Campaigns
Stop the Weapons Industry and Annual Weapons Conference
This campaign is focused on the opposing the annual weapons conference held in Wellington every year. The conference is organised by the New Zealand Defence Industry Association and is attended by over 200 delegates from some of the world's larges weapons manufacturers. This year the conference is happening on 15-16 November.
Weapons producers are also called war profiteers because they exist to make money from bloodshed and violence. Every time ammunition is used or a weapon deployed, it is money in the bank for these companies. These companies conduct extensive research and product testing for the extra advantage that will make their weapons, training systems, or components best sellers with militaries and mercenaries around the world. Here in NZ our tax dollars are supporting this so-called ‘research’. In 2003, Trade and Industry NZ gave $100,000 to Flexisolutions to develop its jungle-sweeper grenade. This item was described as likely to be popular with anti-terrorism forces. Along with these grants, Trade and Industry assist members to capitalise on export markets. Members of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) and the New Zealand Ministry of Defence (MOD) are active supporters and participants in NZDIA activities. They participate through their Industry Liaison Managers who work closely with New Zealand companies, to promote commercial opportunities in the supply of products and services.
Troops Out Now!
The Troops Out Now campaign is focused on New Zealand's involvement in wars of occupation around the world including the so-called 'war on terrorism', Afghanistan, East Timor (now Timor-Leste), the Solomon Islands and Tonga.
The Defence Force (NZDF) enjoys quite a good reputation among the general population of New Zealand. They are largely seen as a beneficial force. Both their local and overseas missions are portrayed by the mass media as altruistic and neutral acts undertaken in dangerous conflict zones or natural disasters. Their missions are labelled as 'peacekeeping', 'reconstruction' or 'security.'
In this light, it is salient to remember that the singular purpose of any army is to wage war — for this it trains 24-hours a day, 365 days a year. That is not to say that the New Zealand military is actively seeking to engage in war, but rather, that war is its primary business. The two components of that war machine are first, the physical defence of the territory of New Zealand and the surrounding waters, and secondly, the protection of the perceived 'interests' of the New Zealand state elsewhere in the world.
"New Zealand does not face any direct military threat"
J Mateparae, Chief of the New Zealand Defence Force
(NZDF Annual Report 2005 - 2006 , p8)
...so why are they engaged in military activity in 13 different countries?
At present, the NZDF is engaged in 18 missions around the world. These missions are on nearly every continent: Antarctica, Africa, Asia, Australia, North America and Europe. In these missions, the New Zealand military is a political tool used to serve the particular policy goals of the current government. Some of these policy goals include free-trade deals with the United States and China, access to cheap energy sources, and selling more dairy and sheep meat. “New Zealand's defence and foreign policies are aligned to secure our territorial, economic, social and cultural interests” says the Chief of the Defence Force; in other words, the government acts out of self-interest.
It is important to consider that the army need not always to be engaged in specific combat situations in order to 'secure New Zealand's interests'. In other words, invading armies and occupations require that a range of different jobs be done as part of the war effort: active combat troops, logistical support, 'hearts and minds' propaganda exercises, training and surveillance, just to name a few. Increasingly, New Zealand soldiers are deployed to build infrastructure, disperse medicine and run non-military training programs. By undertaking these sorts of tasks, the NZDF appears to the New Zealand public as a self-less group of do-gooders, while their contributions are touted as militarily significant and valuable to NZ's war partners. The government wants the people of New Zealand to believe that the military is not waging war, while it wants other governments, specifically the US and Australia, to acknowledge and reward NZ for doing so.
Certainly, there may be beneficial results of the particular actions of soldiers. An army of occupation is still an army of occupation even if it saves the life of child wounded by a car bomb, for example. However, these actions must be viewed within the overall context of self-interested military deployment which will have much more fundamental and sustained detrimental results on the people.
It is hardly a radical idea to suggest that the military is serving political interests. The 18th century Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz famously said, “War is a continuation of politics by other means.” The New Zealand military is deployed to achieve particular self-interested political objectives not as some altruistic, neutral force. It is these 'self-interested' objectives which deserve further consideration and examination. We must uncover precisely what 'interests' are being served by these military deployments and understand the ideas which guide this approach to world affairs and politics. If we truly want a peaceful and just world, we must address the causes of war and unmask the cyncial propaganda exercises intended to dupe us into agreeing to state-sanctioned murder.
The three conflict situations that we are choosing to focus on right now are Afghanistan, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste. Each one of these conflicts is a complex situation, with particular agendas and interests being served. It is crucial to appreciate that none of these conflicts emerged from a historical vacuum. In other words, these wars and occupations happened as a result of events, often over a very long period of time, not from immediate violence erupting on the streets, as the mass media would like us to believe. To that extent, we would invite you to read our individual fact sheets which provide a great deal more detail as well as links to articles and other organisations.
As people committed to peace and justice, it is our responsibility to understand what lies beneath the propaganda. It is our responsibility to find out in what ways we can oppose war effectively and support the aspirations of people living under military occupation. To that end, the people involved in this campaign are committed to ending New Zealand troop deployments overseas, ending New Zealand participation in joint training or military exercises with any other military, including the United Nation and denying any support for foreign military, including the 'war on terror.'