Grand Prairie, TX – Members of the DFW Anti-War Committee on did a banner drop March 1 in front of the local Lockheed Martin Fire and Missile Control Center to protest against Lockheed’s annual coding competition, Code Quest.

Jo Hargis with the DFW Anti-War Committee said, “This action was part of our campaign against weapons manufacturers within the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. One aspect of this campaign is tackling the influence of weapons manufacturers on students. At previous actions we have protested job fairs where weapons manufacturers were tabling and handed out flyers to educate students on the military industrial complex at campuses such as the University of Texas at Arlington.”

Another member of the DFW Anti-War Committee, Josh Rudd, said, “Weapons manufacturers like Lockheed Martin have contributed to U.S. imperialism around the world, particularly in the genocide on Palestine. The goal of students should be to gain an education, and companies that play a role in contributing to genocide should have no part in our education system.”

Attendees chanted slogans such as “Lockheed Martin you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide” and “We know what your factory’s for, occupation, endless war.”

According to Lockheed Martin’s website, “Each year, Lockheed Martin hosts Code Quest, an annual computer programming competition where teams of two to three high school students work together to solve problems by using Java, Python, C#, and/or C++ programming to complete the ‘quest’. The problem set consists of 20 to 30 challenging problems created by Lockheed Martin engineers and computer programmers.” Aside from Grand Prairie, Texas, competitions were in a total of 19 cities, including Denver and Orlando.

#GrandPrarieTX #TX #AntiWarMovement #WeaponsIndustry #DFWAWC #LockheedMartin

Tallahassee, FL – Tuesday, November 19, Student Activists at Florida State University came together to condemn the institution’s complicity in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. Student demonstrators laid themselves along the graveled concrete, just outside one of the campus’s most busy academic buildings and refused to move – symbolizing the 40,000 plus Palestinians killed since October 7, 2023.

The demonstration was organized by the Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in coalition with other community advocacy groups. The turnout was about 30 people, with an even greater number of law enforcement watching from afar.

Throughout the demonstration, student activists held up signs detailing the lives of Palestinian children whose stories had been cut short, while others stood up and spoke against the university’s cooperation with war profiteers.

As soon as the student activists began to lead the crowd in chant, campus police quickly intervened, ordering the demonstration to “quiet down,” lest the FSU students studying inside “be made aware of their university’s complicity in genocide,” as one of the activists powerfully put it.

Eventually it rained. Despite the unfortunate weather, the student activists picked up their things and got together for a final march, solemnly chanting affirmations of Palestinian liberation.

Florida State University (FSU) and Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) have a joint engineering school, with long-held ties to weapons manufacturers Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and the Boeing corporation, among others. These corporations sponsor internships, make massive donations to the universities, and often appear as guest speakers on campus in engineering classrooms in the hopes that new talent will funnel into the weapons manufacturing industry. These corporations actively produce and sell the weapons given to Israel, which are then used to carry out the televised genocide.

FSU sophomore JJ Glueck has been organizing with the Tallahassee SDS for the better part of a year now and was beyond enthusiastic to talk about FSU’s involvement with the genocide, and her own, deeply passionate reasons for activism.

Glueck stated, “If you, as a person in Palestine who has experienced genocide, can continue to resist and speak, the least I can do is speak up for them in my own country, playground, and backyard and try my absolute best to demand FSU divest from Israel.

Glueck’s advocacy, and “radicalization,” as she puts it, is anything but new, with roots tracing far back to her youth. Glueck was in elementary school during the Ferguson unrest - a series of large-scale protests against police violence and militarization, sparked by the killing of African American Michael Brown in Saint Louis, Missouri. She witnessed the protests firsthand from her car window.

This experience had certainly taken root in her; by the time she had moved to Florida and the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 had begun, she was out there with the rest of them – organizing and doing the work.

“I saw what police officers did to protesters. I saw it when I was young in Saint Louis, and I saw it again in Florida – I saw what police did to Black people. That was my radicalizing experience.” Glueck’s passion for advocacy didn’t end at racial injustice in America, however. The similarities between the struggles of African Americans in the U.S. and Palestinians in the Middle East were a turning point for Glueck.

“I think back to what I remember of the Ferguson [unrest], I remember seeing that from a car, but also seeing it on the news, and seeing the way the police responded to those protests; seeing the way the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] responds to the people of Palestine, if you take out the headlines, it’s the same god damn thing. It’s so eerily similar, and they’re shooting people in the streets, massive amounts of people, our police don’t look that different - it should terrify all Americans,” stated Glueck.

Repression at FSU

During the wave of pro-Palestinian student encampments across the country, FSU students held their own, only for campus police to relocate the protesters several times, ultimately turning on sprinklers to disburse demonstrators.

Tallahassee’s SDS was then interrupted again by campus police. During SDS’s general body meeting set to discuss tactics on keeping protests safe, campus police arrived and ordered them to relocate from the Landis Green, despite it being designated as a “free speech zone.”

Police presence escalated further after Ron Desantis signed a bill into law banning DEI initiatives in public Florida colleges. SDS held a protest in opposition to the law, only for police to watch from afar in a militarized armored vehicle, as what Glueck described to be an intimidation tactic.

Then, Tallahassee’s SDS was de-listed as a registered student organization after protesting at the university’s board of trustees meeting. The university alleged that the students failed to leave after being asked by police, despite video evidence of the contrary. Tallahassee’s SDS released a statement condemning the university’s decision, alleging that FSU has “shown their fear of the student movement by wielding campus police in cowardice.”

At the time of writing, members of Tallahassee’s SDS are currently undergoing mandatory disciplinary hearings at the hands of the FSU administration. Considering the University of South Florida’s willingness to expel student protesters, these disciplinary hearings aren’t to be ignored, and could have grave, disproportionate consequences for the students activists involved.

Students across Florida have shown their teeth, and university administrations have done the same. If the suppression of FSU students is anything to go off of, life as a politically conscious Florida college student may just get worse – somehow. Only continued activism and organizing can prevent this and build the student movement into an even more powerful vehicle for striking blows against this rotten system.

#TallahasseeFL #Tally #TallySDS #SDS #FAMU #FSU #Desantis #NorthropGrumman #LockheedMartin #Boeing #FreePalestine

Denver, CO – On December 10, 50 people marched in downtown Denver in honor of Human Rights Day and to condemn Colorado’s complicity with the genocide in Gaza. The event was organized by the Denver Anti-War Action (DAWA) in coordination with a national call to action made by the Anti-War Action Network.

Protesters gathered at the State Capitol building and then marched into the downtown Civic Center Christmas market, past security, successfully disrupting business as usual. The protesters’ chants reminded shoppers that American taxes currently support the genocide in Palestine. Many shoppers joined in supporting the protesters as they passed.

Several workers at the Christmas market showed their support of the protest by lining up along fences to signal their solidarity.

Protesters did not meet with any resistance to their message, and members of DAWA state that this helps prove their point that Coloradans do not want to be complicit in genocide.

Rita Haywood, a member of DAWA, told the crowd that Coloradans must speak out against the genocide and that a massive portion of the “genocide industrial complex” is headquartered in Colorado. This includes Lockheed Martin, which is run by a very small group of war profiteers. Lockheed Martin will soon supply 80% of all Israel’s combat aircraft, and they supply a similar proportion of the GPS constellation satellites that guide deadly bombs and military intelligence decisions which has led to the massacre of Palestinians.

DAWA says they stand unwaveringly with Palestine, demand an arms embargo, and an end to all Colorado support of genocide.

#DenverCO #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #DAWA #LockheedMartin

Highlands Ranch, CO – On Monday, November 4, Denver Anti-War Action (DAWA) was joined by 25 community members to march and rally in front of Lockheed Martin’s Human Spaceflight Center. The group demanded disclosure to the public regarding the purpose of Lockheed Martin's Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program. 

The event began with a march on the building; however, themarch was short lived due to police cracking down with the threat of arrests unless organizers backed up to the sidewalk. DAWA member and emcee Solveig Swain stated, “These cops care about shutting down our right to peaceful protest, but turn a blind eye to the endless war crimes being carried out by Lockheed? Shame!”

The event continued on the sidewalk, where a picket and rally were held with speeches from socialist, student and anti-war organizations. 

Vincent Verheij with DAWA spoke on how militarism harms the average American, stating, ”Last year $1748 of the average Americans hard-earned tax dollars went to military contractors for the Pentagon.” The crowd found this fact shameful, and expressed that, especially in times as financially hard as these, this money should be going towards addressing the needs of people at home, rather than harming people overseas. 

Many of these weapons that Lockheed Martin and other weapons manufacturers produce are sold directly to Israel, with the intent to be used upon the Palestinian people.

Khalid Hamu from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization stated, “The resistance in Palestine is waging a struggle to see their people liberated. Israel has not been able to stamp out the resistance after more than a year now. The biggest military power in the Middle East has been failing to win their military objectives.” Despite the Israeli military failing its objectives in Palestine, the genocidal siege carries on; yet so does the resistance in Palestine and resistance to weapons manufacturers the world over. 

After speeches, chants, and marching along the sidewalk, the event wrapped up. Organizers stated that this is only the beginning of their actions targeting the Lockheed Martin Human Spaceflight Center, and that they will be returning soon to continue fighting for their demands.

DAWA held a teach-in the previous week to raise awareness about space militarism and Lockheed Martin’s role in Colorado. The DRACO program, funded by NASA and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), is often marketed as a peaceful advancement of technology for space travel. However, DARPA’s funding, primarily for military applications, signals a new arms race in space.

Lockheed Martin’s partnership with DARPA has historically led to significant military advancements, including the F-35 fighter jet and MLRS artillery systems, sold to Israel. In 2022, Eric Brown, a vice president of Lockheed Martin’s space program, described the DRACO program as a “watershed moment,” comparing it to the Manhattan Project of today.

DAWA urged community members to recognize Lockheed Martin’s space program as another means of developing technologies for genocide and to reject attempts to portray these developments as technologies for neutral space exploration applications. DARPA’s funding, with a history of U.S. government investment in military technologies that were later sold to Israel and other bad actors, confirms space militarism as the new arms race and market for war profiteers.

DAWA is poised to continue fighting against space militarism and Lockheed Martin until their demands to achieve disclosure, end Lockheed Martin’s aid to Israel, and to push the company out of Colorado are met.

#HighlandsRanchCO #DAWA #AntiWar #DRACO #DARPA #LockheedMartin #FreePalestine

Littleton, CO – On Wednesday, March 27, Denver Anti-War Action (DAWA) kicked off their new campaign against Lockheed Martin with a powerful all-day picket, bringing around 80 protesters to Lockheed’s Colorado headquarters campus.

With thousands of cars passing by throughout the day, the action gave a massive amount of visibility to DAWA’s message that Coloradans do not support Lockheed’s role in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. If this action is a preview of events to come, the days of Lockheed hiding in the shadows outside of suburban Littleton are behind them, as it appears that the people have had enough of the company.

The action began around 9 a.m. and continued without a break until 5 p.m. Throughout the day, every Lockheed worker who drove in or out of the campus heard chants regarding an end to Lockheed weapons for Israel, Lockheed’s role in the genocide of Palestinians, and for a free Palestine.

Tyler Hartley, a speaker at the event and member of the DAWA, explained, “Here in the heart of the imperial war machine, Lockheed Martin claims they and their facilities are ‘full of life and safe from threats here in Colorado.’ Their arrogance will lead to their downfall.” DAWA’s campaign appears to have been unforeseen by Lockheed.

Another speaker with the DAWA, Solveig Swain, explained her issue with the current economic framework, “Instead of centering education, they center war. Instead of centering healthcare, they center destruction. Instead of centering a living wage, they center genocide.”

With DAWA’s first action against Lockheed Martin such a success, the organizers repeatedly stated a desire to continue the new campaign. Only time will tell what future actions DAWA will conduct against Lockheed, but one fact is certain: Lockheed's days of the company remaining under the radar in the minds of Coloradans are now firmly over.

#LittletonCO #DenverCO #CO #AntiWarMovement #International #MiddleEast #Palestine #LockheedMartin #DAWA #MilitaryIndustrialComplex

Orlando, FL – 25 students gathered at the University of Central Florida, March 4, to protest the presence of Lockheed Martin on their campus. UCF Students for a Democratic Society organized the rally outside of what was meant to be a “Diversity Panel” hosted by the weapons manufacturer, which has supplied weapons to Israel for the ongoing occupation and war against the people of Palestine.

As they rallied outside of the Career Services and Experiential Learning Building, student protesters chanted, “Free Palestine!” and “Israel bombs, Lockheed supplies, end the Gaza genocide!” A large banner held be several activists read,” Lockheed Martin bombs hospitals.”

The group listened to various impassioned speakers who denounced the Israeli occupation, the ongoing slaughter of the Palestinian people, and the attempt by Lockheed Martin to pinkwash its reputation by recruiting a more “diverse” workforce to its blood-stained ranks. The students of UCF didn’t buy it.

“By selling weapon systems and aircraft to Israel, Lockheed Martin isn’t just complicit, but an active enabler of Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” said Marcus Polzer, co-founder and lead organizer with UCF SDS. “And if UCF actively help Lockheed Martin’s recruitment of employees thought the College Work Experience Program, then our university is complicit in genocide. Get these war profiteers off of our campus.”

Within an hour of the start of the protest, a major victory was announced.

It was confirmed that Lockheed Martin had moved its event off campus. It was not clear whether it was the University of Central Florida that gave in to the students’ demands and kept Lockheed Martin from meeting on college ground, or whether the weapons manufacturer itself was scared off by the students’ presence and promise of further direct action.

“This is a great victory for the students of UCF,” said Polzer. “And proof that direct action, ongoing protests, and organizing on the ground, work. And we will continue to agitate for justice on this campus, and for a free Palestine.”

#OrlandoFL #LockheedMartin #UCF #FreePalestine #HandsOffGaza #SDS #Pinkwashing #UCFSDS

St. Paul, MN – During the early morning hours of November 20, 50 pro-Palestine protesters gathered at the site of Lockheed Martin’s new microelectronics subsidiary, ForwardEdge ASIC, in Saint Paul. They unfurled long banners, one reading, “MN, divest from Lockheed,” and blocked the driveway entrances to the facility for almost eight hours.

Police arrived shortly after the activists occupied the space and made their presence throughout the day, but no arrests were made. Due to the protesters’ presence, no employees of ForwardEdge ASIC were able to enter the facility and go to work that morning. The parking lot remained empty save for a lone security guard’s vehicle.

Lockheed Martin is the world’s largest weapons company by revenue and one of the major suppliers to the Israel Defense Forces. Lockheed Martin supplies Israel with a wide variety of weapons, including fighter jets, attack helicopters, and missiles. Lockheed Martin technologies are also integrated into Israel's main weapon systems.

Activists participated in as part of the newly formed Free Palestine Coalition in the Twin Cities, which comprises groups such as the Anti-War Committee (AWC), American Muslims for Palestine – MN, Council on American-Islamic Relations – MN, Students for Justice in Palestine – UMN, Students for a Democratic Society – UMN, Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), Jews Against Genocide, Red Nation, and several others.

Protesters emphasized the role of the state of Minnesota in funding Lockheed as well as other companies that make possible Israel’s violence against Palestinians. “Minnesota granted Lockheed over $1 million to open the Saint Paul facility this year,” explained Wyatt Miller of the AWC. “Meanwhile, the State Board of Investments has invested over $53 million of public pension money it controls in Lockheed. Governor Tim Walz chairs that board, so we also want to send a message that Minnesotans don’t want to see our taxpayer dollars used to fund this massacre in any way.”

After protesters determined that a majority of the workday had been disrupted, they marched in unity towards the facility to plaster the building with the protest signs as a show of victory.

Sarah Martin, a longtime anti-war activist with WAMM who was prepared to be arrested Monday, stated, “Because of our presence, weapons components were not made at the facility today by a manufacturer largely responsible for the murder of Palestinian children.”

“Protesters across the world have been shutting down business as usual as long as this massacre of Gaza continues,” said Miller. “We are proud to do what we can to slow the operations of the U.S. military-industrial complex, which is the backbone of Israel’s oppression of Palestine.”

Governor Walz announced in May 2023 that the state of Minnesota would grant around $1.3 million from the Department of Employment and Economic Development’s Minnesota Investment Fund and the Job Creation Fund programs. In October, shortly after the facility began operations, hundreds of anti-war protesters rallied outside to demand its closure and an end to state support for all weapons companies.

Local groups like the AWC, Breaking the Bonds MN, and MN BDS Community have long called for the SBI to divest from apartheid Israel. According to the AWC, the latest SBI asset listing shows around $1 billion of investment in companies and funds complicit in Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

The Free Palestine Coalition’s next protest is at the Minnesota State Capitol on Tuesday, November 28 at 6 p.m. on the eve of the next State Board of Investment meeting. There, protesters will demand that the state of Minnesota divest from Israeli companies and weapons manufacturers that profit from Israeli occupation and apartheid.

#StPaulMN #International #Palestine #AntiWar #AWC #SJP #SDS #WAMM #LockheedMartin #Feature

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