Tikiri

One of the special guests at Eurosatory this year was Mr Kalashnikov. His world famous invention - the Kalashnikov sub-machine gun - is now used in most conflicts across the globe. These same conflicts are what companies such as the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), GIAT Industries, British Aerospace Systems (BAeS), and so on, need in order to keep global defence expenditures on the increase - and thus their profits. This is probably why Mr Kalashnikov, a venerable 83-…

It seems as though the French army has agreements with all the job centres in France. Every week you can find them in the career and studies information centres (CIO) even in small towns; their presence grows at every school career day and even more so at “le Salon des Etudiants” - a huge fair for companies and schools aimed at attracting students - which is held every year in most of the big French towns.

The army also run huge publicity campaigns on billboards, TV and in the…

Arms traders spread suffering and death wherever they can profit from it. Their political and lobbying power has a huge impact on the violence committed by states and paramilitaries within states all over the world.

Like many other monsters, arms traders don't really like the spotlight. Fortunately for them the mainstream media rarely provides detailed accounts of the realities behind contracts signed between company managers from so-called human rights upholding countries, or of…

Internationally, the role of the private sector in the criminal justice system is now substantial and set to expand. On top of contracted services such as food, cleaning, laundry and medical care, the last 20 years have seen private companies take charge of designing and building prisons as well as managing them, particularly in the US, Australia and Britain; with Puerto Rico, Canada and South Africa following closely.

In the US, the prison-industrial complex…