Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Utah Anti-War Committee.
On Tuesday, August 25th, members of Utah Anti-War Committee met with Salt Lake District 1 Council member Jiro Johnson.
We demanded that Johnson formally and publicly condemn the Raytheon AST weapons facility located in his district in West Valley City. Raytheon makes bombs and guided missiles for the Israeli and U.S. military. These weapons are used in well-documented war crimes in Iran and Palestine.
Earlier in August, our movement won a verbal statement against Raytheon from Johnson in County Council. But he stopped short of agreeing to write a public anti-war condemnation of Raytheon. Johnson said he needed to “consider” before condemning Raytheon AST, as he feared political backlash from Republicans against his policy agenda.
He told community members in our meeting that, “children are dying every day, but I need to think of the political ramifications.”
This is an issue of right and wrong, and about where average people in Salt Lake want political power spent. There can be political costs to doing the right thing. But Raytheon is a company profiting off bombing civilians in tents in Gaza and killing unarmed schoolgirls in Iran.
What’s worse, Raytheon does it with our taxes while housing, education, jobs, healthcare, and our environment are left on the wayside. Jiro Johnson should release a statement against Raytheon AST. He ran for Council on a progressive platform, and the war-profiteering facility is in his district.
A statement from the County Councilor where Raytheon AST operates would represent a real blow against the Republicans’ unpopular pro-war agenda. We need to make companies profiting from war and genocide with our taxes unwelcome in our communities and demand reinvestment in people’s needs.
Johnson committed to meet UAWC again by September 16, 200 days from the start of Trump’s illegal war on Iran. It’s the perfect time for him to publicly condemn an unpopular, genocidal war-profiteer like Raytheon and call for money for Utah’s needs, not war.
We only got this meeting by months of protesting, educating, and building the anti-war movement. To strike a blow against Raytheon, we need to organize even more and stay united.
Be ready to call on Jiro Johnson to honor the progressive principles that got him elected.
Raytheon Out of Salt Lake!
#SaltLakeCityUT #UT #AntiWarMovement #Raytheon #BDS #Palestine #Iran
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