Salt Lake City, UT – On Tuesday, August 4, members of the Utah Anti-War Committee packed the public comment held by the Salt Lake County Council. Activists demanded the county use eminent domain to remove the Raytheon Applied Signal Technologies weapons facility and build public housing in place of the existing building.

As a result of packing the council meeting, the Raytheon Out campaign won an official response from Salt Lake County Council Member Jiro Johnson, and a tentative meeting on opposing the facility. Activists held signs reading “Raytheon out of Salt Lake! Use eminent domain now!”

Sebastian Miscenich of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization told council members, “Raytheon weapons have been used in war crimes worldwide, including recently in Iran. Salt Lake County is part of that supply chain. We say that we’re a state that cares about family values, but how does that say family values if we have a weapons facility that’s involved in making software for Tomahawk missiles that killed 123 kids for Trump’s unpopular war against Iran?”

Next to speak was Nova Morra of the UAWC, “It goes against my family values and my Christian upbringing to allow any of my neighbors to participate in the killing of children abroad, regardless of boundaries.”

A local pro-Palestine activist, Janna Clyne, delivered a poem during public comment, in addition to condemning war profiteers, “We wake up and breath the smoggy air, and this world is owned by billionaires. I’m supposed to walk around and pretend like everything is fine, but in the back of my mind, all I think about is Palestine.”

The last speaker for the UAWC, Amber Grace, said, “We have fallen into antidemocratic corruption by the military industrial complex, which lobbies our elected officials, bypasses the consent of our people, and invents new wars and propaganda so they can launch missiles and drop bombs using technology developed here in Utah and profit off of it.”

#SaltLakeCityUT #UT #AntiWarMovement #UAWC

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