Get Your Armies Off Our Bodies wagepeace

Our last episode looked at weapons companies’ influence campaigns on kids in schools, and even in early childhood.
This influence also reaches deep into our universities.
Education in STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths – should be a public good.
But weapons companies have gone all-out to make sure universities serve their agenda, in research, and in recruitment.
We need to face up to this. And this episode has a great example of doing just that, from the UK.
 
Produced and presented by Zelda Grimshaw and the team at Wage Peace
 
Relevant links (UK-based):
Demilitarise Education: https://ded1.co/
Stop Killer Robots: https://www.stopkillerrobots.org/
Forces Watch: https://www.forceswatch.net/
 
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Weapons don’t just design and build themselves – they need highly-skilled people to do this.  
But most of us have no intention of joining in mass murder. What’s a weapons company supposed to do? It turns out they have lots of tricks and techniques to get hold of the people they need – and they target them younger than you might think, right in school. Or even before...
Zoe was one they tried to inveigle into the war business. Elise West from Medical Association for the Prevention of War is one of the campaigners aiming to erase weapons companies’ ability to get a hold of our kids. You'll hear from both of them in this episode.
Produced and presented by Zelda Grimshaw and the team at Wage Peace
Links mentioned in the episode:
MAPW’s report Minors and Missiles: https://www.mapw.org.au/campaigns/weapons-companies-influence/
Gruen, Series 14, Episode 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDGOOoPRV4Q
BAE Systems and The Smith Family: The strange case of the weapons maker and the Australian children's charity | Paul Daley | The Guardian
UPDATE 1: since the interviews for this episode, the NSW Education Department has also designated weapons companies as not appropriate to be involved in the school classroom.
UPDATE 2: Teachers in Australia are mobilising to end militarism in our classrooms. Join the campaign here: https://teachersforpeace.com.au/
  Find us at Wage Peace:
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* In loving memory of Zoe Hulme Peake. *
"We can imagine something better, together." 

Jangan Bunuh Kami Lagi / Stop Killing Us! The previous episode told the story of the canoe that brought Adolf and 42 others to Australia. This not the only journey in solidarity between here and West Papua.
This is Izzy Brown’s story, about the Freedom Flotilla, and family connections to the West Papua campaign – including one connection that’s too close to home.
 
Sounds from:
Wantok Musik’s album We Have Come to Testify, Various Artists: https://wantokmusik.bandcamp.com/album/we-have-come-to-testify
Combat Wombat, Plant Dem Seeds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ1qPSvfWmw
Freedom Flotilla documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE4PjQNKIzQ
 
Episode links:
War on West Papua, tracking weapons sales into the territory:
https://waronwestpapua.org
Freedom Flotilla: https://freedomflotillawestpapua.org/
Freedom Flotilla exchange: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8MgUSzcJmg
Investigation into ASIO and Timor Leste leaks: https://etan.org/et99c/december/1-4/01asio.htm
Reports on West Papua: https://humanrightsmonitor.org/
Filep Karma and the Citizens’ Tribunal on the Biak Massacre: https://www.biak-tribunal.org/video-testimony-filep-karma/
Filep Karma detention (2011): https://insidestory.org.au/filep-karma-and-the-fight-for-papuas-future/
 
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Jangan Bunuh Kami Lagi / Stop Killing Us!
In the towns and cities and among the hills and valleys of West Papua, a desperate struggle for independence and the preservation of cultures and ways of life is raging.
The compelling stories of West Papua are rarely heard in Australia or around the world.
This is Adolf’s story, from childhood in the mountain village, to protests in the city, to fleeing for his life to continue his campaign outside the country.
And a boat that helped break some of the silence around West Papua.
 
 
Sounds from Wantok Musik’s album We Have Come to Testify, Various Artists:
https://wantokmusik.bandcamp.com/album/we-have-come-to-testify
 
Episode Links:
Reports on West Papua: https://humanrightsmonitor.org/
Sophie Chao: https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2022/april/1648731600/sophie-chao/psychic-terror-wrought-palm-oil-production#mtr
Citizens’ Tribunal on the Biak Massacre: https://www.biak-tribunal.org/
Australian complicity:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/19/killed-like-animals-documents-reveal-how-australia-turned-a-blind-eye-to-a-west-papuan-massacre
 
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From the Frontier Wars to police in communities to the biggest weapons ever made.
Militarism started in this continent when the British invaded over two hundred years ago, and it continues to this day.
Boe Spearim, Aunty Sue Coleman-Haseldine, and Uncle Ned Hargreaves tell their stories of struggles that are vital for all of us.
 
Produced and presented by Zelda Grimshaw and the team at Wage Peace
 
Sounds from Spoonbill: https://soundcloud.com/spoonbill
 
Relevant links:
Frontier War Stories Podcast: https://boespearim.podbean.com/
Research on the Frontier Wars, including weapons used: https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/introduction.php
Empire of Guns book, on the development of weapons during the British Empire: https://www.penguinbookshop.com/book/9780735221864
Upcoming documentary Native Title Rockets about the incursions on Aunty Sue’s land: https://www.nativetitlerockets.com/
Yuendumu’s Ceasefire call, from PAW media: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=509617044128769&ref=sharing
 
Find us at Wage Peace:
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Australia’s military industrial complex is expanding on a massive scale – and this started well before the recent AUKUS military pact with the US and UK.
How have governments laid the groundwork for this in the past few years?
What can we expect as the global weapons industry, hardwired for corruption, comes hunting for ever-greater profits?
 
Michelle Fahy, independent researcher and journalist, and Andrew Feinstein, Executive Director of Shadow World Investigations, lay it out for us.
 
Produced and presented by Zelda Grimshaw and the team at Wage Peace
 
Sound design contributions by Reza Dien: https://on.soundcloud.com/zCWAbDcuyYh7WcKz9; https://www.youtube.com/@rezadienchannel7265  
Sounds also from Spoonbill: https://soundcloud.com/spoonbill
 
Links mentioned in the episode:
Michelle Fahy’s Undue Influence: https://undueinfluence.substack.com/
If you have any info on revolving doors between Defence and Weapons Corporations, please send it to Michelle: undueinfluence@proton.me
Shadow World Investigations: shadowworldinvestigations.org/
Shadow World, the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAJkmxBd2EA
Shadow World, the book (look it up at your favourite book seller): https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/nov/27/shadow-world-andrew-feinstein-review
SIPRI: sipri.org/
 
An update to this episode: earlier this year former Defense Minister Brendan Nelson became President of Boeing International, a promotion from his position as President of Boeing Australia, New Zealand, and South Pacific.
 
Find us at Wage Peace:
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