Zurich: Attack against two Swiss arms companies

In the night of the 19th to 20th January 2015, we attacked with fireworks RUA Defence (located in the building of Tiergarten 7, Zurich) and NEOSOFT AG (at Üetlibergstrasse 132, Zurich) as part of the campaign against the World Economic Forum (WEF). The attack is directed against two representatives of the Swiss arms industry, of which RUAG is a state enterprise. The arms contracts and the military agreements reached at the summit of the WEF in Davos emphasis here the importance of this annual meeting for this economic sector.

On the 19th September 2014, the mandate on war material that regulates the exports of Swiss arms was eased by the Federal Council, after parliament promoted this move in March 2014. The context of this derestriction was due to complaints from large arms companies (like UAG or MOWAG), that their sales were collapsing due to severe export restrictions. Since 2008, exports of war material were prohibited to countries where human rights are “systemically and seriously” neglected. This excerpt was then removed in Autumn last year, so now the export of arms is legal again, as long as there is only a small risk that the weapons will be used for “serious and systematic” violations of human rights.