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.

Necessary Discomfort: Career Fair Disruption

Cornell student demonstrators after shutting down recruiting by genocide profiteers Boeing and L3Harris at the Statler Hotel in Ithaca, NY  (photo: Karlie McGann/Sun Contributor)
 

Reposting this rocking column by Cornell student organizer Nick Wilson, with permission. 

Necessary Discomfort: On the Sept. 18 Career Fair Disruption

By Nick Wilson

What does it mean to live because other people are dying? A friend posed this question at Cornell Students for Justice in Palestine’s vigil Tuesday night, describing the agonizing cognitive dissonance of living a “normal life” while your country carries out imperialist ethnic cleansing across the globe. How can you know that your tax dollars and tuition are bankrolling an ongoing genocide that has likely already killed upwards of 180,000 people and not spend every waking hour attempting to wash the blood from your hands? How the hell can you apply for a job at Boeing?

Most Cornell students live simultaneously in two realities: one where they are aware that American missiles are being used in one of the most repugnant acts of ethnic cleansing in human history, where every day brings new stories of mothers forced collect the scattered remains of their infant children in plastic bags; and another where they are pursuing a lucrative career that will allow them to live comfortably in the most powerful nation on Earth after graduation. It is time to recognize that these realities are not only simultaneous, but deeply connected — your comfortable life in the imperial core is predicated on violent dispossession and occupation in the rest of the world.

On Wednesday, students disrupted the ILR School’s Human Capital and HR Career Fair, which featured recruiters from weapons manufacturers Boeing and L3Harris. Students organized with the Coalition for Mutual Liberation successfully shut the event down using pots, pans and noisemakers in Statler Hall until both employers left the building. They also delivered an indictment to Boeing and L3Harris recruiters finding both companies guilty of aiding and abetting human rights violations, war crimes and genocide.

This action has significantly altered incentive structures at our university. For the administration, it has been made clear that inviting arms manufacturers to our campus after 70 percent of students voted to sever ties with them will also invite the risk of a negative student response. For students, CML has made it clear that you cannot passively support Palestine or understand the role of American weapons manufacturers in the genocide in Gaza and also make the personal decision to work for genocidaires — your friends and peers are watching and will hold you accountable for facilitating genocide with your labor.

Even when left implicit, the only real argument students make in defense of working for such repugnant firms is that their personal well-being matters more than the survival of Palestinian civilians. Cornell students are a part of the 4 percent of the world population that lives in the United States, and a part of the roughly .079 percent of the American population that attend a university with an endowment in excess of $10 billion. Regardless of your background, attending Cornell allows you to join the global hyper-elite — and even if students believe that they have earned that class position through hard work and merit, they will be faced with countless prime opportunities to perpetrate unspeakable harm towards working people in the Global South. You will likely become, and in some ways already are, immensely powerful. You alone are morally responsible for how you choose to wield your power over others — and you can almost certainly find a job that doesn’t involve constructing missiles that kill children.

But change cannot rely on people collectively deciding to act ethically against their own interests — the underlying incentive structures that shape the role of genocidal firms in our universities must first be shifted. Our university should not be a recruitment pipeline or a corporate partner for companies that profit from ethnic cleansing and imperial violence. Given the Cornell Board of Trustees’ refusal to even hold a vote on divestment from arms manufacturers — University leadership elected to arrest 24 students, graduate workers and staff members instead — it seems inevitable that students would at some point intervene and push this campus forcibly in the direction of humanity.

Wednesday night, VP Joel Malina announced that Cornell will target students who disrupted the career fair with “immediate action including suspension.” This represents Cornell’s own attempt to alter incentive structures for speaking out about our university’s complicity in genocide, making it even easier for students to justify their individual complicity. Cornell should not suspend its students of conscience — but as with the first two rounds of suspensions last spring, suppression tactics would likely only fuel the further growth of CML and its member organizations.

In the ivory tower, it is not just easy to ignore the suffering of colonized peoples around the world — it is a necessary precondition for participation in university life. Wednesday’s disruption may have inconvenienced some students, including plenty that never intended to approach the Boeing or L3Harris tables. But in doing so, they made our university’s role in facilitating an ongoing genocide impossible to ignore — and made visible a strong stigma against working for arms manufacturers. Until Cornell does the right thing and breaks ties with firms engaged in genocide profiteering, life on campus may be uncomfortable — but that is a price we should all be willing to pay.

Nick Wilson is a third year student in the New York State School of Industrial & Labor Relations at Cornell. His biweekly column Interim Expressive Activity provides a perspective on goings-on on campus from those who believe that Cornell should act less like a hedge fund and more like a responsible stakeholder in the Ithaca and global communities. The column does not intend to facilitate, engage in, participate or assist in any violations of University policy. Nick can be reached at nwilson@cornellsun.com.

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Readers of this blog may recall my related post "Bad Boss, Bad Job" about disrupting genocide profiteer General Dynamics' hiring event recently in Augusta, Maine. We are everywhere. Expect us!

The Pratt & Whitney Problem

 

On Saturday we'll turn out early for a protest at the gates of an air show in Maine that will feature the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. Activists will distribute flyers designed to push back on recruiting kids and to make clear the connection between the U.S. Air Force and Israel’s carpet bombing of Gaza.

U.S. Airman Aaron Bushnell self-immolated at the Israeli embassy in Washington DC last February saying he could not live with his complicity in genocide. He shared how his job in the U.S. Air Force was to provide surveillance and targeting information for Israel’s war planes. Since Bushnell’s death, numerous U.S. Air Force personnel have offered resistance by hunger strikes, burning their uniforms, applying for conscientious objector status, and going AWOL.

The Thunderbirds' proud sponsor is Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of RTX (formerly Raytheon). P&W is drenched in blood money as this genocide profiteer makes the engines for the F-15 and F-16 warplanes Israel uses to drop bombs in Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and now Iran. And it makes many of the drones they use, too. The U.S. Air Force is also a big customer.

On an October 24, 2023 call with investors, P&W CEO Greg Hayes said, “I think really across the entire Raytheon portfolio, you're going to see a benefit of this restocking.” Restocking is the kind of euphemism that genocide profiteers use to conceal that they mean selling weapons to genociders.

P&W's factory in Maine, North Berwick Aero Systems, was on our radar in March when it teamed up with the tax-payer supported community college system to produce workers for the war machine. Some of us stood out at their big pr event announcing creation of the Maine Defense Industry Alliance. Fascism is really the marriage of industry and government to the extent that they operate in tandem to ignore the will of the people or to subvert it by offering "good" jobs.

A "good" job is defined as being one that provides benefits like health insurance, paid time off, full time employment under a union-negotiated contract, and enough income to afford a home plus toys like 4-wheelers and snowmobiles. This kind of job is scarce in Maine, and politicians leverage this to ensure that the war machine always has enough contracts to keep the willing workers engaged.

Air shows recruit future Aaron Bushnells. Not only will the noise and air polluting Thunderbirds enrapture crowds of children brought to the show, but inside there will be flight simulators and video games aimed at creating a desire for future enlistment. Nowhere will the truth about suicide rates among military personnel be shared, nor will attendees learn that the Air Force in particular is experiencing a wave of resistance in its ranks. Turns out that killing children from on high either with a jet or a drone tends to make people suicidal. Who could have predicted that?

P&W doesn't care. It predicts profits, not human suffering. The unholy alliance of P&W with the Pentagon is dangerous. It subverts the will of the people, most of whom don't want genocide conducted at their expense.

Fascism subverts democracy. That's the P&W problem.

Join us to protest while you still can.

Ignore Genocide To Make A Living, Or Block Weapons Before They're Used To Kill Palestinians?

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.

Protesters block entrances to General Dynamics in Saco, impact nearby school WMTW

Pro-Palestine protesters gather outside General Dynamics in Saco WGME

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?

New Hampshire Judge: Elbit Systems Is A Victim (And, Incidentally, My Supervisor)

Screen grab from WHDH coverage March 22 inside the police station in Merrimack 

The remaining seven defendants of eight arrested for criminal trespass at Elbit Systems in Merrimack, New Hampshire were arraigned yesterday in district court. Original conditions of bail noted on their paperwork when they were released from custody March 22 were to avoid excessive drinking (?!) and stay away from Elbit in Merrimack. 

When Bruce Gagnon was arraigned April 2, the prosecutor asked the judge to also ban him from an Elbit facility in Massachusetts. The judge declined, saying it was outside his jurisdiction.

Yesterday's judge, Mark Derby, decided that not only is Massachusetts within his jurisdiction, but so is the whole U.S. of A! Now, my husband and the other six defendants have as a condition of bail the need to stay away from Elbit facilities anywhere in the country. (My husband: What about in England?)

Yesterday, defendants who appeared in court pointed out that this violated the prior precedent and prior statements about being outside the NH court's jurisdiction, but Judge Derby responded: "That other judge from April 2 is not my supervisor!" 

My comment: Maybe not, but apparently Elbit Systems is.

Another fun quote from prosecutor Jason Moore and re-stated by the judge: "Elbit Systems has been the victim of these protests in numerous states. If Elbit Systems was a human being, we would want to protect them in other states too, not just New Hampshire."

Screen grab from ABC News

This is the kind of twisted logic where attackers are victims, and any protest of the aggressors is coded in the corporate press as "antisemitic". Cue the reporting on the allegedly enormous rise in antisemitic incidents since October 2023. Note to journalists: many of those involved in, for example, occupying Columbia University yesterday to call for divestment from companies like Elbit that profit from Israel's genocide in Palestine, are themselves Jewish. This is also true of Elbit protesters from Maine.

The defendants will be back in court on June 6 at 9:30am for a Trial Management Conference i.e. disposition hearing. This is where the court determines if a deal has been reached between prosecutors and defendants, and if not issues the orders to proceed to trial on another day.

Since several people I love were arrested blocking access for a day to the alleged victim, the biggest genocide profiteer on the planet, I've been subscribing to the NH Union Leader newspaper. And their daily email allows me to check their top headlines.

Yesterday's arraignment did not make the cut, however, I found this item to be interesting. Resistance is everywhere! 

Senate ships Defend the Guard bill off to study

Guard adjutant general warned N.H. could lose $400 million in federal aid if legislation blocking deployment of his troops in an undeclared war passes.

By Kevin Landrigan

Union Leader Staff

CONCORD — The state Senate on Thursday summarily sidelined a controversial bill that would have prevented the deployment of New Hampshire Army or Air National Guard troops to serve in combat during undeclared wars.

Adjutant Gen. David Mikolaities had warned that passage of the Defend the Guard Act (HB 229) could have put nearly $400 million in federal grants at risk.

After no debate, the Senate shipped the bill off to interim study by voice vote.

Even if senators chose to work on the legislation, the move means it would have to start over as a new bill in 2025.

Sen. Lou D’Allesandro, DManchester, said the testimony of many deployed veterans, frustrated about being sent to different military theaters, made an impression on him.

“These men and women are being deployed all over the world, and they are not very happy campers,” D’Allesandro said. “To me it’s a clear indication that our armed forces are dependent on the Guard, and these folks are wondering why we’re always having to be deployed.”

The State Veterans Advisory Committee, Deputy Adj. Gen. Warren Perry and Mikolaities convinced the Senate that the agency could ill afford to have this bill become law, he said.

“The Guard is performing a critical mission for our country, so anything that could threaten financial support for it has to be of great concern,” D’Allesandro said. “The guard becomes even more critical as the traditional armed forces continue to fall short of meeting their goals for recruitment of soldiers. It’s a huge problem.”

The bill was authored by Rep. Tom Mannion, R-Pelham, a Marine Corps veteran twice deployed into combat during the war in Iraq.

“It’s a massive disappointment that the Republican-majority Senate voted against their own party platform by quietly killing Defend the Guard,” Mannion said.

“They have chosen to continue with the status quo of sending the men and women of our state’s guard unit into overseas combat, instead of pushing back against the war machine in D.C. and making Congress do its constitutional duty.” If reelected, Mannion vowed, he will return with his bill next year.

“New Hampshire has a strong history of opposing the forever wars in the Middle East, and the voters will make their displeasure known this fall,” Mannion said.

After the vote, Senate President Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, said he understood the passion behind this measure.

“Some folks have quite frankly gotten sick and tired of endless wars, but defunding the national guard is not the appropriate response,” said the former congressman.

The legislation was first brought forward in early 2023.

Squeaked through House

Rep. Michael Moffett, R-Loudon, who chairs the House State-Federal Relations and Veteran Affairs Committee, said he was opposed to the measure at first, “but many veterans turned out who were very passionate about this issue and I felt I had to respond to that,” Moffett said.

“Our military has been used too often in the name of national security.”[emphasis mine]

Keep reading

 

 

Did Pro-Palestine Protesters Get Paid April 16 At State Capitol? Should They Go F*** Themselves?

Photo credits: Jim Anderberg

Yesterday we followed up tax day demonstrations for defunding Israel's genocide on Palestine with a STOP ARMING GENOCIDE action at Maine's state capitol. A smaller crew than when we staged a similar action February 23 as there were and are numerous actions for Gaza this week all over our sprawling and lightly populated state.

We saw several friendly faces there as citizen lobbyists had turned out for Tribal rights, educator rights, and gun control as the legislative session scrambles to a close today. People let me know afterwards how much they appreciated the chant, "From Wabanakiya to Palestine, occupation is a crime."

A paid lobbyist in a mint green blazer did not appreciate the chant, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."

A few of us heard her say "Go f*** yourself" as she passed by. I thought she might be a legislator but, as the bell tolled for those folks to return to chambers and vote, mint green blazer was in the cafeteria across the way. She had removed her name tag by then, wouldn't say who she was, and told some other folks that they should study history. Zionist history, presumably. 

I wanted to give her employer some feedback on her interaction with us but a security guard stopped me from asking her name as she exited the building saying that swearing would get me kicked out of the state house (I was quoting her i.e. "You said to me...). Trying to guess  what issue she was lobbying for: gun industry? genocide profiteers General Dynamics or Pratt & Whitney? Doubtful, because those lobbyists usually wear expensive suits and shoes that stand out in Maine. I got more of a school administrator vibe, possibly there to lobby against a guaranteed minimum wage for ed techs.

Some of the gun control citizen lobbyists approached our group and expressed admiration for our die-in protesting other kinds of violence that the U.S. supports.

I stopped to speak with educators who were there with my union, the Maine Education Association. I told them I'm a retired teacher and I believe educators haven't been paid because the lion's share of spending year after year is on wars and weaponry. Several of them agreed with that. (Too bad that decades of advocating for the MEA to push back against military spending falls on deaf ears in an organization dominated by the Democratic Party.)

One funny thing that happened is a tv reporter who caught some of our die-in on video wanted to know if any of us were paid to be there. Also, were our expenses covered by our press guy's organization or any other group? Our press guy got a kick out of that and answered "no" to both on our behalf.

Under capitalism, apparently it's hard to understand that people would engage in direct action of their own volition and on their own dime. Case in point about why our group yesterday was so small: most people are at work on Tuesdays at 11am. I'm thankful for our hardy band of retirees and teachers on spring break, and for the work of activists who couldn't be there yesterday but who created this strong handout explaining Maine's role in arming the Gaza genocide.

Police Brutality At Elbit Systems Lockdown For Palestine In NH

Yesterday eight people were arrested blockading the main entrance to Elbit Systems in Merrimack, New Hampshire. 

Supporters on the scene were forced off the Elbit driveway onto the side of the public highway, and law enforcement deliberately blocked the ability of the group to monitor their activity -- including blocking trained legal observers and medics who were present.

My husband Mark Roman reported that he had locked into a modified car but had police roughly remove the folding chair he was using and then a kneeling pad a supporter provided. This forced Mark and another friend into stress positions as you can see above where they could neither stand up fully nor sit down, and that friend's arm was injured as a result.

Mark also told me he saw police yanking on the arms of other protesters who were locked into devices that held two people, and that bruising of their wrists several hours later was observed. 

The police response was both overwhelming and inept: bomb squad, state police, local police, and county sheriffs used x-ray machines, helicopters, and possibly drones (although the drones spotted may have belonged to journalists covering the event) as well as saws and other tools.

Our friend Bruce Gagnon was arrested very early in the action and placed in a squad car where he listened to the police radio for an hour and a half as they scrambled to deploy. The first officer on the scene had arrested Bruce almost immediately, ignoring the lockdown in progress. Bruce was performing his role as liaison to private security guards (there were two of them in a booth that is new since protesters targeted Elbit back in November) letting them know that the action was a non-violent protest of Elbit's role profiting from Israel's genocide in Gaza.

Bruce was charged with resisting arrest although he did no such thing and at least one witness can attest to this. 

The female officer who eventually drove him back to the station was insulting and combative, clearly holding a grudge about the protest in November, and made sure he sat in a cold cell while stripped down to just one thin layer of clothing. Then he had a long political discussion with a booking officer who treated him like a human being and who said at one point, It sounds like we look at different media sources for information. Ya think?

Everyone I've spoken to so far was charged with both criminal trespass and resisting arrest.  Arraignment dates vary but all are in April, and legal support has been secured.

There was a great media person on site with the group Healthcare Workers for Palestine, and you can see some of their livestreaming here and here. 

Mainstream media also turned out in droves and I know the following list of coverage is incomplete as there will definitely be more today. For now though, check out:

https://www.wmur.com/article/several-arrests-made-at-protest-targeting-israeli-contractor-in-merrimack/60279623

https://www.wmur.com/article/elbit-systems-merrimack-protest-israel-gaza-32224/60278992

https://whdh.com/news/multiple-arrests-at-pro-palestinian-protest-in-nh/

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/pro-palestine-group-blocks-road-to-military-manufacturers-facility/ar-BB1kmnJp

Yasmin Alani gave my favorite interview of the day, to a WMUR reporter on the scene, and you owe it to yourself to watch the video:

She said her conscience dictated that she be there.

"I have a thousand places that I need to be today rather than be here, but you know, someone has to do this," she said.

Yasmin's son Yusuf explained why he felt compelled to shut down access to Elbit in Merrimack:

Elbit makes 85% of Israel's drones and land vehicles, and this particular plant in Merrimack has a long history of working on surveillance technology  / 'Israeli border security', reflecting its direct involvement in decades of Israeli occupation and apartheid.

The plant also received a multimillion dollar contract in 2023 to make Improved Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing Systems, which are helmet displays for fighter jet pilots to help them murder more Palestinians.

 Yesterday's action was part of an ongoing campaign STOP ARMING GENOCIDE.

ERRATA: Edited to reflect the correct number arrested (8 not 9).