Anti-war activists to protest military conference in Melbourne

Arms dealers will descend on Melbourne in September for the Land Forces conference, a biennial meeting of the military-industrial complex. From army chiefs to representatives of companies producing and profiting from war, researchers developing new ways of killing people, and politicians who start wars in the first place, the event will bring together all the masters of war.

Students for Palestine, a university-based solidarity network, is organising a picket and community protest outside the conference’s opening on 11 September. The student protest is part of a week of action spearheaded by the activist collective Disrupt Wars, including actions by various organisations, collectives and affinity groups.

The website boasts of an expanded program compared to the last meeting in Brisbane, designed to meet greater demand and interest. Weapons manufacturers are invited to promote their goods on the expo floor; to let buyers “use all five senses to gain a full appreciation of [their] product”. Every merchant of death and war hawk from this continent, and many from beyond, will be networking and up-selling, schmoozing and dealing with each other for three days in the centre of Melbourne.

A world in which military expenditures rose nearly 7 percent last year, reaching US$2.4 trillion ($3.6 trillion in Australian dollars), according to the latest figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, portends more future death and destruction.

We can’t let the conference proceed without a public display of opposition to war and war profiteering.

Boeing, the world’s fourth largest military contractor, will host a session open to all Land Forces attendees. Boeing supplies the Israeli military with a murderous array of fighter jets, attack helicopters and ordnance—all used to rain hell on Gaza in the past nine months.

Amnesty International reported that a strike on Rafah in January, which killed 95 people, including 42 children, was probably carried out using a GBU-39 SDB missile manufactured by Boeing in the United States. According to the US Air Force, the missile uses GPS positioning technology to “provide navigation to the target”, which supposedly “reduces the probability of collateral damage”.

However, Amnesty found the January strike “failed to distinguish between military objectives and civilian objects and would therefore be indiscriminate”. Given how precise these weapons are meant to be, indiscriminate appears to be an improper description. It seems more likely Israel used Boeing’s guided missiles in a very discriminating way to massacre civilians.

Boeing will be using the Land Forces expo to flog such genocidal, kid-killing technology to all comers.

This type of guided weaponry will soon be manufactured in Australia, and announcements related to it will make up another session at Land Forces. Last year’s Defence Strategic Review, commissioned by the federal government, recommended that Australia acquire more and develop its own long-range guided missiles.

The Albanese government has since budgeted $4.1 billion to “better equip the ADF to meet our strategic circumstances”. “Strategic circumstances” means the West’s growing economic and military competition with China. And it’s not just missiles, but intelligence and training. If you read between the lines, it is evident that preparation for a possible war with China is the central thrust of the Australian Army’s intervention into Land Forces.

Every pro-Palestine and anti-war activist in Melbourne should make it a priority to come and protest against this disgusting conference.