Antiwar forces march on Boeing

Seattle — University of Washington students, supporters and youths of oppressed nationalities targeted by U.S. imperialism marched on the Seattle Boeing plant on March 26. The march by 150 chanting demonstrators protested on the 20-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Boeing is the Pentagon’s second largest war contractor. Boeing produces the F-15, F-18, B-52 bombers, Apache and Chinook Helicopters, K-46 mid-air refuelers, cruise missiles, and Boeing is a major subcontractor on the B-1 and B-2 bombers.

But that’s not all.

The march went past the Boeing Museum of Flight, where many of Boeing’s military planes are displayed. Demonstrators chanted: “From Palestine to the Philippines, stop the U.S. war machine!” At the protest at Raisbeck Aviation High School, a marcher spoke out against her STEM education. She said while engineering was beautiful, her education was militarized in the direction of war planning.

The rally was held under a display of several B-52 bombers with superwide wing spans. Vietnamese speaker Khatami condemned the genocidal U.S. B-52 bombing of Vietnam under the Nixon administration. Stephanie, a G.I. resister, spoke of refusing military duty in 1990 for the U.S.-imperialist Gulf War against Iraq.

Brett from Institution Climate Action and speakers from Resist U.S.-War heavily criticized Boeing’s dominance of the engineering programs at the University of Washington. The speakers demanded that the university break ties with Boeing. Through its influence in endowments, scholarships, intern programs and classroom propaganda, the students charge that Boeing pressures them to work for the U.S. war machine.

Speakers roundly condemned the current U.S. war in Ukraine against Russia and all U.S. wars and bases. Organizers for the action included Resist U.S.-Led War, Veterans for Peace, Students for Palestinian Equality and Return, and Anak Bayan Seattle.