The St Athan Defence Training Academy: the future of British education?

latest SGR Newsletter : Autumn *2008*

The St Athan Defence Training Academy: the future of
British education?

Stuart Tannock discusses the disturbing implications
of the Ministry of Defence's new multi-billion pound
training academy.

Britain's largest education and technology investment
project in recent memory has been developing quietly
under the public's radar. It is time we paid attention.
In January 2007, the Ministry of Defence awarded an £11
billion contract to the private Metrix Consortium
(see Box) to build a massive new training centre for the
British armed forces at the village of
St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales.

St Athan, which is expected to become one of the world's
biggest military training establishments when it opens
 in 2013, will provide specialist training in engineering,
communications and information systems technology
to all three services of the British military. For the
first time, it will centralise in one location military
training that is currently done in sites
across the country.

Supporters of St Athan emphasise that the Academy will
use state-of-the-art technology and training methods
such as neurolinguistic programming, e-learning technologies,
computer-based training, computer-aided instruction,
emulation, simulation and Web-based systems. St Athan, they
claim, "breathes life into the classroom of the future
model which for many years now has been anticipated by
futurologists and thought leaders in the education community."
St Athan represents a "model for training in this
country" that will enable Britain to realise Lord Leitch's
vision of gaining "world leadership in skills."

Why should any of this worry us? There is the fundamental
question of why we should support such a massive outlay of
taxpayer money on a military that is still involved in
fighting an illegal war in Iraq – and in a country,
Britain, that already boasts the world's second-largest
military budget.Beyond this, St Athan represents three
developments which should be attracting extended public
and political debate, but which instead have
received little attention, beyond a small, local campaign
against the Academy that sprung up in Wales after the
project was first announced.

First, St Athan is part of a political project of
privatising the British armed forces, and turns over
responsibility for military training to a private, for-profit
consortium. At a time when, across the Atlantic, US Congress
is holding investigations into abuses perpetrated by private
military companies such as Blackwater in Iraq, Britain is
rushing headlong down the same path of military privatisation
that the USA has gone down before. This privatisation,
moreover, makes the British government a direct
partner of one of the world's largest and most controversial
arms dealers,Raytheon, which is a core member of the St
Athan Metrix Consortium.

Second, St Athan represents a major leap forward in Britain's
participation in the global arms trade. The Metrix business
model for maximising profits at St Athan is to maximise the
amount of training it provides, through serving not just the
British military but militaries from around the world.
Between 2002 and 2005, the Ministry of Defence provided
military training to more than 12,000 personnel from 137
countries, many with poor human rights records.  With
St Athan, this trade promises only to increase.

Third, St Athan represents another step up in the ongoing
militarisation of British education. The Open University –
whose Vice-Chancellor, Brenda Gourley, claims that
universities should be "beacons that reflect the very
best of which the human spirit is capable"  – is a
direct partner in the Metrix Consortium. Schools around
the Vale of Glamorgan are making plans to train local
youth for jobs at the St Athan Academy, while colleges and
universities across South Wales, which have already
been extensively militarised over the past decade,
are exploring new Academy contract tie-ins. 

Indeed, one reason why we shouldn't expect Cardiff
University, the premier institution of research and
learning in the region, to lead any critical investigation
into the St Athan project is that, in 2005, it signed
a long-term strategic research partnership with QinetiQ,
another core member of the Metrix Consortium.

Promoters of the St Athan Defence Training Academy
claim that it represents the future of education
in Britain. Without public investigation, debate and
critique of St Athan and other military research
and education projects across the country, there is
a strong possibility that this will come true.
If it does, it will not be for the better of Britain
or anywhere else in the world.

Raytheon 'war profiteers'?

UVM anti-war group pushes divestment BurlingtonFreePress.com, VT - 13 May 2008

Halliburton, General Dynamics and Raytheon were asked last week to respond to their characterization as "war profiteers." Raytheon did not reply. ...

why is the OU so willing to get in to bed with War profiteers?

Student horror at partnership with Raytheon

Dear Anne, many thanks for this info! I, myself a PhD student at the OU, had no idea about this OU involvement! I am at the moment starting to talk to other students and staff of the OU to see how we could support your opposition.
all the best, Uli

NO2 OU & Raytheon. Ethics letter to OU Wales

Campaign against the St Athan Defence Academy
Cynefin y Werin (Common Ground), http://www.cynefinywerin.org.uk/ is an all Wales network of organisations which promotes equality, peace, justice, human rights and co-operation between nations, peoples and communities on the basis of sustainable environmental, economic and social development.

Please find and read a copy of a letter below - to Mr Humphreys, OU Wales following a recent protest outside the Cardiff office.

The campaign against the proposed military academy at St Athan is concerned
about the impact the partnership with companies like Raytheon , arms dealers
have on international peace and conflict. We want a public debate in Wales
regarding the democratic deficit within the Open University on the decision
to enter into the Metrix Consortium.

The OU is accused of giving this consortium and the proposed privatised training a veneer of respectability. As part of the National Day of Action for University Ethical Investment on
Wed 27th Feb campaign protesters gathered outside the OU Offices in Cardiff. Mr Rob Humphreys, the Director of the Open University in Wales declined to take up a position on behalf of the Open University or one which defined his personal stance. He said that ethics were matters for individuals and as far as the Open University was concerned no formal policy had been determined.

Jeeny Lee who played a key role in the formation of the Open University was against the UK acquiring a nuclear deterrent. Working with war profiteers makes a mockery of the OU promise to promote social justice

Mr. Rob Humphreys Open University in Wales 18 Custom House Street Cardiff CF10 1AP

Dear Mr. Humphreys,

· Why is the Open University involved in a private consortium that is seeking to expand Britain's role in the global arms trade?
· Why is the Open University engaged in a partnership with one of the world's largest manufacturers of weapons of mass destruction?
· Is this not is direct conflict with the Open University's historical commitment to social justice and to using education as a force for social good in the world?

I applaud the Open University’s attention to ethics and last year’s opening of a new Ethics Centre, that will "carry out research to clarify our understanding of key ethical concepts, design new courses to spread ethical understanding and promote public debate about the most pressing moral issues of our time."

But I ask the Open University how it can reconcile its supposed commitment to ethics with its direct participation as a member of the Metrix Consortium, which has won a PFI contract from the Ministry of Defence to open a £14 billion military training centre near the village of St Athan in Wales.

Through the St Athan Defence Training Academy, the OU will now be helping to create a British version of the infamous US School of the Americas of Fort Benning, Georgia. The St Athan Academy will provide military training not just to members of the British Armed Forces, but to soldiers from armies all over the world – who will guarantee that the Burmese Army will not train there? In order to make the most money that it can, the private Metrix Consortium openly intends to use St Athan to expand Britain's role in the global trade in military training and expertise.

Through the St Athan Academy, the OU will also be partnering directly with one of the largest missile manufacturers in the world, Raytheon. On the grounds of ethics, the governments of Norway and Belgium have recently called for full divestment from Raytheon – because of the company's involvement in manufacturing cluster bombs, which kill and injure children and civilians indiscriminately in armed conflicts world-wide. The governments of the Netherlands and Canada are shortly expected to follow suit.

Through the St Athan Academy, the OU will be engaged in openly promoting the culture and economy of militarism, war, occupation, terror and mass environmental destruction.

Open University Vice-Chancellor Brenda Gourley herself has said that "there is no doubt that institutions demonstrate their values most powerfully by their actions rather than their words." She said that universities should “reflect the very best of which the human spirit is capable."

I therefore call on the Open University to cut all ties with the Metrix Consortium and to take a clear stand against the St Athan Defence Training Academy. I call on the students, staff and trustees of the Open University to demand that their institution return to its historical commitment to promoting ethics and social justice through their collective work in higher education.

Note _ The Director Mr Humphries statement
"In meeting those taking part in the demonstration outside The Open University in Wales offices, I listened to the points they made and outlined the University's involvement in the Metrix consortium, which is overseeing the St Athan project.
"The University recognises that Britain's armed services play a vital part in peacekeeping activities all over the world and that it is important that service personnel receive the best education possible for these demanding roles. As a partner in the consortium, The Open University is committed to delivering the highest possible quality of support to this endeavour.
"Since its inception, the University has helped more than 100,000 Services personnel and their families fulfil their potential through education. Participation in the St Athan project will help us to continue that work."

Cynefin y Werin (Common Ground) Y Deml Heddwch, Parc Cathays, Caerdydd CF10 3AP
Temple of Peace, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3AP
Contact us by email no2militaryacademy@inbox.com

For more information
http://www.cynefinywerin.org.uk/
see also http://www.metrixconsortium.blogspot.com/
http://stathanmilitaryacademypoliticians.blogspot.com/
No to St Athan Military Academy on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4156619706
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8114373862

Irish get ethical and dump Raytheon

Wat happened to the OU ethics? The Caridff OU did an ethical survey after the first St Athan Demonstation and what wasa the result! We look forward to hearing!

Will the OU work with Raytheon and Serco to train the Burmese army at St Athan?

The Government also wants students at schools and universities to play their part in protecting Britain’s security by reporting any suspicious activity.

Will OU staff report suspicious activity of Raytheon and other coporate trainers?

Ireland's pension fund to exclude munitions-report Reuters UK - "I saw at first hand on my visit to Lebanon last year the havoc that cluster bombs can cause," Ahern told the paper. "These small bomblets can look like ...

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's National Pensions Reserve Fund plans to withdraw 27 million euros (21 million pounds) of investment from six firms involved in the production of cluster munitions, Irish media reported on Wednesday.
The NPRF, charged with securing funds for pension and welfare costs of an ageing population after 2025, followed the example of Norway's pension fund, known as the "oil fund", which aims to be a world leader in ethical investment.
The NPRF plans to stop investing in five U.S. companies: Raytheon, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Alliant Techsystems and L-3 Communications, and France's Thales, the Irish Times quoted a spokesman as saying.
The fund's proposal follows a list of firms excluded by Norway's $387 billion (193 billion pound) fund, after pressure from Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern, who is campaigning for a ban on cluster munitions, the Irish Times said.
"I saw at first hand on my visit to Lebanon last year the havoc that cluster bombs can cause," Ahern told the paper. "These small bomblets can look like decorations or toys and, as a result, children are very vulnerable to them."

'Dads' Army' to protect against security threats --Official: Force likely to be "a variation" of the ARP [air raid precaution wardens] who patrolled Britain's streets during the Blitz 19 Mar 008 Gordon Brown wants tens of thousands of Britons to join a new Dads’ Army-style volunteer force to help the Government tackle threats to national security. The new force, called a new Civil Protection Network, will be based on the local Neighbourhood Watch schemes. The Government also wants students at schools and universities to play their part in protecting Britain’s security by reporting any suspicious activity.

Just to remind you of
What is the real death toll in Iraq? The Americans learned one lesson from Vietnam: don't count the civilian dead. As a result, no one knows how many Iraqis have been killed in the five years since the invasion. Estimates put the toll at between 100,000 and one million. 19 Mar 2008 The British polling firm Opinion Research Business (ORB) asked 1,720 Iraqi adults last summer if they had lost family members by violence since 2003; 16% had lost one, and 5% two. Using the 2005 census total of 4,050,597 households in Iraq, this suggests 1,220,580 deaths since the invasion.

Brenda Gourley - Blood on her hands

Vice Chancellor of the OU Brenda Gourley loves Metrix - Raytheon arms dealers...

Metrix - The consortium includes a subsidiary of the US company Raytheon(‘customer success is our mission’) which makes cluster bombs and depleted uranium munitions, supplies electronic guidance equipment for the British nuclear weapons system Trident and is a favoured US government supplier of arms to Israel.

The St Athan military academy will train armed forces from anywhere willing to pay for the privilege.

Brenda Gourley OU Vice Chancellor "More recently, we are proud to have contributed to Wales’ latest success, one of the biggest ever investments it has attracted. Earlier this year the UK Government announced their decision to site a new defence training academy at St Athan here in the Vale of Glamorgan. As a long-term partner in the successful Metrix consortium, we are already hard at work with our partners to turn the MoD’s vision into the reality of a military training centre of excellence. The initiative is expected to create around 5,000 jobs and bring around £58m to the economy annually -
a massive boost for Wales and a perfect example of what partnership working can deliver."
What would Jenny Lee have supported this? NO NO NO...

Jennie Lee played a key role in the formation of the Open University
She was a left-winger, and this brought her sometimes into opposition with even her own husband, left-wing Welsh Labour MP Aneurin Bevan with whom she usually agreed politically. Lee was critical of Bevan for his support of the UK acquiring a nuclear deterrent, something she did not support.

Note now half the package has been abandoned and the number of jobs that Metrix claims that will be created is now 3,ooo according to John Smith MP who has spent his time primarily promoting the academy but much less if you take away the transfered in jobs - training forces jobs that required specialist knowledge -then you are left with the low pay jobs ..cleaning, working in the self contained mega barracks shops and cafes, laundry, .......

Rob Humphries Director of the OU in Cardiff is also happy to work with Metrix

More info
No to St Athan Military Academy on Facebook
http://www.no2militaryacademy.com/
Metrix McMercenaries
or http://www.cynefinywerin.org.uk/
http://www.no2metrix.com/2008/02/ou-partnership-with-arms-dealers.html
Facebook No2 O.U. workng with arms companies

Food for thought
Using Public Procurement to Stimulate Innovation
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTMLProfessor Caroline Gipps • Professor Brenda Gourley • Olivia Grant • Sir Anthony ..... in particular from the insights offered by the Raytheon Corporation. ...www.cihe-uk.com/docs/PUBS/0711Publicpro.pdf -

OU Protest Cardiff

Cynefin y Werin (Common Ground) is an all Wales network of organisations which promotes equality, peace, justice, human rights and co-operation between nations, peoples and communities on the basis of sustainable environmental, economic and social development.

Does your university work for/with the milititary?
The proposed military training academy at St Athan will be built and run by a consortium which includes major multinational arms companies, and will train not only British service personnel, but those from any regime or private military company that can fork out the ready cash. This consortium includes the Open University and we call on them to withdraw. there will be a Protest today at 1pm at ou office 18 custom house street Cardiff.

This is part of the National Day of Action for University Ethical Investment - Coordinated events held at universities across the UK, in protest against university shareholding in arms companies. Anne Greagsby coordinator of the campaign against the privaitised military academy at St Athan said, "As a graduate from the opne university I am shocked that they could work with and profit from arms dealers such as Raytheon associated with cluster munitions and Serco and Qinetiq.

The Open University
"Our continued dedication to social justice and equality of opportunity is embodied in a set of commitments and principles. Through these commitments, we will strengthen our position as a university of choice."????

Military organisations - including arms companies and

the Ministry of Defence - annually sponsor hundreds of projects at UK universities.

The Study War No More report examines military involvement at 26 UK universities in order to highlight the impact military funding has on university departments. The report provides information about the funding of UK universities by military organisations, both governmental and industrial. It also intends to support students concerned about the impact their institutions have on international peace and conflict; and to encourage debate regarding the democratic deficit within academic institutions and the ends and ethics of research and research funding.

Study War No More: Military Involvement in UK Universities is a joint project between Campaign Against Arms Trade and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. The campaign website hosts full details of military involvement at 26 UK universities. You can download the Study War No More report, which exposes the ways in which the military sector is being pushed into UK universities, view in-depth data on each of the 26 universities we researched or find out more information on researching and campaigning in this area.
Read more

CAAT

For more info on national campaign, contact Andy at andy@caat.org.uk

http://www.studywarnomore.org.uk/documents/studywarnomore.pdf

How Raytheon woo kids into the arms industry

TOP MARKS FOR SCHOOL’S VISIT TO RAYTHEON SYSTEMS Eighteen Year 11 ...

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML 23 Mar 2007 ... surprise at the variety of jobs available and a number of them showed interest in. working for Raytheon at some future point in their ... www.raytheon.co.uk/news_room/news/press_release_23032007.pdf - Similar pages - Note this

Open University collusion with Arms Dealers

The Open university is a key partner in the Metrix Consortium.

What is the Metrix Consortium doing?

Creating a proposed military training academy at St Athan which will be built and run by a consortium which includes major multinational arms companies, and will train not only British service personnel, but those from any regime or private military company that can fork out the ready cash. The whole St Athan project has a bitter cold heart. It addresses a future where international conflict can only be solved by violence, accepts the widespread death and maiming, misery and suffering caused to innocent people by militarism and ignores the permanent environmental damage caused by wars and conflict. It does nothing to deliver the Wales that people in this country want – a Wales that honestly addresses global warming and other environmental problems, champions human rights, teaches our children that violence solves nothing, does not invest in the arms trade, encourages valuable, long term employment and delivers decent public services.

Raytheon is one of the world’s largest producers and dealers of weapons of mass destruction. Raytheon produces cluster bombs, bunker buster bombs, depleted uranium weapons, nuclear missiles, thermobaric weapons, and the Silent Guardian Heat Ray, criticised by Amnesty International and the UN Rapporteur on torture for its “potential to be used for torture and ill treatment” Raytheon is a major arms exporter, selling weapons to countries such as Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Indonesia. Raytheon Cluster Bomb Boast In fact, Raytheon itself says that it is a manufacturer of cluster bombs. To this very day, Raytheon continues to advertise its cluster bombs on its corporate website.

UNETHICAL INVESTMENT

Recently we learnt that the Norwegian Government pension fund has dropped a further three companies involved in producing nuclear weapons or cluster munitions in addition to Raytheon, Serco, another Metrix partner, is dropped. I call on the Welsh Assembly government to have a full investigation of Raytheon's role in producing cluster bombs and other weapons of mass destruction. I challenge Rhodri Morgan to tell us why he was so keen to work with Raytheon.”

Other Metrix partners include EDS and QinetiQ. EDS is the company responsible for messing up the Child Support Agency and the Inland Revenue's Tax Credits systems and for the disastrous unworkable MOD new computerised payroll system. Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: "It is astounding that the MoD is prepared to reward failure by handing over billions more pounds of taxpayers' money to a consortium that has failed to deliver what it said it would.”

QinetiQ, the privatised and research and development wing of the MOD, one of Britain’s most blatant war profiteers, was recently heavily criticised by the National Audit Office.

Already half the St Athan White Elephant (package 2) has been has been dumped by the government as too expensive. Politicians have been promising thousands of jobs – for which there is no firm basis in truth. PCS - the union that represents many MOD staff who also oppose the privatisation of military training - says the predicted number of jobs in package one has fallen from 1500 to 1100.

What did Raytheon actually have to say on the subject?

“Raytheon has never manufactured cluster bombs, but in the past we have been associated with their manufacture because of our contract to produce a missile that can carry different types of munition payloads, determined by the customer. One configuration allowed it to carry cluster bomb payloads, which were not produced by Raytheon. But in any case, Raytheon has completed its contracted production run for this particular missile, and we have no plans to resume production.”

In other words - yes, we made the delivery system for cluster bombs. Of course we knew the delivery system would be used for this purpose. But we’re not making any more at present because the US and Israeli air forces have enough to continue maiming civilians for the foreseeable future.

Norwegian government pension fund & Serco

http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2008/01/07/daily56.html

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/business/news/article_1386050.php/State_pension_fund_sells_shares_in_munitions_companies

SERCO http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/gen/company.html?gcode=CA7E1AC425FD42A2A539900C67B6705D

Norwegian government on Raytheon

Recommendation on Exclusion of Cluster Weapons from the Government Petroleum Fund Oslo, 16 June 2005

...Corp, L3 Communications Holdings Inc, Raytheon Co, Lockheed Martin Corp, Alliant Techsystems...from the Government Petroleum Fund. Raytheon Company produces, according to its own web-site, 3 http://www.raytheon.com/products/stellent/groups/public..

PCS DEFENCE INSTRUCTIONAL OFFICERS

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9629850934

EDS http://metrixconsortium.blogspot.com/2007/12/eds-coporate-incompetance.html