Raytheon, Missile Offense & Endless War: 19th Annual Space Organizing Conference

Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power In Space

2011 marks the 19th anniversary of the Global Network’s organizing efforts to build an international constitutency to Keep Space for Peace. Each year we gather to share the latest international developments on Pentagon and aerospace industry plans for the militarization of space.

We approach this conference with clarity that U.S. “missile defense” programs are actually key elements in overall Pentagon first-strike planning. Thus we have come to call them “missile offense” systems as they are intended to take out any retaliatory capability after a U.S. attack. Sold to the public as defense, these systems create more instability after their deployment.

The Raytheon Company, which had 2009 sales of $25 billion, is a leading builder and promoter of the missile “offense” program. Headquartered in Massachusetts, Raytheon has a manufacturing plant in Andover that builds the Patriot (PAC-3) system that is now being used by the Pentagon to help encircle Russia and China. 

In addition, Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems (Garland, Texas) recently got a $30 million contract extension for providing “information assurance services.” Raytheon Missile Systems (Tucson, Arizona) won a $175 million contract from the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) to continue developing the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptor that will be deployed on Navy Aegis destroyers. The MDA also gave Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (Tewksbury, MA) $190 million to build and test a mobile radar system to help coordinate these systems. Raytheon is a perfect example of a weapons corporation that spreads its contracts across the nation in order to build Congressional support for endless war.

As we spend $10 billion a month on space directed warfare in Iraq-Afghanistan-Pakistan, it becomes increasingly important that the peace movement connect the dots between massive military spending and the economic crisis at home. We must increase our efforts to call for the conversion of the military industrial complex to peaceful and sustainable production.

The membership of the Global Network feels it is crucial that we gather together to share information, develop new strategies, and inspire each other to continue our efforts to build a peace with justice for everyone. We are urging our affiliated groups to make special efforts to send a student to this conference so that new generations of activists learn more about the peace in space issue.

The 19th annual Global Network space organizing conference will be held in North Andover, MA, June 17-19.

Cost

Registration for the conference is on a sliding scale. Please pay what you can best afford between $15 - $100. Registration fee includes three meals on June 17-18.  (Suggested fee is $50, which covers our basic costs.)

 

Sponsor:

Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011

Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator
(207) 443-9502
globalnet@mindspring.com
www.space4peace.org

 

Event Co-Sponsors:

AFSC Disarmament Program • Essex Unitarian Universalist Church • House of Peace • Maine Campaign to Bring Our War $$ Home • Maine Ve t e r ans f o r Pe a c e ( V F P ) • M e r r i m a c k Valley People for Peace • New England Peace Pagoda • New Hampshire Peace Action • North Shore Coalition for Peace and Justice • Office of Mission and Ministry, Merrimack College • Peace Action Maine • VFP Chapter 9, Smedley Butler

Brigade • VFP Chapter 41, Samantha Smith • United for Justice with Peace (Greater Boston) • War Resisters League New England

 

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