‘100% and they will trample on all human law’

Is there a death merchants’ international

these were involved in big accidents. Not a

By ERNST HENRI

The question in the heading is more like. the title of a sensational motion picture script. Can one seriously believe that in present-day conditions there is a secret international association of arms manu- facturers, one engaged above all in the manufacture of mass destruction weapons? An association of manufactur- ers bound by mutual protection and sec- retly pursuing a joint policy?

Yes, one can. We have indisputable facts at our disposal. All the big business- men of the West are aware of them.

The association we have in mind has no official name, nor is it listed in a directory or business handbook. It does not exist _ Officially. However, in actual fact it has been functioning for several years, and behind the scenes in the West it wields considerable power. Judging by every- thing, thing i hasbeen constant interfering,

though inconspicuously, in international

Who are members of this international association?

Those who reap the highest profits in the capitalist world today, profits from trade in missiles, military aircraft, atom-powered submarines, space vehi- cles and all sorts of electronic equip- ment.

Today nothing attracts big business so much as the marketing of'merchandise whose use may exterminate mankind. Every stock jobber takes this into ac- count now.

Fantastic Sums

A record rate of profit which some- times reaches 100% and more comes precisely from this source today. The arms race urges the governments of the capitalist states to spend, every year, a huge share of the national income on such things. That is why the American, West German, British, French and other corporations which have taken over the manufacture of mass destruction weapons are at the top of the list of the most profitable international monopolies.

For instance, it has been calculated that in the third quarter of 1977 the profits of Litton Industries, a U.S. arms man- -ufacturing concern, increased 547% as compared to the same period of 1976, the profits of Northrop Co. — 483%, Lock- heed Corp. — 141% and Fairchild Corp. — 140%. The overall increase in the pro- fits of the U.S. aerospace industries was 52%.

Until treaties on the reduction of ar- maments and on disarmament have been signed the fantastic growth of pro- fits of the arms-manufacturing concerns will not be stopped.

The American economist G. Stigler

writes that maximization of profits is the most powerful, most general and most

Viable of all forces governing the be-

havior of the enterpreneur.

Marxists have known this for a long time. In volume one of ‘‘Capital’’ Marx quoted from Quarterly Review, a British journal, which describes the entrep- reneurs’ urge for profit in the following terms:

““A certain 10% will ensure its employment anywhere; 20% certain.will produce eagerness; 50%, positive au- dacity; 100% will make it ready to tram- ple on all human laws; 300%, and there is no crime at which it will scruple, nora risk it will not run, even to the chance of being hanged.”’

The key motive here is maximum -

profits. That is why the owners of the arms-manufacturing concerns are pre- pared to go to extremes to keep up and expand the output of armaments which help them reap fantastic’sums.

It is worth noting that the biggest of the military-industrial corporations whose turnover exceeds one thousand million dollars a year have of late joined hands across the state frontiers. How- ever, this does not ‘stop them from com- peting against each other in their drive for some contracts. One thing does not stand in the way of the other. Here are a few examples.

Across Frontiers

The biggest and politically most in- fluential military-industrial group in the USA is the Rockefeller group of bil- lionaires. Among the concerns produc-

ing mass destruction weapons, which

stand close to the Rockefeller group are such gigantic corporations as McDonnell-Douglass (MD), Boeing and United Technologies (UT).

MD supplies the Pentagon with super- sonic Phantom bombers and F-15 fighters. The latter are considered to be the best in the West. MD is preparing to turn out cruise missiles.

Boeing is the chief contractor in the manufacture of Minuteman inter- continental ballistic missiles. It is now participating in the drafting of. plans, for the production of cruise missiles.

UT manufactures aircraft and rocket engines and military helicopters.

In 1976 the turnover of these three monopolies exceeded $12,500,000,000. They employed 264,000 blue-and-white collar workers. The Pentagon cannot conceive its activities without these three corporations.

MD entered big business with the help of a scandalous transaction. In the heat of the cold war in the mid-1950s the company started to supply the U.S. Navy Depart-

ment with Demon jet fighters. Twelve of

M 4 Sherman tank $215 thousand

B-29 bomber $3.1. million

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—June 30, 1978—Page 6

single Demon fighter was fit for use. This

_cost the government several hundred mil-

lion dollars. Then it turned out that liter- ally a day after his retirement, Admiral Harrison, who was in charge of these de- liveries in the Department and who spared no pains to prevent the cancelling of the ill-fated orders, became vice-president of that corporation.

The scandal has not prevented the Pentagon from doing business with the company. Last year MD moved to the top of the list of Pentagon ‘contractors. That is how big munitions business is run. The drive for fantastic profits pre- vails over everything elt.

‘Meanwhile, in West Germany

Let us take a look at Western Europe. The Méesserschmitt-Bélkow-Blohm Co. (MBB) is now the most successful arms-manufacturing concern in West Germany.

After the war this firm swallowed up the Junkers works. It belongs to the same Messerschmitts and Bélkows, these families being joined by the Thyssen-Blohm group.

However, in the beginning MBB was chiefly engaged in the manufacture of fighter planes. In the recent period it has also been manufacturing missiles, space vehicles, combat helicopters. At present it is completing its preparations for put- ting into serial production the Tornado multipurpose combat aircraft which is to become the main plane in the NATO air force. A very recent report said that MBB was completing work on a ‘‘won-

‘ der bomb” characterized by a ‘‘great

scattering effect, a new surface effect weapon:””

But that is not all. Several months after the reports on the Tornado and the “wonder bomb’’.it became known. that the MBB ‘of the FRG, and McDonnel-Douglas of: .the USA, had signed an agreement on the joint development and manufacture of “‘new types’’ of combat aircraft.

We could add that MD is not the only Ainerican corporation with which MBB has established ties. Even before this move 9.7% of the stock of the Mes- serschmitt Co. was already in the hands of the Boeing Corp.

That was how one of the subdivisions of the death merchants’ _international was formed.

The Ring Around-NATO

Another subdivision.

A junior branch of the Rockefellers founded way back in the 1930s the Un- ited Aircraft Co. (now known as United Technologies — UT). Currently employ- ing 133,000 workers, in 1976 United Technologies was second on the list of US arms-manufacturing concerns with respect to the size of its turnover.

UT's business is so profitable that once the company paid out in a single

_ year a 40% dividend and then on top of

that a nearly 100% ‘‘super-dividend.’’ It is worth noting that the owners were also issued new, shares free of charge. How does this arms-manufacturing corpora- tion which virtually bathes in gold oper- ate? ;

Its partners in the business are scat- tered in all of the capitalist countries en- gaged i in the arms race.

For instance, in the FRG UTi is a part- ner of. the Vereinigte flugtechnische Werke GMbH-Fokker (FFW) Co., the second biggest aerospace company in the country. One part of the shares be- longs to UT, another part — to the Dutch arms-manufacturing concern — the Fokker Co., and the third part — to Nord Aviacion, a French aircraft construction enterprise.

In addition to this, UT itself lished industrial or financial SNECMA, a French arms ing concern. Fokker of the N

SABCA of Belgium and Mit

Japan. Since the Pentagon s

"Japan to engage in militarizal tio

old time military-industrial co Japan enthusiastically joined i Here too the profits from are collected in the same pot! shared out on the basis of defini lations. Mutual protection is? in the game. If a Western capil ages to become a big s such transnational arms-mafl ‘monopolies, he is sure to multimillionaire. ; NATO is clasped in this ™ tightly as the Pentagon. Some difficult to establish what P NATO politics — the # “‘strategic’* plans of the Atlal! als or the interests of big’ munitions. Judging by evé

would be correct to say thal

€

groups of interests merge into

_ral whole.

The present author has ™, only a few of the leading arms’ turing concerns in various However, dozens of others a volved. Thus, the. Monsanto atomic and chemical concem”, the Morgan group, which has#%y of $4,270,000,000 (!), has. plants in 21 countries. The. $ Corp. is connected with the Be and atomic and chemical fir Germany. The Dassault Co. which manufactures bombers age fighter planes cooperates British Aircraft Co., a British ™

cs

the Belgian SABCA, the .

and the West German Dorniél

soon. < We are loking atthe cues racy which is being hatched

eyes against detente. Those wh peace cannot remain in ‘ scheming. I am not writing

’ perts. Every single person ei

member this sinister associa subdivisions.

In any case it is clear that no! capitalist production, othet | manufacture of mass de).

EB ‘weapons, reveals such ni

tricate interweaving of capl¥ frontiers. It would be fair to the main oligarchic groups of ness today are involved 1 merchants’ international. ha they arm the Pentagon and NA Sponsors :

It would be a serious nisisiy sume that the international as arms-manufacturing mono ve sists only of professional bu This is not so at all.

Directly or. indirectly 4 bourgeois politicians of vai tries, high-standing officials known NATO generals also b&”,

The ‘“‘ring’’ needs these Pi

employs them as sponsofs; vo ers’’ or propagandists. Some ® the ‘‘ring’s’’ direct clients.

Of course, most of them licize their ties with the arms-manufacturing industt would harm their caréers- wy among them there are people care a penny about this. Here * examples.

It has been repeatedly oi the influential Senator H. J right-wing Democratic odet fe reconcilable opponent of d@ close ties with the Boeing C? is not the only one. Way ne