STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Sopranos fanatics, this one is for you. Tony Soprano's autographed Suburban is available for purchase on eBayTM. James Gandolfini has personally signed the vehicle. Find this and over 800 other Sopranos items for sale on eBay. http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/ebay ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Here is the table of contents for our next issue of Press for Conversion! The theme of this 46-page issue is: "Taking Over the World: Militarism and Corporate Globalization." Let me know if you'd like any extra copies: 5 copies=$15; 10 copies=$20; 25 copies=$42; 50 copies=$75 I can also send out free sample copies within Canada (to those who haven't received a sample before). If you'd like a free copy, you'll need to send me your address before this Thursday mid-morning, July 19. (If all goes well, that's when we are doing our mailing.) After then, I can mail out copies in exchange for $5 to COAT. Richard Sanders, coordinator, Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT) P.S. Below you'll find an article written by yours truly, called: "War Technology: The Cutting Edge of Economic Power." (Check out the web link to Leonardo Da Vinci's drawing of a "scythed assault chariot.") -------------- Press for Conversion! Issue 45 July 2001 Quarterly magazine of the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade Taking Over the World: Militarism and Corporate Globalization ***** Origins of Globalization ***** War Technology: The Cutting Edge of Economic Power By Richard Sanders, Coordinator, Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade The Hidden Agenda: Pax Americana and Postwar Corporate Rule By Richard K. Moore The U.S. versus the World: Globalization or Global Hegemony? By Naseer Aruri, Jerusalem-born professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth. ***** Making the Links ***** The UN: Getting into Bed with Big Business By George Monbiot, author of Poisoned Arrows, Amazon Watershed and No Man's Land Lecturer in philosophy and environmental science at the Universities of Keele and East London. The Rise of Global Corporate Power By Sarah Anderson, Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) Fellow and John Cavanagh, IPS Director. A Convergence of Globalization and Militarization By Theresa Wolfwood, Board member, Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group and director, Barnard-Boecker Centre Foundation. Definitions of Globalization: Let's Not Get Confused By Felicity Hill, Director, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom - UN office in New York City. Nike's Armies: How the Military Enforces Global Capitalism By Jeff Ballinger, founder and director of Press for Change, a New Jersey-based consumer-information NGO monitoring workers' rights issues in Asia. ***** Military Industries ***** War and Globalization Support American Business By Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa; author of The Globalization of Poverty, 1998. Dealers in Death: A Visit to an International Arms Bazaar By Robert Fisk, Middle East correspondent for the London Independent. Did Canadian Weapons Kill Protesters in Papua New Guinea? By Richard Sanders, Coordinator, Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade The Pentagon and International Mega-Mergers By the Federation of American Scientists ***** Weapons in Space ***** The Spaceman Cometh: Corporate Rule and Control By Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator, Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space U.S. Military Plans to Fight Wars in Space By Karl Grossman, professor of journalism, State University of New York/College at Old Westbury; author of The Wrong Stuff: The Space Program's Nuclear Threat to our Planet; convener, Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. ***** FTAA ***** From the WTO to the FTAA By Steven Staples, Chair, International Network on Disarmament and Globalization and Issue Campaigns Coordinator, Council of Canadians. FTAA and Plan Colombia: Partners in Imperialism By the Seattle Colombia Committee The Poisoned Fruits of Neo-Liberalism By Fidel Castro Ruz, President of Cuba. ***** Events and Resources ***** Conference, Teach In, List Serve, Publication ----------- Press for Conversion also includes: VANA UPDATE National Newsletter of Veterans Against Nuclear Arms "Missile Defense" Insanity is No Defence The New Star Wars Missile Proliferation, Globalized Insecurity & Demand-side Strategies Notes ... on Canada ... on Europe ... on NATO ... on the U.S. ... on other Countries Reports DREC and VANA Executive and Branch Reports Short Shots ---------------------------------------------- Here's one article from Press for Conversion! (#45) July 2001 NOTE: The graphic that goes with this article is a drawing by Leonardo Da Vinci of a "scythed assault chariot." This is one of Leonardo's many very wicked inventions, described in the article below). Check it out at: <http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/~kuijt/dba169x/assaultchariot.jpg> War Technology: The Cutting Edge of Economic Power By Richard Sanders, Coordinator, Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade -------------------------- Machiavelli meets Da Vinci "In 1499, a civil servant named Niccol? Machiavelli recruited a local engineer named Leonardo da Vinci to devise a plan to change the course of the Arno River. Diverting that river would deprive Florence's enemy, the nearby city-state of Pisa, of a dependable water supply. It would also make the Arno River navigable for ocean-going vessels from the inland city of Florence. Machiavelli and da Vinci devised a hydrological plan that was extraordinarily promising, at least on paper. The flood-prone Arno, however, made the task an impossible challenge. Their failure brought official disfavor on Machiavelli and da Vinci alike. Leonardo transferred his studio to Milan and then Rome, where he produced remarkable work, while Machiavelli retreated from public life and used his forced leisure to write The Prince." (Review of Roger Masters' book Fortune is a River: Leonardo Da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli's Magnificent Dream to Change the Course of Florentine History, 1998.) -------------------------- The relationship between technology, politics, warfare and wealth hasn't changed much over the centuries. The Machiavellis of the world have devised more and more diabolical means to increase the power of their rulers. They've used military assaults, political deception, economic warfare - even hydrological projects - to strengthen themselves and vanquish their enemies. Planning such vast crimes requires assistance from great minds, like Leonardo Da Vinci - whose scientific imagination far surpassed his moral scruples. Besides creating transcendent religious art to inspire reverence for the "Prince of Peace," Da Vinci contracted out his services to build war machines for "The Prince." Da Vinci's sketch of an armoured tank is well-known. He also designed a bewildering array of deadly devices such as building-sized crossbows and cannons, catapults and even a primitive machine gun. But the killing machines that best betray Da Vinci's evil genius and moral depravity, are his "scythed assault chariots." His drawings show large spinning blades cutting a swath through a crowd - mowing people down like stalks in a field of ripe wheat - covering the ground with severed limbs and heads. Gruesome indeed! Although war machines these days are far more brutal, they are surprisingly disassociated from blood and gore. Shiny new warplanes perform at "air shows" as glorious objects of children's entertainment. Space weapons, heralding a whole new era in global warfare and economic domination are sold to the gullible public as a defensive shield against "rogue states." New innovations in war technology have always been at the cutting edge of economic power. The powerful rulers of Babylon, Egypt, Rome, Greece and other empires used military technology to enforce their economic dominion over others. Just as these elites have funded advances in war technology, they have also promoted developments in transportation, communication, mapping and industrialization. These developments have allowed smaller and smaller cliques to administer more and more sophisticated social systems, in order to exploit labour and to extract resources from increasingly vast territories. By the 18th century, European colonial powers had carved up much of the world into "spheres of influence." They used their military superiority to kidnap millions from Africa, transport them to the "New World" and enslave them to produce raw materials for processing in Europe. Revolutionary industrial techniques produced such vast amounts of finished goods, that global markets were required. As weapons become deadlier and economic injustice more pervasive, it becomes increasingly difficult to justify the excesses of empire. So, to maintain their grip on power, ruling elites continually develop more sophisticated propaganda systems. They rely as heavily on deceiving their own populations as they do on violently subjugating others. As such, good public relations are as important as militarism in the task of propelling forward the grinding wheels of "progress." Financial incentives are also used to grease the wheels of militarism and corporate globalization, but they are not enough. It is not always enough to bribe scientists to design increasingly brutal instruments of death or to pay off bureaucrats to devise economic programs that steal from the poor and give to the rich. It is also essential to perpetuate cultural myths about "humanitarian wars" and bogus economic "trickle down" theories. For as long as there have been technological and social engineers helping the rich to get richer at the expense of the poor, there have been those who struggle for peace and advocate justice for the downtrodden. Unable to match the weapons or wealth of corporate elites, such advocates have "spoken truth to power." By exposing the lies and hypocrisy of those who control vast arsenals of violence and deception, seemingly powerless individuals and organizations strive to undermine the elite's ability to recruit public support and to build consent for wars that increase their wealth. ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Richard Sanders Coordinator, Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT) A national peace network supported by individuals and organizations across Canada 541 McLeod St., Ottawa Ontario K1R 5R2 Canada Tel.: 613-231-3076 Fax: 613-231-2614 Email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Web site: <http://www.ncf.ca/coat> Help build opposition to NATO PA meetings in Ottawa, Oct. 5-8, 2001! Join the "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" list serve: Send the message: subscribe no_to_nato to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Click a smiley to send an instant message to an online friend ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
