to the incoming President, John Kennedy, gave a most significant speech that is critical of the military industrial complex. This was in January 1961.

This is a speech any of us would have been in the main happy to give. Eisenhower warns against the plundering of the earth’s resources; he expresses concerns about the cost of armaments; and how funding for the military robs money from education and health programs. He highlights the threat of the military acquiring unwarranted influence.

To share with you one quote from this speech. The former President said

“…we must learn how to compose differences not with arms but with intellect and decent purpose”.

Eisenhower’s words ring with common sense and a lot of humanity. The fact that Eisenhower took on the military industrial complex is significant. The union of defence contractors and the armed forces is formidable. The large armaments industries profit and benefit from their close relationship with the military establishment.

Eisenhower went to the heart of what we are facing – that is the huge growth in companies that make billions and billions of dollars in profits out of the threat of war and by waging war.

That speech was delivered at the start of the 1960s. This decade is a turbulent time for the world. The Cold War is building. Things are tough for peace activists, but the movement for world peace continued to grow despite the dirty tactics of powerful forces in the West. It is hard to believe but at this time “peace” was a dirty word for many – supporting the peace movement was equated with supporting communism. What might seem ridiculous to us now shows the success of the propaganda backed by certain governments and corporate interests that wanted to discredit the voice for peace. How our forebears in the peace movement stood up to these attacks is something we can take inspiration from.

Fast forward to 1989. The socialist countries in Eastern Europe collapse. What we have seen since then is that the military industrial complex, which was initially justified on the basis that the West had to stop the rise of socialism, has continued to expand – military budgets, missile numbers and the power of the armed forces have all grown to a level that is obscene.

Let’s remember when we have these discussions we need to acknowledge the level of suffering that war and preparations for war causes. More than one hundred million people died in wars in the 20th century. In this century, 20 years into the 21st century, hundreds of thousands of people have died. These figures are a stark reminder of the importance of our work for world peace. Wars rob us of lives and also of funding for the essential services that everyone has a right to and wars also destroy our precious environment.

One more comment about Eisenhower – he was a five star general, he was no liberal. He was very committed to building a capitalist country. Eisenhower’s positions on military industrial complexes reveals the contradictions within capitalism that can help drive change. I don’t think that capitalism is compatible with building world peace because the profit motive is so strong as shown by companies that make up the military industrial complex, like Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Boeing. For ordinary people like ourselves it is impossible to imagine the power these companies wield when they go to Washington and other world capitals to do their lobbying to win contracts and to sell weapons officially and on the black market.

The military industrial complex is always looking for ways to promote their hardware arguing that their weapons are needed to fight the latest war. This is a very ugly business — some companies promote these weapons of control and death as “field tested”. This is a favoured tactic of the Israeli government that promotes its weapons in that way. That is they are advertising their weapons as a great buy because they have been tested on Palestinians. This sales pitch is working for Israel, which is now the main supplier of armaments to the Modi government in India. This is one of the extreme ways that the military industrial complex operates.

So how do we respond to this power imbalance and to the domination of the military industrial complex. Can we feel a sense of hope when we are up against such formidable forces whose profits and very existence is based on death and destruction.

I do take hope from the social movements around the world including in the US, which has active progressive groups. Many work hard to expose the shocking aspects of war and historically there have been some significant acts that help to shift the narrative away from a pro-military stance.

In the first 150 years of its existence the US maintained a very small standing army. When war was declared additional men were mobilised and after the war they were sent home. This is different from what we have now with endless numbers of military personnel loaded up with state of the art weapons along with submarines, aircraft carriers, drones, etc. Cutting back on the size of our military budget and the number of personnel needs to be a priority of the peace movement.

Another example my research turned up is an inquiry into the relationship between profit and war created by the US Congress in the 1930s. A panel was set up to investigate if “the removal of the element of profit from war would unilaterally remove the danger of more war”. I have not seen the full report but reading about this work gave me the idea of how good it would be if today’s governments would set up similar inquiries. It is excellent to know that in the 1930s good people were exploring the problematic ways companies operate when it comes to war. I was encouraged by this information as it takes us to the heart of the problem – companies making profits out of war efforts.

Tragically there are many hot spots around the world and our region is close to two major conflicts. The Morrison government is taking an aggressive stance when it comes to Australia’s dealings with China. Our actions and commentary are becoming more belligerent. Australia has moved back to becoming an active deputy sheriff to the US, a role we have held since the second world war.

Recently two Australian ministers, Senators Marise Payne and Linda Reynolds, went to the US to speak about China with the Trump administration. On returning to Australia Minister Payne strongly emphasised that Australia under Prime Minister Morrison does not blindly follow what the US wants and that we have our own voice on foreign affairs. Journalists reiterated these claims, reporting this as a new era where Australia was deciding its own foreign policy and not the US. This is clearly wrong. The Morrison government did exactly what the Trump forces wanted. Two Australian Ministers flew to the US had talks with their counterparts and did a press conference effectively spruiking the China is bad line with rhetoric not dissimilar from what regularly comes out of the White House.

Prior to this Australia had sent naval vessels for exercises in the South China Sea. Sending the Australian navy into this region is a highly provocative act. Imagine if China did this off Sydney Harbour. I am not excusing China. They are in conflict with Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan and other Asian countries about disputed territories in the South China Sea.

Our peace groups need to find ways to amplify our voice about the dangerous path the Australian government is pursuing when it comes to China. Surely an Australian government should be acting to reconcile differences or at least to turn down the heat on what is a volatile situation. We should be a peace maker rather than perpetuating the narrative that China alone is the problem. This is the path we should take rather than adding our voice and our naval vessels into this dangerous mix. At all times Australia should be the voice of moderation and reason – that is what a responsible government should do.

It was not always like this. About ten years ago China was the flavour of the month in Australia because of all the trade deals. But this has changed. I think the change is driven in part by xenophobic attitudes, the rise of the extreme right in the Liberal Party and the fact that some conservatives want to use anti-China rhetoric to try and win votes. It is very dangerous to use conflict to try and consolidate power.

On another conflict – the Middle East situation is deteriorating. We have the ridiculous situation that Trump and his son-in-law claim they have “the deal of the century” for this region. Yes Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are on board. But that is nothing new. They have been working with the US and Israel for years. The Trump plan will not bring peace to the region. Palestinians are still being denied their land and their homes. Peace without justice is not possible while Netanyahu and Trump are in power. Trump is using this issue to try and make out he is a world statesman in the hope that it will help him win votes in the coming US presidential election.

We also need to mention our own neighbourhood and here I am referring to the subcontinent. Many of us on the east coast forget that India and the nations of that region are our neighbours. Right now that is an area of serious conflict. China, India and Pakistan are involved in territorial disputes and they are all nuclear powers.

The Modi government in India is driving much of the conflict because of it obsession with turning India into a Hindu nationalist nation. The suffering of Dalit and Muslims is tragic. Kashmir has been taken over and is now ruled from Delhi. Internet services have been blocked and curfews limit people’s movements. What is particularly worrying is that this region is the most highly militarised region in the world. When India took control of Kashmir in August 2019 they put in an additional 30,000 troops. That takes the total number of Indian troops on active duty to more than 800,000. This is a ruthless occupation by India.

We need to compare how the Morrison government handles India with regard to how they treat their citizens with the actions of China. With China our government pushes a hard line on human rights violations. I am not arguing against that position. Australia has a regular

human rights dialogue with the Chinese authorities and the issue comes up in some trade agreements.

However, when it comes to India there are no discussions between the Australian and Indian Prime Ministers on human rights.

Latin America also remains a conflict zone. We hear little about this region in Australia but let’s remember the Trump regime recently sent mercenaries into Venezuela because they do not like the politics of that country. Many regimes in Latin America are moving towards fascism. Some are very close to Trump. This is another region that deserves our attention and acts of support for the progressive forces.

So the big question – how do we revive peace as a political issue and in time rebuild a broad based peace movement.

I think it is crucial that we embed the quest for world peace into the global struggles for economic, racial and gender justice. Peace is not a quest on its own we need to recognise, understand and develop the links between these struggles.

If we imagine a world of peace we are imagining a world of justice and equality; a world without racism and sexism; a world where women have independence and full rights; and all peoples have full rights. I think this is what we imagine.

Don’t get me wrong. We still need organisations like WILPF, IPAN and IVP, local peace groups and ICAN – and all the wonderful international campaigns, liked the campaign to abolish nuclear weapons. These need to be central to our work.

Our peace and anti-nuclear groups have a vital role to play in building the peace narrative into our struggles for a just, equitable and peaceful world.

Thank you.

Media Release: August 2020 Boeing is Out of Control

MEDIA RELEASE 11 August 2020

Boeing is OUT OF CONTROL

Stop the Weapons Trade at Boeing Brisbane

Higher hi-tech will not provide security

Following the publication of a book about our resistance at the US Pine Gap military base, Brisbane’s Peace Pilgrims, have played a renewed and enraged lament – this time at Boeing Defence Brisbane. We addressed Boeing’s workers who are creating a weaponised drone here in Brisbane. It complements their ‘Aircraft for #WarCrimes’ suite.

When a company profits from war and violence, it is in their interest to pressure for more war. We can assume Boeing is in the ministers’ offices via the Covid ‘recovery’ team making sure they get their chomp.

We already know that the current head of Boeing Aust. was once a Defence Minister who handed Boeing a $7bn contract against departmental wishes.

The world, OUR world is facing catastrophic climate change and the workers at Boeing are designing and building aircraft and systems for war crimes, not for good.

Security, right now, means addressing the pandemic, the climate disaster and the ecological crisis.

Boeing is out of control. Their business does not make the world safer. It makes it pointlessly hi-tech, and explicitly more dangerous.

Boeing aircraft and technology are used for war crimes around the world. For example,

Boeing is selling direct to the dictator Duterte for use against his own people.
A Boeing helicopter was used to fire the missiles in the leaked “collateral murder” video.
Boeing guidance systems were used to destroy civilian infrastructure in Yemen.

The new drone is competing to be the preferred “wingman” drone chosen by the US for its failing, expensive Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet. The drone’s AI (Artificial Intelligence) is likely to involve lethal use – taking humanity out of the loop for killing. Here’s Boeing’s take on this:

“…Boeing is driving the safe innovation and integration of autonomy to maximize human potential”.

Loyal Wingman is ‘not remotely piloted’. It’s autonomous. It’s supposed to ‘help both manned and unmanned mid-air.’ But, reading between the lines, it is related to lethal combat: a Lethal Autonomous Weapons System [LAWS].

Where is the conversation about ethics in the public domain or academic sphere? Are universities now businesses doing work for the weapons industry? It appears that, for these workers, it’s just hi-tech, interesting intellectual, decentralised, problem solving. But artificial intelligence takes real lives.

And with the US central to the decision making, we can be sure that Australian money is flowing to US corporations.

QUOTE FROM SAFEGROUND REPORT ON KILLER ROBOTS “Australian Out of the Loop”
‘Alarmingly, …[Australian defence have assured] options to invest in ‘autonomous combat aircraft.'[1] In January 2020, Defence announced the ‘Loyal Wingman’ project. In a partnership with Boeing, 3 prototypes of fully autonomous aircraft are to be built[2].This sees Australia skirting this troubling fine line.The government will contribute AU$40 million to ‘Loyal Wingman’[3].The project clearly constitutes part of the plan stated in the Force Structure Review Plan, that “new and existing aircraft will combine with remotely piloted and autonomous systems to provide increased lethality and survivability.”[4] ‘

Other References

[1] Department of Defence, 2020 Force Structure Review Plan, 2020, Commonwealth of Australia: Canberra, p. 53
[2] E. Levick, ‘Boeing’s Autonomous Fighter Jet Will Fly Over the Australian Outback’, IEE Spectrum, 2 Jan 2020, https://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/military/boeings-autonomous-fighter-jet-will-fly-over-the-australian-outback, (accessed 6January 2020).
[3] E Levick, ‘Boeings Autonomous Fighter Jet’, IEEE Spectrum, 2020
[4] Department of Defence, 2020 Force Structure Review Plan, 2020, Commonwealth of Australia: Canberra, p. 51
Dr Brendan Nelson and the Super Hornets

Here are some banner designs for you to make your own action.

Margie Pestorius

Will you prepare to stand with us in at Landforces in Brisbane, June 2021?

The Global Supply Chain: GSC=Weapons Exports

Mr Rolles said “Boeing’s further research into artificial intelligence will take humanity even more out of the loop. Boeing is now building armed drones in Brisbane and siphoning money out of Australian communities into the production of weapons designed to kill. Boeing is out of control.”

Rheinmetall and Nioa

“Disarm Rheinmetall!”, Kassel, Germany.

Watch our video to hear the story of Rheinmetall in Australia

NIOA with Rheinmetall – a team making ammunition for war crimes.

Watch our video at Nioa, on Lomandra Drive near the BITA at Pinkenba

What next? Landforces 2021.

Speech for Raising Peace event: LEE RHIANNON 20 September 2020

See also a summary and commentary on the action at www.wagepeaceau.org/boeing-out-of-control

Stop the Weapons Trade at Boeing Brisbane

Higher hi-tech will not provide security

Other References

Text of the Performance Poem

Music for crowd collective speech accompanied by violin, guitar and electrified guitar.

Boeing is out of control! [repeat]

Boeing is out of control!

Music – wait

music

We are here today because Boeing engineers death [repeat all]

Boeing builds bombs and missiles.

Boeing builds fighters and bombers and drones.

Death is at the core of Boeing’s business

Boeing is out of control.

Music– wait

We are here today because Boeing builds aircraft for war crimes.

The attack helicopter that delivered the missiles /

which killed journalists and children in the ‘Collateral Murder’ video – /

that was Boeing’s

Civilian infrastructure was destroyed in Yemen,

using guidance systems made by Boeing

Boeing is out of control.

music

We are here today because Boeing profits from war and violence.

Boeing pressures governments for more war and more violence

Boeing is out of control.

music

We are here today because Boeing is building weaponised drones in Brisbane.

Drones have killed hundreds of children; and thousands of civilians.

Boeing is building drones with artificial intelligence for lethal use.

Boeing is taking humanity out of the loop.

Boeing is out of control.

music

We are here today because Boeing is a US company siphoning money out of Australia.

Boeing coerces our parliament, to prop-up its business with cash

The growth of domestic weapons industries comes at the cost of human lives.

Boeing builds aircraft for warcrimes

Boeing engineers death,

Boeing is out of control.

music

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