Land Forces is the biggest weapons sales expo in the Southern Hemisphere, and it’s coming to Naarm in September.

Land Forces is where the generals, weapons corporations CEOs, diplomats and defence ministers come together to spruik their latest killing tech. Governments from across the globe will spend billions of taxpayer dollars to purchase weapons that will be used against civilians around the world.

We unequivocally oppose the glorification of death, destruction, and genocide being carried out with weapons developed on this continent and showcased at Land Forces. 

Elbit Systems, Lockheed Martin, Hanwha, Boeing, Thales, NIOA, Rheinmetall – the biggest weapons makers in the world – will be under one roof for three days, 11-13th September, at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The weapons manufacturers and arms dealers listed above are all directly supplying the infrastructure of wars and genocides around the world. From Palestine to West Papua, these companies facilitate murder, displacement, land desecration, and colonisation, in the name of western imperialist interests. 

These murderous deals must be disrupted, as they have been in the past. Land Forces was kicked out of Magandjin in 2021 & 2022. Since then, our movement against the military industrial complex has only grown stronger. Together, we stand against war profiteering taking place in Narrm, and strongly support calls to mobilise and take direct action against the war mongering Land Forces expo.

Land Forces is being hosted in Naarm with the explicit consent and enthusiastic support of the Victorian Government, who continue to funnel millions of our taxpayer money into propping up the war machine. We, the undersigned, condemn the Victorian Government’s use of taxpayer money to fund the commodification of the military industrial complex. 

We refuse to be complicit.

We demand:

• A two-way arms embargo with the rogue state of Israel: no weapons, components, munitions or surveillance technology.
• An end to all weapons exports to states engaged in genocide and militarised repression

These demands reflect the calls from communities on the frontlines of militarised state violence across the globe, from Palestine to West Papua and the Western Sahara, to Yuendumu here in so-called “Australia.”

We stand firm in our objection to Land Forces and our rejection of the glorification of militarisation. 

We strongly support the right to protest against Australia’s complicity in war crimes, and commend those who disrupt the Land Forces expo. We applaud peaceful actions which prevent, delay, or interrupt the manufacture, marketing, and trade of arms, and which uphold our values of “no harm to life” and “respect other actionists.” 

Our solidarity is with those who are living and dying under the oppressive conditions of the war machine, and with those who work tirelessly to disrupt it.

Weapons out of Naarm now!