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.
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.
Imagine for a moment that you're a person who loves a little child who was killed by aerial bombing, burnt to a crisp, by the U.S. military. It could be 1945, 1950, 1969, 1995, or pretty much any year in the 21st century.
"Malika Ahmadi, two, died in a U.S. drone strike on Kabul today, her family says. Has the war of 20 years cost us the ability to care?" Source: David Swanson, Pressenza
Now imagine that it just happened yesterday. And that the U.S. corporate press is proclaiming that the war they've been waging for decades on your country is "over."
That the U.S. corporate press lies for a living -- right out in the open -- makes no difference to you in your grief.
It mostly makes a difference to the taxpayers and voters of the country thousands of miles away where citizen are sold horseshit like, "We've got to fight terrorists over there so we don't have to fight them over here."
The lies that sell wars and buy elected officials use bogus concepts and slogans like "The war on terror" to incite fear and make compliance much easier than opposition.
A few people will go on social media platforms that are heavily censored in favor of corporate rule to express the truth laced with dark humor.
Well I think we can probably call it now and say that Terror has won the War on Terror.
The U.S. has bombed little children to death under alternating Democratic and Republican administrations my entire life.
It began bombing Afghan children following the unfortunate events of 9/11 in 2001 after a speech by then President George W. Bush proclaimed that "their harbors" would no longer be safe. (Note: Afghanistan is a land-locked country with no harbors.)
The current Democratic administration has announced that it will continue using flying killer robots to bomb Afghanistan for the foreseeable future. (It's also drone bombing Somalia, and plenty of other places, at will.)
“Enough is enough,” Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said in a statement. “For more than ten years, our government’s drone strikes have killed thousands of innocent people in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and elsewhere in the Muslim world—destroying family homes, wedding parties, and even funeral processions. The civilian casualties in Kabul are simply the latest victims of this misused technology.”
Besides the warped views about war sold constantly over corporate airwaves, why is there a steady supply of men and women willing to remotely bomb children in Afghanistan?
Because after young people turned against the military draft for the war on Vietnam, U.S. corporate interests have made damn sure that the poverty draft continues blowing a steady gale force.
With no money for college and no money for dental care and no money for rent, food, and car expenses many young people in the U.S. feel they have no choice but to enlist. The poorer the state -- like my home, Maine -- the harder the poverty draft blows.
But some folks prospered during the 20 year war that's still not over.
(Feel like finding out how much war profiteers donated to the campaign coffers of your elected officials that refuse to actually end the war on terror? You can look it up here on OpenSecrets.org).
Secretary of "Defense" Lloyd Austin speaking to reporters this month.
Bombs killing children are so much more attractive when dropped by Democrats, don't you think?
The Biden Administration started bombing Syria yesterday, and here's what Twitter wanted me to know was going on:
The airstrikes follow weeks of big $$$$$ deals selling weapons to some of the other horrific regimes kept in place by brute force around the world. Gaza's tormenter and Yemen's tormenter both restocked their armories, enriching the corporations that own and operate the U.S. government.
Those corporations have already become very, very wealthy off the taxpayers buying armaments -- while rival nations invest in health care and work to eradicate poverty.
The U.S. instead invests in weapons systems like the F-35 jet bomber that cost more than $1.5 trillion before being declared a failure. (Maybe a failure for the Air Force, but certainly not for profiteer and big Biden campaign contributor Lockheed Martin.)
The revolving door between government and industry is fascism exemplified. The U.S. will continue dealing out deadly airstrikes that kill civilians in the Middle East while literally letting its own population freeze and starve to death during a public health crisis. And whether you put an R or a D after that list of crimes makes very little difference to the victims.
Damascus neighborhood of Barzeh was reportedly hit by U.S. missiles last night Image: Getty/AFP
More bad karma for the evil empire. Syria has been on their list for a long time so it was no surprise but still a shock to wake up this morning to news that the U.S., the UK and France are bombing Damascus.
BREAKING: Civilian casualties are being reported in Damascus as at least 2 residential areas have been struck by the US-led force's missiles. At least 4 dead in one of the strikes. pic.twitter.com/nCjcMZUrKQ
Two peace friends on opposite sides of our failing nation alerted me to the latest war crime via email in the wee hours of our U.S. bomb-free morning. Twitter trending topics for the United States ignored what's really going on (screenshot from 5:30am EDT):
People live in Damascus: babies, toddlers, little kids, big kids, and adults. But since when has the U.S. Air Force cared about civilian casualties they call "collateral damage"? The false dichotomy propaganda machine will accuse me and others opposed to air strikes on Damascus as being on the side of Assad. That's because their narrative to justify air strikes is unimaginative and, at this point, monotonous: "___(insert leader of nation we want to bomb here)__ has gassed his own people! We must bomb his people in order to save them." Because there's "plenty of good money to be made supplying the Army with the tools of the trade" as Country Joe & the Fish so eloquently put it. Case in point: investigative journalist Alex Nunes posted on my spybook page this morning:
Tomahawk missiles strikes into Syria last night were reportedly launched from a warship built at Bath Iron Works: the USS Donald Cook.
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