Call to Action: “Disarming Rheinmetall – war starts here”

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netherlands / germany / austria | imperialism / war | anarchist communist event Sunday August 05, 2018 23:51 by someone, but could be anyone

Statement by a collective that is aiming to stop the weapon manufactur 'Rheinmetall'.
Rheinmetall produces for example tanks that are used by turkey for their ethnic cleansing of rojava. War starts here and it is about us to do something against.

A protest camp just next to a Rheinmetall production area will take place from 29.08.2018 - 04.09.2018 in Germany in Unterlues.

German weapons are involved in killing on a global scale. With respect to arms exports, Germany is ranked fourth worldwide and even second in the EU. In the past ten years Rheinmetall managed to become one of the largest players in the munitions industry without causing an outcry.

With the help of subsidiaries overseas, Rheinmetall even succeeds in bypassing those few rules on arms exports that are in existence, leading to sales in war zones and crisis regions. The consequences are profitable and bloody at the same time: people are dying due to bombs that were produced by Rheinmetall in Italy. Against international law, Turkey is at war in Afrin, Northern Syria, with the help of Leopard 2 tanks. The Turkish NATO army annihilates societal structures which were pointing the way ahead in previous years concerning women’s liberation, grassroots democracy, and ecology .

In partnership with this regime, Rheinmetall aims at building a munitions factory as well as producing tanks in Turkey. Moreover, Rheinmetall is building a factory for the Fox armored transport vehicle in Algeria. This list could be continued for quite some time.

We do not want to allow Rheinmetall to keep on killing people with their armaments any longer.

It is clear from the start that the discussion about export controls and human rights does not play any role in reality. German policy does not defend any moral values abroad but strives to sell German products, including military equipment. Although 80 % of the German population object to these arms exports, the ones responsible seem to be sparsely impressed. In the past, multiple protests against Rheinmetall have been executed already: for instance, camps and actions at Rheinmetall factories and at the German Army’s Combat Training Centre (GÜZ) based in the Colbitz-Letzlinger Heide which is also run by the company. This year, we want to build on those with a demonstration, a peace camp, and various actions at Rheinmetall’s production site in Unterlüß. Hereby, we collectively speak out against defense production and its direct consequences such as war, terror, forced migration, and poverty.

The activities surrounding the Anti-war Day on 1 September do not only signify our resistance against a defense contractor, but also our campaign for another world. We want to discuss the transition from a destructive industry to civil and ecological production instead. We want to stand up for peaceful and social cooperation instead of murder and fierce competition. We cannot bear a world full of discrimination and repression any longer.

Embedded Video Description: War starts here - lets stop it