Hi Friends,

A number of Wellington Young, and not so young, Friends (SOYFA) gathered on Friday 8 September to share concerns and thoughts about what is happening at Te Papa again this October. The feeling among all present was that it was something we wanted to continue to discuss and to take action against, in a distinctly Quakerly way.

Over the last four years, the Defence Industry Association has been hosting a conference at ‘Our Place’ Te Papa Tongarewa. It’s an Arms Fair, where international companies, as well as NZ companies, get together to have a big old show-off about the latest and greatest in weapons technology. They sign contracts and make deals to further their own interests. These people are making a profit by producing killing machines, and better yet, they’re doing it in our national museum.

International companies who attend the Weapons Conference include

· Boeing, who, among other things, make cruise missiles;

· General Dynamics, whose killing machines include nuclear submarines for the United States Navy; and

· Rockwell Collins, who provide navigation products for precision-guided missiles, the so-called 'smart' bombs that have been killing civilians in towns and cities all over Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and now Lebabnon.

New Zealand companies who attend the Weapons Conference include

· Flexisolutions from Foxton, whose creatively named weapons include the "Jungle Sweeper grenade";

· MAS Zengrange from Lower Hutt, who make a whole range of remote firing systems;

· Oscmar from Auckland, who make 'realistic' shoot-to-kill laser training equipment, infantry weapons effects simulators, shoulder launched anti-tank weapon simulators, land mines effects simulators, (and more!); and

· Rakon from Auckland, who make key components in "smart bombs" and has a contract with Rockwell, who supplies the Israeli Military Forces. (Attached below to this blog is article (heavily edited to aid digrestion) from the NZ Herald about Rakon.

The bombs dropping in Lebanon right now have components labelled "Made In NZ". As taxpayers supporting the Ministry of Defence and Ministry and Trade and Industry NZ, we are helping to fund the manufacture of these bombs.

Every day global military expenditure is equivalent to (US) $ 2,835,616,438. (That’s in the billions my friends)

Every day, on average, close to thirty thousand children under the age of five die from malnutrition or disease because they do not have access to adequate food, clean water, or basic health care. Thousands more children are maimed, traumatised or killed in armed conflict and war.

Knowing this, the New Zealand government chooses to promote and support companies that manufacture and export weapons related products.

This is why we, Wellington Young Friends, have chosen to have a presence at the Weapons Conference at Te Papa, on the 17th and 18th of October, and to take action before the event to try and prevent it happening.

We each made a commitment to talk to people we know about the Conference, to help bring it to more peoples’ attention, and we began have begun to make plans of other ways we can protest this event.

Other groups, such as Peace Movement Aotearoa and Peace Action Wellington will be protesting at Te Papa, as they have done previous years, and their campaign was launched on Saturday the 2nd of September.

If you’re interested to hear more about what SOYFA does to stop the Weapons Conference, you could contact Hannah Newport (04) 3835887 or Ruth Collingham (04) 3813429.

If you’re interested in knowing more about the Conference, companies who attend, and other protests are taking place, visit:

And lastly:

"Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday that the Cabinet had agreed to lend Right Hemisphere up to $US8m ($NZ12.2m) over three years to keep the joint-venture company and its staff in New Zealand... The company designs software for several US military suppliers, including Black Hawk helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft, Bell Helicopter, Halliburton, the principal supplier to US armed forces in Iraq, and Lockheed Martin, the world's largest defence contractor."

In Peace

Hannah