December Actions: Calling for Climate Action
Highlighting the Link between Climate Urgency and Need for a Green Transition
We displayed our new 18’x6′ banner on the bridge for passersby to see. We got many honks and wavies from drivers on busy weekend afternoons.
We wanted to call attention to the crisis our environment is in, and advocate for the most viable political solution, the New Green Deal. The US military is the largest contributor to greenhouse gases, and the $785 trillion dollars in the 2022 defense budget Congress just passed could have gone a long way to mitigate the climate emergency.
Reject Raytheon Receives 2 Peace Awards
Reject Raytheon AVL on Radio Free Nashville
Here's a radio interview that Reject Raytheon members, Ken Jones, Claire Clarke and Melody Shank, did with James Wohlgemuth on Radio Free Nashville.
2021 Holiday Parade - Getting our Message Across
We spent over an hour on the side of the street where parade entrants were lined up waiting for the parade to start. Many families with eager children also lined the street.
As parade passed up by, we heard calls of support, encouragingly from children walking and on floats. We also heard children’s questions about our message that parents need to answer. Once the final float carrying Santa and Mrs. Claus passed us by, we made our way to the parade route to fall in after the 2-motorcycle police motorcade. We didn’t get far. A line of police and the 2 motorcycles formed a barricade in front of us.
Police finally agreed that we could continue down the parade route on the sidewalks.
As we continued up the street, we began chanting our messages: “Stop the War Machine” “What Do We Want? A Future For Our Children. When Do We Want It? NOW!” “No War, No Warming”
Once we reached the parade stage and turned to make our way down the 2nd parade street, the police stopped monitoring our position and allowed us to take the street. We were able to walk down broad Patton Ave., a main route into Asheville’s downtown, creating our own little parade. We continued to chant and walk. We received enthusiastic support from the bystanders along the street. They could see us and our banners and hear our chants much better than the crowd on Biltmore Avenue, the 1st parade street
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Invest in Local Businesses - K. Jones LTE
Ken Jones responds to J Hackett's Citizen Times column about investing in local businesses, especially BIPOC businesses.
Asheville Holiday Parade 2021
An Asheville Holiday Parade Tagalong
We joined the November 20th Holiday Parade, first as street-side banner holders, and then as an unofficial parade “entrant” after the final float carrying Santa and Mrs. Claus passed us by. Not welcomed by the police, our group was stopped by them but then negotiated that we could proceed on the sidewalk walk with our banners and chants. Once the banners passed the parade stage, the police left us alone to take over Patton Avenue, the second street of the parade route. We had our own mini parade down the wide main thoroughfare and received much enthusiastic support for our messages.
See the tape of the livestream of our one group parade on our Instagram page. The last photos of the Citizen Times gallery of parade photos are also of us!
October 23rd and November 6th Actions at the Bridge Construction Site
On October 23rd an Nov. 6th, a group of 15 people met at Bent Creek River Park along the French Broad River and lined the road in front of the Pratt & Whitney access bridge to bring awareness to how Pratt & Whitney and its parent company, Raytheon Technologies, contribute to the climate emergency. Rt 191 and the Blue Ridge Parkway were both busy on these beautiful autumn days. We heard some climate crisis deniers and engine roarers, but we mostly heard supportive horn beeps and had some good conversations. We passed out over 120 flyers to passersby on those 2 days.
Background
As a part of the vast American military industry, Raytheon and it’s subsidiary, Pratt & Whitney, are part of an industry that contributes enormous amounts of carbon emissions to our atmosphere. The aviation sector alone is “a substantial contributor to global warming.” If the aviation industry were a country, it would place sixth in emissions, between Japan and Germany.” (Center for Biological Diversity). Furthermore, the US Pentagon, with its complex web of defense contractors, weaponry, and military bases, is the largest institutional producer of greenhouse gases in the world. (LATimes). It is easy to claim that the Asheville Pratt & Whitney plant will only produce turbine airfoils for jet engines, at least 30% of which will be destined for military plants. But the whole aviation industry, especially the military plane industry, needs to be rethought in order to diminish the impact of carbon emissions on our planet.
Oct 9th "Keep Space For Peace" Action
On the afternoon of the 9th, a dozen Reject Raytheon members walked the crowded streets of downtown Asheville, carrying signs and handing out flyers to bring awareness to Raytheon's role in weaponizing space. The action coincided with the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space Week of Action. We highlighted Raytheon's role in militarizing space.
The U.S. is militarizing space, calling space a war fighting domain. This is in violation of the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty, which declares that space must be preserved for peace for all of humanity.
US tax payers will fund this program while Congress cuts spending on social programs, health care, education, climate change, and other urgent needs.
Aerospace military corporations like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Boeing will be the main profiteers of moving war into space. Raytheon alone is already involved in managing launch sites for military satellites, and in developing and operating GPS, command and control, surveillance, and missile "defense" systems for the military.
Since our action we learned that Raytheon Technologies, through its Intelligence and Space Division, is moving quickly into Space Force operations with its acquisition of SEAKR Engineering and its investment in the CU's VADeR lab.
Every year since 1985, member states in the UN have adopted a resolution to negotiate a multilateral treaty on the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS), all except the US and a few allies. Both China and Russia are in support of PAROS.
We said, "NO WEAPONS IN SPACE!"
