St. Paul, MN – On October 12, the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition rallied at the site of a new ForwardEdge ASIC LLC office. ForwardEdge is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lockheed Martin Corporation, the world’s largest defense contractor. Amid the horrific Israeli bombing of Gaza, around 150 protesters gathered in a show of solidarity with Palestine and to demand “No Minnesota money for weapons manufacturers.”

Protesters chanted “Free Palestine!” and “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Lockheed has got to go!” and then marched from a nearby park to the Lockheed site.

At the park, Wyatt Miller of the MN Anti-War Committee (MN AWC) spoke, “And it’s not just federal military spending! This Lockheed Martin facility received about $1.5 million in startup funds from the state of Minnesota. Additionally, the State Board of Investment holds over $55 million in stock in Lockheed – plus millions more in securities. That money comes from retirement pensions that the state of Minnesota manages.”

Miller also detailed the MN AWC’s long-running campaign to pressure the Minnesota State Board of Investment to divest its holdings from companies complicit with the occupation of Palestine.

Next, Natasha Dockter, a rank-and-file union member of the Minnesota Federation of Teachers Local 59 said, “Our educators don't have the resources they need to teach and must resort to crowdfunding to do things as simple as make sure they have the books their students need and are able to teach students on field trips. Meanwhile, we have companies like Lockheed Martin spending billions and receiving massive tax incentives to manufacture more weapons to kill innocent children all over the world and fight for U.S. imperialism.”

Sana Wazwaz of American Muslims for Palestine-Minnesota said that after such a stressful week for Palestinians, especially students, she was uplifted by the number of Palestinian flags and keffiyehs worn by protesters.

Wazwaz urged those present to reject Zionist talking points, “The issue in reality, it is not human shields or whatnot. The issue is that the longest military occupier in modern history has launched an illegal bombing campaign, at least the fifth in a matter of 16 years, against the population in which 2 million people are trapped in an open-air prison.”

Wazwaz continued, “What we are here to do is contextualize, is to say that you cannot equate the occupier with the occupied. You cannot equate the response to the violence that instigated it. You cannot equate the retaliator to the instigator.”

Annie Russell-Pribnow of the UMN chapter of Students for a Democratic Society was incensed over the targeting of students for jobs at the new facility, “I don't know about you, but Lockheed Martin, the largest weapons manufacturer in the world, who has immensely profited off of nothing but death and destruction, being here and using predatory tactics to recruit vulnerable young minds who could actively be making the world a better place, doesn't sit right with me.”

The last speaker, Erika Zurawski, from the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, said, “One thing that immigrants understand is that war equals migration. The weapons that are produced to make these wars send millions of people fleeing from their homelands. Weapons equals war equals migration. There is no crisis at the border. There is no crisis of migration. The only thing that is a crisis is imperialism.”

Zurawski continued, “We have to say, down with imperialism. We have to say enough wars against oppressed people. We say that people have a right to remain in their homeland. We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. And we say that Palestinians have a right to resist by any means necessary and have a right to return to their homeland by any means necessary.”

Other speakers included CJ McCormick of the Climate Justice Committee, Barry Riesch from Veterans for Peace, and Coleen Rowley of Women Against Military Madness, who spoke about her involvement in a successful five-year effort, that began in 2004, to kick Lockheed Martin out of the southern suburb of Eagan.

The protest was initiated by the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition (MPAC).

#StPaulMN #Palestine #MNAWC #MPAC #SDS #WAMM #LockheedMartin