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 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.”

#GarlandTX #TX #AntiWarMovement #WeaponsIndustry #DAWC

Garland, TX – On March 15, in Garland, Texas, 100 people joined DFW Anti-War Committee’s no war on Iran protest at the REPKON USA ordinance facility. REPKON USA just closed a $660 million U.S. arms deal to send 27,000 more bombs to Israel to continue its bombardment of Iran.

Attendees chanted, “Say it loud, say it clear, REPKON isn’t welcome here!” as 45-mph winds buffeted the crowd. Signs included “REPKON bombs slaughter Iranian students. REPKON out of our schools!”

Through the FAME program, Dallas College, the Garland school district, and the Mesquite school district partner with REPKON to use the bomb factory as a professional training resource for their students. Ending these partnerships between REPKON and schools is the current campaign of the DFW Anti-War Committee.

“We’re working to get REPKON kicked out of the FAME program because we think students shouldn’t be brought into a bomb factory for ‘on the job experience’ when those bombs are being used to kill students and destroy schools around the world,” said Josh Rudd, coordinator for the DFW Anti-War Committee.

#GarlandTX #TX #AntiWarMovement #Iran #DAWC

Garland, TX – A coalition of DFW Anti War Committee, Palestinian Youth Movement and Freedom Road Socialist Organization rallied outside the REPKON USA facility off of Glenbrook Drive, on October 10. Settled in a relatively quiet suburb outside of Dallas next to a high school football stadium, the REPKON facility spans 38 acres and is responsible for the production of the Mk-80 and BLU-109 “bunker buster” bombs, the vast majority of the munitions dropped on families and refugee camps in Gaza along with other theatres of war around the globe.

Formerly part of General Dynamics, the facility was sold to REPKON’s defense holdings in 2025. The facility itself is no stranger to public pressure, with groups having held multiple teach-ins, community canvases, rallies and direct actions there since 2023 while it was still owned by General Dynamics.

Reacting to the impact of this facility, Siham Saadeh with Code Pink Dallas and the DFW Anti-War Committee said, “For many of us across DFW, learning that a bomb body plant, disguised as an aerospace defense site, sits blocks from a high school field was like a blow to the gut. It is shocking, ominous and unbearable. Communities across the world, especially in Gaza, live under the real-world consequences of these weapons every single day. And yet, we’re transforming that shock into action. Our resistance to this bomb manufacturer is a gesture of solidarity and a powerful statement: we refuse to be complicit.”

In light of the recent ceasefire agreement, a member of the DFW Anti War Committee stated, “Whether they fall in Gaza, in Yemen, in Venezuela, or in our own backyards, we will not rest until this factory becomes a site of creation rather than destruction. Regardless of any platitudes or promises of temporary peace, the time for change is now, and the time for change is always!”

The energy was high leading into the evening, with a wide range of speakers from Code Pink, Jewish Voice for Peace, and other groups sympathetic to the liberation of Palestinians delivering obituaries of those martyred by the bombs manufactured in Garland. Their voices echoed across the field, with chants of “We demand an arms embargo.”

As the sun set, demonstrators made their way to the corner of Glenbrook Drive and Walnut Street to hold a vigil honoring the memory of those who have lost their lives at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces. Demonstrators were met with an overwhelmingly positive community response, with many locals expressing their support for bringing awareness to REPKON’s involvement with the Palestinian genocide.

One DAWC member, who grew up in Garland, shared their thoughts, “When learning about the bomb factory, I felt shocked and then I felt sick. When thinking about how the place I grew up plays a key role in tearing families apart and killing children, I feel a pit of dread in my stomach. Knowing every bomb that kills a mother, father, son and daughter in Palestine passes through Garland at some point, makes me feel sadness and grief. As community members in Garland, we have power to say this is not what our city is about and is not something we want here. We need to say it loud!”

Not everyone was in support, however. As the evening progressed, a local biker presenting a tattered American flag stood by the vigil. As speakers shared the stories of those martyred by REPKON’s bombs, the counter-demonstrator stationed himself in the median of Glenbrook Drive, displaying the flag for commuters to see. According to many attendees at the scene, he was holding it backwards.

#GarlandTX #TX #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #DFWAWC #PYM #FRSO #WeaponsIndustry

Garland, TX – Over two dozen people gathered on Saturday, September 13, for a town hall meeting for the DFW Anti-War Committee's “Stop the Bombs” campaign to shut down the Repkon munitions factory.

The town hall builds off numerous community events and film screenings in Garland designed to drum up interest in the campaign and educate residents about the facility. Held in a Garland place of worship, the town hall started with a brief presentation detailing the research uncovered by the Anti-War Committee.

The Repkon facility in Garland is responsible for producing the bomb bodies of the MK-80 series bomb, which Al Jazeera reports are the primary bombs dropped on Gaza. They form a crucial point in the ongoing U.S.-backed Israeli genocide of Palestinians since October 7, 2023. The facility also produces the BLU-109 “bunker buster” bombs, which destroy entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Additionally, the facility has racked up multiple environmental and OSHA violations in its decades-long history, threatening the working-class neighborhoods surrounding it.

After the presentation, the room broke into discussion groups to facilitate community input on the campaign's continued development. Many community members brainstormed ways the plant's tooling could be repurposed to help the community. “There's so much more you could be doing with a factory that size that does not involve killing children,” Len Roberts, a Garland resident, said.

“People care about Palestine but don't know how to help or get plugged in,” noted Rose W. “Going up to people in places where there is a large group with flyers and how to help is important.”

Ties were made to other organizations and power wells that the community could use to build pipelines to increasingly strengthen the campaign’s pressure on Repkon. Andrea Vallardes, a labor organizer, said, “I want to engage and use the power of unionized workers, such as workers at Lockheed Martin, by organizing family-friendly events combining refugees, immigrants and others to build labor power fighting for Palestinian liberation and freedom from imperialism worldwide.”

“I'm curious about the danger of emissions the plant is releasing into the neighborhood that we haven't measured,” another Garland local, Chase Grossman, commented. “Outside of the bombs that they make, they are endangering their community and their workers every day.”

Further discussions covered where to apply pressure locally, and different ways to engage the local community and build people power. Specific strategies and tactics, including reaching out to local faith and environmental organizations while stressing the local dangers the facility poses, came up. The small groups then elected a member to report back a summary of their discussion to the rest of the attendees.

“At first, when I heard about this campaign I was a bit skeptical,” said Camille Kaplan. “I didn't think it was possible to win. But now I actually think there is a chance to make it difficult for Repkon to continue business as normal.”

The next event in the Stop the Bombs campaign is a rally and vigil on October 10, in front of the Repkon facility, to mark of two years of the genocide in Gaza.

#GarlandTX #TX #AntiWarMovement #DACA

Garland, TX – Two dozen people gathered on Sunday, August 24 for a community discussion and screening of Don’t Frack with Denton as part of DFW Anti-War Committee’s campaign to shut down the Repkon bomb factory in Garland, Texas.

This factory, located across the street from a high school football stadium in the middle of a working-class neighborhood, manufactures the MK-80 bomb series, which, according to Al Jazeera, are the primary aerial munitions used in the U.S./Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Don’t Frack with Denton was produced in 2017 by Garrett Graham and Candice Bernd to chronicle the wins and losses of the Frack Free Denton campaign, which sought to end hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in the city limits of Denton, Texas. Organizers succeeded in winning the ban, but the state government retaliated by eliminating the ability to locally ban hydraulic fracturing.

“We screened Don’t Frack With Denton to spark tactical ideas for our organizing against Repkon, and on that score it was extremely successful,” said Jo Hargis, a co-coordinator for the DFW Anti-War Committee. “People from different movements, Frack Free Denton organizers, and members of the surrounding community shared their observations and insight, and we came out of the event with actionable steps for building community power to stop the bombs.”

Ella Haag, who lives in the neighborhood surrounding the Repkon facility, said, “Upon first learning about Repkon, my brain went completely silent. Not in a peaceful way, but like the calm before the storm. Ominous. Then, I felt rage and shame that this manufactured monstrosity was across the street all this time. I wanted to behave monstrously myself in response. The Stop the Bombs Garland campaign will be a way to funnel my rage and shame into something productive. I'm grateful to know others care so profoundly.”

Discussions ranged from the impact of canvassing extensively, how to communicate effectively with people who don’t already agree, lessons from the labor movement, the importance of bringing in families, and ways an electoral campaign can raise the profile of an issue even if the law is overturned, as it was in Denton. There was also interest in how the Frack Free Denton campaign escalated to direct action tactics after exhausting all legal remedies, which created buy-in from people disappointed by the failures of the legal system.

“It was really awesome to see local organizers making real strides on their campaign and to translate it back to our work in Garland,” said William Capper of DAWC and Jewish Voice for Peace. “Taking the time to get in community with Garland residents will be vital. Activists in Denton used performance art and music to connect with folks in a way that drew them into the campaign. Developing our own artistic approaches that highlight Repkon's crimes in approachable ways will be instrumental in broadening our base.”

Reflecting on the importance of the event for the Stop the Bombs Garland campaign, Rick Majumdar with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization said, “The documentary Don't Frack with Denton and discussion on the topic afterwards was an enriching experience. It highlighted the importance of a campaign, and illuminated the path to achieve goals that are realizable. The main takeaways for myself were the size of the base the organizers were able to build over a course of five years, reaching out as many people as possible on a common unified struggle. It also showcased the shortcomings of the campaign in terms of strategy, and tactics, the organizers were involved primarily in an electoral strategy, and only incorporated agitation, protests and demonstrations after the electoral strategy failed. These learnings are critical to anyone willing to change society one struggle at a time, through an effective campaign that can activate the masses.”

The next event in the Stop the Bombs Garland campaign is a community town hall on Saturday, September 13 at Compass Grove Fellowship Church from 3 to 5 p.m. DAWC has invited the surrounding community to come together and discuss how to stop the production of bombs in Garland, Texas.

#GarlandTX #DFWAWC #AntiWarMovement

Garland, TX – Organizers and activists held a large teach-in and town hall meeting, December 1, just outside the gates of General Dynamics, one of the largest ordnance suppliers to the Israeli genocide in the United States. The facility and surrounding neighborhood are no stranger to controversy, with others having held protests, disruptions and rallies outside its gates before.

DFW Anti-War Committee, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Free Palestine Denton, Jewish Voice for Peace, Code Pink, and Palestinian Youth Movement organized the events.

The coalition engaged the community by canvassing the surrounding streets to bring the neighborhood into conversations about the roles of weapons manufacturers like General Dynamics across north Texas communities, taking into careful consideration the makeup of the neighborhood and preparing canvassers to meet residents where they were. Organizers who did not have experience knocking doors were trained by others who had prior experience and paired together. The community reception was warm.

Planners spent a month engaging the rest of their DFW communities for food, music, art and cultural workshops to share with the neighborhood, from embroidery and crafts for children to music workshops and a town hall to field questions from local residents. As the day moved on, community members of the neighborhood came from across the street to find an enthusiastic crowd.

Participants of all ages joined in to learn, chant and sing. Leaflets were handed out with information about local organizations’ campaigns, alongside songs and chants from the last 90 years. An activist from Jewish Voice for Peace shared a particularly impactful Yiddish song from the 1930s We Will Outlive Them featuring the line “The world will grow more beautiful, love greater, hatred smaller.”

The event shifted into a town hall meeting, fielding questions from participants and community members about the weapons manufacturer, and heard from the organizers about their groups’ campaigns against General Dynamics.

Organizers stressed the importance of working with a long strategy in mind against weapons manufacturers. Amid the many roles weapons manufacturers play in American life, from our education to our families’ careers, General Dynamics has held its place in this neighborhood for generations and family stories from these factories are not uncommon in north Texas. The fight against them is certainly not a short one.

Once a boat factory before 1952, this General Dynamics facility is a direct legacy of the United States’ long history of suppressing the labor movement by forcing communities to compromise for quality industrial jobs by pushing them into weapons production. General Dynamics supplies 80% of the MK-80 and BLU-109 bombs dropped in Gaza.

General Dynamics facility is tucked grimly between a community college and a high school football stadium, the surrounding area is a quiet, working-class neighborhood where you can sometimes hear the football games and marching bands on weeknights. Israel’s own Elbit Systems is similarly located across the street from another quiet suburb and high school in Fort Worth. Communities like Garland, Texas and others across the state send their children to school right next to bombs that kill children abroad.

#GarlandTX #TX #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #WeaponsIndustry #DAWC #FRSO #PYM #CodePink #JVP

Garland, TX – On March 7,  a pro-Palestine demonstration at the General Dynamics Ordnance plant in Garland, Texas stopped production for about six hours. General Dynamics produces several classes of bombs currently being used to kill Palestinians.

Some protesters used their cars to block entrances at the plant. Shortly after the protesters' arrival, workers began to arrive at the plant but were unable to enter. An 18-wheeler loaded with bomb parts was forced to wait outside the facility for the duration of the demonstration.

“We’re here protesting because of the profiteering of General Dynamics off the genocide in Gaza. This facility creates so many of the MK-80s and BLU-109 bombs that are used to destroy homes and centers and mosques and churches in Gaza. They commit massacres against Palestinians every day and we’ve seen that happening for the last 150 days,” said Niveen Abdulwahed from Palestinian Youth Movement.

The General Dynamics Ordnance plant is the only facility in the United States that produces the MK-80, and that is the bomb dropped most often on Gaza. This facility also produces the BLU-180, a bunker buster bomb that penetrates through several feet of concrete and underground before exploding. It was a BLU-180 that was dropped on Jabalia refugee camp, utterly destroying an apartment block and killing over 100 people.

Demonstrators chanted ‘‘This factory kills kids! Not one more!” One banner stretching across a street demanded “Stop arming Israel.”

After those blocking the entrances were arrested, the cars blocking the entrances were towed away and impounded.

#GarlandTX #FreePalestine #PYM #DAWA #GeneralDynamics #BDS #Feature

Garland, TX – On May 28 members of the community, together with some of the affected teachers, confronted the Garland school board about the board's failure to act to help teachers who had been trafficked from the Philippines to work in the Garland school district.

Three teachers and several community supporters addressed the school board, while dozens of other supporters sat in the room wearing t-shirts and buttons in support of the teachers' cause. After the last speaker, the supporters began chanting “When teachers are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” and were escorted from the board meeting. They then set up outside the school administration building and began chanting, before police and security guards ordered them to move back to the sidewalk, where they continued speaking and chanting.

Between 60 and 70 teachers were brought from the Philippines to teach in Garland schools in the early 2000s by a network of unscrupulous recruiters. The recruiters charged the teachers thousands of dollars for services, forced them to pay excessive rents to stay in cramped conditions in housing owned by the recruiters, and committed visa fraud.

Garland Independent School District refused to cut ties with the principal recruiter for years even after a federal audit forced the school to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars of backpay to the teachers.

Since the discovery of the fraudulent practices of the recruiters, many of the teachers have lost their work visas and are facing long term unemployment and possible deportation. In the years since being

trafficked to the U.S., the teachers have established families in the country, and deportation is likely to mean separation from children and grandchildren.

Adelaida Legaspi, one of the affected teachers, told the board that due to her family's economic situation, her husband and son have been forced to go stay with his family in California while she stays with a friend in Texas. Legaspi had worked as a special education teacher at Garland ISD, and a Sarteesa Mills, a Garland ISD parent, addressed the board to say that Ms. Legaspi had been a great help to her son when she was his special education teacher.

Jamie Rivadelo, another of the affected teachers, related his experiences with administration. He said that when the facts of all of this first emerged, the superintendent came to visit his classroom and told him that if all Garland ISD teachers were like Rivadelo the superintendent would have no headaches. He said the superintendent set up a meeting to discuss the problem, but the meeting was cancelled before it could be held. He said the next he knew about the situation was when his classroom was visited by a human resources person who told him his employment was terminated. As far as help with the problem, “nothing has been done, nothing has been given, nothing has been offered,” Rivadelo said.

Johnny Beach, president of the school board, responded with what he called a statement of fact to the effect that the problem was entirely at the level of the federal government.

#GarlandTX #Philippines #PeoplesStruggles #AsianNationalities #teachers #TeachersUnions