Above photo: Utah activists holding teach-in on weapons maker Raytheon.
West Valley City, UT- On June 13, members of the Utah Anti-War Committee held a hybrid teach-in at the West Valley City library for local communities. The material? Raytheon.
Members of the UAWC informed members of the community about Raytheon, how they have profited off of human suffering, and how they continue to receive full financial support of the U.S. government. They also brought to light a local subsidiary of Raytheon, Applied Signal Technology, a mere ten-minute drive from the event itself.
UAWC member Adam Koritz said, “A Raytheon Tomahawk missile was used to target a girls’ school in Minab, killing 156 people, including 120 children, during the initial U.S.-Israeli onslaught.” It was a chilling reminder that even your neighbor can knowingly or unwittingly participate in the slaughter of innocent children.
Adrian Romero, a member of the UAWC, slammed Raytheon, saying, “The central structure of Raytheon’s business model is that taxpayer money goes into weapons production, which gets deployed in active wars, perpetuating a cycle of corporate profit and mass violence.”
In his presentation, Paris Lamb pointed out the fraud Raytheon perpetrates with public funds, saying, “Raytheon takes billions of dollars from the public, through legal and illegal fraudulent methods for their own personal profit and at the expense of both oppressed people abroad and the American public.”
Lastly, Sebastian Miscenich said, “We’re launching the Raytheon Out campaign at a time when Utahns are speaking out against military facilities in our state. UAWC is going to take to the streets and to the community to shut down this criminal, war profiteering facility and replace it with something that Salt Lakers need.”
Not wasting the effort of the gathering, members of the UAWC then proceeded to plan a protest on July 4 against the facility and further actions to deal with the blight within the community, Applied Signal Technology.
