Boeing weapons confab shut down by protesters

Seattle

A broad coalition of 57 organizations rallied outside the Boeing Company’s Defense Supplier Summit, March 14, shutting down the first day of the conference. Boeing profits from sales of many of the death-dealing weapons used against Palestinians in Gaza. As a result of the demonstration, Boeing was forced to hold their conference via Zoom.  Their war supplier partners had to stay home, too.

The action was an extended rally of 500 people held in front of the downtown Seattle Convention Center. The main organizers were from Filipino solidarity organizations — International League for Peoples Struggle, Gabriela Together and Resist U.S.-Led War Movement. Foundational organizing was done by Falastiniyat, a Palestinian women’s organization, along with Samidoun and Students for Palestinian Equality and Return. Most of the rally speakers and leaders were women. 

At the rally, speakers said Boeing should lock down their summit website and lock the convention center doors because of the power of the movement. A Palestinian woman said that the U.S.-Israeli attack had dropped 45,000 bombs, the equivalent of three atomic bombs, on Gaza. Many of these bombs were produced by Boeing. 

A member of the AAPI community raised the importance of mobilizing against the Rim of the Pacific war games this summer in Hawaiʻi. RIMPAC is a major U.S.-led war game with Washington’s partners.

The rally was preceded by a solidarity teach-in held two days before the mass rally at the Boeing Summit. Activists were given the information and tools needed to organize against the vast network of military suppliers that make up the U.S. war machine.

Boeing supplies weapons to Israeli Air Force

Boeing, the world’s third-largest war contractor, is now headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, but does a lot of its production in Seattle. Boeing supplies the Israeli military with a wide variety of weapons, including fighter jets, attack helicopters, missiles, bombs and precision-guided bomb kits.  

Boeing builds the F-15 fighter — one of the main warplanes used by the Israeli Air Force. The company makes the Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, Chinook helicopters, and the Pegasus mid-air refueling and transport aircraft. These weapons were gifted to Israel through the U.S. government’s Foreign Military Financing program.

In its assaults on Gaza, the Israeli military routinely uses Boeing GBU-39B and GBU-31/32 Small Diameter Bombs (SDB) equipped with Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) kits. Boeing’s JDAM kits convert unguided air to ground bombs into so-called guided “smart” bombs. Between 2010 and 2021, the U.S. supplied the Israeli government with at least 8,550 Boeing bombs.

History of Israeli attacks on Gaza

Before the current genocidal war on Gaza, which has murdered well over 31,000 people with U.S. weapons of mass destruction, there were four major U.S.-Israeli invasions of Gaza. Gaza is completely surrounded by high fencing with barbed wire — an open-air prison.

In “Operation Breaking Dawn” in 2022, Israel killed at least 33 Palestinians within three days during an unprovoked offensive. During “Operation Guardian of the Walls” in 2021, Israel killed at least 261 Palestinians. During “Operation Protective Edge,” a 50-day assault in 2014, Israel killed at least 2,131 Palestinians. During a 22-day assault called “Operation Cast Lead” (2008-2009), Israel killed at least 1,385 Palestinians. Each of these assaults also resulted in widespread destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure.

Hamas and Palestine did not provoke the October 7 offensive. It was provoked by years of full-scale U.S.-Israeli military invasions of Palestine using the most high-tech weapons in the world. Palestine is thoroughly occupied and penetrated by Israel with the U.S. fully behind it.

The top five Pentagon war companies are Lockhead Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Northrup Gruman and General Dynamics. They and their partners on Wall Street must be brought to justice, and their executives and stockholders put on trial for their crimes of genocide against Palestine and all the other oppressed nations where U.S.-imperialism wages endless war!