This article was submitted to our IPAN website by IPAN SA member Michael Willis. It details some of the inroads that weapons multinationals are making into our education system, and the resistance to this by some of the teacher unions.
Local and overseas arms manufacturers always seek to develop nice, friendly ties with Australian school students and their parents.
This is both a competition for positive social reputations and a competition to search for talented and compliant future employees and researchers.
It is not a new phenomenon and has been happening for more than two decades.
It prompted branches of the Australian Education Union back in the 1990s to develop policies aimed at protecting schools, their curriculum and their students from these “masters of war”.
Several initiatives have recently taken place in this area.
For example, in Toowong (Brisbane) the Toowong State High School was turned into a specifically STEM based state high school, and given $6 million by Boeing for STEM subject work, including students having some experience at Boeing before going on to uni. Boeing manufactures, bombers, fighter and attack aircraft, missiles, drones, military satellites and electric warfare, surveillance and other military products making it the second-largest defence contractor in the world.
It is bad enough that Boeing targets secondary students for recruitment into its world of manufacturing death, but BAE Systems, the British-based company has just announced a project aimed at primary school students, that is, to students in Years 4-6.
The South Australian-based subsidiary of BAE Systems is inviting participation from an initial group of 15 primary schools in SA, WA and NSW.
BAE System’s favoured method of operation is to offer resources to struggling schools in socially-deprived areas. In Australia, BAE sponsors The Smith Family’s STEM education program for underprivileged children. The resources promise to involve students in solving “real world” problems and are often welcomed by teachers keen to find new ways of making education interesting and relevant. Whilst the connection of these companies to the manufacture of weapons to maim and kill people is not at the forefront of the resources, the company’s involvement with schools as a donor or mentor helps to establish their broader social licence. It is a PR exercise designed to prevent community opposition to the presence of their research and manufacturing facilities.
Its new Beacon project is being offered as a five-day intensive camp or a 10-week program. It is currently advertising its program to teachers and schools.
BAE Systems Australia CEO Ben Hudson justified the project, saying “At a time when the number of STEM students across Australia is falling, industry needs to step up to inspire more students to remain in STEM subjects so they might consider an exciting career solving some of the world’s biggest challenges. Our goal with this program is to promote diversity and inclusion in STEM on a national scale, to keep students engaged in their education and raise awareness of future career opportunities.”
In themselves, such projects may have educational value – our concern is that they are the carrot on the stick of enticing young Australians into an uncritical relationship with multinational merchants of death.
Critics of the program are garnering support.
The following motion was put and carried at the Croydon sub-branch, to which SA Premier Malinauskas belongs:
“That the Croydon Sub-Branch of ALPSA expresses its concern and dismay that foreign-owned weapons/arms manufacturers have been provided easy access to South Australian children through their schools. Particularly the BEACON ‘partnership’ established with BAE Systems and the Department of Education aiming to “inspire years 4-6 students”
In the Adelaide ALP sub-branch the following motion was put up:
“BAE Systems Australia has launched a national STEM outreach programme for Year 4-6 students which, according to the company, will give them access to leading edge technologies and seeks to inspire them to solve re al world challenges.
“BAE is the world’s largest military contractor.
“BAE has sold at least £15 billion of arms and services to the Saudi government and is currently profiting from the war in Yemen.
“Through access to schools, BAE will influence students and parents while ignoring the company’s global ventures of technological destruction.
“In 1993, the Australian Education Union adopted a policy that stated:
“No sponsorship under any circumstances should be accepted from corporations involved in the ownership of armaments factories, sales or manufacture or armaments, or environmentally damaging products”.
“Adelaide sub-branch therefore expresses its dismay that a multi-national arms corporation has been provided with easy access to South Australian children through their schools. We call on the State Labor government to withdraw from this partnership and to ensure that arms manufacturers have no further involvement in South Australian schools. This motion should be forwarded to the ALP State Council, the State Minister of Education and the Premier.”
Motions are listed for discussion at other sub-branches as well as the MUA and Independent Education Union.
But this is not just a South Australian matter. Parents throughout the country should stand together and demand that there be no sponsorship in schools of any programs that come from arms manufacturers.
Michael Williss
SA IPAN member.