H&K weapons on display at the DSEi 2009 international arms fair

The first protest against Nottingham-based arms company Heckler & Koch took place in May 2000, but it wasn’t until May 2008 that another demonstration launched the Shut Down H&K campaign, which has been running ever since.

18 months in, the campaign has decided that it’s about time to speak to Heckler & Koch. So, the campaign has written H&K a letter summarising the people’s concerns and asking the company to come clean about its dirty business…

Dear Sir,

We are sure you must be aware of our campaign, Shut Down H&K. We are a group of Nottingham residents, students and anti-arms-trade campaigners who are concerned about the role of Heckler & Koch in the international arms trade.

We hope that you can appreciate that our campaign has arisen out of a genuine concern about the consequences of your trade. We are writing to request information about the recent operations of Heckler & Koch, and to ask you to address our concerns.

We are aware that:

1. Heckler & Koch weapons have been sold to many countries whose armed forces are well known to have committed serious and widespread violations of human rights in recent years, including the Philippines, Thailand and Saudi Arabia.
2. The British National Archives show how Heckler & Koch has used the UK to manufacture and sell weapons to countries such as Nigeria and Kenya when such sales were restricted by the German government.
3. Heckler & Koch has licensed manufacturers in countries such as Turkey and Pakistan to produce H&K-designed weapons. Through these arrangements, H&K has profited from sales to countries engaged in armed conflict including Indonesia and Sri Lanka during periods when direct sales to these countries were prohibited by the EU or by the governments of Germany and the UK.
4. In recent years, the security forces of Nepal, Lebanon and Georgia have been armed with Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifles after the German government had denied export licenses for those transfers amid concerns about armed conflict and human rights violations.
5. Heckler & Koch weapons have fallen into the hands of child soldiers in Africa, terrorists in the Middle East, militias in Darfur, rebels in Nigeria, arms traffickers in the Philippines, mercenaries in Iraq and organised criminals in Serbia. Heckler & Koch weapons have been used by armed forces in conflicts in which those forces have been accused by international monitors of war crimes, including Bosnia in 1991, South Ossetia in 2008 and Sri Lanka in 2009.

With H&K continuing to advertise its weapons on the international market, we would like to make sure that the company is no longer directly or indirectly supplying weapons to regimes guilty of human rights violations, war crimes or crimes against humanity. In order to ascertain this we would like to know about the business activities of the H&K Group during the period of time since its change of ownership in 2002 (hereafter referred to as the Period).

As the office responsible for “international customer sales and customer services” for non-NATO countries (according to the H&K Group website) we trust that you have the relevant information. By making this information available you would be addressing the growing concerns about Heckler & Koch, and demonstrating that the company has nothing to hide.

1. We would like to see details of all sales (including training, service and repair) made by the H&K Group during the Period. We would also like to see details of any contracts for H&K to provide service or repair that have been in effect during the Period.
2. We would like to know if Heckler & Koch’s UK division (aka NSAF Ltd) has had any involvement, during the Period, in sales to customers that had been denied export licenses by the German government. If so, we would like to know the details of that involvement.
3. We would like to see details of any contracts that have been in effect during the Period whereby a third party was licensed to manufacture products for which the H&K Group owned the designs.
4. We would like to know the full extent of the H&K Group’s involvement in the supply of weapons (or parts of weapons) to Nepal, Lebanon and Georgia.
5. We ask H&K to provide an assurance that none of the weapons it is currently selling will pass into the hands of repressive regimes, arms traffickers, child soldiers, terrorist groups, organised criminals, or armed forces that deliberately target civilians, as so many H&K weapons have in the past. If H&K is prepared to make such an assurance, we would like to know how this can be guaranteed, given the lack of regulation of the international trade in small arms.

If you are willing, a delegation from the Shut Down H&K campaign would like to meet with representatives of Heckler & Koch to discuss our concerns in person.

We hope to hear from you soon.

Yours faithfully,

Shut Down H&K

Picture from the Trent Vineyard website with H&K lurking in the background

In an industrial estate in Nottingham, an anonymous warehouse serves as an international sales office and distribution depot for Heckler & Koch, a major small arms company, whose assault rifles and submachine guns are sold around the world. Next door to H&K is an evangelical church called Trent Vineyard, whose support local anti-arms activists are seeking in their campaign to close down the arms company. Shut Down H&K’s messages to the church leadership have gone unanswered, so campaign supporters decided to take their message to the regular churchgoers…

On December 13th, three supporters of the Shut Down H&K campaign took flyers to offer to people arriving for the Sunday morning service at Trent Vineyard, seeking to raise awareness about the arms company and find common ground with worshippers just a fortnight before the birthday of the Prince of Peace.

The leaflet in question

The campaigners began leafleting at the entrance to the church itself. The early arrivals were generally pleased to accept leaflets and surprised to hear that the world’s second-largest manufacturer of assault rifles and submachine guns was right next door. It was clearly not common knowledge among the congregation.

After about 10 minutes a representative of the church came to speak to the campaigners. She said that although she wasn’t unsympathetic to the cause, the campaigners should not be on church property. Handing out leaflets at the door might give churchgoers the impression that they were endorsed by the church when they were not.

Another church staffer then came out and took over the discussion. He said that campaigners had already been told (on a similar leafleting mission in January) that the church does not want leafleting on its property, and that their return demonstrated that either the campaign was untrustworthy or that its supporters were uncoordinated “loose cannons”.

He continued that while the church would be pleased to see H&K go, it could not be seen to endorse the campaign as this could violate the church’s tenancy agreement (with car insurance company LV=) and could lead to losing its premises.

Shut Down H&K demonstration, May 2009, with Trent Vineyard and Heckler & Koch in the background

He said that the church’s researcher had checked and found inaccuracies with the campaign literature, causing them to question the validity of the leaflets; another reason for not wishing to be associated with them or the campaign. The “inaccuracies” in question were not discussed, but the campaign will be writing to the church to seek clarification.

He felt it would have been polite for the campaign to have contacted the church earlier, to seek support in engaging with the congregation. In fact, the campaign has tried to do that several times. In May 2008 a member of the congregation repeatedly sought an audience with the pastor on behalf of the campaign, and in May 2009 the campaign wrote to the church. No reply was ever received.

Police filming protesters near Trent Vineyard, Jan 2009. The pastor has asked police to prevent anti-arms-trade banners from being tied to the church railings.

Whilst the conversation was civil, the staffer suggested that the campaigners were “hijacking” the church’s congregation and his time, which should have been spent with Sabbath arrangements and engaging with the congregation. A Sunday service was not the time and place for this kind of activity, he said.

The campaign regrets the lack of trust between itself and the leadership of the Trent Vineyard church. However, the campaign believes that the congregation of the church has a right to know that the church is next-door to a controversial arms company with an indisputable history of supplying guns that have fuelled conflict around the world.

Shut Down H&K strives for accuracy in all of its claims, relying only on authoritative sources and cross-checking its research with arms trade experts in the UK and Germany. If any of the campaign’s claims are shown to be inaccurate, they will be corrected immediately.

Although Trent Vineyard did not respond to Shut Down H&K’s requests for a meeting, the campaign has been told by a churchgoer that Vineyard leadership has been in conversation with Heckler & Koch. The campaign urges the church not to accept assurances from the arms company on face value, and remains willing to meet with church representatives at any time.

Arms company Heckler & Koch has been in the news this week. It seems that H&K, whose international sales office is located in Nottingham, is still in the business of arming regimes that are well known to commit gross violations of human rights. We look at three examples from around the world.

Manipur, India

Victims of police violence: a pregnant woman and an unarmed suspect, executed in a crowded market in Manipur, July 2009.

Ever since the state of Manipur was annexed by India in 1949, there has been armed conflict between separatists and the Indian government. In 1958 the Indian government passed the notorious Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), which gives military personnel powers to arrest or kill anyone they want within a so-called “disturbed” area.

The state of Manipur was declared a “disturbed” area, and was heavily militarised, with land across the state being confiscated to set up army camps. There followed decades of grievous human rights abuses, with Indian police and paramilitaries inflicting beatings, rapes, torture, forced labour, disappearances and extrajudicial killings, all the while protected from prosecution by the AFSPA.

Here’s one example: In 2004, Indian troops raided the home of a 32-year old woman called Manorama Devi, whom they suspected to belong to a separatist group. They arrested her and took her away. Her bullet-riddled corpse was found the next day outside a nearby village. She had been tortured and raped, and then shot in her vagina at close range.

done

Protest suppressed by Manipur police, soon to be armed with H&K guns

Heckler & Koch cannot be unaware of the gross human rights abuses of its latest customers. The situation in Manipur has been documented for many years. However, that would not appear to be an impediment to business.

The Philippines

To discover the connection between Heckler & Koch and the worst ever atrocity against journalists, we have to go to South-East Asia and the Philippines. This archipelago nation has a terrible human rights record, with state security forces practising vigilantism, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

Filipino soldiers armed with modern Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifles.

The Philippines has also been one of H&K’s best customers. Over the years the Filipino police and military have been equipped with a variety of H&K assault rifles, sniper rifles and submachine guns.

The endemic corruption of the Filipino security forces provides one of the many routes by which H&K weapons flow from the legal arms trade to the black market. Last year, several high-ranking military and police officials were arrested for taking 72 H&K submachine guns from a police depot and selling them to a Taiwanese-led gunrunning syndicate.

The President of the Philippines is Gloria Arroyo. Until very recently, her chief ally in the south of the country was the Ampatuan clan, which ruled province of Maguindanao. The Ampatuans delivered many votes for Arroyo in the 2004 and 2007 General Elections, which were marred by widespread fraud and violence. In return, the Arroyo administration tolerated the Ampatuan clan’s internecine chainsaw murders.

The scene of the Ampatuan massacre

In the aftermath of the massacre, an arms cache was discovered next to the mansion of the Ampatuan regional governor. Among the weapons recovered was a Heckler & Koch HK11 machine gun.

Once again, there can be no way that Heckler & Koch is unaware of the state-sponsored violence and corruption in the Philippines. And yet the company has continued to arm the regime with the latest in assault weapons.

The US Marine Corps

During the US-led “War on Terror”, the US Marines have committed numerous war crimes and serious abuses of human rights. Among those that have come to light:

US Marine with H&K submachine gun

• During the 2004 offensives against the Iraqi city of Fallujah, US Marine snipers deliberately shot civilians and medical personnel and vehicles, killing thousands. The Marines’ tactical siege and destruction of the city amounted to collective punishment, which is a war crime.
• In November 2005, a US Marine unit went on a rampage in the Iraqi town of Haditha, using guns and grenades to slaughter 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians including women, children and old people. When interviewed, US Iraq war veterans described such acts as common, and said they often go unreported and almost always go unpunished. The Marines are responsible for similar massacres in Afghanistan.
• There has been widespread torture and abuse of detainees by US Marines in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo. Documented abuses include beatings, electrocution, burning, sexual abuse and mock executions.

Of course, none of this matters to Heckler & Koch, which stands to profit a great deal from the Marine Corps. H&K already supplies the Marines with submachine guns, and it was announced this week that H&K is almost certain to win a contract to supply the Corps with thousands of state-of-the-art automatic rifles in a deal worth millions of dollars.

Conclusion

In one week, three separate news stories have illustrated how forces that are well known to commit serious human rights abuses, war crimes and crimes against humanity are continuing to be armed with modern Heckler & Koch weapons.

These are only the latest examples in a disgraceful history of arming the world’s oppressors. If there is one lesson to be learned from 60 years of Heckler & Koch, it is that the company should not be allowed to reach 61. It should be shut down and its employees tried for complicity in the abuses that they have knowingly profited from.

There is a campaign against Heckler & Koch based in Nottingham called Shut Down H&K. Check the events listing for the next meeting or demonstration, and get involved!

At mid-day on Friday November 13th, around 25 anti-arms-trade protesters gathered in the Arboretum park in Nottingham to take part in a unique, eye-catching demonstration against local arms company Heckler & Koch.

A 25-foot long model of a H&K weapon had been built from a frame of willow wood, covered and painted black, and bearing the legend popularised by Brighton’s anti-arms-trade campaign Smash EDO: “Every bomb and every bullet fired is made somewhere… Find it… Resist it!”

This gun was carried by the demonstrators in a long march from the Arboretum to the gates of Easter Park – the Lenton Lane industrial site that contains H&K’s warehouse. In returning the gun to the company that produced it, the demonstrators made a highly visible statement that H&K’s dirty business is not wanted by the people of Nottingham.

This demonstration was organised by the Nottingham Arms Dump project, independently of, but in solidarity with the long-running Shut Down H&K campaign, whose monthly picket took place four days earlier. For the first time, there were two demonstrations against Heckler & Koch in the same week!

Despite the fact that this was a peaceful demonstration, H&K’s landlord, the car insurance company LV=, asked police to prevent demonstrators from delivering the gun to the gate of Heckler & Koch. The Shut Down H&K campaign has called for a boycott of LV=, which knowingly profits from the arms trade.

The 25ft gun was modelled on the Heckler & Koch MP5. Developed in the 1960s, this submachine gun remains one of H&K’s bestselling products. Among the infamous users of the MP5:

A child poses with an MP5 in an al-Qaeda propaganda video. Not a good look for Heckler & Koch.

• Indonesia’s feared special forces unit Kopassus, which has been accused of many human rights abuses.
• Thailand, which until 2003 used the MP5 to execute prisoners in Bangkwang prison.
• The Sri Lankan army, which was recently accused of war crimes as it moved to crush Tamil resistance in the north of the country.
• Children in Iraq trained to fight by Al-Qaeda.

Anti-militarists hold Heckler & Koch and its employees responsible for the death and destruction that has been caused by weapons such as the MP5, and will continue campaigning against the company’s UK office until it has been shut down.

News reports on the Fort Hood rampage say that the alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, used an FN Herstal Five-SeveN pistol — described in some reports as a “cop killer” gun.

What, exactly, makes the Five-Seven different from other handguns?

The Five-Seven is chambered for the 5.7 x 28mm cartridge, ammunition originally developed by FN Herstal for the FN P90 Personal Defense Weapon. The P90 was conceived as a compact, powerful weapon that could be carried by aircraft crews, vehicle drivers and other troops who needed a weapon that was smaller than a carbine but larger than a pistol.

The P90 — like a competing personal defense weapon design, the 4.6mm Heckler & Koch MP7 — is supposed to pack more punch than submachine guns that fire a standard pistol rounds (9mm, say, or .45). And personal defense weapons are supposed to be capable of penetrating some kinds of body armor. As it happens, the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, has been mulling the requirements for a personal defense weapon for a few years now, although it’s far from clear the Army would procure a weapon built around a new cartridge.

I’ve seen a range demo of the MP7, and it can indeed punch through a “soft” vest or a Kevlar helmet (whether it could penetrate SAPI plates is a different matter). Gun control group The Brady Campaign says it bought and test-fired a Five-Seven, and that it successfully penetrated a police vest. That said, it doesn’t seem quite accurate to call the Five-Seven a pocket-sized assault rifle. Its barrel would give it a lower muzzle velocity than a PN90; likewise, it strikes me as unlikely that it would give a shooter much more accuracy and effective range than a standard pistol. And plain-vanilla pistol round can be devastating enough: Think of the Virginia Tech shooter, who used a Glock 9mm and Walther .22.

We don’t know at this point a lot of the details: Exactly what kind of ammunition the shooter used; how many shots in total were fired; and at what range. That will take a lot of police work, and a lot of patience.

Still, the tragedy at Fort Hood seems likely to renew debate: Both on gun control, and on the kinds of  measures to protect troops while they are on base, and unarmed.

UPDATE: Hasan bought the gun on August 1st — less than a month after he was transferred to Ft. Hood, a law enforcement official tells Newsweek’s phenomenal new Declassified blog. “At the same time, Hasan also bought several high capacity 20 round magazines that allowed him to rapidly fire off multiple rounds during the attack without reloading, the official said.

Once every two years, in the London Docklands, the world’s biggest arms fair takes place. It’s spelt DSEi, it’s pronounced “Dicey”, and this year it took place from 8^th-11^th September. Joining over 1 000 arms companies from around the world were a couple of outfits from Nottinghamshire, catering to opposite ends of the small arms market.

Heckler & Koch

As followers of this blog will know, Heckler & Koch is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of small arms, with millions of its weapons in use in over 90 countries around the world. These days H&K styles itself as “the world’s premier small arms system company”. Its high-quality products, as used by human rights abusers from Iraq to Georgia to Sri Lanka, were laid out for display on its stand at DSEi:

Heckler & Koch has a long history of using licensed production deals to evade arms export controls. Basically, if the government or the EU forbids H&K from selling weapons to country X because of some dodgy situation there, then H&K does a deal with country Y so that country Y can make H&K’s weapons and sell them on to country X.

One of the countries that H&K licenses to make its weapons is Pakistan. This long-standing relationship has allowed H&K weapons to reach various embargoed conflict zones including The Philippines, Sudan and Sri Lanka. The Pakistan Ordnance Factory even offered to sell 200 H&K submachine guns to Zimbabwe when asked by comedian Mark Thomas. At this year’s DSEi, Pakistan’s gun cabinet was stuffed with H&K weapons, including a gold-plated submachine gun:

Global Sourcing & Supply

Elsewhere at the arms fair, another Notts-based company was catering to the “budget” small arms shopper. Global Sourcing & Supply is a rather grand trading name for Easy Tiger International Ltd – a one-man import/export business based in Cotgrave.

One of GS&S’s lines of business is buying guns from Europe and Asia to be sold in the US by American Tactical Imports (which co-incidentally is being sued by H&K for selling rip-offs of its designs). Now it seems that GS&S has acquired some 40 000 Kalashnikov assault weapons and 500 grenade launchers, which company director Guy Tinsley was seen trying to flog at DSEi:

The AK-47 and its variants seen here are the most widespread and worst regulated weapons in the world. They have been used by child soldiers, insurgents, criminal gangs and terrorists to massacre, maim, rape and rob in every country from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, and even in Britain.

In case you’re thinking a British company wouldn’t be allowed to sell weapons to bad guys, consider this: Among the 25 000 visitors to DSEi were delegations from repressive regimes and conflict zones including China, Colombia and Angola that were actually invited by the British government! Furthermore, due to a lack of effective controls, guns that begin in the legal arms trade all too often end up being trafficked into warzones or in the hands of criminals. And once those guns are out there, they will remain in circulation causing death and destruction for decades to come.

The registered business address of Easy Tiger International is 10 Kingston Drive, Cotgrave, Nottingham NG12 3LL – a detached house in a quiet residential estate. I wonder if the neighbours know about the arms dealer next door…

If you would like to do something about the issues raised in this post, you can get in touch with other activists through Notts Anti-Militarism. There is a already a local campaign against Heckler & Koch called Shut Down H&K. Check the events listing for the next demo or meeting.

En 1990 el Comando de Fuerzas Especiales (SOCOM) publicó un nuevo requerimiento operativo de un sistema ofensivo de arma corta consistente en tre elementos: arma de mano, módulo de puntería por làser (LAM) y supresor de sonido o destello. Cualquier fabricante de armas podía participar en el concurso y la ganadora fue la Heckler & Koch con el supresor Knight. La pistola era un desarrollo de la versión de calibre .45 de H&K de laUPS, pero con una corredera más larga, una ligera extensión en el cañon para enroscar el supresor y monturas para el LAM.

El LAM se fija en la parte inferior de la pistola delante del guardamontes y proyecta un punto rojo sobre el blanco, lo que permite hacer punteria con gran precisión. El supresor se enrosca sobre la boca de cañon.

• Longitud: 245 mm
• Cañon: 150 mm
• Peso: 1,2 kg
• Calibre: .45
• Estrías: poligonales; dextrógiras
• Capacidad: Cargador de 12 cartuchos
• Velocidad de salida: 260 m/s

Heckler & Koch

HK416 adalah senapan serbu buatan Heckler & Koch yang bermarkas di Jerman.

Senapan ini dianggap sebagai pengembangan lebih lanjut dari karabin M4 yang digunakan sebagai senapan standar di angkatan perang Amerika dan banyak negara lain.

Kini, HK416 dianggap sebagai senapan serbu terbaik di dunia. Ini antara lain ditunjang kemampuannya untuk beroperasi di segala medan.

M16 dan penggantinga M4 sangat sensitif terhadap lingkungan ekstrim seperti medan yang berpasir. Butir pasir bisa membikin senapan macet. Prajurit tanpa senapan bisa diibaratkan landak kehilangan duri, sudah tentu jadi sasaran empuk musuh.

Meski dianggap sebagai senapan paling baik, HK416 belum digunakan secara luas, termasuk di Amerika. Dana yang diperlukan untuk mengganti persenjataan lama dengan yang baru bisa amat bejibun.

Sebagai ilustrasi satu pucuk HK416 dihargai $800 hingga $1,425 tergantung dari jumlah pembelian dan aksesoris yang disertakan. Harga ini tinggal dikalikan dengan jumlah personil angkatan perangnya saja.

Di Amerika, pengguna senapan ini baru unit Delta Force, pasukan khusus AD mereka. Delta Force mengadopsi HK416 lantaran cerita ini:

Pada 4 Maret 2002, sebuah RPG menghantam mesin helikopter Chinook MH-47 yang mengangkut personil Rangers di Gunung Shahikot, sebelah Timur Afganistan. Helikopter itu jatuh dipuncak Takur Ghar, diketinggian 10.000 kaki. Hujan peluru dari laras senjata para pejuang Al Qaeda menghujani helikopter dan menewaskan sebagian anggota pasukan yang masih berada didalamnya.

Kapten Nate Self, seorang anggota Rangers yang selamat  merangkak keluar helikopter diikuti beberapa anggotanya yang selamat, berlindung di batu-batuan dan mencoba membalas tembakan.

Saat itulah Self merasakan M4nya macet, nalurinya yang terlatih segera memeriksa apa yang terjadi dan ia menemukan peluru yang menyangkut dalam kamar peluru.

Segera ia menyiapkan tongkat pembersih yang selalu tersedia dalam  senjata dan mencoba untuk mendorong peluru itu keluar, tapi peluru itu tidak bergerak bahkan tongkat pembersihnya patah, dan ia tidak punya pilihan lain kecuali mencari senjata lain yang masih berfungsi milik  anggota pasukannya yang telah tewas dalam bangkai helikopter. Ditengah desingan peluru, ia berhasil mengambil senjata M4 yang masih berfungsi, lalu kembali bertempur.

Karena keberaniannya hari itu, Kapten Self mendapatkan penghargaan medali Silver Star.

Kalau seorang kapten dari pasukan elit tidak mampu membikin senjatanya beroperasi, berarti kesalahan bukan lagi pada personilnya. Masih ada beberapa peristiwa lain dengan kondisi serupa, senapan andalan mereka ternyata ngadat justru pada situasi genting.

Pengalaman ini akhirnya membuat petinggi pasukan Delta Force berupaya mencari senapan yang dapat diandalkan. Hingga dipilihlah HK416 yang mengkombinasikan kehandalan AK47 dan kenyamanan pemakaian M16.

Bagaimana dengan negara lain?

Ternyata Indonesia juga tercatat sebagai satu dari sebagian kecil negara yang telah menggunakan HK416. Pada Konferensi Climate Change 3-14 Desember 2008 lalu di Bali, terlihat personil-personil Pasukan Detasemen Jala Mengkara (Denjaka) Korps Marinir telah menyandang senjata ini.

Denjaka merupakan detasemen pasukan khusus TNI Angkatan Laut dengan personil gabungan dari Kopaska dan Taifib Korps Marinir TNI-AL. Denjaka memiliki tugas pokok membina kemampuan antiteror dan antisabotase di laut dan di daerah pantai serta kemampuan klandestin aspek laut.[]

Referensi:
Wikipedia

http://kopral68.multiply.com/journal/item/5/HK416_senjatanya_Denjaka?&item_id=5&view:replies=reverse

Tulisan terkait:

• Tank Tiger, Lapis Baja Andalan Nazi
• Operation Entebbe: Pembebasan Sandera Paling Spektakuler?
• Rommel, Si Rubah Gurun Penakluk Tobruk
• M1 Garand Rifle: Senapan Legendaris di 3 Perang Besar

Dank Kritik und Kunst fand ich einen aufschlussreichen Artikel von Alexander Bühler und Kerstin Kohlenberg in der Zeit. Sehr lesenswert, denn er verdeutlicht, welche die wahren Massenvernichtungswaffen sind: “Laut Unicef und dem Internationalen Zentrum für Konversion in Bonn sind 90 Prozent der Kriegstoten der vergangenen zehn Jahre durch Sturmgewehre, Maschinenpistolen oder andere Kleinwaffen ums Leben gekommen.” Interessant ist dabei die Rolle des deutschen Waffenherstellers Heckler & Koch, der zu den 5 größten der Welt gehört, sowie die des CDU-Politkers Volker Kauder:

Mit Volker Kauder, in dessen Wahlkreis Heckler und Koch liegt, hat die Firma bislang immer einen gewichtigen Fürsprecher gehabt. Einen Zusammenhang zwischen hohen Parteispenden an die CDU in Baden-Württemberg und Kauders Hilfe hat Heckler und Koch immer bestritten. Kauder schreibt auf seiner Website: »Ich unterstütze die heimische Industrie besonders in allen Fragen, in denen der Bund gefragt ist. Bei der Abwicklung von Exportaufträgen helfe ich gerne.«

Tja, so ist das mit der “Nächstenliebe” sogenannter “christlicher” Parteien,…

Wer sich schon mal gefragt hat, wer u.a. von der Krise profitiert, findet dazu auch eine Antwort, nämlich: Die Waffenindustrie!

Der vollständige Artikel kann hier gelesen werden. Leseempfehlung!

“This past weekend, Hero-Gear and well known photographer Oleg Volk were proud to host an industry only/invite only event in the beautiful mountains that run along the TN/AL border.

The purpose of this event was to bring a select group of firearms industry members, writers, bloggers, radio personalities, photographers, and videographers together to share ideas, fellowship, and to have a good time.

Over 60 participants from places like CA, TN, GA, AL, MN, WI, OH, CT, NY, and IN ensured that a wide array of equipment and ideas would be shared over the weekend.”

–Joe Lundberg, Hero Gear

Auto insurance. I has it.

Silence is golden!

Breakfast at the hotel.

A Subaru with M-14s strapped to the top. My kind of people.

The infinitely cute girls with their infinitely cute pink rifles.

An Austrian MG74, a modernized MG42 in 7.62 NATO.

Henry reviews safety, proper stance, and sight alignment with his daughter and her Ruger 10/22 rifle.

GET SOME!  Joe goes full auto with his shorty AR-15.

Daddy’s little sniper. Rebecca with the .50 caliber Barrett M82A1 rifle. The highly efficient muzzle brake does an excellent job of cutting down felt recoil, but blasts debris (and noise) laterally.

The grim reaper is a cute little Asian girl. Death has never been so cute!

Because you can’t hunt zombies with a Canon.

Joe keeps Tennessee zombie free with a custom carbon fiber stocked M-14.

A homemade mortar. “Fire in the hole!”

THOOOMP!

Henry’s daughter having a blast (or rather a series of loud clicks) with a suppressed Heckler & Koch MP5 on full auto.

Rebecca, rather shy and reserved, gets this evil grin when behind the scope of a rifle.

Nina receiving instruction on the Barrett M82A1.

The ladies chatting, undoubtedly about girly stuff like roller locking bolts and diopter sights..

Get to the choppa!!!

Pew pew!

Rebecca again, with daddy’s shorty AR-15 on Take Your Children to Work Day.

I had a few hours to kill before my flight so went around doing some Country music related stuff.

The Willie Nelson museum!

Inside a general store, unfortunately it cost $5 and I’m too cheap to do that…I think I got the picture looking through the saloon doors.

The Gibson Showcase across from the Opry.

Definitely NOT the ‘ultimate musical experience’ as they claim. A few poorly set up Mastertones past due for new strings.

Seeing the assembly area was kind of neat, though, but the place was pretty much a disappointment.

Back at the airport, a guy at the coffee shop was singing ‘Live Like You Were Dying’ across from my gate. Thankfully I had the sound of automatic weapons in my head to drown it all out.

Am Mittwoch, den 10. Juni wurde auf Phoenix die WDR- Dokumentation  »Allein gegen die Waffenindustrie – Der Kampf des Jürgen Grässlin« wiederholt. Der Film ist unbedingst sehenswert und alle die ihn im TV verpasst haben,  können sich ihn nun hier, via youtube zu Gemüte führen

Jürgen Grässlin ist wohl der prominenteste und einer der kompetentesten Rüstungsexperten in Deutschland. Er ist Autor zahlreicher Bücher, und schrieb zu Themen wie Rüstung und Krieg, Daimler und Bundeswehr. Der Film zeigt seinen Kampf gegen Firmen wie Heckler & Koch und Daimler, einige der größten Waffenproduzenten der Welt.

Film ab auf duckhome>>>

und hier noch der direkte youtube link, falls es auf duckhome mit dem Laden nicht klappt (kommt schon mal vor…)

Peruvian security forces armed with Heckler & Koch rifles and submachine guns have killed dozens of indigenous protesters near the northern city of Bagua.

Indigenous communities of the Peruvian Amazon have been protesting against new “Free Trade” laws that would open up their ancestral lands to drilling for gas and oil.  Since April 2009, indigenous protesters have stepped up their protest, blocking road and river transport and shutting down oil and gas pumping stations.  On June 6, Peruvian President Alan García ordered in the troops, and police opened fire using live rounds on a crowd of protesters.

Peruvian police armed with H&K rifles take up positions in Bagua

The shots came from rooftop snipers and a hovering helicopter as well as ground forces.  A representative of Save The Children reported that children as young as four years old were wounded by indiscriminate police shooting.  The bloody crackdown continues, with some estimates putting the death toll in the 80s.  There are eyewitness reports of the Peruvian police hiding bodies by burning or dumping them in the Utcubamba river.

The Peruvian armed forces are only one of many deadly actors employing H&K’s tools for killing and repression in the world today.  Two other conflicts that have been in the news lately are the bloody conclusion to the Sri Lankan Civil War, in which government forces were armed with H&K submachine guns, and the Taliban insurgency in Pakistan’s Swat district, in which both Taliban and government forces are armed with H&K rifles and submachine guns.

And to whom do the armed forces of Peru, Sri Lanka and Pakistan go in order to keep their weapons serviced and maintained?  Could it be the Nottingham office of Heckler & Koch, which according to the company’s own website is responsible for “international customer sales and customer services outside NATO”?

Make no mistake about it:  Heckler & Koch is not a respectable company.  It is a purveyor of the tools of murder and repression, staffed by people without a conscience, owned by crooked millionaire playboys, and it needs to be shut down.

I was around parliament today (16/05/09) in Westminster London, and I saw a security Policeman at one of the gates to the Houses of Parliament wieldin’ an MP5, as you do. So I decided to approach him and ask if I could take a photograph of his gun?

He was a very nice guy and said yes of course, by all means. Well…I couldn’t believe it, what a response! I got down on one knee and took this shot.

If only they were all like this. I’ll be findin’ out, soon.

An anti-arms-trade campaign in Nottingham has discovered that Bournemouth-based company LV= is knowingly profiting from the arms trade.  LV=, formerly known as Liverpool Victoria, is a financial services company that sells insurance, savings and investments.  Nottingham-based campaign Shut Down H&K discovered that LV= is the landlord of none other than Heckler & Koch – the world’s second-largest manufacturer of small arms.

Describing itself as “the world’s premier small arms system company“, Heckler & Koch makes assault rifles, submachine guns and pistols. Their weapons are used around the world, and have been responsible for an estimated 1.5 million deaths.  H&K weapons have armed repressive regimes in Burma and Indonesia, and been trafficked into warzones in Bosnia and Darfur.  The company’s recent customers include Georgia, Thailand, Lebanon, and the notorious private military company Blackwater.

Kopassus, the notorious Indonesian stormtroopers, marching with H&K weapons

All of this seems shockingly incompatible with LV=’s friendly, caring image.  The so-called “friendly society” has a Corporate Social Responsibility programme that aims to raise awareness of “everyday safety and good citizenship,” and its website proudly proclaims that “Our focus is on doing the right thing”.  However, it turns out that LV= owns a small business park on an industrial estate in Nottingham, on which is an unmarked warehouse that serves as H&K’s UK office; responsible for international sales and customer service to non-NATO countries.

When the campaigners learned of this, they wrote to LV=, explaining the nature of H&K’s business, and asking LV= to consider not renewing the arms company’s lease, or at least making a statement condemning the arms trade.  LV= replied unequivocally.  Not only are they “pleased to have invested,” they have “no wish to disinvest” in Heckler & Koch and they are not prepared to make any statement that may be seen as “victimising” a business.  They also rebuffed the campaigners’ offer to meet with them.

This position is shockingly hypocritical:  In order to avoid “victimising” Heckler & Koch with harsh words, LV= is prepared to turn a blind eye to the Janjaweed “victimising” Darfuri villages, Indonesian armed forces “victimising” Papuans, and the Georgian army “victimising” South Ossetian civilians, to name just three of the many armed conflicts around the world in which human-rights-abusing aggressors have been armed with Heckler & Koch guns.

The Shut Down H&K campaign is now calling for a public boycott of LV=, with the aim of securing from the company a commitment to disinvest from the arms industry. This press release is for UK-wide distribution.

Four activists from Nottingham travelled to Germany to take part in a demonstration against arms company Heckler & Koch at the company’s international HQ in March.  H&K is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of small arms, and its guns are used throughout the world; from Darfur to Iraq, from Nigeria to Nepal.  The company has long been opposed by peace campaigners in Germany, and since 2008 its Nottingham office has been the target of a local campaign called Shut Down H&K.

In 2009 Heckler & Koch will be 60 years old.  In order to pre-empt the company’s birthday celebrations, German peace groups organised a protest with the slogan 60 Jahre Heckler & Koch: kein Grund zum Feiern (60 Years of Heckler & Koch: No Cause for Celebration).  The Nottingham activists were invited to a March 7^th demonstration by the peace groups RIB, ORL and DFG-VK, who also funded their journey.

In Germany, the damning case against Heckler & Koch was laid out in a lecture by the country’s leading anti-arms-trade campaigner Jürgen Grässlin.  Speaking on the eve of the demonstration at a hall in the town of Rottweil, Grässlin talked about H&K’s history of arming repressive regimes.  He showed the audience slides of  H&K rifles in the hands of genocidal militias, and presented a pair of flip-flops he had taken from a Sudanese mass grave of people executed with H&K guns.

Then it was the turn of the Nottingham delegation to speak about their campaign and how H&K has used its UK operation to evade arms embargoes and supply guns that were used in human rights abuses in countries like Bosnia, Sudan, Ecuador and Indonesia.  The German audience was genuinely shocked to hear about the tactics used by Nottinghamshire Police to suppress the campaign.  The audio and transcript of the speech are available here.

Heckler & Koch’s global HQ is in the picturesque South-West German town of Oberndorf am Neckar, far from the misery inflicted by its trade.  The theme of the demonstration was Maskerade des Todes (Masquerade of the Dead) signifying the estimated 1.5 million people who have been killed by H&K weapons.  Some 200 demonstrators gathered at the railway station in the midday sunshine and listened to music and speeches before setting off on a march into the town centre.

Many of the marchers were dressed all in black, their faces covered by white deathmasks.  Some bore crosses with the names of countries in which people have been killed with H&K weapons, while others carried signs saying “I am a soft target” – a reference to the euphemistic description of human beings in H&K’s marketing brochures. Still more marchers were dressed as soldiers, arms industry execs or bankers, and a lone clown played the funeral drum.

The marchers gathered around a cobbled square and watched as a piece of street theatre played out before them.  First the board of H&K toasted their booming business with champagne and then none other than Death himself took centre stage, praising H&K – his favourite company – for sending him so many souls.  The Grim Reaper personally congratulated the CEO of H&K, who offered to replace his ageing scythe with a more efficient, modern tool – a Heckler & Koch assault rifle.  Death was pleased!

Next Jürgen Grässlin delivered a powerful denunciation of Heckler & Koch, listing the company’s many shameful dealings – a history that gives no cause for celebration.  Finally the Nottingam delegation stepped up to speak, thanking the German campaigners for inviting them, and delivering the message that opposition to the arms trade must be as global as the arms trade itself.  In an overwhelming show of solidarity, the German campaigners had an impromptu whip-round that raised €270 for the UK campaign.

The British activists were struck by the differences between this demonstration and the demos against H&K in Nottingham.  First of all, the police presence was nowhere near as oppressive.  There were about half a dozen German police who maintained a respectful distance, and very little police surveillance.  By contrast, every Nottingham picket has been attended by numerous riot vans with at least one policeperson for every demonstrator, and constant and oppressive surveillance, despite the fact that these demonstrations have always been peaceful.  The second difference is that the Heckler & Koch HQ in Oberndorf is well signposted, as opposed to the Nottingham depot, which is completely unsignposted, hidden in an unmarked warehouse as if ashamed of its business.

The demonstration was reported favourably on German TV news and in local newspapers and was filmed for a documentary about Grässlin.  The collaboration between the German and British campaigns has been a boost for both, and they will continue to work together in a spirit of international solidarity against the arms trade.

The Notts Indymedia photo report has more pictures of the speeches in Rottweil (part 2) and the demo at Oberndorf (part 3 and part 4).  Monthly demonstrations against Heckler & Koch in Nottingham will continue with a picket on Tuesday April 14^th and a special campaign anniversary demo on Monday May 11^th.

Die Lesetipps heute sind nicht alle nur zum lesen. Ich möchte mit einem Video beginnen. Nicht meinem kleinem, sondern einem von Frontal 21. 

• Die Atomstromlüge (Frontal 21 via Youtube)
  Diesen ca. 8 Minuten langen Bericht, der Ende 2008 ausgestrahlt (wie passend) wurde, sollte sich jeder ansehen, der glaubt Atomstrom sein günstig. Die Reportage deckt auf, wie stark die Atomlobby mit Steuergeldern subventioniert wird. Die einzigen, die von längeren Laufzeiten der Atommeiler profitieren würden, wären die Energiekonzerne. Frontal 21 rechnet vor: Für den Bürger ist Atomstrom nicht billiger. Ein Aspekt, den man sich, grade in einer Zeit, in der über ein Comeback der Atomenergie, diskutiert wird, vor Augen führen sollte. 
   
• Regierungsplan: Waffenindustrie profitiert von Konjunkturpaket (SpOn)
  Etwa 500 Millionen Euro des Konjunkturprogramms sollen für Rüstungsausgaben aufgewendet werden. Die Hälfte davon für Waffen! Einer der Hauptprofiteure wird Heckler & Koch sein. 
   
• Deutsche reden gern über sich – nicht über Sex (Welt Online)
  Interessantes Ergebnis einer Studie des Instituts für Demoskopie Allensbach. Worüber reden die Deutschen gerne? Worüber ungern? Und welche Kommunikationswege (Gespräch, Mail, Brief, Telefonat, Chat) benutzen sie dafür am liebsten. Eine Studie mit teils überraschenden Ergebnissen, die Fragen provoziert, allen voran was die Veränderung durch Handy und Internet betrifft: Verlieren die Generationen den Kontakt zu einander? Verändert sich unser Untereinander? Schaut am besten selber mal rein und macht euch eure Gedanken!

Fassen wir alles drei zusammen:
Bundesausgaben für Waffenindustire und Atomlobby: Ja
Bundesausgaben für kostenfreies Studium oder Sozialsysteme: Nope
Und außerdem redet keiner Über Sex. Aber wetten wir dieses Tagging wird das meistgeklickte sein?

Four Nottingham anti-arms trade campaigners are visiting the German town of Oberndorf-am-Neckar in early March to attend a major protest at the international headquarters of arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch, whose British branch is based in Nottingham.

The Nottingham delegation

The Nottingham activists will be joining their German counterparts to protest about Heckler & Koch’s role in supplying arms used in murderous conflcts around the world. It has been revealed that H&K guns have been used by the Janjaweed militias in Darfur, by Blackwater mercenaries in Iraq, by the Georgian army in South Ossetia, and by criminal gangs in the UK.

The four will represent a Nottingham-based campaign called Shut Down H&K, which has been building friendship links with German organisations who also oppose the arms trade. A German peace group caled the Armaments Information Office (RIB) invited them to attend the demonstration and offered to pay their travel expenses.

The March 7^th protest has been organised by German campaign groups to pre-empt H&K’s 60^th anniversary celebrations. The theme of the demonstration will be “Masquerade of Death” and the marchers will be split into two columns – one mourners dressed in black to commemorate the victims of war, and one dressed as arms dealers celebrating their booming business. There will also be a rally at which the delegation will deliver a speech about the Nottingham campaign against Heckler & Koch.

Making a killing: Heckler & Koch guns in the hands of an African child soldier, a Taliban fighter in Pakistan, Serbian special forces, a Nepalese soldier and a Palestinian militant

press release in PDF

Feinripp war gestern, feines Porzellan ist etwas für Omas Vitrine, und mit einer Dampflok ist kaum mehr jemand von der Nintendo-Generation hinter dem Ofen hervorzulocken. Traditionsmarken, so scheint es, haben es schwer, und die Pleiten der vergangenen Wochen bestätigen das: Schiesser, Rosenthal und Märklin haben Insolvenzantrag gestellt. Ihre Namen erinnern an die heile Welt von früher, und durch sie scheint die Krise plötzlich greifbarer. „Mit der Krise hat das gar nichts zu tun. Das sind alles kranke Unternehmen, schlecht gemanagt“, urteilt aber Peter Littmann, dessen Hamburger Agentur Brandinsider sich auf die Schaffung und Revitalisierung von Marken spezialisiert hat: „Die starke Marke übertüncht ein paar Probleme. Und auf Seiten der Eigentümer fehlte es an der Konsequenz, die Dinge brutaler, schneller, konsequenter zu verändern.“

Tatsächlich eint die Problemfälle eins: Die Unternehmen sind schon lange in der Schieflage. Bei Schiesser ist gerade der vierte Sozialplan seit 1999 verhandelt worden. Rosenthal hat schon vor fünf Jahren Schlagzeilen gemacht, weil das 125-Jahr-Jubiläum pompös gefeiert wurde, während die Lieferanten vergeblich darauf warteten, dass ihre Rechnungen bezahlt wurden.

Mitarbeiter setzten Hoffnung in „die Heuschrecken“

Die Liste lässt sich auch um viele, altbekannte Namen verlängern. Salamander, seit wenigen Tagen im Besitz des Langenfelder Schuhkonzerns Ara, hat vier Eigentümerwechsel in neun Jahren hinter sich. Der Nähmaschinenhersteller Pfaff, der im September Insolvenz anmeldete, sorgt seit zwei Jahrzehnten für Schlagzeilen.

1987 beschäftigte Pfaff noch etwa 10.000 Menschen. Nun reichte das Geld nicht einmal mehr für den Umzug der am Stammsitz Kaiserslautern verbliebenen 400 Mitarbeiter in ein neues Gebäude: der Großaktionär, ein Unternehmen aus dem Konglomerat des amerikanischen Hedge-Fonds QVT, hatte wegen eigener Refinanzierungsnöte kurzfristig den Geldhahn zugedreht.

Bei Märklin war die Situation sogar schon so verfahren, dass die Belegschaft im Jahr 2006 für einen Verkauf auf die Straße ging. Obwohl der Begriff „Finanzinvestor“ damals in Gewerkschaftskreisen nahezu uneingeschränkt durch das Wort „Heuschrecken“ ausgetauscht wurde, setzten die Märklin-Beschäftigten ihre Hoffnung in den britischen Finanzinvestor Kingsbridge.

„Die sind im Blindflug unterwegs“

Die Mitarbeiter hatten lang genug mit angesehen, wie die 22 Nachfahren der Gründerfamilie ihre Energie im Streit untereinander vergeudeten. Und sie konnten hoffen, halbwegs ungeschoren davonzukommen: Das Thema Kosten sei nicht so kriegsentscheidend, signalisierten die neuen Herren am Märklin-Stammsitz Göppingen, obwohl 55 Millionen Euro Verlust aufgelaufen waren, etwa halb so viel wie der Umsatz eines ganzen Jahres.

Eine fatale Haltung: Michael Pluta hätte seinen Job als vorläufiger Insolvenzverwalter von Märklin nicht antreten müssen, wenn sich jemand wirklich um die Kosten geschert hätte. Geradezu schockiert hat ihn die Höhe der Beraterhonorare. 40 Millionen Euro in vier Jahren, etwa die Hälfte der Verluste, die Märklin in dieser Zeit realisiert hat. Bedient hat sich dabei auch der Finanzinvestor selbst, der Managementgebühren kassiert hat ungeachtet der nachweisbaren Erfolglosigkeit.

Aber das ist nur die Spitze des Eisbergs. „Da hat es keinen Kostenbremser gegeben“, sagt Pluta. Die einfachsten Erkenntnisse der Betriebswirtschaft sind offenbar in der schwäbischen Provinz noch nicht angekommen: Die Kostenstellenrechnung beispielsweise ist bei Märklin ein Fremdwort. Ob das Einsparen bei der Billigmarke Trix also etwas bringen würde oder die Verlagerung von Produktionsteilen nach Ungarn: Das konnte man bei Märklin nur ahnen, aber nicht nachrechnen. „Die sind im Blindflug unterwegs“, staunt Pluta.

Eigenkapitalquoten von weniger als zehn Prozent

„Das Gute am Schlechten ist: Es gibt viele Chancen“, fügt er hinzu. Im Grunde kann er es gar nicht fassen, dass sie nicht längst jemand genutzt hat, wo Märklin mit seinen wirklichkeitsgetreuen Modelleisenbahnen doch ein Produkt hat, das auf der ganzen Welt Emotionen auslöst, zumindest bei Männern über 40 Jahren. Als Zielgruppe, da ist sich der 58 Jahre alte Anwalt sicher, reicht das allemal, zumal sie nicht auf Deutschland beschränkt ist.

Die Tatsache, dass sich sogar japanische Journalisten am Märklin-Stammsitz in Göppingen die Klinke in die Hand geben, ist ihm Signal genug. Ebenso der Märklin-Club mit 80.000 zahlenden Mitgliedern. „Einen Fan-Club mit 80.000 Mitgliedern kann man sich für Feinripp-Unterhosen eben nicht vorstellen“, scherzt er mit Blick auf Schiesser, wo sein Kollege Volker Grub ebenfalls versucht, dem Niedergang entgegenzuwirken.

Aber auch Grub ist zuversichtlich für Schiesser. Er hat in Radolfzell am Bodensee das vorgefunden, was man aus vielen Textilunternehmen kennt: Die Produktion war verlagert worden, aber die Belieferung aus Fernost war qualitativ schlecht und nicht zuverlässig. Mit Lizenzproduktion für andere Marken waren massive Verluste aufgelaufen. Und bei all dem hat der Eigentümer, der Schweizer Unternehmer Thomas Bechtler, offenbar viel zu lange zugesehen. Die Eigenkapitalquote vor dem Insolvenzantrag schätzt Grub auf 10 Prozent – kein Wert, der durch eine Krise trägt. Damit ist Schiesser kein Einzelfall.

Die Wirtschaftsauskunftei Creditreform berichtet, 30 Prozent der untersuchten Unternehmen hätten eine Eigenkapitalquote von weniger als zehn Prozent, auch Rosenthal gehörte dazu. Die Rezession wirkt in solchen Fällen wie ein Brennglas. Banken, die in der Finanzkrise genauer hinschauen, geben Kredite nur noch zu deutlich höheren Zinsen oder verlieren ganz die Geduld.

Stolz auf die Marke

Grub, der schon einige Markenartikler durch existentielle Krisen geführt hat, von Bauknecht über Südmilch (“Landliebe“) bis zu Salamander, kennt das Phänomen der allzu geduldigen Unternehmer. „Die Eigentümer sind stolz auf ihre Marken. Man war jahrzehntelang Marktführer. Da kann man kaum glauben, dass man plötzlich im Abseits steht“, so der Erklärungsversuch von Grub.

Die möglichen Nachfolger der Familienunternehmer machen es nicht zwangsläufig besser, wie sich immer wieder zeigt. So erhebt beispielsweise Dieter Wolf schwere Vorwürfe gegen die Führungsspitze des einstigen Familienunternehmens Wolf-Garten aus dem pfälzischen Betzdorf, das 2004 an den Unternehmer Andreas Heeschen verkauft wurde.

Zentrale Bereiche des Unternehmens seien in die Schweiz ausgelagert worden, kritisierte der 74 Jahre alte Dieter Wolf gegenüber der „Rhein-Zeitung“. Dies habe dem deutschen Standort enorm geschadet, nicht zuletzt auch deshalb, weil Finanzmittel in Millionenhöhe abgezogen worden seien. Mitte Januar beantragte Wolf-Garten Insolvenz. Andreas Heeschen kündigte seinen Rückzug an: Er wolle sich zusammen mit seinem Partner Keith Halsey auf sein Engagement beim Waffenhersteller Heckler & Koch konzentrieren.

Private Equity-Investoren geben schneller auf

Das legendäre Durchhaltevermögen der Familienunternehmen, so gefährlich es sein kann, gewinnt in der Krise gleichwohl wieder an Bedeutung. Die Autohersteller seien mittlerweile massiv gegen Finanzinvestoren eingestellt, hat Insolvenzverwalter Volker Grub beobachtet, als er vor kurzem im Rheintal einen Hersteller von Kunststoffspritzteilen zu sanieren hatte: „Private-Equity-Investoren neigen dazu, schnell aufzugeben, den Verlust abzuschreiben nach dem Motto: Der erste Verlust ist der beste. Alteingesessene Unternehmerfamilien sind verlässlicher.“

Autohersteller, die durchweg ihren Lieferanten seit Monaten Umsatzeinbußen weit im zweistelligen Prozentbereich zumuten, betrachten die wirtschaftliche Gesundheit ihrer Zulieferer plötzlich unter neuem Blickwinkel.

„Der Zauber von Private Equity wird jetzt nachlassen“, prophezeit Volker Grub, der mit seinen 71 Jahren schon manche Mode im Wirtschaftsleben beobachtet hat. Die horrenden Preise, die Finanzinvestoren in den vergangenen Jahren bezahlt haben, zeigen jetzt immer häufiger ihre Langfristwirkung. „In vielen Firmen wurde da kurz was hingezaubert, damit es für den Wiederverkauf schön aussieht“, hat Grub beobachtet. Während aber Zukunftsinvestitionen unterlassen werden, sinkt in vielen Fällen der finanzielle Spielraum, weil den Unternehmen der Kaufpreis aufgebürdet wird.

Eine „bessere Kapitalstruktur“ für Boss

Einer der eklatantesten Fälle ist Hugo Boss. Der Modekonzern aus Metzingen am Fuß der Schwäbischen Alb hat sich in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten vom Herrenschneider zum international anerkannten Lifestyle-Anbieter entwickelt. Doch in einigen Jahren könnte auch Boss ein Unternehmen mit viel Geschichte und wenig Zukunft sein – denn der Finanzinvestor Permira hat Boss im vergangenen Jahr eine „bessere Kapitalstruktur“ verordnet.

Mit diesen Worten jedenfalls wurde das umschrieben, was man etwas plakativer als „Aussaugen“ anprangern könnte: Permira setzte eine Dividendenzahlung von 445 Millionen Euro durch, obwohl Boss nur 154 Millionen Euro verdient hatte. Auf diese Weise sank das Eigenkapital, die Eigenkapitalrendite sah umso schöner aus.

Gefordert hatte Permira sogar noch viel mehr, gekostet hat es den Konzern ohnehin mehr als Geld: Boss verlor zuerst den Vorstandsvorsitzenden Bruno Sälzer, der dann, nachdem er einen neuen Posten an der Spitze von Escada angetreten hatte, weitere Vorstände und Spitzenmanager von Boss gewinnen konnte.

Wiedeking wäre ein Investor mit Herzblut

Denn Gefühle sind keineswegs Nebensache. Das ist auch die Überzeugung von Märklin-Verwalter Michael Pluta, der jetzt hofft, für Märklin einen „Unternehmer mit Herzblut“ zu finden: „Wenn einem der Sinn nur danach steht, am Ende des Jahres ein paar Millionen Euro mehr auf dem Konto zu haben, dann betrügt man die Mitarbeiter um ihr Engagement für ein Unternehmen, mit dem sie sich identifizieren.“

In der letzten Krise im Jahr 2006 hätte Märklin beinahe einen Investor mit Herzblut gefunden, der bestimmt auch bei den Beschäftigten Beifall gefunden hätte: Porsche-Chef Wendelin Wiedeking, der nicht nur seinen Kartoffelacker und alte Porsche-Traktoren, sondern auch die Modelleisenbahn zu seinen Leidenschaften zählt. Doch Wiedeking entschied sich letztlich dagegen.

Ob Wiedeking dieses Mal wieder zu den Gesprächspartnern gehören wird, weiß Pluta nicht. Eine Investmentbank soll sich mit dem Verkauf befassen, Plutas Maßgabe für die Suche ist nur die Haltung des Investors: „Die Firma darf nicht nur zum Geldverdienen da sein. Ein Unternehmer muss die Überzeugung rüberbringen, dass er seine Produkte selbst schätzt.“

Text: F.A.Z.

A small demo was held in Market Square on Thursday 22^th January to raise awareness and spread the word about the campaign against arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch. Hundreds of flyers were handed out to passers-by with the aim of raising awareness that Nottingham is home to the international sales headquarters of a multinational arms company. Conversations were had with Nottingham residents not only about the presence of H&K in their city but also about the arms trade in general, creating an effective space to engage in dialogue with the public. For more details and pictures, see Indymedia.

Shut Down H&K campaigners raising awareness in Market Square (photo courtesy of Tash)

There will be further demos in Market Square every fourth Thursday of the month, as well as continuing demos outside the headquarters in Lenton industrial estate every second Monday.

Death Gliders

Find this and other exciting images as posters, framed art prints, 2009 calendars, and greeting card sets. Visit the PatriArt Gallery today — your one-stop shopping site for military and patriotic themed holiday gifts. Worldwide delivery available.

OR

Find this and other exciting images on tee-shirts, caps, and other casual clothing, as well as on beer steins, mousepads, clocks, and dozens of other office and gift items. Visit The Military Chest today — your one-stop shopping site for military and patriotic themed holiday gifts. Worldwide delivery available.

The  U.S. Army is starting to shop around for a new weapon to replace the M4 carbine, writes Danger Room’s Noah Schachtman. Earlier this month, the service held an invitation-only expo in Arlington, Va., for small arms manufacturers to get a feel for what kind of small arms technology is currently on the market.

Several major gun manufacturers took part in the industry day, including Heckler & Koch, FN Herstal, Colt Defense, Sig Sauer and Smith & Wesson. But smaller outfits like Precision Reflex (a maker of accessories for the AR15/M16) and Barrett Firearms (best known as a manufacturer of a .50-caliber sniper rifle) also took part.

Evey kindly contacted me to alert me to the fact that a major arms company is based in Nottingham.

“Not many Nottingham residents are aware of it, but the city is home to a major multinational arms company. An anonymous warehouse on an industrial estate in Lenton is the UK headquarters of Heckler & Koch – the world’s second largest manufacturer of handguns, assault rifles, submachine guns, machine guns and grenade launchers…

The company has shipped guns from the UK to warzones such as Bosnia^[3] and Nepal^[4], and has licensed its weapons for production by regimes with poor human rights records such as Turkey, Mexico, Thailand, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Myanmar^[5]. Furthermore the company effectively evaded UK and EU export restrictions when these licensees sold H&K weapons on to conflict zones including Indonesia^[6], Sri Lanka^[7] and Sierra Leone^[4].”

Follow the link below to read more.

http://nottsantimilitarism.wordpress.com/heckler-koch/