Today was the Annual General Meeting for shareholders of BAe SYSTEMS PLC, (the corporation formally known as British Aerospace).
BAe SYSTEMS produce weapons of mass destruction and torture implements, both of which they sell to governments with attrocious records on human rights.
BAe SYSTEMS produce weapons of mass destruction and torture implements, both of which they sell to governments with attrocious records on human rights.
Various activists, including many from Campaign Against the Arms Trade were present either inside or outside the meeting, which took place in the "Queen Elizabeth II" conference centre.
I went as an independent protester, with my single token share in the company, worth 2.5 of your english pennies.
One group of protesters were carried out within 5 minutes of the start of the presentation for refusing after two warnings to stop chanting "Stop the trade in TORTURE, Stop the trade in DEATH".
After about 15 minutes of general bullshit from the panel of executive and non-executive directors (which bizarrely (or not so bizarrely) including the MP Michael Hesseltine), it was time for questions.
Approximately half of the questions from the audience were concerned with the efficient management of the company, and it's corporate strategy. The other half were awkward questions and comments from anti-arms-trade activists with their single token shares in the company (plus one or two genuine shareholders who felt a bit guily - including an berret-wearing old bloke who was a former soldier). A number of eloquent well-made points were raised. Dick Olver, the new CEO (having replaced Mr Evans (another Dick!), responded with all manner of lies, half truths, weasle words and the infamous euphemisms and Orwellian language that the weapons-mass-destruction industry is well known for.
In particular, he defended the company's stance of allowing the government to decide which countries (supposedly) have a decent enough human rights record to export to.
(The problem with this, of course, is that he failed to mention his company's role in constantly BULLYING the government to allow the company to sell indiscrimately to all sorts of high unsavoury regimes. That and the fact that the government are far too cosy to the arms industry in the first place - New Labour and the Tories before them have made it their role to be simultaneously the industry's policeman and their advocate, with the latter role usually taking priority!)
He also assured the assembled congregation that BAe SYSTEMS has a highly stringent ethical policy. He talked of pamphlets; he talked of codes of conduct; he talked of Corporate Social Responsibility; the geezer even talked about committees - well, a committee, dedicated to ensuring the company operates in the most ethically proper way. He failed to explain how all this nonsense and bullshit and general bureaucracy (not to mention SPIN, GREENWASH and PROPAGANDA!) can possibly compensate for supplying electric shock battons to Saudi prisons, Hawk jets to Indonesia and all manner of weapons having been supplied to the American military for its war of aggression against Iraq.
He even mentioned a whistle-blower scheme whereby employees are encouraged to report any unethical practices they witness within the company to an external authority. He went to say that the majority of cases reported were HR related (Human Resources - ie the way management treat their staff - especially their highly paid white collar staff).
This latter admission was meant to be an argument in his defence but I thought it rather proved the point - all their so-called ethics are concerned with internal management - not with the issue of who they sell their KILLING MACHINES to. And yet THIS is the central ethical issue when it comes to a weapons-of-mass destruction producing organisation. Duh!!
I could go on.
But you get the general idea.
I'd had enough after about an hour and a half. So it was time to start shouting "YOU'RE A MURDERER" like the nutter that I am. I was determined to keep going until I was evicted from the building, as I kind of chickened out two years ago when I last attended this particular freakshow.
A team of heavies were called upon by Dick to remove me from the premises. I wasn't going anywhere voluntarily though, so they had to carry me by my arms and legs, out of the hall where they then got me to walk into the lift with them, gripping my arms rather more tightly than was necessary. One of the guys asked me my name. "Mr Jones", I told him with a barely functioning voice, "that's my name, what's yours?". "Mr Smith" was his reply. "Nice to meet you Mr Smith" I croaked. Mr Smith asked if I was alright and encouraged me to calm down, outside the building I was told I would not be readmitted to the AGM. There was a police van with a couple of bobbies standing around, and I was feeling a bit paranoid but they didn't hassle me. I went and chatted to some of the assembled protesters outside (there weren't that many, but I guess there had been more earlier as I'd heard there was supposed to be street theatre), before heading off back to the station to get my train back home.
The arms trade not only wreaks havoc on human lives (both directly and by wrecking vulnerably economies) throughout the world. It is also massively implicated in the military imperialism that is the other side of the corporate-globalisation coin. Afghanistan, Iraq - next stop Iran???
As right wing (and frank) new york times collumnist Thomas Friedman once observed:
”The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist. McDonald’s cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the designer of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley’s technologies is called the United States’ Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps.”
I went as an independent protester, with my single token share in the company, worth 2.5 of your english pennies.
One group of protesters were carried out within 5 minutes of the start of the presentation for refusing after two warnings to stop chanting "Stop the trade in TORTURE, Stop the trade in DEATH".
After about 15 minutes of general bullshit from the panel of executive and non-executive directors (which bizarrely (or not so bizarrely) including the MP Michael Hesseltine), it was time for questions.
Approximately half of the questions from the audience were concerned with the efficient management of the company, and it's corporate strategy. The other half were awkward questions and comments from anti-arms-trade activists with their single token shares in the company (plus one or two genuine shareholders who felt a bit guily - including an berret-wearing old bloke who was a former soldier). A number of eloquent well-made points were raised. Dick Olver, the new CEO (having replaced Mr Evans (another Dick!), responded with all manner of lies, half truths, weasle words and the infamous euphemisms and Orwellian language that the weapons-mass-destruction industry is well known for.
In particular, he defended the company's stance of allowing the government to decide which countries (supposedly) have a decent enough human rights record to export to.
(The problem with this, of course, is that he failed to mention his company's role in constantly BULLYING the government to allow the company to sell indiscrimately to all sorts of high unsavoury regimes. That and the fact that the government are far too cosy to the arms industry in the first place - New Labour and the Tories before them have made it their role to be simultaneously the industry's policeman and their advocate, with the latter role usually taking priority!)
He also assured the assembled congregation that BAe SYSTEMS has a highly stringent ethical policy. He talked of pamphlets; he talked of codes of conduct; he talked of Corporate Social Responsibility; the geezer even talked about committees - well, a committee, dedicated to ensuring the company operates in the most ethically proper way. He failed to explain how all this nonsense and bullshit and general bureaucracy (not to mention SPIN, GREENWASH and PROPAGANDA!) can possibly compensate for supplying electric shock battons to Saudi prisons, Hawk jets to Indonesia and all manner of weapons having been supplied to the American military for its war of aggression against Iraq.
He even mentioned a whistle-blower scheme whereby employees are encouraged to report any unethical practices they witness within the company to an external authority. He went to say that the majority of cases reported were HR related (Human Resources - ie the way management treat their staff - especially their highly paid white collar staff).
This latter admission was meant to be an argument in his defence but I thought it rather proved the point - all their so-called ethics are concerned with internal management - not with the issue of who they sell their KILLING MACHINES to. And yet THIS is the central ethical issue when it comes to a weapons-of-mass destruction producing organisation. Duh!!
I could go on.
But you get the general idea.
I'd had enough after about an hour and a half. So it was time to start shouting "YOU'RE A MURDERER" like the nutter that I am. I was determined to keep going until I was evicted from the building, as I kind of chickened out two years ago when I last attended this particular freakshow.
A team of heavies were called upon by Dick to remove me from the premises. I wasn't going anywhere voluntarily though, so they had to carry me by my arms and legs, out of the hall where they then got me to walk into the lift with them, gripping my arms rather more tightly than was necessary. One of the guys asked me my name. "Mr Jones", I told him with a barely functioning voice, "that's my name, what's yours?". "Mr Smith" was his reply. "Nice to meet you Mr Smith" I croaked. Mr Smith asked if I was alright and encouraged me to calm down, outside the building I was told I would not be readmitted to the AGM. There was a police van with a couple of bobbies standing around, and I was feeling a bit paranoid but they didn't hassle me. I went and chatted to some of the assembled protesters outside (there weren't that many, but I guess there had been more earlier as I'd heard there was supposed to be street theatre), before heading off back to the station to get my train back home.
The arms trade not only wreaks havoc on human lives (both directly and by wrecking vulnerably economies) throughout the world. It is also massively implicated in the military imperialism that is the other side of the corporate-globalisation coin. Afghanistan, Iraq - next stop Iran???
As right wing (and frank) new york times collumnist Thomas Friedman once observed:
”The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist. McDonald’s cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the designer of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley’s technologies is called the United States’ Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps.”
Comments
Hide the following 2 comments
Well done Mr Jones
05.05.2005 10:39
Hold 'em to account!!
Correction
05.05.2005 15:16
Anyway, cheers for the encouragement. Hopefully see a few more people taking part next time :-). Anyone who's interested in guerilla-shareholding can obtain a single share in BAe Systems from Campaign Against The Arms Trade who are more than happy to dish them out to any activist who wants one.
I'm sure there are other organisations that can help you with token shares in stuff like Shell and BP as well.
In answer to the question about institutional shareholders, there were no "ethical investment" companies' representatives there, as those organisations don't invest in arms companies in the first place.
See you all in Gleneagles!
Mr Jones again