Poppies and Bombs

There are few industries with as much to be ashamed of as the arms trade. It is a trade that for generations has profiteered from grotesque human rights abuses and deadly wars and conflicts. Every year its weapons facilitate the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, as it hands over extortionate profits and dividends to rich businessmen that appear to care little for the damage done by their wars. As the nation marks Remembrance Day you might expect that if there is one industry that should be keeping a low profile it's the arms trade.

Unfortunately not.

Despite its history of war profiteering it has only been too happy to exploit the legacy of those who have died in conflicts and to brazenly associate itself with the annual memorials. Arms companies do not do this because they care about the war dead. They do it because it is good for their business. By agreeing to take money from arms companies the Royal British Legion is giving practical support and a veneer of credibility to an industry that profits from the same war and repression that they seek to commemorate.

Thales,  an arms company that has a long and inglorious history of arming some of the world's most brutal dictatorships, has taken the opportunity to brand the entrance of Westminster underground station with a poppy covered billboard.

Lockheed Martin, the world's biggest arms company, is the main sponsor of the British Legion Young Professionals' Poppy Rocks event. Unfortunately this is far from the first time that the Legion has taken money from the arms trade.

The UK's biggest arms company, BAE Systems, has been a long-standing 'supporter'. In the past it has sponsored national poppy appeals and donated to fund-raising drives. This year they will be sponsoring the annual Poppy Ball white tie dinner, and specific offices and arms factories will be hosting their own local events.

In 2012 a newspaper investigation forced the then president of the Brish Legion, Lieutenant General Sir John Kiszely, to resign over allegations that former commanders were using their connections to lobby on behalf of arms companies. Kiszely himself declared that the annual Remembrance Day ceremony was a 'tremendous networking opportunity' before boasting of the access it gave him to powerful people.

Taken from here