Publications

General Systems

Proceedings of the meeting of the Canadian and Northeast U.S. Section of the International Society for General Systems Research, May 20-21 at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, Toronto, Foundations and Applications of General Systems Theory with a focus on Science Education, are available from H. Burkhardt, Dept. of Physics, Ryerson P.I., Toronto M5B 2K3. Phone: (416) 979-5000 Ext. 6976. $12 per copy.

Conference tapes (9 sessions) are available at $4 per tape.

Honorary chairman of the conference was Anatol Rapoport, one of the founders of the International Society in 1955. Now president of the new Canadian — Northeast U.S. Section is Ken Burkhardt. Next conference will be held at Concordia College in Montreal in fall, 1988.

War Business

From the Introduction: “Canadian cabinet ministers may be the last to know, but it turns out that no arms seem to be sold with the intention of killing people — this is not a peculiarly Canadian claim. All weapons from the point of view of the vendor are strictly in the service of peace. The U.S. Air Force is well aware of this and accordingly designates its fighter aircraft sales programs with the prefix ‘peace’. Thus sales are code-named ‘Peace Fox’, ‘Peace Sun’, ‘Peace Farrow’,‘Peace Marble’ and ‘Peace Eagle’ …. And if others can call multi-billion-dollar weapons-induced deficits ‘economic recovery’ ….why can’t James Kelleher expect Canadian arms sales to produce a new age of prosperity for this country?”

Ernie Regehr is research director of Project Ploughshares, headquarters at Conrad Grebel College in Waterloo, Ont. He is author of Making a Killing and co-editor of Canada and the Nuclear Arms Trade.

Footnote:

“Champion Road Machinery (of Goderich, Ont.) is paving the way for its entry into wider military export markets. The company says it will spend $9.6 million over the next three years to design, develop and manufacture ‘a new generation of road graders specifically engineered to meet the rigors of military export markets’. The federal government is assisting Champion in its development project with a $4.7 million loan. If the project succeeds.Champion expects to generate 150 new jobs and an increase in its sales of $70 million over the next five years.” Toronto Star, Apr.16.

Arms sales and arms manufacture

“The Canadian Defence Products Guide is an Eaton’s Catalogue of the arms business.” — ARMS CANADA

A reprint from the May 3 Washington Post presents Washington’s opinion of the $10 billion, 10 nuclear subs plan espoused by Perrin Beatty. A May 1987 Disarmament Times article by William Epstein, “A Total Test Ban..” is also available.

“No Business like War Business”, Vol. XVI, #3, The Defense Monitor.

“The Pentagon Prepares for Nuclear War: the 1988 Budget”, The Defense Monitor, Vol. XVI, #4.

The Monitor is available for $1 U.S. per copy from CDI, 1500 Massachusetts Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20005, U.S.A.

John Ralston Saul looks at “The War Business” from a British point of view, for The Spectator, Apr. 11. From the SfP Bulletin.

Reprint Available:

John Ralston Saul, “Macabre Truth of the Arms Trade” from the Globe and Mail of Apr. 3, 1987.

SDI Zapped!

“Science and the Citizen” Department of Scientific American, June, 1987, discusses the finally released American Physical Society’s Report on Directed Energy Weapons (SDI). Its summary comment: “SDI zapped!” Formal publication of the report will be in Reviews of Modern Physics later this year.

The “Executive Summary and Major Conclusions“of the Report on Directed Energy Weapons to the American Physical Society appeared in the May, 1987 Physics Today, Special Insert pages S1-16. A reprint of the Scientific American commentary is available from the SfP Bulletin.

From Harvard Magazine we can reprint for you John E. Mack, M.D.‘s Frederic William Atherton Lecture for 1986, “Action and Academia in the Nuclear Age”.