Maine Tax Breaks For Genocide Profiteers Called Out

Great acoustics in the Maine State House for activists at a Maine Coalition for Palestine event today. The Chamber of Commerce was hosting in the Hall of Flags offering the opportunity to confront General Dynamics and stage a die-in directly in front of them. 

An older guy with GD was angry at our presence and he "accidentally" grazed my head with his shoe and then yelled that I had tried to trip him. He seemed especially aggravated by the chant, General Dynamics you can't hide / we charge you with genocide, yelling, "We're not hiding! We're right here!!" 

So that part alone really made my day.

Overall a great day. The amazing solidarity of our group felt good and our STOP ARMING GENOCIDE t-shirts and strong chanting carried a clear message: Tax breaks for genocide profiteers must go! 

Everyone doing this work has a heart breaking for Gaza, and the children and their families in Palestine, and this is one thing we felt that we could do in response.

After holding the space for about a half hour, we cleared out as requested and headed upstairs to the legislative floor where many more lawmakers and lobbyists were present. I'm sure they had heard us down in the Hall of Flags, and now they could see us. The journalists who had started covering us downstairs followed us. Eventually we let ourselves get kicked out of there, too, and headed downstairs to the exit where there is a waiting area we filled with chanting and clapping for several more minutes. Security guards watched but took no action.  

I was impressed by how broad a swath of the state we drew participants from: MDI, Calais, Deer Isle, Biddeford, Bangor, and Brunswick to name just a few. It was again a multi-generational crowd with college students at one end and boomers at the other. I love that.

Our banner leaders were extraordinary. Our support people were extraordinary. As we exited the legislative floor someone called, "We'll be back." May it be so.

--

Some mainstream media coverage will follow. Here's the first one:

https://www.wabi.tv/2024/02/22/pro-palestine-protesters-have-taken-over-maine-state-house/

If Protesting Doesn't Do Anything, Then Why Are The Powerful Determined To Eliminate It?

Indigenous people led a protest at the White House during the Obama years, holding a die-in to illustrate the effects of the proposed Keystone oil pipeline on multiple forms of life. Source: toyboathouse.com

I'm going to take a step back from considering the accelerating madness of current events to ponder a question that dogs me and other dissenters: what can we do about it? "It" being, for me, the wars on Afghan people, Palestinian people, Yemeni people, Syrian people, Iraqi people, indigenous people, black people, immigrant people, female people, etc. Also the destruction of Earth's life support system by unhinged capitalist exploitation, wars being a major factor.

Anti-Vietnam war protesters march down Fifth Avenue near to 81st Street in New York City on April 27, 1968, in protest of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnamese war. The demonstrators were en route to nearby Central Park for mass “Stop the war” rally. (AP Photo) Source: namvietnews.wordpress.com

It may be that what sparked this blog post was watching a bit of archival footage of thousands of young people -- my generation -- in the streets chanting "no more war." This was in the intro to a documentary about mythology and hero's journeys. I had switched it on expecting to see a lot of art from various cultures but instead found myself watching two old white men talk about people, using all male pronouns and 99% male examples. Ho hum, I turned it off.

Let me just say that I don't like to be one of those elders who dwell insistently on the past. It's a mistake because it closes off our minds to learning what perspectives younger humans are bringing to this long, strange trip we're on. Maybe it's just because I'm on the tail end of the baby boomers and thus not old enough yet to dwell primarily in the land of memory. In any case, perhaps ironically for a history buff, I find people insisting on living in the past to be extremely boring.

Bath, Maine resident Bruce Gagnon's hunger strike against a tax giveaway to a weapons manufacturer drew supporters who fasted with him, press coverage from a local newspaper, and probably influenced eventual reduction of the giveaway to $45 million. Source: Joe Phelan photo / Portland Press Herald

Another thing that jogged my thinking about what kind of resistance is actually effective was some negative feedback in response to a War Tax Resisters annual gathering that I was invited to speak at. The requested topic is something I know about intimately since, while I wrote about opposing LD1781 and then went to do my paid job, my husband went to his unpaid citizen lobbyist job at the Maine legislature earlier this year. The mega wealthy corporation General Dynamics was twisting arms and telling lies to get a big tax giveaway from our very poor state on top of the largesse from the Pentagon and the city of Bath where they operate a shipyard that builds weapons of mass destruction.

So the WTR folks asked if I would talk about that resistance. Another activist in Maine contacted me to say that he was dismayed that a particular advocate of war tax resistance had shilly shallied on the question of whether the IRS can or will go after a war tax resister's social security checks. I can attest that they can and will because they did so to my husband's check after we refused to pay the hefty balance owed to the war machine even in addition to the thousands they had already deducted from my paycheck. "Make them come after it," is a slogan of WTR and make them we did. However, when it was all paid back and the monthly SS deposit was restored, my husband said he didn't want to do that anymore. So, full disclosure, I am a bit of a fraud as a war tax resister at this point.

 A helicopter used by the U.S. military in Afghanistan Source: scout.com

The other thing that has been stuck in my craw lately is the request by a local mom that we have schoolchildren send messages to her son who is on a helicopter crew in Afghanistan. I remember this student as a sweet, bespectacled boy with acne, and gentle soul who was respectful to his teachers even in adolescence (fairly rare around here). His mom and he are not doing well emotionally. He enlisted because of his love of helicopters, but now he's battling the horror and depression of picking up dead and mangled humans and flying them elsewhere.

The possibility that little children be put on the road to thanking him for his service filled me with horror and dismay. In the political vacuum that a public school in a conservative rural area creates so that civil war doesn't break out in the lunchroom, it is considered fine to bring up supporting a local boy without any hint of concern for the thousands of mangled Afghan boys and girls that the 18 year long occupation of that country has produced.

So I just had to raise my hand.

I said, let's be careful when we're speaking to students about this request not to glamorize the prospect of enlisting in the military. We're speaking to an audience that has seen thousands of hours of sophisticated advertising designed to make them believe that enlistment is glorious and heroic, that hides the ugly reality from them. And recruiters lie, all the time.


It was quiet as everyone contemplated this turd in the punch bowl.

Then one brave soul spoke up and said, I have a son who did that, enlisted, and he is not the same as he was before.

I followed up with an email to the group providing a link to the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, in case they wanted to know more about what's going on in Afghanistan. One person responded and I'll bet she will follow up because she is a life long learner with a keen interest in other cultures, and in learning about what she does not know.

So here's what I'm thinking does and does not "work" in terms of resistance to the kleptocracy that seems intent on destroying the world in exchange for a bit of transitory "wealth."

Voting Are you kidding me? I could paste in 1,000 links here to show that free and fair elections and true representation for people like me and thee is a thing of the past in the USA. One will suffice: Maine's Senator Susan Collins received hundreds of thousands of dollars in "dark money" campaign contributions after her support for the loathsome Brett Kavanaugh to ascend to the Supreme Court.

Protesting/Demonstrating Remember that film clip of thousands of young people chanting "no more war" and ask yourself if that's what ended the war on the people of Vietnam. If your answer is No or Maybe not, there were a lot of factors, ask yourself this: did it end the draft?

Ending military conscription forced the Pentagon to rely on the economic draft which has always pushed young people who grew up in poverty to enlist. Relying on volunteers has led to paying the NFL and other sports franchises to stage patriotic pro-military shows at games, beefing up the recruiting budget, going after increasingly younger students during the school day, and stop-loss which forces traumatized veterans back into combat again and again and again. A sobering thought from this baby boomer: a tour of duty in Vietnam was a year, then you got to go home. The fact that the rest of your life might be ruined by what you saw and did there was of little interest to those who sent you, but it has led to one of the highest suicide rates for any group in our country.

Wendy Bergeron-Laurence staged a 13 hour lone demonstration in Waterville, Maine July 9, 2013 to show her support for theTexas legislator who had staged a 13 hour filibuster on behalf of women's reproductive freedom.

Protesting in person, sometimes all alone, goes on all the time -- though it is mostly ignored by corporate media. Just how much the ruling elite fears outpouring of political action from the people was illustrated this week when it unveiled extensive new restrictions and fees for protesting in the nation's capital. The National Park Service has jurisdiction over many of the spaces used for protests, and it is required to gather public input before imposing the new regulations. You can learn more about the details and weigh in here.

War Tax Resistance This has been going on for centuries, with the American Friends Service Committee (aka Quakers) leading and educating. There are a lot of forms of withholding the tax dollar that Congress spends about 65% of on military these days (more if you include the Veterans Administration budget). You can hide income so it isn't taxed, you can become too low income to owe taxes, or you can simply fail to pay up. Advice is to do it honestly and with full disclosure so that the IRS can't convict you of tax fraud. Not enough people have done this to be able to tell if it is effective. Certainly borrowing to fund wars that exceed the public purse is galloping, and servicing that debt may be a crucial factor when this empire falls.

Communication  I like this one the best. Lots of protesting/demonstrating operates in this arena. Because it really is about people's hearts and minds, because information is power, and because the dissemination of misinformation has become turbocharged in the age of mass media and the Internet. Just this past month all of us cell phone users got a mandatory text message from FEMA so that the executive branch of the feds can warn us about emergencies. The effects of 9/11 are wearing off; students in 9th grade today were not even born when it happened. Can't wait to see what kind of terror our rulers come up with next to justify even more surveillance, repression and wars for resources.

Women and supporters in Poland protesting abortion ban in 2016 Source: The Bubble

Civil Disobedience / Women's Strike  When this comes up somebody always has to reference Lysistrata. Did I mention that I'm old? So, I don't think a sex strike is going to be nearly as impactful as would the women of this country simply withdrawing their labor. (If sex seems like work, then by all means refrain from that, too.) I do think this has a better and better chance of occurring, but it won't be in response to wars, because the empire's wars are largely invisible except to working class and poor families with loved ones involved (see Communication above). It probably won't be in response to rape culture, either, although that's an issue more and more young women are refusing to remain silent about.



A women's general strike will probably come about in response to the loss of reproductive freedom. The women of Poland and Ireland have set an example for U.S. women to follow, and I hope I live long enough to see us do it. Is the future female? Stay tuned.

Dark Times

Gaza medics in identifying clothing approach wounded with their hands raised, but get shot anyway. You can contribute to support unarmed civilians being attacked by Israel's military here at Medical Aid for Palestinians.

Besides being overwhelmed at work and at home, I'm struggling this week with the darkness that seems to be closing in worldwide. It's hard to say which I'm more troubled by: Israel's slaughter of unarmed civilians at the Gaza border while kleptocrats partied in Jerusalem; U.S. warmongering against Iran; or confirmation of a known pregnant woman torturer to head the CIA. 

Yesterday there was another mass shooting at a high school, this time in Texas. The NRA, the enforcement arm of kleptocracy that keeps us all fearful, took time out from harassing teens who've survived school shootings to put convicted felon Oliver North at its helm.

Families began being ripped apart at the border as migrants fleeing violence in Central America attempted to cross over to safety. And, needless to say, the ongoing bad news of weapons corporations using taxpayer funding to lobby elected officials for tax breaks on top of the already gargantuan military budget with its attendant austerities for the people -- rolled on.

Then there were the small discouragements: all my postcards to Kings Bay Plowshares anti-nuclear activists were sent back rather than delivered. This small cruelty to the activists was expected because other correspondents had posted photos of their undelivered regulation post office issue postcards earlier in the week. I know that my first batch of postcards a few weeks ago were received, because I got replies from several of the conscientious objectors to nuclear warmongering. They were all arraigned last week and if they care to can post a $5000 bond and submit to house arrest with ankle monitors pending their trial. You can contribute to their bond fund here.

I've said before that I write this blog to keep my head from exploding as I attempt to process the bad news of our times.

Clearly, I should spend more time reading my friend Cecile Pineda's newsletter which always ends with a Roses Among Thorns section sharing encouraging, uplifting, hopeful current events. Thanks, Cecile, for your pinpoint of light shining in these dark times.

Freedom Of Information Is The Biggest Threat Of All To Corporate Government

So this is an interesting development.

Back in February, during a trial where protesters (including me) were acquitted of criminal trespass after the State of Maine failed its burden of proof, the judge commented that Bath Iron Works had "outsourced" its security for events to the Bath Police Department. Justice Dan Billings added, "and that's not the way it's supposed to work." 

Bath police preparing to arrest the Aegis 9 on April 1, 2017

BIW, a subsidiary of the federal weapons contractor General Dynamics, had the Bath PD arrest us for being in the same space as the rest of the public invited to a ship christening[sic] event. Since none of us were doing anything more than standing 10 feet from the entrance holding signs, it was difficult for the state to make a cogent argument that we were a threat to security.

Counsel for defense Logan Perkins said at the time of the verdict, "The 1st Amendment is alive and well in the state of Maine, and I appreciate that the court was willing to hold the Bath Police Department to the standards contained in the U.S. Constitution."

Justice Billings concluded that we were arrested on the basis of protected political speech that BIW found odious at their celebration of profitable completion of a warship. A victory for the 1st Amendment, indeed.

A journalist from Rhode Island who follows General Dynamics tax giveaway schemes in New England, Alex Nunes, became interested in our case. He filed a Freedom of Access Act request for communications between the Bath PD and BIW executives that concerned their plans for the outsourced security. Bath Police Chief Michael Field denied the request, citing an exception to Maine's FOAA law when communications address planning to combat terrorism.

Nunes thus pursues the 1st Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press as it applies to freedom of information about the actions of government agencies like police departments.

Former Bath City Councilor David Sinclair attended the Aegis 9 trial and now has stepped forward with an offer to represent Nunes in an appeal of the FOAA denial. He will work pro bono (literally, for the good), donating his time and expertise as an attorney to defend the public's right to know.

Why would the public want to know how a contractor that has grown very wealthy on Pentagon contracts uses the police force of a cash-strapped town in Maine to suppress the speech of disgruntled taxpayers?

Maybe in light of the recent $45 million tax giveaway to BIW from the state of Maine which represents triple dipping; BIW receives tax breaks from the city of Bath, too.

Citizen outrage at these tax breaks for the wealthy has been intense. Hundreds of letters against the bill were sent to legislators and newspapers. Radio and television shows highlighted the absurdity of giving a profitable corporation $45 million while 43,000 children live in poverty in our state. Witnesses in the Maine State House saw the arm twisting and lying that BIW and its lobbyists engaged in to get the bill passed.

The biggest union at BIW, Local S/6, had a split vote and failed to endorse the tax giveaway bill (that was what the lie was about). This week their leadership sent this letter detailing why:

Information is power, and our corporate overlords want to make sure we get as little of it as possible. 

Hats off to Alex Nunes for his effort to turn over the rock of Patriot Act-era claims that government secrecy is justified in the endless "war on terror" we're all endlessly paying for. Also for pursuing the notion that public services like police cannot properly take direction from corporations like General Dynamics. I will be following his FOAA appeal with great interest.

State Senator Justin Chenette: This Feels A Bit Like Highway Robbery

The Maine Senate voted 25-9 for corporate welfare to benefit General Dynamics/Bath Iron Works in the form of $45 million tax giveaway yesterday. Bruce Gagnon was on hand and reported:

Sen. Justin Chenette (D-Saco) told his fellow senators that while serving on the Taxation Committee, that had responsibility for LD 1781, he asked BIW V-P Fitzgerald five times for financial information that would prove the company needed the support.  Fitzgerald repeatedly refused to do so.  Chenette asked, "How can we make informed decisions without the facts?  This feels a little bit like highway robbery."

The campaign run by General Dynamics targeting Maine's elected officials amounted to: pay up, or else we shut down and throw thousands of people out of work.


I've always had a problem with caving to bullies. Maybe it's the Irish in me. Or the logical girl who considered going to law school. It seemed to me even as a child that, if I let someone bully me, I was indicating that they could do it again anytime they felt like it. So standing up for myself was the best choice in the long run even if painful in the short term.

Some of the other stars of yesterday's bullying session were Sen. Ben Chipman, a progressive from Portland who probably passes homeless people every single day on his way to work. Chipman said, "We could use this money to help alleviate poverty in Maine."

Also Sen. Mike Carpenter who pointed out, "There is no suggestion this company needs our help. This company is exploding with money."

Mark Roman, who was on hand to witness the senate's capitulation, described the day as "like watching a slow motion robbery happen."


Here's the roll call. Nine votes against the bill are more than we expected. But weasly words like Sen. Brownie Carson's to constituents -- where he concedes the truth of their arguments but ends with "I will vote my conscience" -- generally signal that a legislator is in the pocket of the guys in expensive suits.

	Member	Vote
	BELLOWS of Kennebec	D	N
	BRAKEY of Androscoggin	R	Y
	BREEN of Cumberland	D	Y
	CARPENTER of Aroostook	D	N
	CARSON of Cumberland	D	Y
	CHENETTE of York	D	N
	CHIPMAN of Cumberland	D	N
	COLLINS of York	R	Y
	CUSHING of Penobscot	R	Y
	CYRWAY of Kennebec	R	Y
	DAVIS of Piscataquis	R	Y
	DESCHAMBAULT of York	D	E
	DIAMOND of Cumberland	D	Y
	DILL of Penobscot	D	Y
	DION of Cumberland	D	N
	DOW of Lincoln	R	Y
	GRATWICK of Penobscot	D	N
	HAMPER of Oxford	R	Y
	HILL of York	D	Y
	JACKSON of Aroostook	D	Y
	KATZ of Kennebec	R	Y
	KEIM of Oxford	R	Y
	LANGLEY of Hancock	R	Y
	LIBBY of Androscoggin	D	Y
	MAKER of Washington	R	Y
	MASON of Androscoggin	R	Y
	MILLETT of Cumberland	D	N
	MIRAMANT of Knox	D	N
	ROSEN of Hancock	R	N
	SAVIELLO of Franklin	R	Y
	THIBODEAU of Waldo	R	Y
	VITELLI of Sagadahoc	D	Y
	VOLK of Cumberland	R	Y
	WHITTEMORE of Somerset	R	Y
	WOODSOME of York	R	Y

Organizer Gagnon was surprised to find that progressive leader Sen. Troy Jackson voted for the bill. Then he found out that Jackson has an ambitious son who works for Preti Flaherty, the lobbying law firm that racked up hundreds of billable hours in reponse to strong citizen resistance to LD1781. 

Because of citizen resistance and a few brave legislators and journalists, the original ask of $60 million was reduced to $45 million (albeit in a shortened timeframe that would send them back for more in 15 years instead of 20). 

I'll be sending a personal message to each of the senators who found the courage to vote no on the bill. Probably General Dynamics/BIW will attempt to punish them for it, either financially or otherwise. That's how bullies work.

Cynics say I'm wrong. They say the legislative process permits a handful of representatives or senators to put on a good show for angry consituents as the need arises. As long as the bill ultimately passes, who cares if a few no votes are recorded in the process? Those same cynics would argue that participating in citizen lobbying is a huge waste of time and that the people who do it are "useful idiots." Myself, I see these efforts as powerful communication opportunities. Our messaging travels beyond our own group to reach even those who "don't follow politics" and contributes to their education a little bit.

Citizen lobbyists against LD1781 present in the State House for the Senate vote.

Also, you meet the nicest people in these movements.


Notorious bully Governor LePage must now sign the bill for it to become law. His (or really, his staff's) misunderstanding of how a pocket veto works led to the passage of 65 bills he disliked back in 2015. So, I'm praying for another foul up by his nepotistic staff in the coming days.

In other words, I'm praying for a miracle on behalf of the hungry children of Maine.

Stop This Nonsense! Maine Natural Guard Members Sound Off On Tax Giveaway To Wealthy Corporation

There have been some cracking good letters written during the campaign opposing corporate welfare bill LD1781. Maine Natural Guard members in particular have done a fine job, and I thought I would share some of their messages today in advance of citizen lobbying on Tuesday, March 27 in Augusta.

Darth Vader will be in the Maine State House this week lobbying against corporate welfare for General Dynamics

From the ever articulate MB in The Forecaster:

Thanks to Orlando Delogu for his information and clarity that proposed legislation LD 1781 is a bill to oppose (“Policy Wonk: 10 reasons why BIW tax break is a bad deal”). This bill commits to give $3 million a year for the next 10 or 20 years from Maine’s tax dollars to General Dynamics, owner of Bath Iron Works, in spite of the fact that GD has moved up into the Fortune 100 because of its huge annual profits.

Most legislators from both political parties are inclined to pass Maine’s tax dollars on to General Dynamics, a Virginia-based corporation. Maine legislators express a fear that GD will pack up and move somewhere else and we will lose 5,700 jobs in our state. I don’t buy it, and I find the argument insulting to BIW’s workforce. If BIW’s motto is true that “Bath built is best built,” it’s not credible that $3 million a year would make BIW less competitive, or would make its parent company abandon this shipyard.

Tell your legislators that you have a better use for $3 million a year. Personally, I’m thinking that money would be better spent housing people who are homeless. What is your idea? Don’t be shy; tell your legislator. Without your voice, they will not have the courage or incentive to stand up to General Dynamics.

Mary Beth Sullivan

Bath

This is one from a constituent to state Rep. Brownie Carson:

Hello again Brownie,

I will be brief and direct as I usually am.   This 'stunt' General Dynamics is trying to pull while using a vulnerable, innocent Ms Dechant is nothing more than predator capitalism.

General Dynamics is presently trying to pull the same trick in Connecticut.

General Dynamics is a very, very wealthy corporation who apparently lacks morals or ethics.  G. Dynamics should not even be considering this however, only for if they can pull a trick off like this…hey,  they are greedy,  they will take any dollars they can get whether they need it or not.

Trying to sell a package of  'empty words'  to the public and legislature is simply a con game…that so many businesses small and large would try if they thought they had a good chance.  The larger the corporation,  the more they appear as a threatening, authority figure that gets everyone nervous and for many people,  the Stockholm Syndrome kicks in.  Essentially support the villain and victimize those who are being preyed upon!

Even if Maine citizens turned over all the assets…if G.D. thinks they can save money by laying people off…they will with no hesitation!

The reality is,  BIW is an antiquated eye-sore that Maine should have transcended long ago.  Making war ships while the planet is in environmental and human turmoil is nothing to be proud of.  The fact is, Maine should have been preparing long ago for employment alternatives!

Joseph Ciarrocca
Brunswick, Maine

This is a letter to the editor published last month in the Portland Press Herald:

A number of years ago, I resolved the issue that many of us wrestle with when faced with a destitute person on the street asking for money. Do we try to size this person up, presume to know what they’ll buy with the money – Big Mac? Crack? Thunderbird? – and then fish out pocket change or not, all the time feeling morally queasy?

Then I read a quote from this country’s essential big-hearted man of all seasons, Walt Whitman, who said, “Give alms to anyone who asks.” Simple. If a person is reduced to begging on the street and you have no idea what brought that person there, help them out if you can. Every time. No moral indignation. No judgments.

But what if that person were sitting in the back seat of a Mercedes stretch limo, the tinted glass down just enough to allow a glimpse of the Armani suit while a leather-gloved hand extends in supplication. A boardroom voice demands, “Give me $60 million or I’ll move to Mississippi!”

Well, folks, even Uncle Walt would say rules are made to be broken when the panhandler is General Dynamics. General Dynamics is a con, a corporate extractor who will keep taking from the poor to feed the rich until we say NO.

It should boggle any Mainer’s decent mind that L.D. 1781 is even being considered with a straight face. Our Legislature says to General Dynamics, “Yes, please rob us so we don’t have to feed our poor children or provide health care or fix our roads or pay our teachers.” Really?

Stop this nonsense!

Robert Shetterly

Brooksville

And, here's the last op-ed from PeaceWorks of Greater Brunswick that will be published in the Times Record. Their editor, John Swinconeck, has canceled their widely-read monthly column after refusing Bruce Gagnon's submission (later published here by the Bangor Daily News).

An Opportunity for Choosing People Over Profit

BY ROSALIE PAUL

The Maine Legislature will soon be making a decision in our names. Their choice will determine how much tax money is available for meeting the social and infrastructure needs of our state. I wonder if they’ve heard your thoughts on the subject?

A tax subsidy bill (LD 1781) would give General Dynamics/Bath Iron Works a $3 million tax credit every year for the next 20 years or, if amended, for the next 10 years and then very likely renewed for another 10 years. That’s $3 million a year not paid into our state treasury.

There have been scores of columns and letters written to papers all over the state opposing the bill. As a result we’ve had a close look at the numbers and they make it clear that this is not a case of need but a gift of corporate welfare. GD/BIW is not in need of more financial support from the people of Maine. On the contrary, General Dynamics is the third largest Defense Contractor in the world and is already funded by each one of us with our federal tax dollars. The Pentagon takes 54-plus cents of every one of our discretionary dollars. And since there is no oversight of their budget, we can’t know how or how wisely that money is spent.

The numbers we haven’t seen are the ones BIW’s VP John Fitzgerald refuses to disclose. Here is some back and forth from last week’s Work Session where the Taxation Committee began to grapple with the bill:

Sen. Justin Chenette (D-Saco) asked, “I’m not understanding why the investment of $60 million can’t come from your parent company? In order for me to make decisions I need a commitment from you [BIW] to disclose the profits of the company.”

Fitzgerald responded emphatically: “The answer is no.”

That would seem to me to be the end of the discussion! What bank would offer credit to a non-disclosing client?

There is so much that could be said about how fear is used to keep us looking at our feet rather than into our hearts where we can know what are appropriate policies for maintaining a sustainable and people centered economy.

Workers are kept in line by being made afraid of losing their jobs.

Senators and Congressional Representatives are bought with corporate generosity that must be repaid in votes on the floor.

You and I are too often afraid of not knowing enough about political issues to speak up intelligently and so we remain silent even though we know in our hearts what’s right and what is simply not.

And without our voices the ugly military machine grinds on.

PeaceWorks is a local organization that stands firmly for making non-violent, fair and sensible choices. It is not surprising, then, that we oppose this kind of subsidy for the already ultra-rich especially when their daily work is to create weapon systems capable of delivering nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. We are pleased that Maine’s leading climate change group has joined us in acknowledging the clear connection between the quest for domination of the planets energy resources and the huge carbon footprint of the military. 350 Maine concurs in opposing LD 1781.

We urge you to contact your state representative and senator and let them know your views. Ask them to make a decision from the heart, not out of fear. Let us all act in solidarity with those who work at Bath Iron Works. They deserve to be a respected voice in the decision making at BIW. They deserve to use their skills to build products that support rather than destroy.

PeaceWorks sees Bath Iron Works as a builder of offshore wind turbines, solar infrastructure, light rail transportation, tidal power systems and hospital ships that help alleviate the suffering from devastating climate events that are already happening and that are increasing at a frightening rate. We must project this vision if we want to support our future generations. Opposing this tax bill is a valuable opportunity for choosing people over profit.

Rosalie Paul is a member of PeaceWorks. She lives in Brunswick.

If you'd like to send a message to Maine legislators, here is a handy tool to help.


If you'd like to join the Maine Natural Guard, go to our website.