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Crowds "shock and awe" Lockheed Martin with their protests
by
Brandywine Peace Community | 03.24.2003
At noon today, a large crowd gathered at the Lockheed Martin Facility behind King of Prussia Mall to protest its role in producing the munitions that are currently devastating Iraq. "Every weapon producd by Lockheed Martin means billions of dollars trnasferred from the public treasury to private wealth, from public need to corporate greed. Moreover, every weapon produced by Lockheed Martin means another bombing run, another cruise missile attach, another war." (from the Brandywine Peace Community's Martin Luther King Day litany at Lockheed Martin, January 21, 2002) For fifteen year The Brandywine Peace Community is a faith based peace  activist group formed in 1977 by people experienced in the nonviolent  resistance to the war in Vietnam. After more than two decades, Brandywine  continues to organize campaigns of nonviolent direct action to war and to challenge  the weapons industry in the Delaware Valley. That challenge of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience was first demonstrated at General  Electric weapons facilities in the Delaware Valley in campaign of resistance  and public education that lasted for more than 15 years.     In 1993, General Electric sold its Aerospace Division to Martin  Marietta. Consequently, Martin Marietta doubled in size and in 1995 merged  with Lockheed to become Lockheed Martin. All the facilities which once carried the names of GE Aerospace, Martin Marietta, or Lockheed, are now  Lockheed Martin. Since its inception, announced with the slogan "And this  is just the beginning!", Lockheed Martin has been and continues to be the world's largest weapons corporation as well as the U.S.'s largest international  arms seller and the U.S.'s chief nuclear bomb contractor. Lockheed Martin has  also become involved in the privatization [i.e. "for profit management"] of  state welfare departments. The same Lockheed Martin that produces the weapons control systems for Tomahawk Cruise Missiles in Valley Forge, PA (Lockheed Martin's Management & Data Systems) is the very same Lockheed Martin that receives money from state governments (including the state of Pennsylvania) to process data, dispense checks to poor people, and administer jobs programs. The same Lockheed Martin that manages the Oak Ridge, TN uranium processing complex (including depleted uranium ammunition) and other parts of the national nuclear bomb component, waste, and maintenance complex also produces, in Moorestown, NJ, the Aegis battle command system around which the Navy is producing its fleet of Aegis cruisers and destroyers. The U.S. Navy considers Aegis "the most powerful warfighting system today". Most of the sealaunched cruise missiles fired into Iraq or as part of the U.S./NATO war in the Balkans came from Aegis warships. To add your name to our mailing list send an email to brandywine@juno.com |
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