Ladson, SC – The Elbit Out of South Carolina (EOSC), a coalition of local grassroots groups, held a press conference on Tuesday, March 24, outside Elmec, Inc.’s office to announce Elmec as a new campaign target alongside their current target, Israeli based weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems. Elmec, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, is an international defense company specializing in aerospace manufacturing.

Elbit Systems is a privately owned Israeli weapons contractor that provides 80% of Israel’s ground equipment and 85% of its drones. Its Ladson based “Ground Combat Vehicle Assembly and Integration Center of Excellence” was constructed with several tax incentives granted by Charleston County, including a Set Aside Grant and a Fee In Lieu of Taxation (FILOT) agreement.

The press conference highlighted Elmec’s relationship to Elbit, the company’s role in profiting from war and genocide, and the material cost of their presence to community members in the Lowcountry.

The event began with a satirical speech from a stand-in Elmec executive to welcome the crowd to company’s grand opening, who said, “At the end of the day, do we really want Charleston focusing its investments on the needs of working people, spending money at Saint Andrews School of Math and Science or C.E. Williams or Burke, wasting its funds on handouts to working-class nobodies, instead of expanding business opportunities in mass surveillance and hospital destruction for the titans of industry?”

The press conference featured speakers from EOSC’s coalition organizations, Free Palestine Charleston, Charleston Democratic Socialists of America, Lowcountry Action Committee, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization Charleston District.

Autumn Waddell of Free Palestine Charleston stated, “Right here in Charleston we have the opportunity to make a real difference. Elmec and Elbit are our access to international politics. We decided to stand up and fight for the parents in Charleston County who want to send their kids to good, well-funded schools, and for the parents in Gaza who want to know their children will come from school at the end of each day.”

Chris Tittle of Tri-County Tenants Union remarked on the connections between tenants in America and tenants in Palestine, stating, “From Charleston to Palestine, tenants are exploited by the arms and AI economy. Elbit and Elmec use the same AI systems in their weapons that corporate landlords like Cushman and Wakefield use to artificially and illegally inflate the rent. And local politicians are happy to call this ‘economic development,’ we call it economic warfare on the working class.”

The press conference was followed by a mock ribbon cutting ceremony for Elmec, and a car caravan from the Elmec facility to the nearby Elbit Systems facility, which culminated in a picket. Elbit Out of SC and community members have picketed Elbit Systems weekly since October of 2024 and worked to raise public awareness of the weapons manufacturer since spring 2024.

“It was important to end the press conference with our weekly picket at Elbit because it not only shows how physically close these two facilities are, but it gives people an opportunity to do more than talk about the issues affecting workers in Charleston and Palestine and actually take action against war crimes and genocide in Palestine,” said Alfred Peeler, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization Charleston District.

#CharlestonSC #SC #LadsonSC #AntiWarMovement #Elbit #Palestine

Charleston, SC – On October 4, the Elbit Out of South Carolina coalition joined an International Day of Action and hosted a rally outside of the Elbit Systems’ factory in Ladson, South Carolina. Organizers demanded an end to the genocide in Gaza and the tax breaks Elbit receives.

More than 50 people joined the Saturday morning picket which marked the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the coalition’s weekly picketing against the local Elbit facility and two years of the Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The Ladson facility opened in the summer of 2023 with several tax incentives facilitated by Charleston County Council, including a Fee in Lieu of Tax (FILOT) deal that has faced increased scrutiny.

Beyond the county’s support for the factory, speakers also criticized Elbit Systems' role in supplying the Israeli military with howitzer cannons, which have killed and injured Palestinians, as well as a recent shipment of hundreds of tons of munitions.

Speakers at the rally represented the coalition’s different members including Free Palestine Charleston, Lowcountry Action Committee, Charleston Democratic Socialists of America and other local groups that are invested in Palestinian solidarity.

Nizar Hurraa spoke to his experiences as a Palestinian-American living in the United States, stating, “As a Palestinian-American physician, I am here not out of anger, but out of a profound sense of duty to protect human life. We are calling for the closure of this Elbit Systems facility because its products are used to harm civilians, including children, in Gaza and beyond.”

As one of the fastest gentrifying communities in the U.S., Charleston area residents are all too familiar with what it feels like to be displaced. Tri-County Tenant Union member Ila Navarro gave comments that compared the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank with local Gullah Geechee residents, saying, “Redevelopment is forcing so many families, mostly Black families, off of a land that some of them have lived on for generations, some for over 40 years, to make way for new residents and tourists.”

Dozens of passersby honked in solidarity and received fliers while they were waiting at red lights. Some even decided to pull over and join the rally once they realized the purpose.

Organizers kept up the energy until the end with regular chants of “I believe that we will win!” as well as reminders to join the weekly Thursday pickets outside of the facility. “We are winning and the enemy is terrified, because they know that if the workers of the world free Palestine, then it’s on,” said Alfred Peeler, an organizer with FRSO’s Charleston District and the Lowcountry Action Committee.

“If we build the power to shut down this factory of death, then we can wield that power to kick ICE out of our communities, we can wield that power to end the blockade on Cuba and to end sanctions regimes starving workers across the globe,” said Peeler. “We will have the power to take community control over the police and we can wield that power to put the wealth created by working people to work for us instead of for the war machine.”

#CharlestonSC #SC #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #Elbit #LAC #FRSO

Elbit provides 80% of Israel’s land based weaponry and 85% of its drones. In the summer of 2023, Elbit built a facility in Ladson, South Carolina which produces the SIGMA Next-Generation Mobile Tactical Cannon – a massive 150mm vehicle-mounted gun – for the Israeli military.

“Make no mistake, there will come a day when everyone, including members of this council, act as if they were always against the genocide, just as people now act as if it was obvious to oppose Jim Crow or South African Apartheid,” one speaker told the council. “However, we will not let anyone in Charleston County forget that members of this body not only did not stand out against this genocide, but instead used their positions of power to financially incentivise these genocide profiteers to move into our community, and then y’all remained silent as they shipped weapons of death to erase generations of Palestinians.”

Elbit was subsidized financially by the Charleston County council to set up shop via a $700,000 grant awarded through the state and, more importantly, via a Fee In Lieu Of Taxation (FILOT) agreement signed with the county. The FILOT agreement awards Elbit decades of property tax breaks. Charleston County schools are funded with business property taxes, so the FILOT functionally takes money away from our local children and gives it to Elbit to produce weapons to murder Palestinian youth.

EOSC has been organizing for a year and a half to shut down the Ladson factory. Every Thursday since the one-year anniversary of Al Aqsa Flood, the group has held pickets in front of Elbit, including a massive rally on May Day 2025. Members have also canvassed nearby communities, tabled at local events, flyered the streets, held numerous teach-ins to educate the public, and disrupted a job fair where Elbit attempted to recruit employees from a local community college.

One condition of the FILOT agreement includes a hiring requirement of 300 employees, which Elbit has yet to reach. The coalition has been using agitational tactics to prevent Elbit from hiring the workers it needs to legally maintain the tax breaks. This would effectively will cost Elbit millions over the five-year term of its contract with the county.

These efforts have begun to yield results. Elbit officials warned the Charleston County Council they are uncertain about the future of the Ladson facility. Meanwhile, EOSC is continuing to escalate their tactics.

EOSC’s most recent action at the County council was prompted by news that, in mid-July, ships in the Mediterranean Sea were said to be carrying cannons that activists have reason to believe were produced at the Ladson facility in Charleston County. This is the first news of this kind to surface since the facility opened two years ago.

After coalition members left the council chambers, Larry Kobrovsky, a council member who frequently leaves the chambers and refuses to face EOSC organizers when they share public comments, compared the group to the KKK and nazis. While ESOC has developed a positive working relationship with some councilmembers, there is still more work to be done on this front.

“Ultimately, attacking the FILOT tax breaks is one tactic among many that our coalition is using to shut down this factory,” said another coalition member. “It will take a mixture of agitation, base-building, education, local labor and community solidarity to accomplish these goals. But we will win!”

For more information about the Elbit Out of South Carolina Coalition visit ElbitoutofSC.com.

#CharlestonSC #SC #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #WeaponsIndustry #Elbit #EOSC

This was part of an ongoing campaign to press the State Board of Investments on this issue. Activists from MIRAC, the Anti-War Committee and other organizations have spoken at several previous SBI meetings, have presented thousands of petitions, and have protested in front of Governor Walz’s mansion to demand divestment from Elbit System because of their profiteering off of border militarization at the U.S.-Mexico border and also by Israel against the Palestinians.

Mansfield told the SBI members:

“Last year I went on a human rights delegation to the border of Tucson and Mexico with MIRAC. The horrors I witnessed made me truly disgusted to be an American. I heard the stories of people who crossed the border, people fleeing violence leave their homes and families in the middle of the night, telling no one. They travel thousands of miles to make it to our southern border. There they encounter the wall that pushes them into the smoldering oblivion of the desert. When the desert becomes too treacherous for construction of the wall, mountains force you further in, then in the distance you see the Elbit surveillance towers. Their towers can spot people from miles away, so you travel further into the desert, and only travel at night to avoid being seen by the towers. With only the moonlight to guide you, you hike through miles of lethal darkness. Inevitably, someone trips and falls, breaking their leg, unable to continue the journey. There is nothing you can do for them, and if you stay with them you will die too so you walk away from your brother, your sister, your mother or your best friend leaving them to die slowly and painfully all alone in the desert. This is the system of Prevention Through Deterrence that our government assures us is working very well, and you have made the conscious and informed decision to fund this system of death, using my money. You must break ties with Elbit or live the rest of your life knowing you are a merchant of death.”

The State Board of Investments is comprised of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, State Auditor Julie Blaha, Secretary of State Steve Simon, and is chaired by Governor Tim Walz. All are Democrats who have vocally opposed President Trump’s immigration policies. In 2018 while campaigning for governor, Walz tweeted, “President Trump wants to blow $18 billion of taxpayer funds on his border wall? Give me a break.” Ellison appeared at 2018’s May Day Parade in Minneapolis wearing a “Yo no creo en fronteras” (I don’t believe in borders) t-shirt, and has stated that Trump was “unable to persuade Congress and the American people that a wall is necessary.”

Yet when presented with the fact that Minnesota has more than $1 million invested in border militarization profiteers Elbit Systems, they have thus far not taken the simple step of selling off those investments.

Activists will continue to demand that the State Board of Investments divest Minnesota’s funds from border militarization corporation Elbit Systems.

#SaintPaulMN #PeoplesStruggles #MIRAc #borderMilitarization #Elbit #StateBoardOfInvestments

St. Paul, MN – The Minnesota State Board of Investment (SBI) held its quarterly meeting at the State Capitol December 2 and got sharp criticism from immigrant rights and anti-war activists, as new documents revealed a nearly $1 million increase in investment in a controversial military technology company. Youth climate strikers also highlighted the SBI’s inaction over state ties to environmental destruction. Both groups were met with vacillation and excuses from the board which is tasked with the responsible investment of public pensions and related funds.

At issue was Elbit Systems, an Israel-based manufacturer of white phosphorus and cluster munitions used in Gaza and contracted by both the U.S. and Israeli governments for border militarization. Documents published on the SBI’s website showed state investments in Elbit worth over $2.1 million, up from around $1.25 million from the previous reporting period, despite years of calls for divestment. In 2017, the Saint Paul-based public Metropolitan State University partnered with Elbit to build a cybersecurity training center.

“Our state cannot continue to invest in a company like Elbit. With our investment, we are complicit in human rights abuses committed by Elbit’s weaponry. Why is this even a debate?” asked Austin Jensen of the MN Anti-War Committee, one of the action’s co-sponsors. Other endorsers included Women Against Military Madness, American Muslims for Palestine, Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, Minnesota BDS Community, and No Cages MN.

“I personally am implicated in these violations of human rights because I receive a state pension as a retired public school teacher,” said Lucia Wilkes Smith of WAMM. “I need those pension dollars to live month to month, yet I personally have travelled to Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Gaza, where I have learned directly from people living in dire circumstances.”

Wilkes Smith added, “I’m remembering the anti-apartheid movement that successfully called upon U.S. institutions, decades ago, to divest from holdings in South Africa. I know that individuals in this room were arrested for non-violent action taken as they demanded divestment.”

The State Board of Investment includes self-styled progressives like Attorney General Keith Ellison and State Auditor Julie Blaha, and is chaired by Governor Tim Walz.

Activists from Minnesota Youth Climate Strike also addressed the board. “The SBI must proceed toward divestment. The risk assessment must include the unequal health and safety threats posed by climate change to communities of color and underprivileged communities,” said Juwaria Jama, who called for litigation against fossil fuel companies such as Enbridge and Koch Refineries. The strikers also criticized a climate investment report, prepared for the SBI by a private firm, for diminishing the importance of divestment.

The SBI, for its part, lauded that report, with Ellison calling it “a good piece of research” and Chief Investment Officer Mansco Perry championing the report’s claim that “divestment of fossil fuels ... does not directly impact carbon emissions.”

Governor Walz went even further, claiming that the SBI lacks the authority to divest based on social considerations, insisting, “The process matters...the process of how we come up with where we’re investing and how we’re investing.”

Undeterred, the Minnesota Youth Climate Strike plan to rally at the State Capitol on Friday, December 5 at 3 p.m.

The MN Anti-War Committee, along with Women Against Military Madness, American Muslims for Palestine, and other progressive organizations, have called for a protest outside Senator Amy Klobuchar’s office at 1200 S Washington Avenue, Minneapolis, for International Human Rights Day, December 10, at 4:30 p.m.

#SaintPaulMN #AntiwarMovement #Elbit #StateBoardOfInvestments

St. Paul, MN – Over 40 people protested in front of the Governor's Residence Monday, September 16, to demand the divestment of Elbit Systems by the State of Minnesota. The protest, which was organized by the Anti-War Committee, is the latest action in their current campaign to demand the divestment of Elbit Systems from the state’s public retirement fund. Currently the Minnesota State Board of Investments, which Governor Tim Walz chairs, holds $1.2 million, or approximately 10,000 shares, in Elbit Systems.

Elbit Systems is Israel’s largest weapons company, which has been contracted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to further militarize the U.S.– Mexico border by installing “Integrated Fixed Towers” security systems; the same border militarization technology that has been deployed against the Palestinian people.

Kane Widlicka, who spoke on behalf of the Anti-War Committee, explained, “We are not here to negotiate with apartheid, we are here to abolish it. The Anti-War Committee sees a particular connection on the war being waged by U.S.-funded Israel against Palestinians, and the war being waged against refugees of U.S. caused economic and violence crisis in Mexico. We see the connection between the war on Palestinians and the refugees because the systems that causes both is funded by and benefits the U.S. government.”

Erika Zurawski representing the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) broke down how “Elbit systems is violating the sovereignty of the Palestinian people and violating the sovereignty of the native lands here in the United States. It is important that Governor Walz, who said he supported a pro-immigrant agenda when he was elected, knows that this is an anti-immigrant company.”

Mariam El-Khatib, representing the Minnesota chapter of American Muslims for Palestine, said, “It's become easy now to figure out what side you’re on. You either support walls or you don't. You either support kids being in cages or you don’t. You either support immigrant rights or you don't. Just talk to people – because most people are gonna want to stand on the right side of the street.”

Chants and messages during the protest included, “From Palestine to Mexico, Elbit Systems has got to go!” “Divest from Elbit!” and “Walz, stop funding walls!”

The MN Anti-War Committee’s next event is a BDS/border militarization teach-in and new members meeting at 4200 Cedar Ave, Minneapolis at 7 p.m. on September 25.

#StPaulMN #AntiwarMovement #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #Divestment #PeoplesStruggles #ChicanoLatino #Antiracism #GovernorWalz #Elbit

St. Paul, MN – “In 2017, the Trump administration awarded Elbit a contract to work on the expansion of the Mexico border wall. Elbit System’s CEO has said that the company’s current growth can be attributed to increased U.S. border spending,” said Sarah Martin of Women Against Military Madness. “This last decade has seen the international community divesting from Elbit, including the Norwegian State Pension Fund, Danske Bank. Governor Walz, we Minnesotans refuse to continue to profit from pain, injustice and tragedy at the hands of Elbit. We want you to do what Norway and Denmark did. Divest now!”

Martin, who is also a retiree with a state pension funded in part by Elbit, spoke to over 40 people picketing in front of the Minnesota governor’s mansion on August 29. The event was organized by the MN Anti-War Committee, in response to the recent State Board of Investment (SBI) meeting. Governor Walz is a member of the State Board of Investment.

Autumn Lake, an organizer with the MN Anti-War Committee explained to the crowd, “Last week, the Anti-War Committee and the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee delivered over 1000 petitions to Governor Walz and the rest of the Minnesota State Board of Investments urging them to discontinue Minnesota’s investment in Elbit Systems. We were dismissed without discussion or acknowledgement of our concerns. These petitions reflected the will of the people of Minnesota, the people that these politicians supposedly serve, and yet the board has not acted accordingly. We in the Anti-War Committee have always maintained that funds should be used for human needs such as health care, education, and housing – not for war. The state of Minnesota's investments should also reflect these tenets for the sake both of Minnesota’s retirees and the victims of imperialist aggression.” She concluded with, “From Palestine to Mexico, Elbit Systems has got to go!”

Aadarsh Akulaa from Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee also addressed the crowd, “Recently, the Trump administration awarded Elbit Systems an over $200 million contract to further militarize our southern border. So the Trump administration is clearly complicit, but it’s not just the Trump administration – it’s even the state of Minnesota. The Minnesota State Board of Investment has about 10,000 shares in Elbit Systems and this company is absolutely terrible. In fact, the reason why this company was actually hired in the first place is because they have a terrible track record or at least a good track record of militarizing borders and also doing terrible things for human rights. The Trump administration looked toward Elbit Systems’ work in Palestine to make sure that that they were a ‘good company.’ Elbit is a ‘good company’ because in fact they disregarded human life. They don’t stop at women and children even. They’ll kill anyone because in the end all they care about is their bottom line.”

The MN Anti-War Committee announced at the end of the protest their plans to keep up pressure on the State Board of Investment, including a picket outside the governor’s mansion, 1006 Summit Ave., Saint Paul, at 5:30 p.m. on September 16. There will also be a BDS/border militarization teach-in and new members meeting at 4200 Cedar Ave, Mpls at 7 p.m. on September 25. In the meantime, the Anti-War Committee encourages supporters to contact the governor and State Attorney General Keith Ellison, who both sit on the SBI.

#StPaulMN #International #AntiwarMovement #ImmigrantRights #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #Palestine #US #MiddleEast #PeoplesStruggles #ChicanoLatino #AntiWarCommittee #BDS #Antiracism #PoliticalRepression #Antifascism #DonaldTrump #Elbit