Campaign to oppose a privatised military academy for St Athan - biggest PFI/PPP ever, with arms dealers Raytheon Serco. John Pilger "a British "School of the Americas" is to be built in Wales, where British soldiers will train killers from all corners of the American empire in the name of "global security". Tony Benn “The thought of privatising the training for the Armed forces was morally abominable”
Adam Price MP has a regular column in the weekly news magazine Golwg. That of 13 November was titled Y ddadl o blaid academi filwrol – ‘The debate in favour of a military academy’.
Much of it discusses the history of militarism in Wales, a comparison with the Scots, and the number of Welsh people in the armed forces historically and today. The part about St Athan actually only comes in the final few sentences as follows, with a translation of it below
Welcome to Adam's new-found sensitivity to Welsh opposition in principle to this major facility for the British military machine (part of Bush's USA in military adventures around the world)... What touching fantasy over changing a military academy run by major arms companies Raytheon, Qinetiq... into a Peace Academy!
Yn yr un modd, tra bod protestio yn erbyn polisiau a rhyfeloedd a dulliau ac arfau milwrol yn ddilys, ydi gwrthwynebu academi hyfforddiant (Academi Filwrol Sain Tathan ym Mro Morgannwg) fel y cyfryw yn gwneud synnwyr? Onid natur yr hyfforddiant ddylai fod ffocws ein gwrthwynebiad ni?
Wedi’r cwbl pan ffurfiwyd West Point gan yr Americanwr o Gymro, Thomas Jefferson, academi heddwch oedd ei weledigaeth e. Oni allwn ni ganolbwyntio ar greu, mewn cysylltiad a’r datblygiad hwn, pwyslais newydd a chanolfan rhyngwladol o ragoriaeth mewn ymdrechion i gadw heddwch.
In the same way, while it is correct to protest against military policies and means, against wars and arms, does it make sense to oppose a training academy as such (St Athan Military Training Academy in the Vale of Glamorgan)? Should it not be the nature of the training being provided that forms the focus for our opposition?
After all, when West Point was established by that Welsh American, Thomas Jefferson, his vision was of a peace academy. Can’t we concentrate, in relation to this development, on creating a new emphasis on an international centre of excellence in peace keeping activities.
campaign for nuclear disarmament yr ymgyrch dros ddiarfogi niwclear
50TH ANNIVERSARY OF CND GLOBAL SUMMIT THIS WEEKEND
Activists and campaigners from Wales, will be taking part in this weekend's Global Summit for a Nuclear Weapon Free World, hosted by British CND to mark the 50th anniversary of the campaign's launch. Other participants in the conference include Sergio Duarte, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Hiroshima bomb survivor Mikiso Iwasa and Bianca Jagger the Councilof Europe Goodwill Ambassador and Chair of the 'World Future Council'. CND will also welcoming campaigners and activists from across the world - from Israel, Indian, Pakistan, the US and France.
The Summit, held this Saturday and Sunday in London's City Hall and opened by Mayor Ken Livingstone, will be the most significant international conference on nuclear disarmament since the end of the Cold War. It will draw together leading diplomatic, scientific and policy experts who will focus on how to create the conditions for abolishing nuclear weapons, with the aim of promoting negotiations on a Nuclear Weapons Convention. Such a convention would outlaw nuclear weapons in the same way that the manufacture, procurement and use of chemical and biological weapons have already been outlawed.
British Government representatives have also been invited and conference outcomes will be communicated to the Prime Minister and Shirley Williams, his advisor on nuclear proliferation. Over the last month both the Prime Minister and the Defence Secretary have talked about the need for renewed efforts at achieving reductions in global nuclear stockpiles.
Jill Evans, Chair of CND Cymru will be taking part in the Global Summit. A year ago, Ms Evans was arrested along with other European elected representatives, for blocking the gates of the Trident nuclear weapons base in Scotland. She said today:
'We must take this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to ridding Britain and the world of these immoral weapons of mass destruction. At the same time we should be looking towards ways of solving international conflict by non-violent means and addressing the issues of worldwide poverty, injustice, environmental destruction and of global warming.
The longer that weapons of mass destruction exist in the world, the closer the time comes to them being used. I bring a message from Nuclear Free Wales that nuclear weapons and the philosophy behind them are not what we, or our children want or need.'
Kate Hudson, Chair of British CND : "This weekend, exactly half a century since Bertrand Russell and others addressed our founding meeting, will help bring us closer to the day when governments begi substantive negotiations on a Nuclear Weapons Convention."
CND Cymru and supporters, amongst them survivors from the Hiroshima bomb, will join hundreds of others at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston on Easter Monday, 24th March for a mass protest on the half-century anniversary of the first march to Aldermaston.
have signed these early day motions ... EDM 892 and EDM 72 yet both will not condemn the Government or evan the Welsh Assembly Government for working with Serco a key partner in the Metrix Consortium who in the biggest PFI/PPP ever are to be permitted to run a military training academy for UK army, navy and airforce recruits and will train mercenaries, soldiers for any regime with the money in Wales at St Athan.
Serco Group Plc should be kept out of Wales because of its involvement in the production of nuclear weapons. Why are our politicans not calling for the government to have ethical guidelines for investment like Norway.
The role of the Council on Ethics for the Government Pension Fund - Global is to provide evaluation on whether or not investment in specified companies is inconsistent with the established ethical guidelines. The Ministry of Finance makes decisions on the exclusion of companies from the Fund's investment universe based on the Council's recommendations. Both the Ministry's decisions and the Council's recommendations will be made publicly available on this website.
Recommendation on the exclusion of the company Serco Group Plc. The company is recommended for exclusion because of its involvement in the production of nuclear weapons.
AWE, the Atomic Weapons Establishment, provides the warheads for the United More information: Kingdom nuclear deterrent. AWE is managed by AWE Management Ltd, (AWEML) a consortium of Serco, Lockheed Martin and BNFL who operate a 25 year contract to maintain and deliver the national stockpile on behalf of the UK Government. The task of delivering the contract has been delegated by AWE Management Ltd to AWE Plc
Recommendation on Exclusion of Cluster Weapons from the Government Petroleum Fund-The Advisory Council on Ethics for the Government Petroleum Fund recommends that the companies General Dynamics Corp, L3 Communications Holdings Inc, Raytheon Co, Lockheed Martin Corp, Alliant Techsystems Inc, EADS Co (European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company) and Thales SA be excluded from the Petroleum Fund because they are presumed to be involved in production of cluster weapons.
EDM 892
GLOBAL SUMMIT FOR A NUCLEAR WEAPON FREE WORLD
05.02.2008
Corbyn, Jeremy
That this House notes the 50th anniversary of the founding meeting of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament on 17th February 1958; supports the campaign's ongoing work to achieve worldwide nuclear disarmament; congratulates the campaign for convening the Global Summit for a Nuclear Weapon Free World on 16th and 17th February 2008, drawing together leading diplomatic, scientific and policy experts, including Ambassador Sergio Duarte, chair of the 2005 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference; and calls on the Government to re-focus on creating the conditions for abolishing nuclear weapons, including facilitating negotiations on achieving a Nuclear Weapons Convention.
Early Day Motion
EDM 72
NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONVENTION 06.11.2007
Corbyn, Jeremy
That this House notes the forthcoming 40th anniversary of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; further notes the continued failure of the international community to abolish nuclear weapons or prevent their further proliferation; endorses the unanimous opinion of the International Court of Justice that there exists an obligation to pursue in good faith, and bring to a conclusion, negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control; further notes the recent 10th anniversary of the submission of a model nuclear weapons convention by Costa Rica to the United Nations for discussion; and calls upon the Government to work to achieve progress on multilateral negotiations with the aim of achieving implementation of a nuclear weapons convention by 2020.
In Planet magazine there is an email exchange between Stephen Thomas (Director of the Welsh Centre for International Affairs) and Sara Koopman, an academic who is an activist with the School of the Americas Watch, they exchange their experiences of campaigning against St Athan and School of the Amer...icas.
Campaign Objections to defence technical college here
State underwrites UK defence’s PFI project By Alex Barker, Political Correspondent
Published: February 25 2009 02:19 | Last updated: February 25 2009 02:19
Ministers have quietly offered contractors bigger state guarantees as a means of rescuing the £12bn ($17bn) private finance project to centralise the military’s training, the Financial Times has learnt.
See OU society matters article here Metrix shambles and OU here Should the OU be involved in the ARMS TRADE? here OU OU partnerships with armed forces? here Daily Mail - controversial £11bn contract to provide training to
Britain's armed forces is in danger of collapsing as a result of the credit crunch.herePlaid chief opposes St Athan Academy 6-Sep-08 hereWales must not be a cog in the war machine - Daily Post..here‘St Athan jobs dwindle while the costs rise’ here
Meet the mystery defense contractors that are raking in billions in taxpayer dollars without notice. Read more » "We recommend that people throughout the world launch nonviolent actions against US and UK corporations that directly profit from this war” - 7th Recommendation of the World Tribunal on Iraq, June 2005; http://www.worldtribunal.org/
What are the 'benefits' to the MOD of transferring risk to the private sector?
Derek Twigg MP, Under Secretary of State for Defence, talks to PSCA International's Matthew D'Arcy about what lies ahead in bringing a new flexible approach to learning through the Defence Training Review. “Partnership with the private sector does give us flexibility, and this is the key point here, to decrease or increase student throughput. The partner will be able to generate third party income from spare capacity and also dispose of surplus capacity. It also allows for a very important part of the role for industry to bring private sector management expertise and the ability to include significant capital investment at this stage. It is really about delivering a modern and flexible learning environment that will be fit for our service personnel of the future.” Facilities key to defence trainingThe PPP Journal Issue 56 - Thursday, April 12, 2007
Raytheon News
Raytheon Raytheon Tucson is a pretty awful place to work. If you're thinking about working there, you should think long and hard before you accept the offer. ... Raytheon Says 12 Private Wells Are Polluted Raytheon: Plume Is No ThreatTampa Tribune - USA.. environmental experts from Raytheon told a crowd of about 700 people in St. Petersburg on Friday that a toxic plume of chemicals that ...
Rhodri Morgan should be ashamed of himself for supporting raytheon with no supporting evidence
Ending Contractor Impunity see here The Center for Public Integrity, The Windfalls of War. Global Policy Forum. “State Sovereignty and Private Security Companies” webpage with documents, analyses, articles and links. Available here Human Rights Watch, Private Military Contractors and the Law. See here International Committee of the Red Cross, Privatisation of War section. See here Private Military Companies. See here War on Want, Getting Away with Murder. See here Sourcewatch. See here
News: Officials: Hundreds of Iraqis Killed By Faulty Grenades ..failure rates as high as 40 percent. Hundreds and possibly thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed or maimed by outdated, defective U.S. cluster weapons that lack a safety feature other countries have added, according to observers, news reports and officials……… Britain, which joined the USA in the fight to oust Saddam Hussein, fired 2,000 artillery cluster weapons in the war. All were equipped with Israeli-made grenades with secondary fuses and a 2 percent dud rate, the British Defense Ministry said…….."The funding for R and D [research and development] in the Army was minimal, and fusing was the last on the list," said Bruce Mueller, a former Army lieutenant colonel who managed the fuse program for defense contractor Raytheon. "They develop weapons, then they develop munitions, and after they develop munitions, the last thing they worry about is how to fuse them."
Raytheon. The company makes the guidance systems for many of the missiles that are sold to Israel and that caused so much civilian death in the conflict, including the 51 people crushed to death in a bunker in Qana.
Download Corporate Mercenaries [pdf]: War on Want's report on PMSCs - Private Military and Security Companies - Corporate Mercenaries: The threat of private military and security companies…..Northrop Grumman and Raytheon are major arms contractors also selling PMSC services.
Clusterbombs - On April 1st an undetermined number of BLU-97/B submunitions hit Hilla, with reports claiming that at least 33 civilians were dead and around 300 injured.
America Cluster Bombs Iraq - UN Security Council - Global Policy Forum The missile is described by the Navy, its primary developer, and Raytheon Systems, its manufacturer, as a long-range glide bomb. Acting Pentagon spokesman ... www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/2001/0226cstr.htm - 14k -
Dozens of Iraqi dead after cluster bomb attack in Hilla Amnesty International has condemned the Hilla bombing and the US use of clusterbombs, saying that the use of cluster bombs against a civilian area of Hilla... www.ccmep.org/2003_articles/Iraq/040403_dozens_of_iraqi_dead_after_clust.htm - 14k -
The use of cluster bombs Human Rights Watch "U.S. Use of Clusters in Baghdad Condemned" 16 April 2003) The cluster bombs that were used in Hilla were identified by Landmine Action, ... www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3463.htm - 31k -
