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‘MAKE WAR NO MORE!’ IS MESSAGE OF MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY OF NONVIOLENT ACTION AT LOCKHEED MARTIN, Noon, 1/18/2010
by
Brandywine Peace Community | 01.06.2010
With an estimated $42.7 billion in U.S. weapons and war-related contracting for 2009, Lockheed Martin is the world's largest military contractor and war profiteer, including the escalating war in Afghanistan and continuing U.S. occupation of Iraq. Lockheed Martin manufactures unmanned remote-controlled drones used by the CIA in Afghanistan and Pakistan and is the chief producer of military satellites, which, through space, direct the drone bombings from the continental U.S. ‘MAKE WAR NO MORE!’ IS MESSAGE OF MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY OF NONVIOLENT ACTION AT LOCKHEED MARTIN NOONTIME PROTEST AND NONVIOLENT RESISTANCE AT VALLEY FORGE ARMS GIANT TO HONOR DR. KING’S MESSAGE OF JUSTICE, PEACE, VALLEY FORGE, PA: Monday, January 18, the national holiday commemorating the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Brandywine Peace Community will, as it has for the past three decades, honor the legacy of Dr. King and his message of justice and peace through nonviolent action. The decades-old regional peace activist group is planning a “Make War No More – Martin Luther King Day of Nonviolent Action” at the Valley Forge/King of Prussia, PA, complex of the world’s largest war profiteer and weapons manufacturer, Lockheed Martin. The peace demonstration, which is part of the group’s ongoing protest campaign against Lockheed Martin, will begin at noon in front of the company’s main driveway entrance, located on Goddard Boulevard near the corner of Mall & Goddard Boulevards, Valley Forge, PA (behind the King of Prussia Mall, across from the United Artist King of Prussia movie-plex). Beginning with bell-tolling, an audio broadcast of excerpts from Dr. King’s sermons and speeches will follow, against a backdrop of signs and banners. The group plans to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience to highlight its peace and anti-war message. Along the Goddard Boulevard sidewalk in front of Lockheed Martin and at the main driveway entrance to the weapons contracting giant, there will be large pictures of Dr. King, a bold wooden sign with the Lockheed Martin logo reading “We’re Making A Killing!” and large colorful banners reading: “Honor Dr. King’s Legacy,” “Stop the War (s),” “Remember King’s Dream: Make War No More,” and “We Declare Peace.” There will also be large signboards reading “LOCKHEED-VILLE: Many Suffer, Few Profit,” as well as a litany built around Dr. King’s 1964 Nobel Peace Prize speech and readings pertaining to Lockheed Martin’s weapons production and war profiteering. Among Dr. King’s sermons and speeches to be played in front of Lockheed Martin will be excepts from his “Time to Break Silence” speech from April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his assassination, in which Dr. King advocated opposition to the Vietnam War, described the U.S. government as “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today,” and called for resistance to “the giant triplet of American society: racism, materialism, and militarism.” At its Valley Forge complex Lockheed Martin produces systems for sea-launched cruise missiles and battlefield computers. U.S. military spending this year is estimated at $925 billion, a figure that does not even include funding for the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the escalating war in Afghanistan. The cost of the two wars, funded largely by supplemental spending, now stands at $14 billion a month. Lockheed Martin has been the focus of the Brandywine Peace Community's campaign of protest and nonviolent resistance since the arms giant was formed in the 1993 merger of Lockheed and Martin Marietta. Throughout the year, the Brandywine Peace Community holds protest demonstrations at the company's Valley Forge weapons complex. Following Dr. King’s example, many of the group's demonstrations include nonviolent civil disobedience for which its members and supporters have been arrested and jailed many times over the decades. In the past decade, since the start of the U.S. war in Afghanistan, the Brandywine Peace Community has been at the helm of area protests of the U.S. policy of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. The group recently announced there will be an anti-war protest the next working day after the announcement of the approaching 1,000th U.S. military death in Afghanistan.The solemn vigil will begin at 5:00 p.m. on the west side of Philadelphia City Hall, 15th & Market Streets. Brandywine Peace Community |
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