Dallas mobilizes against Paligen Technologies on Tax Day
Garland, TX – A coalition of Dallas Fort Worth antiwar organizations including DFW Anti-War Committee, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and others, rallied in the city of Garland’s Freeman Heights neighborhood outside of the Paligen Technologies facility, formerly REPKON USA.
The Anti-War group’s Tax Day rally protested the misuse of working people’s tax dollars on war and genocide, as well as Garland institutions’ complicity in funneling students and workers into war manufacturing via the FAME program.
DFW and Garland Community members arrived around 6:30, chanting “Say it loud! Say it clear! Paligen’s not welcome here!”
Mohammad Ali Khan of DFW Shias for Justice told the crowd, “This company has been identified as a principle contractor of producing components of 12,000 BLU-110AB general purpose 1000-pound bomb bodies for Israel”.
Josh Rudd with DFW Anti War Committee stated, “This community does not have a hospital, but they have a bomb factory.”
Dilan Ahmadi of Revolutionary Front said, “By participating in targeted pressure campaigns like ‘Stop the Bombs Garland’, like ‘Boycott Chevron’, we can hit them where it hurts: their pocketbooks.”
The crowd made their way to the adjacent Dallas College campus, where the Garland Chamber of Commerce meets to hold trainings and meetings with the Garland FAME program. Josh Rudd spoke on the FAME program, “We don’t want students being recruited for genocide.”
After the rally, Garland resident and North Texas DSA member Ella Haag told the crowd, “I'm thankful for the DFW Anti-War Committee for taking on this campaign and for bringing attention to the Paligen facility.”
Haag continued, “I've lived in Freeman Heights since 2018 and was horrified to find out I lived across from a bomb factory. It haunts me every day. Every war is connected to this factory. Every life lost from these weapons is connected to this factory.”