The Eurosatory Arms Fair (or DSEI, Defence and Security Equipment International in English) - currently the largest international arms exhibition in the world - is held in Seine-Saint-Denis, France every other year, while it takes place in England in the odd years. On a global level, it is one of the most important event of capitalization on war, of militarization of borders and of population repression.
In 2018, the show will take place from Monday 11th to Friday 15th June, at the Parc des Expositions in Villepinte. It is organized by COGES, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French Land and Airland Defense and Security Industries Association GICAT. COGES is devoted to promoting French land and airland Defense and Security industries and their sectors worldwide. The 2018 edition of Eurosatory will be particularly important and will include the inauguration of a new 8,130m² hall.
During the Eurosatory Fair, delegations of over 55 arms-producing states and weapons purchasers meet - including imperialist and colonialist states such as France, the United States or Israel. Those delegations meet the representatives of over 1,500 arms companies, including a large number of French companies. The aim of this fair, which is described as dedicated to “defense and security”, is to exhibit, promote, sell and provide advanced warfare and surveillance technologies. Before the fair, a banquet celebrates ongoing and future contracts, in the most absolute indifference to the consequences of the production and circulation of weapons - which has reached an unparalleled level since the end of the cold war - on the life and survival of millions of people globally.
These weapons and equipment of murder, surveillance and repression are the same ones that are found in the hands of France’s first buyer, Saudi Arabia, to kill in Yemen : since March 2015, there have been nearly 10,000 dead , 55,000 injured, 3 million displaced and millions of adults and children suffering from acute malnutrition.
The weapons promoted at the show are the same ones that were declared "effective on the ground" - a market guarantee - after having been tested during France's imperialist interventions in sub-Saharan Africa (such as the Rafale planes that were tested in Mali, before being sold to Qatar) or during Israel's colonial aggressions in Palestine (such as the weapons that Israel supplied Burma in the midst of the Rohingya genocide). During the previous arms fairs, Israel was promoted as "exemplary" in terms of security policies.
These equipment, used during imperialist interventions and by dictators provided in advanced deadly technologies, are the same ones that are deployed at the borders of Europe against refugees - especially in the hands of the “European Border and Coast Guard Agency or EBCG (ex Frontex).
These weapons are the weapons of the police; the same ones that violate, rape and kill populations of immigrant origin, presented as "dangerous classes" in the French suburbs. They are also the so-called "sub-lethal" apparatus that is turned against our mobilizations opposing the destruction of social gains on all fronts: in the streets, in our universities, at the ZAD (Zone to Defend). These are the weapons that are at the heart of the "State of Emergency" apparatus.
These police weapons that may legally be kept outside working hours since 2015 have already claimed many victims among police spouses.
Since the beginning of the "State of Emergency", French policies have been using the "terrorist threat" to sell its weapons both to dictators who claim to fight terrorism by massacring their populations, as well as, directly or indirectly, to armed factions such as the Islamic State in Syria and Boko Haram in Cameroon.
The same pretence is used to justify French military presence and its interferences in the internal policies of former French colonies in Sub-Saharan Africa, and wherever the French government has interests; where paternalism and interventionism are deployed to protect and secure French strategic resources under the guise of counter-terrorism.
In 2017, according to IHS Markit, France has made $ 5.2 billion worth of arms delivery, becoming the third largest global death trader after the United States and Russia, along with China. In the budget voted for 2018 and deducted from our contributions, Defense (32.44 billion euros) was granted twenty-six times more than Health (1.24 billion euros). The annual increase projected for the Defense budget (1.7 billion) alone is greater than the Health budget.
Simultaneously, and despite repeated denunciations of French operations lack of transparency and legality of (as in the case of Operation Chammal in Iraq and then in Syria), the number of civilian deaths resulting from these operations is left in the shadows. According to numerous sources, such as Airwars or the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), the bombardments of the anti-IS coalition - which includes France - have killed thousands of non-combatants.
We strongly oppose the holding of this death fair in France, which furthermore, is happening in Seine-Saint-Denis, where many destinies resulting from colonization and imperialism, migration and exile converge.