Arms trade jobs

The 55,000 arms export jobs make up less than 0.2 per cent of the UK workforce and less than 2 per cent of manufacturing jobs. Obviously there are further jobs in producing arms for the UK military, but even the total of 210,000 workers makes up less than 0.7 per cent of the UK workforce.

Arms exports comprise only 1.5 per cent of total exports, and even this is an overestimate of their importance as many of the components of UK arms exports were imported in the first place (approximately 40 per cent of the value of the exports).

This is a question of priorities: do we want to be at the leading edge of green technologies tackling the biggest threat to human security this century – climate change? Or would we rather pursue international power projection through the old commitment to arms production?

The Government is able to choose where resources are targetted as it is responsible for much of the Research & Development funding for arms. Moving resources towards the underfunded renewable energy sector could establish a strong UK presence in a sector that is vibrant.

CAAT wants the skills of many arms workers to be used more productively, rather than being wasted producing arms that will increase instability and conflict around the world. While an end to arms exports would undoubtedly lead to some workers being worse off, moving resources from arms to other sectors could increase rather than decrease the number of jobs.

There has been a long-term decline in the arms industry (from 560,000 workers in 1980 to 210,000 today). It is extremely unlikely that this would be reversed, whereas other sectors, notably those addressing carbon emissions, involve many similar skills and are likely to grow.

It still needs to be asked why UK jobs are often considered to be more important than the human rights of people on the receiving end of UK weapons.

There are only a handful of localities that could be described as possibly having a dependency on arms exports – around BAE Warton in Lancashire, BAE Brough in East Yorkshire and AgustaWestland in Yeovil.

Anywhere in the world that depends on one industry or employer is going to be in a vulnerable position if demand dries up or the employer decides to relocate. In this situation coordinated action is needed, and previous company and public initiatives have been shown to greatly improve the re-employment success of those made redundant. Additional funding would be needed, but this would amount to far less than the ongoing cost of subsidising arms exports.

While there are a number of possible sectors, technologies to address carbon emissions are the most obvious alternatives to arms production. There has been a growing chorus of demand, driven by environmental concerns and the recession, for greater investment in both renewable energy and energy efficiency.