Category: Action

Sinds 6.30 uur vanochtend blokkeren activisten van Stop the War on Migrants! en de Anarchistische Anti-deportatie Groep Utrecht (AAGU) de ingangen van wapenbedrijf Thales in Hengelo (Haaksbergerstraat 49). Zij protesteren met de actie tegen de rol van Thales (voorheen bekend als Holland Signaalapparaten (HSA)) in de zogenaamde ‘vluchtelingencrisis’. Wapenexporten van Thales dragen bij aan oorlog, repressie en mensenrechtenschendingen, belangrijke oorzaken voor gedwongen migratie. Het bedrijf verdient daarna nog eens aan het leveren van materieel voor grensbewaking en -controle om de mensen die hierdoor gedwongen op de vlucht moeten slaan tegen te houden.

Verschillende mensen hebben zich vastgeketend aan de toegangshekken van Thales, waardoor autoverkeer het bedrijfsterrein niet op kan. Anderen staan met spandoeken bij de poorten en delen flyers uit aan werknemers. Bij de ingang aan de Haaksbergerstraat wordt de lange lijst met vluchtelingen die de dood vonden aan de grenzen van ‘Fort Europa’ voorgelezen.
Een woordvoerder van de activisten zegt: “Thales verdient grof geld aan oorlog en aan het onmenselijke Europese vluchtelingenbeleid. Vandaag maken wij duidelijk dat dit onacceptabel is en dat Thales niet ongestoord dit dodelijke werk kan voortzetten. Met de blokkade worden deze activiteiten van Thales publiekelijk aan de kaak gesteld en even een halt toegeroepen, maar ze zouden natuurlijk voor altijd moeten stoppen.” Continue reading “Blokkade wapenbedrijf Thales in Hengelo tegen verdienen aan ‘vluchtelingencrisis’”

On April 11 we supported and joined the solidarity demo for We Are Here. We were also asked to speak. Here’s the text of that speech:

Fortress Europe means perpetual war. It is a war of borders against migrants. It is a war of weapons companies against societies. It is a war of the rich against the dispossessed. Fortress Europe exports destruction and imports resources. For hundreds of years it has sucked wealth out of Africa, out of Asia, out of the Middle East.
Lobbyists in Brussels and the Hague make sure that the European Union knows where its priorities lie. Share value is more important than providing decent and fulfilling lives. Fortress Europe is a machine that wants to keep on growing, and will eat our livelihoods to do so.

European companies extract natural gas out of Libya, fueling a civil war; European companies pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, turning the farms of South Sudan into fields of sand; European companies sell missiles and warplanes to Saudi Arabia, turning the vibrant cities of Yemen into bomb craters. In these companies’ search for constant profits, humans are expendable: they are killed, locked up and denied a decent living.

When people flee the destruction that Europe has exported into the rest of the world, they come face to face the full war machine. Army units patrol the Balkan route. NATO navies steam around the Mediterranean. The European Union is turning the world into one big militarized border, creating new barriers where before there were none, pressuring and
bribing governments in Northern Africa to fortify their borders. As a result, crossing the Sahara is now more dangerous than crossing the Mediterranean. Fortress Europe sends troops into Mali, and high-tech surveillance equipment into Senegal and Sudan. It strikes deals with Turkey, sending money and weapons in exchange for sniper towers on the border with Syria. It strikes deals with militias in Libya, sending radar equipment to their navy in exchange for migrant prisons where people are forced to work in slavery. Fortress Europe’s bottom line is an ever-increasing flow of wealth to shareholders, and ever greater control over the movement of people.

This war directly benefits weapons companies based in the Netherlands. Airbus, selling army helicopters and drones to EU border guards; Damen, sending ships to the Libyan navy; TNO, creating integrated border surveillance systems; And Thales, selling radar systems to the Egyptian army. These companies turn us against one another. The security industry
manufactures insecurity. It feeds a fear of migration, in favor of a tiny group of shareholders.

But this demonstration shows that the power of solidarity is stronger than the power of the shareholders of Airbus and Thales. If we ever want to live together safely, we need to break the deadly machine that is Fortress Europe. We need to open the migrant prisons, both here in the Netherlands and all along the migration routes; We need to end weapons
production and export; We need to shift our technological capabilities away from death and climate destruction; We need to redistribute wealth globally, away from the shareholders and their lobbyists; We need to fight for good, fulfilling lives, for housing and healthcare for everyone; Together, we need to stop the war on migrants.

Legal team / Arrestee group during the demonstration at Okura Hotel tomorrow, Wednesday April 11:

This is a legal demonstration that is announced to the authorities so we don’t expect many problems. There is, however, always a chance that you might get arrested during this demonstration.

The legal support group is ready for you and you can reach them on: 0629296141. If you see any arrests taking place, please also inform them but be careful to not mention names during the phone call.

We have asked the lawyer Willem Jebbink to assist us in case of an arrest, his phone number is 0655791837. He and his colleagues will be ready and you can ask for him if you get arrested.

Furthermore, we will spread infosheets with legal information during the demo so that you know everything you need to know if you’re arrested.

Have a good one!

Picture:
making white suits and missiles as part of the theatrical demonstration Wednesday April 11 at Okura Hotel during Airbus’ shareholders meeting.

We need your help to make it work:

It can be difficult for people to imagine what a company like Airbus does, so we are going to point it out in a loud and visual way. In order to do this we need everyone to contribute to the theme of the demo.

We need some people to be dressed up in formal clothing (suits and ties etc). This is if you have you own formal clothes as we are unable to obtain more than white T-shirts. These people will be selling the shares we have created and represent the bureaucratic/profit based side of Airbus;

Picture: making the banner

We need some people to be wearing white paper suits (which we can provide) that will hold onto the missiles. This will represent the technological side of the company;

At the end of the demo some people will be covered in white sheets on the ground to symbolize the people who have lost their lives due to this dirty business;

Last but not least, there will be sirens and noise to start with as well, so pots and pans en drums etcetera: bring them along!

To: Hotel Okura, Amsterdam

Written to: events@okura.nl, info@okura.nl

Write your own e-mail or use this one as an example!
Or tweet, post on their facebook page: here’s how and where.

Subject: reservation shareholders meeting Airbus April 11, 2018

To whom it may concern,

On Wednesday April 11th, you are scheduled to host Airbus’ Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, which has taken place at your hotel every year now for several years.
In light of the information which will be laid out in this letter, we at Stop the War on Migrants call on you to cancel this event.

Airbus is the second largest arms producer in Europe and the seventh largest in the world. It makes profit selling aircrafts and missiles to countries at war, repressive regimes, and human rights abusers. In this way it fuels the crises that force people to flee their homes. Then, it profits again providing the EU with border security equipment meant to stop refugees and migrants. In recent years we have seen the increasing militarization of the EU borders, which is intended to prevent the entry of people forced to move due to crises often created, contributed to, or intensified by, Western/EU policy (including arms trade policy).

The result of this militarization has been ever more violence, brutality, and difficulty for migrants trying to reach Europe. Airbus has a direct role in perpetuating this violence and brutality: not only does it provide the EU with equipment, it is also a key player in the industrial lobby which pushes for the militarization of the borders. The company sees, in the further fortification of Europe, and the accompanying brutalization of migrants trying to enter it, an opportunity to increase its profits and please its shareholders.

On April 11th Airbus and its shareholders will celebrate the rising profits of their deadly business, paying no attention to the rising number of deaths in the Mediterranean, Middle-East and Africa where their products are being used. We urge you, Hotel Okura, not to give them this platform to normalize and conceal the brutality they’re perpetuating, and to cut all ties with this company and the military and security industry of which it forms a vital part. Don’t give Airbus a platform to whitewash their bloody business at your hotel.

Regards,

Stop the War on Migrants.

From: Doorbraak

Op 29 maart gaat Hannah de Vries namens het wapenbedrijf Airbus op de faculteit Sociale Wetenschappen van de Leidse universiteit een praatje houden over haar werk in human resource management. In het kader van een “CareerCollege” wil ze studenten aan die faculteit gaan voorspiegelen dat Airbus voor hen in de toekomst een aantrekkelijke werkplek zou kunnen zijn. Zo zet de universiteit haar deuren wagenwijd open voor een van de grootste wapenbedrijven ter wereld, die handelt volgens het motto “de ander z’n dood is nu eenmaal ons brood”. Maak bezwaar tegen de propaganda voor wapenbedrijven op de universiteit en stuurt ook een protestmail (zie hieronder).

Continue reading “Protesteer tegen de propaganda voor wapenbedrijf Airbus op de Leidse universiteit!”