Land Forces 21 is a bi-annual arms expo held in Australia to promote the arms industry and the major multinational arms manufacturers. It is part of the Federal Government aim of making Australia the 10th largest arms exporting country in the world. It will be held in Brisbane in June this year
Here is an explanation of the campaign to disrupt this event, by one of the Brisbane activists involved.
Note that there are public meetings about the campaign in Lismore, Melbourne and Brisbane (see below)
Disrupt Land Forces, set for May 28 – June 3 in Brisbane this year.
Wage Peace and other groups are organising to resist Land Forces 21 expo there, with a focus on weapons companies selling to Indonesia for use in the war on West Papua. Australian branches of Thales and Rheinmetall are implicated, as is EOS.
No doubt Land Forces 21 is already on your radar, as a major site for the trade and promotion of weaponry and military technology. I’ve been following the campaign to end EOS sales to Saudi and UAE; thank you to all who have been doing this work. The same Remote Control Weapons System (RCWS 400) shipped to UAE and Saudi has been sold to Indonesia, where it is installed on Thales Bushmaster vehicles for use by Kopassus, Indonesia’s notorious special forces.[1]
Yesterday a dozen activists visited EOS subsidiary EM Solutions in Brisbane and stood at and above the entrance from 8-9am, with banners that ensured staff arriving for work were made aware of our objections to the export of terror to West Papua and Yemen. Perhaps you noticed this action on Wage Peace or on Make West Papua Safe platforms, eg here.
Yesterday’s action is building towards the much larger protest we are planning at the Land Forces Expo. The reason we chose the name ‘Disrupt Land Forces’ for the campaign is that we don’t believe we will be able to cancel or stop the expo – at least not this time! – whereas we are confident we will be able to disrupt it.
A coalition of refugee, feminist, peace, first nations and climate groups is already forming. We are open to any kind of participation. Protesting at the venue, letter writing, theatrical interventions, divestment actions – we are really encouraging everyone to participate in ways that feel possible to them. We have a website up, with lots of campaign resources, including a petition to Defence Export Controls and a letter to the Defence Minister. Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts are up. Public meetings are planned from mid-April.
We would love to have your collaboration and input on the campaign to Disrupt Land Forces. The website is disruptlandforces.org
Facebook @DisruptLandForces
Public Meetings
Lismore April 10 https://www.facebook.com/events/438945443885115
Melbourne April 20 https://www.facebook.com/events/610283429928173
Brisbane April 30 https://www.facebook.com/events/147402263901848
Contact
Email account for the campaign info@disruptlandforces.org