Arms Industry

Hermannsburg, Germany: Incendiary attack on Armin Papperger. Switch off Rheinmetall!

Posted on 2024/04/30 - 2024/05/03 by darknights

Incendiary attack on Armin Papperger
Switch off Rheinmetall!

On the night of April 28 to 29, 2024, we carried out an incendiary attack on the Armin Papperger’s property in Hermannsburg, Turnerstr. on the corner of Immenhoop, where an incendiary device was placed on his garden shed. Papperger is CEO of Rheinmetall, one of the big players in the German armaments industry.

Papperger feels at home here in the Südheide. Surrounded by military training areas and not far from the GÜZ combat training center in the Altmark. The Rheinmetall plant in Unterlüß is only a stone’s throw away. This is where thousands of forced laborers who worked for the German war economy at the Rheinmetall-Borsig Rheinmetall-Borsig plant for the German war economy. In a region where, after the war where many National Socialists found refuge after the war, including Adolf Eichmann and the murderer of the Adreatinian Caves, Kappler. In a region where in the 1980s and 1990s regular Nazi military exercises took place regularly in the 1980s and 1990s. Not far from Papperger’s house is Munster, one of the largest military bases in Germany. In he feels safe and well accepted in this environment, including by his friends with whom the hobby hunter occasionally goes stalking. But tonight may have signaled to him that he doesn’t just have friends and that his retreat is not safe.

Rheinmetall is one of the beneficiaries of the so-called turnaround. This can be clearly seen from a few figures: Since 2022, the Rheinmetall’s share price has quintupled since 2022; Papperger himself has replenished his share portfolio with Rheinmetall shares several times. In 2023 the Group, which has been promoted to the DAX index, increased its turnover to 7.2 billion euros, with a target of 10 billion euros for 2024. Before February 2022 the annual production of artillery shells was 70,000 units, 350,000 in 2023 and 700,000 in 2024. Following the takeover of the Spanish ammunition company Expal, Rheinmetall sees itself as the the world’s largest manufacturer of artillery ammunition. The groundbreaking ceremony for a for a new production facility in Unterlüß was attended by Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Ukrainian ambassador and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (“Germany must become fit for war”). The new factory is expected to 200,000 shells a year.

Papperger is one of the arms managers with a particularly high media presence. The days when the armaments industry suffered from its image are over. In March 2024, Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck assured at a meeting of the 20 most important German arms manufacturers: “We need this industry!” Self-confident and offensively, killing machines can now be presented and advertised. And Rheinmetall has other things to offer besides ammunition, of course tanks in particular: the Lynx and Puma infantry fighting vehicles, the Boxer wheeled tank and the Skyranger anti-aircraft tank. For the Leopard Rheinmetall produces the gun barrel. Rheinmetall also stockpiles various old tank types, which have now been sold to Ukraine, complete with ammunition at a hefty profit. But parts production for the US F35 fighter jet is also on offer.

Rheinmetall plans, produces and murders not only on a national framework. The Group employs over 30,000 workers worldwide in 28 countries. A new ammunition production facility is planned in Ukraine and a maintenance plant for tanks is also due to open there in summer 2024. In addition, the production of infantry fighting battle tanks is also planned. There are also plans for an artillery factory and Rheinmetall is developing a completely new type of battle tank. In the USA, Rheinmetall is participating in tenders and is close to winning a 45 billion dollar contract for the successor to the Bradley infantry fighting vehicle. The development of the Russian market is now off the table for the time being. But as recently as 2011, Rheinmetall concluded a contract with the Russian government for the delivery of a training center for the Russian army and saw itself in the role of a pioneer and door opener.

However, the so-called turnaround does not only mean gigantic rearmament armament and new record profits for the arms industry. It also means a reorientation of the entire society towards war. Politicians from almost all parties are outdoing each other with proposals. The reintroduction of compulsory military service, military education in schools, interlinking research and the military,…
The fact that armies and the arms industry are the biggest destroyers of the environment, devour gigantic amounts of resources and, of course, are also the and are of course also the biggest producers of greenhouse gases.

The fight against climate destruction is also the fight against war, the military and the arms industry!
War starts here, let’s stop it here!
Switch off the system of destruction!

Freedom for Daniela!

Strength and luck to all those in hiding from of the radical left and those who agree to militantly attack structures of power!

Source: de.indymedia

Berlin, Germany: Thales Group Vehicle Attacked in Berlin: For Refaat – For Gaza

Posted on 2024/02/19 by darknights

In the early hours of February 15, we set fire to a Mercedes van belonging to the French arms company Thales in Berlin. Standing up for the oppressed in Gaza and Palestine is a matter of dignity.

If I Must Die

If I must die,

you must live

to tell my story

to sell my things

to buy a piece of cloth

and some strings,

(make it white with a long tail)

so that a child, somewhere in Gaza

while looking heaven in the eye

awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—

and bid no one farewell

not even to his flesh

not even to himself—

sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above

and thinks for a moment an angel is there

bringing back love

If I must die

let it bring hope

let it be a tale

— poem written by the Palestinian poet, writer and professor, Refaat Alareer who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on December 6, 2023 along with 6 members of his family.

Source: https://de.indymedia.org/node/340604

Via & translated by Abolition Media

Which Countries Supply Arms to “Israel”?

Posted on 2024/02/19 by darknights

As civilian casualties continue to mount in Gaza, global calls for countries to halt arms sales to Israel grow. The United States Senate has approved a bill committing $14bn to support Israel’s war on Gaza this week.

Even before the start of the war last October, the US firmly supported Israel with the supply of military equipment, contributing $3bn annually in military aid. Many other countries provide military support to Israel via arms sales.

Civilian casualties continue to mount in Gaza – currently standing at more than 28,000 dead with thousands more trapped under rubble and presumed dead in just four months of bombardment and ground invasions. The rising death toll is prompting international condemnation.

On Monday, the European Union foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, commented on US President Joe Biden’s description of Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas attacks as “over the top”. “Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people being killed,” Borrell told reporters.

So which countries continue to send weapons to Israel?

Who supplies arms to Israel?

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s arms transfers database, 68 percent of Israel’s weapons imports between 2013 and 2022 came from the US.

The US military also stockpiles weapons on the ground in Israel, presumably for use by the US army itself. However, the US has allowed Israel to make use of some of these supplies during the Gaza war.

Besides the US, Israel also receives military imports from other nations.

Weapons imported from Germany make up 28 percent of Israel’s military imports. Germany’s military exports rose nearly tenfold in 2023 compared with 2022 after it increased sales to Israel in November, according to figures from the German Economic Ministry. Germany primarily supplies Israel with components for air defence systems and communications equipment, according to the German press agency dpa.
The United Kingdom has licensed at least 474 million pounds ($594m) in military exports to Israel since 2015, Human Rights Watch reported in December 2023. These exports included aircraft, missiles, tanks, technology and ammunition, including components for the F-35 stealth bomber used in Gaza.
In Canada, dozens of civil society groups have recently urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to end arms exports to Israel. The government says it does not send full weapons systems to Israel, but these civil society groups claim it is downplaying the amount of military support it provides. “Canadian companies have exported over $84m [114 million Canadian dollars] in military goods to Israel since 2015,” said Michael Bueckert, vice president of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, an advocacy group, adding that the government has continued to approve arms exports since the start of the war.
Australia’s foreign affairs minister has said the country has not provided weapons to Israel since the start of the war. However, The Australian Greens party’s defence spokesperson, David Shoebridge, has asked for the government to be more transparent about exactly what items have been exported to Israel, adding that the country has one of the most secretive weapons export systems in the world. Amnesty International has also called on Australia to halt arms sales to Israel and claims the country has approved 322 defence exports to Israel over the past six years.
In France, a pro-Palestine demonstration on February 7 called on French companies, including Dassault Aviation, to stop selling arms to Israel. Demonstrators said, according to the Anadolu news agency, “all French companies that sell arms to the Tel Aviv administration are complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza”.

Source: Abolition Media

Robotican’s ‘Gallo/Rooster’ & Elbit’s ‘Lanius’ fueling the A.I. & Drone war in Gaza

Posted on 2024/02/11 - 2024/02/11 by darknights

DN Note: We post promotional videos from startup company ‘Robotican’ & the well known scum arms company ‘Elbit’ to highlight the fusion of Artificial Intelligence with drone technology that is fuelling the war in Gaza. Israel as mentioned before is a super hub for high tech advances & startup companies. These are the proxy technocrats and scientists that brought you the first 3d printed heart and A.I. farming technologies, now commiting a new Nakba in the 4th Industrial Revolution age. From Syria to Ukraine and now Palestine, the new ‘world war’ or ‘cold war’ has already started.

“The earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses.”

― Utah Phillips

Firminy (Loire) and Les Ancizes-Comps (Puy-de-Dôme), France: Double attack on Aubert et Duval steelworks, supplier to war industries

Posted on 2023/12/03 by darknights

During the night of November 19th to 20th, we attacked the power supply to two production sites of the Aubert et Duval group:

– At Firminy, we sawed through a pylon on the 220kV line supplying the site. It only partially fell.

– In Ancizes-Comps, we also set fire to a 220kV line, at the point where the high-voltage cables went underground. We were able to get close and place our devices at the foot of the sheaths, without danger.

Aubert et Duval is a key player in the French military industry. It supplies parts for Naval Group submarines, Dassault Rafales and Framatom nuclear power plants.

Our action resonates with the international call for a week of action against all wars, from November 17 to 25, 2023, published in early November (careful, it’s a bit late…) on Iaata.info. We welcome this kind of initiative, and in turn call for an attack on the military industry everywhere and at all times.

What’s certain is that we’ve achieved our goal of hitting the military industry. While we don’t have the means to know exactly how much damage we’ve caused, we do know that these industries know they’re being targeted, and that their weak points are highlighted by our actions.

“Behind the war, ordinary factories”.

As the tag left on the site of an aeronautics factory burnt down in March 2023 in Beauchastel so aptly put it, the war we’re told all day long must end and is unjust, starts here; and is made possible by seemingly innocuous businesses too.

It’s no secret that global conflicts are escalating in intensity. For almost two months, bombs have been falling on the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, at an unprecedented rate, and with broad political, military and financial support from the United States and most Western countries. The same people who call for a truce, respect for civilians and international law, are producing the bombs that massacre in a way they claim to condemn, there or elsewhere, since several billion people live in war zones; with the horror that this engenders and that we all know about: rape, torture, forced displacement, etc. This hypocrisy would be laughable if it weren’t so macabre.

These wars are the very concrete result of a military-industrial complex, with its factories, laboratories and technicians. In France, the eight major military industry groups – Airbus, Arquus, Dassault, MBDA, Naval group, Nextor, Safran and Thales – are celebrating record sales. Some 4,000 companies work for the defense industry, with the active, ongoing support of the state, which has earmarked a budget of 417 billion euros to increase its killing power and export its arsenal worldwide. Machines of death that are used directly for massacres, as in the case of Dassault fighter jets or Nexter tanks and guns used by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in Yemen.

We don’t want to remain indifferent to this. We also want to send a message to the workers in these industries. That our actions will deprive them of their work for a while, and make them face up to their responsibilities. We also hope that these acts, and the words we put on them, will help to raise the profile of these most discreet factories of death.

Our thoughts go out to those who fight for their freedom, to those who face repression.

Let’s attack everywhere!

Source: lille.indymedia

Via: Attaque

Mezzovico, Switzerland: ‘Swiss neutrality does not exist.’ Incendiary attack on ten civil defense vehicles and three army vehicles (June 18, 2023)

Posted on 2023/07/11 by darknights

Swiss neutrality does not exist

Switzerland, which regards itself as neutral so it can maintain its privileged role as the world’s financial hub, actually bears a lot of responsibility for many wars around the world. The Swiss arms industry exports weapons everywhere, even to countries where there are armed conflicts. Lately it has even relocated some manufacturing facilities abroad so as to circumvent laws that would “ban” arms exports to countries at war, for example to Ukraine, aligning itself fully with NATO’s warmongering interventionist rhetoric.

Switzerland’s role as a financial marketplace and leading commodity trader makes this state a major player in the devastation of the planet and the plundering of the resources of countries in the global south, fueling conflicts and forcing people to leave their countries of origin. Not content with sowing misery all over the world, it prides itself with “defending” its borders against the migration “threat,” with its military guarding the borders and civil defense soldiers running deportation centers.

Campaigns against compulsory conscription in Switzerland have been pacified by the introduction of civil protection and civil service. We believe that anarchist antimilitarism should not be limited to the rejection of the military or even to total desertion from every obligation this state imposes on us but should turn into attack.

For this reason, in the night from the 17th to the 18th June, in Mezzovico, Ticino, we have set fire to ten vehicles of the civil protection, which were totally destroyed and three military vehicles, which regrettably only partially burned.

We state with strength of our ideas and actions our solidarity with all anarchists taken hostage by the state and take this opportunity to greet those on the hidden paths of freedom. Those who struggle will never be alone.

Swiss neutrality does not exist. Where there is capitalism, there is war.

Death to the state, long live Anarchy

[Published in German and English on July 7, 2023 at https://barrikade.info/article/6040 | Italian translation published at https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2023/07/11/la-neutralita-svizzera-non-esiste-attacco-incendiario-contro-dieci-veicoli-della-protezione-civile-e-tre-dellesercito-mezzovico-svizzera-18-giugno-2023/ | Image taken from mass-media]

Berlin, Germany: Arson attack on a vehicle of the Greek Embassy

Posted on 2022/09/07 - 2022/09/10 by darknights

Attentively we have followed how the Greek state crushes demonstrations in the streets of Athens. The government of Nea Dimokratia and its judiciary have proven that in the hunger strikes of D. Koufontinas and G. Michailidis, they are ready to let prisoners die rather than give in one step. We know the videos of the lynching with the participation of police officers of Zak Kostopoulos. As well as the execution of N. Sampanis in Perama by DIAS is an expression of a ruthless regime, as is the murder of Vassilis Maggos in Volos. Blood drips from the hands of the Greek authorities.

The new junta thinks it is smart to take advantage of the August vacation period to begin construction of the metro station in Exarcheia. Their goal is to destroy every social base and occupy every place of resistance with troops. The evictions of squats in Thessaloniki and the police invasion of the university there have not escaped us either.

Everywhere the Greek state encounters resistance from parts of society. We want to support this resistance in order to bring down the project of ND. The system of ND, its judiciary and its cops, is the state of rapists. The release of rapists and the simultaneous attack on a feminist demonstration in July in Athens, symbolizes the values of Mitsotakis’ government.

At the same time, the killings at Greece’s borders continue. In league with FRONTEX and mercenaries, Greek authorities are responsible for the daily deaths at the gates of the European fortress. Continue reading “Berlin, Germany: Arson attack on a vehicle of the Greek Embassy” →

Rome, Italy: ‘Even the rich bleed’ Communique claim for the parcel bomb against Alessandro Profumo, CEO of Leonardo by ‘Augusto Masetti Brigade’ Informal Anarchist Federation – International Revolutionary Front

Posted on 2022/08/11 - 2022/08/11 by darknights

EVEN THE RICH BLEED

COMMUNIQUÉ CLAIM FOR PARCEL BOMB AGAINST ALESSANDRO PROFUMO

The horrors of war move sensitive souls. To us, however, they remind us that it is injustice that dominates this world. The mangled bodies are always those of poor people, it is never a rich man who dies, who loses a hand.

We do not think we can compete with the violence of the state; your capacity for destruction and death is unparalleled. In recent years you have shown it in Syria, in Iraq, today in Ukraine, and we saw it with the torture and slaughter in Italian prisons in March 2020. We have not forgotten or forgiven.

We cannot compete with your violence and probably do not even have the guts. Instead, we believe in the necessity of revolutionary violence, in action that opens glimpses of freedom. We believe in the contagion of ideas that walk through actions.

Once again the Informal Anarchist Federation becomes a tool for revolutionary communication and propagation of anarchist action. An instrument to which all comrades can adhere by affixing their signatures to the acronym FAI-FRI, putting us in communication without the dangers derived from direct knowledge. A tool with which we can express ourselves, even dialogue and confront each other, in the knowledge that we are talking to comrades who have put their lives and thus their freedom at risk. When words are too many and consequent actions are few, it is up to us alone to reverse this trend.

We brought a little reminder of violence home to those who with state violence do their business.

We sent the parcel bomb that arrived June 27 in Rome to Alessandro Profumo, CEO of Leonardo S.p.A., the state-owned company that produces weapons of war and cutting-edge technological devices. A collector and boardroom climber, a grand boot licker of universities, Profumo is one of those people we are unlikely to see bleeding from the wars with which he enriches himself. Leonardo has done business trading arms with both Russia and Ukraine, today its shares are flying on the stock market, and the Italian government is promising a shower of billions coming in thanks to the NATO-mandated arms race. Their capital is only ever matched by our suffering and sacrifice.

Can you smell the perfume of rage? We are coming to restore some of your terror, scum!

Leonardo is at the forefront of technological development and research in Europe, for example being repeatedly commended for its achievements in the field of aerospace engineering. The coincidence is not surprising since war and technical innovation have always been interconnected.

It is with technology that they ruin our lives, that they spy on us, that they drive us into misery. It is with developments in techno-science that aim to reshape the social fabric, making war possible. Let us strike at those responsible.

Let us call for an international campaign of action against the oligarchs who enrich themselves with war, the masters of energy and the techno-science and industrial sectors. Each with the means and methods they prefer, making their case or letting the facts speak for themselves.

We dedicate this action to Alfredo Cospito: remove our comrade from 41 bis or you will have to start washing the blood of the jailers.

No resignation, no truce, no peace. For international fraternity and revolutionary action.

Augusto Masetti* Brigade Informal Anarchist Federation-International Revolutionary Front [Brigata Augusto Masetti Federazione Anarchica Informale – Fronte Rivoluzionario Internazionale]

Source: fuoridallariserva

DN Note

* Augusto Masetti, an Italian anarchist who shot his commading officer at the beginning of the Italo-Turkish War. A military court put him in an insane asylum, instead of the expected sentence of death by firing squad.

Bremen, Germany: Militarism stinks! Butyric acid for Rheinmetall, Bundeswehr and customs

Posted on 2022/04/12 - 2022/04/12 by darknights

On 4.4.22 we distributed butyric acid in the entrance area of Rheinmetall at Osterdeich 108 in Bremen. A week before on 28.3.22 we banged up the main customs office with stones and poured butyric acid into the offices. The attack was aimed at the Bundeswehr advisory center in the building.

The cops report broken windows at the main customs office but say nothing about the butyric acid. The smell was beastly, so we think that they deliberately conceal what was used. So it is not so serious that shortly before the attack the security guard left the premises and was not able to fulfill his mission. At the beginning of last year, autonomous groups summed up the function of customs in the capitalist merry-go-round: https://chronik.blackblogs.org/?p=141

The attack on the Bundeswehr is our contribution to practical antimilitarism. Now that the current war crimes are committed by the enemy, the Russian military, the Bundeswehr imagines itself to be on the morally clean side. Bullshit! The German military is neither progressive nor sustainable, it is the grimace of the German past and the door to fascism. Like any military, it is based on command and obedience. It trains to kill for German capital. Even the reintroduction of military service is on everyone’s lips and is being discussed by parliamentarians. For whom should the youth fight? For people and fatherland? For cheap fuel and safe trade routes? We are already calling for desertion and will attack the military wherever possible.

The personnel office of the arms company Rheinmetall at Osterdeich 108 was recently pelted with paint, after which an anti-militarist demonstration marched in front of the door. The owner has announced to look for new tenants, hoping that the stress will stop. That’s exactly why we have followed up before the staff management disappears behind high fences in safer buildings. Perhaps landlords will also think twice in the future about which companies they rent premises to. The arms industry profits the most from the current war, the industry is booming. The arms business is a key driver of every war. Corporations like Rheinmetall must now be attacked by all means.

For the sabotage of the military and the arms industry!

For an active decomposition of military forces!

Source: de.indymedia

Bremen, Germany: A supplement to burning offices and crying bigwigs

Posted on 2022/03/31 - 2022/03/31 by darknights

The tanks are rolling through Europe and the war has been dominating the headlines for weeks. But we have not woken up in a new world, as the press and politicians have been trying to make us believe since the war in Ukraine. The current war is the direct result of a militarized world. It is the same dirty racist and murderous system that we attacked on New Year’s Eve. It is the same capitalist system that divides people into groups and rules over them. The very system in which some get and stay rich with arms exports. It is the same Nato that has been waging war for years and that acts in the same militaristic logic as the authoritarian pig Putin. No, the only thing “new” about the situation is that the warlike misery has moved closer to Europe.

At the turn of the year, we set fire to a company building of OHB in Bremen. The fire unfolded in an exemplary manner and destroyed an entire building. According to OHB, the jobs of 330 employees were rendered unusable for the time being. The damage, worth millions, still delights us every day. What followed in January and February was the purest propaganda show by cops and politicians.

We learned from the media that a security guard was allegedly in an anteroom of the attacked building. According to our observations, no one was in the completely darkened building at the time of the attack. We did not want to wantonly put anyone in danger. The attack was of course not aimed at this presumably precariously employed person who has to work in a multi-million dollar corporation on New Year’s Eve. We wanted to harm the arms company OHB and sabotage its war-mongering work.

That the attack was right is shown not only by the reaction of the cops and the press. Wow, what a wave! Directly the day after, the Senator for Economy, Labor and Europe from the party Die Linke has herself photographed at the scene, backs OHB and denies that OHB is an arms company that cooperates with Frontex. Politics and the arms industry in common interest for Bremen as a business location. A disgusting melange! Continue reading “Bremen, Germany: A supplement to burning offices and crying bigwigs” →