Press release from Reject Raytheon AVL:
Demonstration: No War with Russia Over Ukraine
Date/Time: Saturday, Feb. 5, 2022, 4 P.M.
Place: Pack Square at Biltmore Ave
Local citizen group Reject Raytheon AVL will join the national organization CodePink and concerned people around the country to call for the U.S. to reject war with Russia over Ukraine. It calls on the U.S.and NATO to “negotiate, not escalate.” Actions calling for de-escalation will also be held in Europe.
NATO, a military alliance of 30 nations led by the U.S., was created at the end of WWII in opposition to the Soviet Union. Since the dissolution of the USSR, it has expanded right up to Russia’s borders as a part of a strategy of encircling Russia militarily. NATO has now deployed nuclear capable missiles at Russia’s border.
NATO is an outdated alliance that now primarily serves as a purchaser of U.S. made weapons and weapons systems. Arms manufacturers and dealers, such as Raytheon, have a direct profit motive for keeping international tensions high and have even publicly boasted about the good business opportunity found in increased tensions with the US and Russia.
Together, Russia and the U.S. possess over 90% of the 14,000 nuclear weapons in the world. Any one of those warheads is much more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. A nuclear exchange between Russia and the US would mean the end of life on this planet as we know it. The situation in Ukraine is too dangerous for anything but vigorous diplomacy.
Reject Raytheon organizer Anne Craig said: “According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, human civilization is “100 seconds from midnight” or planet –wide catastrophe because of our vulnerability to the use of nuclear weapons as well as to climate change, biological threats and disruptive technology. Our concern for the people of Ukraine extends to concern for all the people of the world when international tensions bring us closer to ‘doomsday.’ The leaders of the U.S., Russia and Ukraine must commit themselves to diplomacy to reduce this existential risk.”
Ken Jones, a member of the local Veterans for Peace chapter and a member of Reject Raytheon, said: “Our country is responsible for this crisis and could end it now. We promoted the 2014 coup in Ukraine and are now using that country to instigate a kind of reverse Cuban Missile Crisis with Russia. We should respond positively to Russia’s call for security assurances and let Ukraine resolve its internal civil war without our intervention. We should be backing the Minsk II agreement as the diplomatic solution rather than selling more weapons to Ukraine.”
Reject Raytheon AVL was formed in November 2020 in opposition to the construction of the Raytheon-owned Pratt & Whitney Plant on the Biltmore Farms property in Buncombe County. It advocates for policies that promote local investment in businesses and jobs that do not contribute to wars or the global climate emergency. Raytheon is the 2nd largest arms corporation in the world.
Before you comment
The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.