Bombs From General Dynamics In Saco Butcher Gaza Kids

This striking banner made its debut today. Not a single reporter showed up in response to our media alert -- shameful complicity in hushing up Maine's role in profiting from genocide.

About twenty of us gathered in the chilly dawn outside Saco, Maine's bomb factory this morning. Directly across the street from an elementary school, the General Dynamics "facility" (as they prefer to call it) produces the guidance systems for bombs used by Israel to carpet bomb Gaza -- the results of which can be seen below.

Shared with caption "The genocide of Gaza"  January 7, 2025 by Mustafa Barghouti on Twitter

There was an interesting mix of strong reactions to our presence and our messaging today. Someone must have posted on social media that the school was put "in lockdown" due to our presence because a few people yelled at us about that.

These signs were facing the factory, but you can see the school playground in the background.

Considering we've been there multiple times without a lockdown or any threat to student safety occurring -- and given the fact that the temperature with wind chill "felt like 6° F" -- this former teacher is guessing that what actually happened is that the kids had inside recess. Hardly the same as a lockdown.

Some adults driving by called us insulting names. One told us protesting never changed anything. (Sure it didn't.) 

The crossing guard was giving the stink eye to our solemn procession with shrouds, each representing an actual child that Israel has killed recently in Gaza. So on our next pass I said to her, "If it was your 4 year old grandson I was holding, then would you care?"

"You're terrorizing the children!" she said. And at this point a woman in a vehicle waiting at the intersection also began hollering this accusation.

"Genocide is terror," my friend responded. Later, someone from our group went over to talk with the crossing guard but I didn't hear a report back on what was said.

Conversely, many of the passing vehicles this morning honked, waved, or gave thumbs up and other hand signals to show their support. It seemed there were more of them than usual. Maybe every tenth car or so? I didn't actually collect data but I did confer with some of the other protesters over eggs and home fries afterwards and they had a similar impression: more numerous angry motorists plus more numerous supportive motorists.

Some of us have already been there many times. We expect to return, including this Friday at 2:30pm.

How Long Will Protests At Bomb Factory Continue? As Long As It Takes To Shut It Down!

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!