Unity

From Unity, 17 May 2008

The Raytheon Nine

The trial of the nine men who occupied the Raytheon factory as an anti-war protest begins in Belfast on Monday 19 May, having been moved from Derry to Belfast. As a subject within the trade union movement it is a hot potato. This centres around three important factors. The first is that the Raytheon workers themselves do not seem to have been involved in action that could lose them their jobs; secondly, the tactics and strategies used that can alienate people; and thirdly, some of the nine people allegedly had backgrounds that would not endear them to the trade union movement.
     For many in the anti-war movement the issue is as straightforward as “resisting war crimes is not a crime.” The strongest arguments are given in Eamonn McCann’s pamphlet The Raytheon 9. The front cover graphically shows US aircraft with “Software by Raytheon” written on the side of the planes dropping bombs, with a cartoon-style caption that says: “The sheer destruction of it . . . Dropping computers from an office window!”
     In the pamphlet, Eamonn McCann describes how Raytheon was welcomed to Derry by John Hume and Derry City Council on the grounds that it would only be used for civilian work. McCann traces the arrival of Raytheon in 1999 to the occupation of the building in August 2006 by anti-war protesters and the subsequent condemnation of the destruction of equipment by Sinn Féin and the SDLP. He describes the use of Raytheon war weapons in the Middle East, in particular the bombing of Lebanon in August 2006. He writes about the workings and the profit-making of the company around the world. He says about the Derry branch of Raytheon: “They lied through their teeth for some years by saying they were only engaged in civilian contracts until, as ex-employees clearly stated, it was proved [that] there was considerable military involvement.”
     Adam Cherril, manager of Raytheon Business Systems, is quoted as saying: “To qualify for self determination, a people must show some kind of national identity . . . What political organisations, social institutions, literature, art, religion, or private correspondence express any ties between the Palestinian people to the Land of Israel.”
     The defence of these actions is being taken on the same basis as that of the “Pitstop Ploughshares Five,” who damaged a US warplane at Shannon, supposedly parked in a “neutral state.” They were acquitted, amid, as Eamonn writes, “moral panic.” There was a similar court case in England a few years ago when people were acquitted, as they argued that their action was in the interest of peace.
     The campaign has drawn international support, with a statement being made demanding that charges against the Raytheon Nine be dropped signed by Naomi Klein, Avi Lewis, Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, Christy Moore, Tony Benn, Mark Thomas, George Galloway MP, Jimmy Kelly (Unite), Salma Yaqoob (Respect councillor for Birmingham), Terry Eagleton, Daniel Bensaid, and many others.
     All the questions raised at the beginning of the article are valid ones. In particular, there has to be debate and discussion about how to turn arms manufacturing into manufacturing goods that benefit humanity, and that debate has to be within the centre of the trade union movement. The campaign for the Raytheon Nine is acting as a catalyst in the fight against the violence by Israel and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There may be those who will want to up the ante: to have confrontations at the protest on Monday. That would be a mistake. It is not just the Raytheon Nine who are in the dock on Monday: it is also the ant-war movement in Ireland.

Home page > Publications > Unity > The Raytheon Nine

Baile > Foilseacháin > Unity > The Raytheon Nine