Books

Don’t just oppose war, oppose the arms industry

RAE STREET recommends a useful guide that scotches the misguided belief that the arms industry is needed for the economy and jobs

Friday, October 18, 2024 

MORNING STAR

Protesters gather outside the Business and Trade department in London to show solidarity with Palestine, as they campaign against military arms being manufactured in the UK and sent to Israel, Wednesday May 1, 2024.

Monstrous Anger of The Guns – How The Global Arms Trade Is Ruining The World & What We can do About it

Rhona Michie, Andrew Feinstein and Paul Rogers, Pluto Press, £16.99

THE title of the book is taken from Wifred Owen’s poem Anthem For Doomed Youth: “What passing-bells for these who die like cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns.”

On September 16 2024 the Morning Star commented that “opposition to war is too vague: we need to oppose the arms industry itself.” This book, sponsored by the Peace and Justice Project, provides us with a tool to do just that.

In the opening preface, Jeremy Corbyn states: “We live in an age of rapid armament, rising geopolitical tensions, and growing division between the super-rich and the more than a billion people who suffer poverty, hunger and reduced life prospects.”

He says: “So many times in my political life journalists from corporate media have asked me if, as prime minister, I would ‘push the nuclear button,’ but I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I have been asked how we can reduce the threat of nuclear conflict and build a world of peace.”

The aim of the book is “to expose the market of death, known in polite society as the arms trade” and this it certainly does.

The opening chapter, by Anna Stavrianakis, focuses on the global arms trade, pointing out that in 2021 global military expenditure passed the $2 trillion mark for the first time. Needless to say, the biggest proportion of this is from the US.

To realise how the arms trade is driven by the profit motive, you have only to remember the end of the cold war. The expansion of Nato was led by Bruce Jackson, technical director of Lockheed Martin, the huge US military manufacturer. When the former Soviet bloc countries joined Nato their planes had to be interoperable so it was out with the old Soviet arms and in with huge sales for US military hardware. Lockheed was laughing all the way to the bank.

There is still a belief, including in the trade unions, that the military industry is needed for the economy and jobs. As the essay by Stuart Parkinson explains, there are opportunities for conversion from the arms industry to civilian industries. And if there was a shift to more socially useful manufacture, such as renewable energy or energy strorage, this would also help tackle problems of climate change and energy security.

The book also uncovers other horrors of the arms trade. In one chapter, Antony Loewenstein talks about “the Palestine laboratory.” As he says: “Since October 7 2023, Palestinians in Gaza have become guinea pigs in a grotesque war of annihilation, with the latest drones, killing machines and arms battle-tested by Israel and it foreign backers.”

We also learn of movements against the arms trade, most obviously Campaign Against Arms Trade; those against weapons and militarism like Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; those against war like Stop the War Coalition; students in Demilitarise Education; and direct action by Palestine Action.

In the conclusion, the editors state, in our bitterly divided and violent world that although “the neoliberal system itself will continue in its relentless process of diverting more and more wealth and power to the elites… sustained campaigning, research and action are therefore contributing not just to a less heavily militrised world, but also to the wider building of a fairer and more just world order.”

I would urge buying this book to learn more about the arms trade and have at your fingertips facts and figures to quote. You could also ask your local library to get a copy.