Solidarity with the Raytheon Nine

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Raytheon Company, based in Waltham, Massachusetts, is a leading U.S. military contractor. With annual revenues of over $20 billion, 90 percent from defense contracts, Raytheon is the world’s third largest missile manufacturer.  

In 1999 Raytheon opened an office in Derry City, Northern Ireland. Ironically, Raytheon was brought to Derry during the Northern Ireland peace process by Nationalist and Unionist politicians and was paraded as an example of what the peace dividend would gain for a population with some of the highest unemployment rates in Europe. Eventually, Raytheon created only around 40 jobs. Nevertheless, local politicians— despite Raytheon’s complicity in Bush and Blair’s war crimes—have balked at forcing the company out for fear that U.S. investors would be sent the wrong message. 

In August 2006, disgusted by Israel’s U.S.-backed invasion of Lebanon, antiwar activists in Derry protested, occupied, and “decommissioned” the Raytheon facility there. Now, nine members of the Derry Anti-war Coalition (DAWC) who participated in the occupation face jail sentences. 

Eamonn McCann, one of the Raytheon 9, is a founder of the 1960s civil rights movement in Northern Ireland, author of several books, including War and an Irish Town, columnist for numerous publications in Ireland, chair of the Bloody Sunday Trust, member of the Socialist Workers Party, and former candidate for the Socialist Environmental Alliance in Northern Ireland’s recent National Assembly elections. McCann explains why Raytheon was targeted: “Every day brought reports of Israeli attacks, allegedly on Hizbollah positions, but, as was clear from the news footage, bringing death and agony to terrified civilians.” McCann says a DAWC meeting “voted to picket the Raytheon plant on August 9 and, if possible, to occupy and to decommission the premises.... In the event, nine of us managed to gain entry. Computers and papers were hurled from the windows. The mainframe was disabled.” 

Recently, evidence surfaced that Raytheon products had indeed been used in the Qana, Lebanon killings. The evidence also shows a close-up of the fuselage of a bomb retrieved from the Qana carnage. The markings identify a Raytheon MK-84 guided bomb unit BSU-37/B. Mc Cann remarks: “If the Raytheon 9 are branded criminals then we are being asked to accept that it is a crime to occupy the office of an arms company, but not a crime to occupy a country; that it is a crime to drop computers from an office window, but not a crime to drop missiles on innocent people. The Raytheon 9 will face the court as the accusers of Raytheon, not the accused, and will use the trial to highlight the war crimes of the U.S. and UK governments.” 

Colm Bryce, also of the Raytheon 9 and the Derry Antiwar Coalition, says: “We’ve been protesting Raytheon since it came here in 1999. They said they weren’t doing any military work. However, former employees have told us they were doing military work. At the height of the Lebanese war we found out that U.S. cargo planes were rushing bombs to Israel. We felt this sort of thing is happening all the time. Just like the U.S. military uses Shannon airport here in Ireland to transport troops to Iraq. It felt unbearable. This is not about us. This is about what’s going on in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan day in and day out. We want to put Raytheon and the war on trial.” 

Larry Kirwan, a leader of Black 47—an Irish rock band from New York City—says that his group has “spoken out against the War in Iraq since it was a mere gleam in the eyes of Messrs. Bush and Cheney. Many of our fans in the service are now suffering the consequences of this ill-advised invasion. The Raytheon 9 are not criminal, they are merely focusing attention on this current Administration’s failed Middle Eastern policies. Had the millions of us in the U.S. who saw through Bush/ Cheney’s lies engaged in similar non-violent activities, we would not be in dire position we find ourselves in Iraq today.” 

The Raytheon 9 have received support from throughout Ireland and across the world. Among those who have signed the statement of support are Noam Chomsky, Mark Thomas, Christy Moore, George Galloway MP, Salma Yaqoob (Stop the War Coalition UK) Ibrahim Mousawi (Lebanon), Caoimhe Butterly, Richard Boyd Barrett (Irish Anti-War Movement),  and many others. 

Z 

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Sandy Boyer co-hosts WBAI’s Radio “Free Eireann” and has led campaigns to free Irish political prisoners. He has contributed articles on the Irish struggle to publications in Ireland and the U.S. including New Politics and The Blanket. Shaun Harkin is a regular contributor to the Socialist Worker and the International Socialist Review.