A special meeting of Derry City Council has adopted an unprecedented New Year resolution to introduce a 'policy of opposition to the city's economic participation in the international arms trade' and instead elaborate a policy of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI). The special meeting was convened at the request of the Foyle Ethical Investment Campaign (FEIC) to consider the role of the Raytheon corporation in the production and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The company -- one of the biggest defence companies in the world -- established a software development centre in Derry but claims that only civilian work is conducted there; a claim fiercely contested by members of FEIC at today's meeting. Production includes work on I-ORION, an information system that enables Raytheon to enhance its design, procurement and sales of armaments. A Green Party member of FEIC described the Special Council resolution as historic and a great source of pride and hope for arms trade activists in Derry and across the world. 'Derry can now retake its rightful place as a place of hope and solidarity, where peace and democracy are cherished for one and all.'

Reaction / Report from Foyle Ethical Investment Campaign

Background From Indymedia Archives
What are Raytheon hiding in Derry?
The Irish Arms Trade
Derry Walk against War and Weapons
Raytheon Derry: Significant Victory for Direct Action
Derry Direct Action Against Merchants of Death

Addendum
Irish Govt has ordered $12m worth of Anti-Tank Missiles from Raytheon/Lockheed Martin

As reported in The Guardian, a number of of letter bombs were sent in the last week of December to prominent EU officials including Romano Prodi (President of the European Commission) and Jean-Claude Trichet (Governor of the European Central Bank). All the letters were mailed from Bologna where a previously unknown group calling itself the Informal Anarchic Federation (FAI) claimed responsibility for two small explosions near Prodi's home earlier in December. No injury was caused by any of the devices. Despite the fact that one of them went off in Mr. Prodi's hands, the only damage done was some carpet burn.

Meanwhile, editorials in European newspapers have been declaring that we are witnessing a resurgence in "anarchist terrorism" (ABC - Spain) and that it's only been a matter of luck that no-one has been injured (Mitteldeutsche Zeitung). Britain’s Independent argued that the money used for the war on Iraq would have been better spent on surveillance of potential terrorists.

As Ireland took over the presidency of the EU, the head of the European Parliament, Pat Cox (PD) came out with the startling observation that the incidents were a "criminal conspiracy against democracy". Naturally, security measures have been stepped up within EU state institutions and on Monday, Italy's Interior Ministry announced the creation of a European task force to combat "anarchist insurrection".

The truth is that the vast majority of anarchists and leftists both in Italy and worldwide are opposed to such acts. The Italian Anarchist Federation (FAI), co-incidentally sharing the same initials as this strange new group and having suffered state repression under similar circumstances as recently as 1997, have denounced the indiscriminate violence of such devices. This was further put into perspective by a recent statement from the Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici (FdCA) emphasising anarchists' commitment to "horizontal, anti-authoritarian, mass organisation" struggle.

Many are of the opinion that the recent events are merely the latest incident in the Italian state's "Strategy of Tension" - a clandestine campaign to discredit popular left movements from the 60s onwards which reached its climax in 1980 when officials of the Italian state conspired with the fascist group "Ordine Nuovo" to set off a bomb in a Bologna railway station killing 80 people. Similar attempts to isolate more militant groups from larger social movements were seen in the run-up to the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa.

Further Indymedia links: Feature on indymedia.org - More on the Strategy of Tension

From the Newswire: "The old city in Nablus and Balata Refugee Camp have been under almost relentless siege since Dec.25th. There's a very compelling call to action posted on www.electronicintifada.net by a Nablus resident. With house to house searches and demolitions, a large number of people wounded and over ten killed, the use of collective punishments (a suffocating curfew, the blocking of medical relief crews and of humanitarian aid) and what amounts to weapons of mass destruction when unleashed on a captive, mainly civilian, population - tanks, a.p.c.s, apaches, high-velocity bullets, racism, impunity - the situation is desperate. Palestinian blood has been cheapened to the point that this siege is not being covered by the mainstream media. Instead the potential of dialogue (between a corrupt, incapable, complicit P.A. and the Israeli Govt. -that uses their own particularly well-planned form of state-sponsored terrorism as a negotiating tool - the brutalisation and humiliation of Palestinians until they capitulate seems to be Sharon's bottom line) is making the headlines. This is only a distraction that serves to normalise an occupation that is illegal and blatantly unjust." . . . continues

Related Stories:
Nablus: Media Blackout
ISM 4th January Press Release
Palestinian Prime Minister slams International Silence
Recent Wave of Resistance to Apartheid Wall
117 Palestinians killed during media's "relative calm"

"A young Zapatista read out the end of year message in Oventic. It did not address the quite momentous achievements of the previous 10 years of Zapatista resistance but instead concentrated on the concrete gains of the past year- the consolidation of the autonomous municipalities, the creation of the 5 Caracoles and the new Juntas of Good Government.

“We have been able to advance in our struggle, in our different tasks. During 2003 we made important gains…” the masked Zapatista read. “We ask that the companeros and companeras in each region and each municipality, simply, continue working….”

No rhapsodic communiqués of love and rage, no poetic convocations to global revolt, none of the signature tunes of Sub Marcos, just the nuts and bolts of local resistance, of building radical communities and autonomy in action."

Zapatista Related Resources:
Documents of the New Mexican Revolution
Zapatista resources - Irish Mexico Group
Zapatistas Communique 31/12/03
Zapatistas 1997 Communique on Independent Media
Indymedia.org radio feature
Spanish feature (from Indymedia Argentina)
Portugese feature (from Indymedia Brazil)

It appears that Weapons of Mass Destruction ™ are only of interest to the Bush administration if they are in the hands of Arabs, Muslims or "rogue" states. Likewise the big news corporations in the US were ignoring this particular story of genuine weapons capable of mass destruction found in the hands of a white supremacist group in the Bush home state of Texas. This story was originally published on the Newswire on December 8th. Since then, the only big US newpaper to cover the story has been the New York Times.