The crowd at weekly standouts in Saco, Maine at General Dynamics' bomb factory across the street from an elementary school continues to grow. There were 26 of us yesterday around the time that the shift and the nearby schools let out providing a big drive by audience (and they have stopped keeping the kids in at recess so there's that audience, too). When autonomous groups arrive at dawn to block the incoming shift we expect fewer people because of the hour, but those actions have been growing in numbers, too.
Diversity of messaging and associations makes for unity of fields!
Yesterday my friend Bruce Gagnon wrote:
Good turn out tonight in Saco - at least 26 spread out over both sides of road with 2 bullhorns raising chants. Chief of police came up and asked me how long these protests will go on - I said I don't see them stopping as long as the U.S. keeps supplying the zionists with money and weapons.
I also told him about how U.S. space tech is helping Israel target people in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria.
Why ask Bruce rather than one of the people on the bullhorns? Bruce has served as police liaison before (see his post about how angry the chief was last time he did this).
You meet the nicest people doing this kind of work. Yesterday two newish readers of my blog and I talked about my process: get up at dawn and read the news until I feel like my head is going to explode from stress and cognitive dissonance. Process by writing a blog post, and survive to be in action another day.
A motorist stopped to taunt one of us yesterday warning that now that 47 was coming back to the White House that our kind would soon be feeling the effects. Several veiled threats of violence followed until our friend ran the guy off with a feigned gesture of contempt that seemed to frighten him. He was so frightened that he called the police and filed a complaint. If he was trying to impress us with what a tough guy he is, it was an epic fail.
Some of us are old, but most of us are young. Some of us are veterans, but most of us declined to enlist in the imperial wars. We're here, and some of us are queer. Get used to it!
It's Halloween, when little children who have never known the horrors of war get to dress up as something scary, stay out after dark, and collect treats from their neighbors.
The theme of blood and death prevailed at Monday's direct action at the General Dynamics bomb factory across from an elementary school in Saco Maine.
Here is some of the great reporting that has been shared since my first blog post about the action:
From Healthcare Workers for Palestine, Maine chapter, three videos that include some of the speeches. One powerful speaker is a Palestinian-American young person, and another is a boomer, daughter of Holocaust survivors, and member of Jewish Voice for Peace. Both are opposed to building bombs to drop on children!
Police liaison Bruce Gagnon's post includes reporting on the agitated and angry police presence. Bruce was convinced that the chief of police was about to punch him in the nose at one point, and the chief did indeed shove someone else later in the action.
Finally, the only corporate media account, heavily skewed toward the inconveniencing of schoolchildren whose superintendent decided to keep them inside for recess. I don't like WMTW's framing but I do appreciate them showing up, sharing so many of our high impact visuals, and interviewing Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights co-director Abby Fuller who articulated the teaching opportunity our action created.
On the night in the U.S. when we scare little children for the thrill of it, I'll be thinking of the children of Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria terrorized by U.S.-Israel carpet bombing of their neighborhoods. They are really scared, and their blood is on our hands.
Push came to shove -- literally -- today when my husband and I attempted to block an entrance to General Dynamics' bomb factory in Saco, Maine. Our friend who was serving as police liaison later told us the chief of police was so angered by our pre-dawn appearance that he had to take a walk to cool down. Apparently we had betrayed the trust of the Saco PD who had "tried to work with you all" during past demonstrations. Inexplicably, no one was arrested and we went home with all our materials.
Many empty threats were made, however. Police threatened to arrest someone for swearing over the loudspeaker and also threatened to charge someone for the cost of cleaning up the watercolor "blood" that so appropriately filled the potholes and gutters of the GD plant's main driveway.
They even brought out the principal of Young Elementary, a K-5 school that is directly across the street from the factory and, incidentally, the fire department. (If there's no danger to the schoolchildren from the factory then why did the town locate their new fire station rights on its doorstep?)
Many of the visuals shared today by the 35 people who turned out at dawn underscored the harm to children being done by GD bombs shipped by the U.S. and dropped on Gaza by Israel.
There were child-size shrouds labeled with the names and ages of children from 11 months to teenagers.
There were posters made from photos of the mangled and dead children now buried in Gaza.
There was a sign focusing on a number of child amputees that was particularly moving.
There were the handcuffed and blindfolded "detainees" crying out, "They killed my children!" "What have you done with my child?"
Then there was the soundtrack with explosions, machine gun fire, and other random sounds of war. The police demanded that be turned off before the schoolchildren arrived for the day, but that was the plan all along.
School busses passing by saw quite a scene this morning. Many motorists honked and waved in solidarity. Some gave the middle finger or chanted, "Trump, Trump" as they passed. At our closing circle I picked up a Harris-Walk campaign sign that was lying on the ground.
"Taking out the trash?" asked a young activist.
It's now been a solid year of genocide in Gaza, with no end in sight. For the second time in my life the general public's discontent with a U.S. sponsored war is the issue in a presidential election that takes place a week from tomorrow.
As one of many good signs today said, "Your silence will be studied by your grandchildren."
I should be feeling good about a Stop Arming Genocide campaign action that blocked General Dynamics' bomb factory in Saco, Maine yesterday. It was technically successful -- below is a photo I took of workers walking in after a long delay because they could not access the facility's parking. Numerous delivery trucks were turned away throughout the day, and no deliveries of the weapons Israel uses to bomb civilians were delivered on Friday, June 7.
I'm not feeling good, though, because almost immediately we learned that U.S. soldiers using a fake humanitarian aid truck from the Pentagon's Trojan pier helped massacre hundreds of civilians in Nuseirat refugee camp. Ostensibly to get Israeli hostages out, but this could have been accomplished months ago by releasing Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Four Israeli hostages were taken back in the operation and appeared well-fed and in good health, unlike Palestinian prisoners who are being tortured to death. The latest sadistic detail involves sodomy with a red hot iron post; if that doesn't remind you of South Africa and what it took to bring that apartheid regime down, I don't know what will.
I should be feeling good because none of our group were injured or arrested yesterday, though two did receive tickets for minor violations. The Saco Police Force, previously described as "timid" by a protester who's been there before, declined to even attempt breaking into the lock down devices we were using. Possibly because each device presented unique challenges? Incredibly, the police allowed all the devices to be retained by our group and, except for one that met with a minor accident on the way home, they are ready for action next time we decide to throw a spanner in the works of the war machine.
I should also be feeling good because of the solidarity, tight information security, and generally cooperative nature of the work of so many autonomous individuals waging this campaign. A recorded livestream from Healthcare Workers for Palestine conveys the authentic flavor and scope of yesterday's action.
Sure, I can rent equipment, but it takes a couple of people with special skills to back a large truck and trailer safely into a driveway. I am blessed to know these people and to know that they respond when there is a need.
How I feel doesn't matter much anyway. When the police called the rental company and told them a lie about how I was using their equipment in Saco, the rental desk clerk scolded me and said I was not allowed to protest. I refrained from saying something snarky about his grasp of the 1st amendment -- he had one of those sovereign citizen type beards, so I'm not sure he believed in the constitution anyway. But another employee privately said, "Good girl!" as I departed after returning all the equipment unharmed.
How to keep a job AND your conscience is increasingly hard. InkStick Media's Taylor Barnes talked to employees at other bomb factories to find how some of them are negotiating this. Teacher Nick Fuller Googins wrote about his successful effort to pass a divestment resolution at his union's representative assembly, "We are not powerless in the face of Gaza horror." A college professor who joined us yesterday wrote about how the need to throw himself onto the gears of the war machine was more compelling with each passing day. (His op-ed should be in the paper soon and I'll share it when it is.)
We did get some corporate news coverage of our action.
Just don't believe everything you read. For example: duck tape, really? Also, who is actually impacting the K-2 Young School across the street -- the occasional non-violent protester, or the genocide profiteers who work there every single day?
We developed a flyer for the school community pointing out that in order to keep their children safe they should run General Dynamics out of town.
I'll guarantee you there are adults working in Saco who don't want to help arm genocide. As for the teenagers, during their drive time to a nearby high school we heard far more whoops, hollers, and honks of support than we had heard during early morning. Bruce Gagnon did the math and estimated we reached 7,000+ people in 6 hours.
The kids are all right, but some of their parents think you have to ignore genocide staring you in the face in order to make a living. How'd that work out for the German people under the Nazi regime?
Screenshot from "Mapping the Business of War" by Christian Sorenson
Today I am reposting my Op-Ed published by Maine Morning Star January 6:
Does Maine profit from genocide in Gaza?
Quite simply, the genocide in Gaza is good business for General Dynamics, which employs thousands of Mainers. How are we to feel about that blood money fueling our economy?
by Lisa Savage
Demonstrators, led by the Maine Coalition for Palestine, protest at a General Dynamics factory in Saco, Maine Jan 3
(courtesy of Schaible, Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights)
Saco students and parents arriving at school on Jan. 3 saw protesters demanding that General Dynamics stop arming Israel’s genocide in Gaza. It was an unintended consequence of the company locating their bomb factory — that sounds like hyperbole or an exaggeration, but I assure you it’s not — across the street from an elementary school. Maine law won’t let you have a gun on school property or discharge one within 500 feet of a school, but it says nothing about making bombs across the street.
Nor do these bombs just sit in a warehouse somewhere. Rather, since October, more than 5,000 of the 500-lb Mk-82 bombs, parts for which are manufactured by General Dynamics in Saco, have been given to Israel by our United States government for use in their “war” in Gaza. These munitions play a particularly direct role in what many scholars and analysts, including a professor of Holocaust studies writing in Jewish Currents, believe is an ongoing criminal genocide of Palestinians by the Israeli government, for instance targeting densely populated areas such as the Jabalia Refugee Camp.
They also make 155mm artillery shells in Saco, which Oxfam has labeled, “virtually assured to be indiscriminate, unlawful, and devastating to civilians in Gaza.”
General Dynamics Chief Financial Officer Jason Aiken told investors on a call October 25, “I think if you look at the incremental demand potential coming out of [the attacks on Gaza], the biggest one to highlight and that really sticks out is probably on the artillery side.”
Up the road, in Bath, at the General Dynamics-owned Bath Iron Works, Mainers have built a number of warships currently deployed in the Red Sea — including the USS Laboon, which launched from BIW in 1993 — to protect Israeli commercial vessels from being attacked by rival nations that do not approve of its actions in Gaza.
Quite simply, the genocide in Gaza is good business for General Dynamics, which employs thousands of Mainers. How are we to feel about that blood money fueling our economy? Is it contributing to the future we want here in Maine?
Mainers are continually told that we must tolerate weapons of mass destruction being built here because we need the jobs. And it is undoubtedly true that thousands of people make a living from working for General Dynamics, Raytheon, and other contractors for the Pentagon. Some hold union jobs with full benefits, but many are increasingly out-of-state laborers working outside the contract on temporary assignments.
And we never seem to ask the question: If we’re spending U.S. taxpayer money to create jobs, why do we have to make weapons to be used by other countries to maim and kill people? Why couldn’t we use that tax money to pay Mainers to build something we actually need here in Maine?
Ironically, building weapons is not even a good jobs program. Research by economists at UMass Amherst over several years has found that a similar investment in other sectors of the economy – such as clean energy construction – would produce far more good union jobs. Workers at Bath Iron Works have tried for years to argue for conversion of the shipyard away from depending solely on contracts from the U.S. Navy, to no avail. Opportunities to build a light rail system, or offshore wind platforms, or even hospital ships are ignored while Maine’s congressional delegation accepts campaign funding from military contractors and continues to vote for sending taxpayer-funded contracts their way.
How much do people in Maine really know about the military contracting businesses in our state? If they knew that there was a bomb factory directly across the street from an elementary school, would they care?
As the genocide in Gaza continues and war in the region widens, Mainers would do well to take an honest look at their own involvement. While the war in Gaza — and Ukraine, for that matter — can sometimes seem far from our shores, there are thousands of Mainers who are intimately involved. These wars are part of their very livelihoods.
Regardless of how much money flows back to our state, do we really “profit”?
##
My additional notes to support others in discovering how their state "profits" from genocide.
Photo credit: Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights on Twitter
An eclectic two dozen protesters shut down the main entrance to General Dynamics' bomb factory in Saco, Maine yesterday before dawn and continued into the morning.
Photo credit: Tanvi
The disruption was scheduled by organizers to coincide with the start time of workers' first shift, but incidentally coincided with the arrival of school students of all ages, their parents, and several bus drivers -- including one who honked while the kids on the bus cheered.
One person who showed up later was from Saco and said she had seen social media posts grousing that elementary school kids were being kept indoors for morning recess because of our presence in view of their playground. One person who showed up later came in response to my emailing the press release for our action at the same time it began (pasted in below).
Others came because they have a history of risking arrest to oppose GD's war shipyard in Bath, including an elder recovering from shoulder surgery. But most of the protesters were connected to the Maine Coalition for Palestine, including six members of one amazing family!
Energy remained high through 9am (see video above) even though we had convened in the parking lot of a nearby business before 6am. The business owner, Saco Sports & Fitness, called the police on us and officers were waiting when we arrived at the bomb factory. Since they had already blockaded the second entrance to the factory's driveway with two cruisers, we scrapped our camping strategy and instead blocked Route 112 with a big STOP ARMING GENOCIDE banner created by the Coalition for this ongoing campaign.
Police ordered us out of the roadway several times but made no moves to arrest anyone, and once they had blockaded the highway at both ends of the factory entrance, we moved to the entrance itself. The police retreated to observe, ignoring several people who were at times actually on GD "private" property.
Photo credit: Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights on Twitter
How private is a bomb factory entirely funded by U.S. taxpayers? Oh, of course, the profits are private but the risk is public. Because isn't that how capitalism works?
We did get some reporters on the scene: WMTW Channel 8 out of Portland was first and ran a video report several times throughout the day quoting me (a limited version is available here). WGME was next and their report featured an interview with Yusuf Ebrahim, a resident physician at a local hospital and member of Healthcare Workers for Palestine, who said: "This factory is a subsidiary of Ordinance and Tactical Systems and it's a manufacturing plant for components of the 500-pound MK-82 bomb. They've been dropped on hospitals, bakeries, schools, places of worship." WGME's report in particular offered context of the overall campaign which included a shut down of the street in front of GD's Bath Iron Works shipyard last month at a rally that drew 200 people on a Friday afternoon.
Common Dreams also ran an article based on our press release, and WERU Community Radio recorded a short interview with me which ran today on Amy Browne's Around Town (available at their archive soon). The Maine Wire -- sometimes described as "one guy with a website" -- ran a critical piece claiming to side with blue collar workers, but they couldn't even get the name of their union right (probably because they are actually far right wing and anti-organized labor.)
If I missed some media coverage would you let me know in the comments?
Below, the press release that went out one minute before our action started. There are references linked at the end to research offering evidence of the connection between GD and the carpet bombing of Gaza.
I hope you'll consider joining us next time if you're distraught over U.S. support for Israel's genocide in Palestine.
------
For Immediate Release
PRESS CONTACT:
Sam Pfeifle
207-749-0298
sam@westgraycreative.com
Maine Coalition for Palestine action at bomb factory in
Saco to demand STOP ARMING GENOCIDE
The statewide Maine Coalition for
Palestine will be joined by students, peace groups, and concerned citizens in
Saco on Wednesday January 3 starting at 6am. They will hold a camp-out to
demand that General Dynamics stop arming Israel’s genocide in Gaza. To date,
more than 29,000 people have died, including 11,422 children, in carpet
bombings plus sniper fire in civilian residential areas, hospitals, and
schools.
Organizer Lisa Savage of Solon said, “Genocide in
Gaza is currently supported by General Dynamics. It
supplies Israel with the artillery ammunition and bombs used to kill and maim
civilians and children in Gaza – which is illegal collective punishment.”
According to research by the
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), General Dynamics is the only company
in the U.S. that makes the metal bodies of the MK-80 bomb series, the primary
weapon type that Israel uses to bomb Gaza.
Yusuf Ebrahim, an Iraqi-American
resident physician at Maine Medical Center, said, "Since October, more
than 5,000 of the 500-lb Mk-82 bombs -- some made in Saco -- have been given to
Israel by the U.S.. These munitions play a particularly direct role in the
ongoing criminal genocide of Palestinians by the IDF, targeting densely
populated areas such as the Jabalia Refugee Camp. Why do we tolerate this
massive bomb factory here in Maine, exploiting the toils of local workers to
aid with the intentional mass murder and displacement of innocent children and
families in Palestine? Meanwhile, many local community members suffer from
hunger and housing insecurity and cannot afford medical care."
GD is also the only company in the U.S. that makes 155mm
caliber artillery shells, which have been used extensively to bomb Gazans. The
international aid organization Oxfam has described use of these munitions as “virtually assured to be
indiscriminate, unlawful, and devastating to civilians in Gaza.”
GD Chief Financial Officer Jason Aiken told investors on
a call October 25, “I think if you look at the incremental demand potential
coming out of [the attacks on Gaza], the biggest one to highlight and that
really sticks out is probably on the artillery side.”
Protesters against GD involvement
in supporting Israel will gather in Saco at General Dynamics Weapons Systems at
291 North Street. They will hold a camp-out protest in honor of the 2 million
people displaced by bombings in Gaza, where tent cities have sprung up in the
rubble. Supporters are urged to mask for COVID and to bring camp chairs,
sleeping bags, tents, and homemade signs and banners or use those provided by
the coalition.
Organizations in the Maine
Coalition for Palestine include Healthcare Workers for Palestine, Maine Voices
for Palestinian Rights, Students for Justice in Palestine from various college
campuses in the state, the Maine Party for Socialism & Liberation, Portland
CONFRONT, and the Maine Natural Guard. Members of the coalition will be
available for interviews prior to and during the camp-out.
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