People and Planet meeting

kernow/cornwall | peace | event notice Thursday February 05, 2009 13:45 by Ms Anne Thropy - People and Planet Rainbow_fnord at hotmail dot co dot uk

Hey everyone, we’ll be meeting next Wednesday 11th Feb at 8pm at Jacobs Ladder. Among other things we’ll be discussing:

Exeter uni's shares in the arms trade - This is something we can really affect while we're studying here. Exeter uni have shares in Smith group and Rolls Royce: 25% of Rolls Royce’s sales are military sales. Recent military contracts include $500m+ in Engines to US Army & Airforce and a Nuclear Core for Royal Navy Astute Submarine! They make nuclear cores for the Trident system. That means money from your tuition fees may be being invested in the nuclear weapons industry.

Despite claiming to have an ethical policy, they also have shares in Shell (climate change), RBS (funding climate change), Unilever (vivisection) and GlaxosmithKline (vivisection). Nice! A full list of Exeter's investments can be found at http://www.admin.ex.ac.uk/finance/publications/investme...shtml

Helston Gunsmiths – A couple of weeks ago the roof of a local arms factory was occupied by anti-military activists. Following on from this we’d like to call a noise demo outside the factory and we really need your help.

About the factory: In 2007, the UK sold weapons to 11 of the 13 countries identified as being locations with at least one armed conflict in 2006. Helston Gunsmiths were involved in supplying guns to the Iraqi police force which ended up in the hands of Al Qaeda. It's hard to determine where weapons will eventually end up, and arms manufacturers have a vested interest in keeping things this way. Around 90% of casualties in armed conflicts are caused by small arms, which are used for domestic repression by corrupt regimes and prolong violent conflict.

We’ll also be discussing plans to oppose the expansion of Newquay airport, allotments at Tremough, Fairtrade fortnight and anything else you’d like to bring to the group. Hope to see you all there. :)