Don’t Buy Don’t Sell  

In 2021 the top 100 arms companies accounted for $592 billion in arms sales (the latest available). The top 20 arms companies alone account for two thirds of the total arms sales in the world and come from just a handful of countries: USA, China, Russia, UK, France and Italy (SIPRI, Pre-Ukraine Stats).

Annual revenue and profits on arms sales by multinationals are published. Arms sales have grown significantly every year over recent years and will take another hike as a result of Ukraine and Gaza.

Don’t buy don’t sell. The ‘don’t buy, don’t sell’ concept is a solidarity country-twinning campaign between civil society activists from arms sales nations and arms buying nations working together. The continued success of this solidarity campaign will prevent unjustified arms sales (that do not provide ‘non-offensive defence’) and therefore significantly degrow the military economy by reducing the international arms trade.

One of the strengths of Don’t Buy Don’t Sell is it is international. If a Don’t Buy campaign is not practically possible in a country, an international (north-south) coalition of Don’t Sell campaign can still be formed in solidarity:

Many of the biggest arms importers are also those most likely to misuse their arms – currently they also tend to be countries in the Global South that either rank low in the Human Development Index or having an authoritarian tendency. In these countries, such authoritarian pressure makes civil society opposition extremely difficult. It is left to those of with the freedom to act and who also live in those developed countries in the Global North that are among the biggest arms exporters to tell our governments ‘Stop. We do not want blood on our hands’ when it is clear that arms made in the Global North are being used by morally questionable regimes for aggressive and offensive attacks, not for defensive purposes. It is vital that civil society in the ‘not much to lose’ countries in the Global North should realise ‘not much to lose’ does not mean ‘nothing to do with us’ − their own governments can be an effective arm of campaigning efforts to exert the collective wishes on the other governments.