Peace Activists Target Lockheed Martin

lockheed martin
A sign placed by an activist, comments on how Lockheed Martin’s profits are derived from killings.

In a generic industrial park a short distance from this town’s famous university sits the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center where the military contractor does research and development for its space division. It is here where, according to the company’s website, they “…create game-changing technologies.”

Nobody would argue with that as it has over the years created many notable accomplishments such as the development “of foundational technology that fired the first submarine-launched ballistic missile” along with the design and deployment of the Trident II D5 nuclear missile. More recently, Lockheed was instrumental in the development of the now controversial stealth F-35 joint strike fighter as well as the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) an anti-ballistic missile defense system designed to shoot down short, medium and intermediate-range ballistic missiles.

Looking through the Federal Contractor Misconduct Database (FCMD, Lockheed has frequently been found guilty of fraud and other misconduct. In the F-35 program alone, in 2007, the company self-reported an overbilling to the government to the tune of $265 million in an “accounting error.” The company has a long history of overbillings and inflating costs of contracts and other violations making one wonder what may have not been uncovered or self-reported.

In one of its more infamous and deadlier moments, one of the company’s 500 lb. laser-guided Mk-82 bombs called the GBU-12 Paveway II in August of 2018 was used by the Saudi military in the bombing of a school bus in Yemen that killed 40 school aged boys and 11 adults. The loss of the innocent lives shocked the world and called into question again the ongoing Saudi asymmetrical war in Yemen. The result of which was nothing as the war continues in its ongoing quagmire.

It is precisely because of this type of horrific event that activists and pacifists from Code Pink, Pacific Life Community, San Jose Peace and Justice Center and the Raging Grannies marched to the Advanced Technology Center to present a petition signed by 4,1000 people urging the company to shift from weapons development and manufacturing to peaceful industries along with a just transition for its workers securing their livelihoods and their unions. The petition represents the desires of more than 100 worldwide organizations including Groups Against Arms Fairs that have endorsed the Global mobilization to #StopLockheedMartin.

The group of twenty activists marched from a major intersection in the downtown area of the small town up a long hill to the lab where they were met by a security detail that barred them from entering the property. Before turning over the petition to a company security official who promised to pass it along, three members of the group read a general statement aloud briefly next to the Lockheed Martin sign that identifies the property.

Afterwards the Raging Grannies sang a song about how the company’s drones, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), are used by the Airforce and the CIA in their ongoing campaigns around the globe.

“Now killing’s a breeze when you’re safe overseas and your victims are dots on a screen,

with your mouse you take aim like a video game,

and you can’t hear their terror-filled screams,

 

Drones, drones in the sky,

with the purpose of killing they fly,

and their bombs when they hit off the target a bit,

many innocent people will die”

Phil Pasquini is a freelance journalist and photographer. His reports and photographs appear in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Pakistan Link and Nuze.ink. He is the author of Domes, Arches and Minarets: A History of Islamic-Inspired Buildings in America.

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