EXORCISING RAYTHEON —
[Editor’s Note: Raytheon actually has offices in one of Brisbane’e oldest suburbs at Murrarie!]
The Raytheon Corporation is the world’s larger producer of guided missiles including the infamous cruise missile, which was used heavily in the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Raytheon profits have risen dramatically from both these wars.
Its missiles also killed large numbers of civilians in the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
Dear friends, we had another very successful action at Raytheon on Wednesday [24 September 2008].
We had more than 20 people there which was fantastic.
Raytheon finally put in place security which prevented us accessing the second floor. They have a camera in the lift an when you press floor two the office staff look to see who is there before allowing the
lift to go.
This was certainly not unexpected.
So we performed our exorcism just outside the main building doors while others held banners etc on the footpath.
WE posted our pictures on the doors and a large sign saying “Raytheon – Light of the Devil’ above it. We repeated the deliverance prayer for half an hour or so.
Lots of police came including a Superintendent (I think – one with stars on his epaulettes.) The officer with the stars said the owners of the complex (Gateway something or other) requested we be moved. He also calimed their property covered the area to the footpath This was interesting given that in Lisa and my court case (form the first Raytheon exorcism arrests), the magistrate ruled the hallway of Raytheon could be considered public property.
We had some interesting conversation with the first police officer who told us he had studied the bible for 30 years and assured us it told us to obey the police. On the other hand he had never heard of Paul saying we should obey God before humans. He said he would email me the bible quote( but I have yet to hear from him).
Also another worker form upstairs company (something logistics) asked us about Raytheon and took a leaflet and said “good on you” So it looks like other tenants are not necessarily connected to Raytheon. Two police took leaflets. We finally all moved to the footpath and stayed another half hour or so.
Today the [Workers] “Bush Telegraph” website received an email from another employee in the Raytheon building. This person was not so happy with our presence, and thought we were stupid for not realising Raytheon did not make weapons there. Of course we had already made this clear in our leaflets, but certainly do not feel Raytheon Brisbane is any less worthy of our resistance simply because their WMD’s are made elsewhere.
SO the resistance continues. If you want to come to the next action just email me.
Peace
Jim
************************
On 24 April three members of Christians Against All Terrorism (CAAT), Jim Dowling, Lisa Bridle and Sean O’Reilly entered Raytheon’s Brisbane office. They were welcomed through the glass security door by a staff member thinking they had arrived for a meeting. (Later we reflected on how some of the group were similarly able to miraculously enter Pine Gap two years earlier)
Instead of joining the meeting, the three commenced a Prayer of Deliverance, naming the essence of Raytheon for what it really is, “a spirit of greed, of violence, of deliberate indifference to injustice and human suffering” (see deliverance prayer attached). They posted the walls with photographs of civilians maimed or killed by Raytheon missiles, and spread human blood in the shape of a cross to symbolise the blood shed by these weapons. A candle was then lit and held up to the walls, symbolising bringing the light of Christ to these dark deeds. Holy water was also sprinkled around the office.
During the Deliverance, a large number of people did arrive for the Raytheon meeting and were confronted with the real nature of the Raytheon Corporation.
Staff attempted to force the three to leave the premises.
Jim, Lisa and Sean continued to recite the deliverance prayer, pray and speak of the suffering caused by the Raytheon’s weapons systems, before police arrived at 10.45am.
In a somewhat surreal backdrop, two screens in the office foyer continually played promotional material espousing the work of Raytheon and the ‘challenges’ of modern warfare.
Jenny Nash, Kaye Mc Padden and Rebecca Dowling maintained a vigil outside with banners and placards. Raytheon had only moved into these offices last month. Some staff protested that they had nothing to do with the production of these weapons and were clearly angry at this intrusion into their ‘business as usual’ routine. This witness was probably the first time they have been confronted with the horror of Raytheon’s role in warmaking.
Police arrived and had a lengthy conversation with Raytheon staff in another room. On emerging they revealed that Raytheon did not want to peruse damages charges. They then asked the three to leave. Sean agreed do so whilst Jim and Lisa refused, saying they wished to continue the deliverance.
Jim and Lisa were taken away by police at 11.25am, charged with disobeying a lawful direction and later released.
They appear in court on 29th May (2008) for a hearing date to be set.
Further charges would have required Raytheon staff to present evidence in court and it is clear that is one thing they wish avoid.
To do so would expose Raytheon staff to questioning about their activities and this is one company that in many respects would prefer to stay in the shadows and avoid further scrutiny.
CAAT will continue to witness against the role of Raytheon in warmaking.
On 19 May members of the Raytheon 9 will go to trial in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for their action at Raytheon’s facility in Derry in August 2006.
For more information and to send messages of support see www.raytheon9.org
Sean O’Reilly
Anzac Day, 25th April 2008
Photo: Sean, Lisa, Jim and Sr Kaye before the action.
Some links regarding Raytheon in South Australia:
http://www.progressiveeducators.com.au/index.php (see “US military contractor moves in on local school”)
http://mike-servethepeople.blogspot.com/2008/11/masters-of-war-invade-classroom.html
http://www.mike-rann-the-education-premier.com/raytheon
The united front is a broad church, comrades!
Hi Folks,
I’m heading to Belfast this coming week (Mon-Wed) to attend what looks like being the final week of the Raytheon 9 trial. For a background on the nvda taken at the Raytheon plant in Derry during the 06 Israeli bombing of Lebanon (using Raytheon equipment) and a recent excellent youtube clip of scenes form outside the Belfast trial check out http://www.raytheon9.org
Monday will see defendant Eamonn McCann taking the stand for the defence. Eamonn is a longtime civil rights and socialist activist from Derry. This recent interview on the Counterpunch website is worth a read
http://www.counterpunch.org/harkin05302008.html [Editors Note: If you have problems with this link, go to the http://www.counterpunch.org website scroll down and on the left you will see the heading for the Raytheon 9 article].
If you would like a copy of the booklet “Resistng War Crimes is Not a Crime – The Raytheon 9” by Eamonn McCann. – a great resource for nvda, info on Raytheon and analysis of the wars in the Middle East (this booklet will not date until Raytheon is run by workers councilsand transforms its work to producing some uselful!) Harrry Browne’s review of the booklet http://www.indymedia.ie/article/87408
*send the equivalent of 3 euros plus postage in your currency (disguise your cash from postal theft) to me and I’ll post you one
Ciaron O’Reilly
Catholic Worker,
134 Phibsborough Road,
Phibsborough
Dublin 7,
Ireland.
Photos solidarity with Raytheon 9 Demo outside Belfast Court
2nd. week of trial
http://gallery.mac.com/grow#100019
Day 4 of Raytheon 9 Trial in Belfast-checkout website for interview with defendant!
http://www.raytheon9.org
LINK-“The Nation” Interview with Dan Berrigan 40 Years After Catonsville Draft Board Raid
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080602/hedges
Bush Due in Belfast During Raytheon 9 Trial
http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0520/northpolitics.html
Raytheon 9 Trial finally starts in Belfast
Belfast Trial Updates and Background on the 2006 oonviolent disarmament action at Raytheon’s Derry Plant on
http://www.raytheon9.org
Here is a brief outline of the day
The trial of the Raytheon 9 finally got underway today at Laganside Court in Belfast. The day started well with about 50 people congregating outside the Courthouse. 28 of them carried placards with photographs of the men, women and children who died in the Qana massacre of 30 July 2006. A carload of Irish Anti War Movement activists travelled from Dublin and everyone felt good to see so many turn up to show their solidarity when the ‘official’ protest of the day before had been cancelled at such short notice.
As expected, the first day was taken up with legal arguments about the nature of the defence, witnesses etc. They don’t deny that they occupied Raytheon or that they destroyed their computer system but say that they had a legal, moral and political duty to do so in order to stop or at least delay war crimes, in which Raytheon were involved, being carried out by the Israeli army in Lebanon.
The judge accepted defence arguments that he should not rule the defence out but allow it to be argued and then, having heard the evidence, he can decide how to instruct the jury on what they can, and cannot, take into account in reaching their verdict.
The judge said that he recognised the difficulties the defendants and their supporters face in getting up and down between Derry and Belfast and ruled that the Court would start no earlier than 10.30am and finish no later than 4pm every day. The trial is expected to last three weeks. We will try to update the website every evening of the trial.
Related Link: http://www.raytheon9.org
Dear friends,
Lisa Bridle and myself are going to Wynum court on 29th May for our Deliverance rite (exorcism) at the Raytheon offices in Brisbane. A trial date will then be set. Anyone interested in becoming involved please contact us.
On the other side of the world, Ciaron O’Reilly is in Ireland supporting 9 people who are charged with destroying Raytheon property in resistance to their involvement in the Middle East killing sprees.
Following is an article about that action and the trial which starts on May 19th
Peace
Jim
Why, and How, I’m Standing with the Raytheon 9 Defendants Through Their Trial!!
by Ciaron O’Reilly – Catholic Worker/Plowshares
Raytheon 9 website http://www.raytheon9.org
The only palpable tension presently concerning Irish complicity and profiteering in the US/UK wars on the people of the Middle East is the upcoming trial of the Raytheon 9 in Belfast and the ongoing plane spotting at Shannon.
The only regular visible anti-war opposition in Ireland, that I know of, are the weekly Catholic Worker hosted vigils at the GPO Dublin (Mon 5.30pm-6.30pm), the monthly vigil at Shannon (30 folks there last weekend with overkill Garda presence), the monthly FEIC vigil at Raytheon in Derry, psychodelic efforts in Galway pedestrian mall on the weekends and the efforts of the Palestinian solidarity campaign.
As the war escalates in Iraq and Afghanistan and expands into northern Pakistan, Lebanon (the U.S.S. Cole, described with refreshing honesty in this morning’s Irish Times as a “destroyer”, pulled up offshore yesterday), Somalia etc.these are humble expressions of the massive passive opposition to U.S. wars that exists in Ireland. There is no popular support in Ireland, or globally, for these wars but presently there is little visible opposition in the west. It is a tough time for the Raytheon 9 to be going to trial when the broader movement is so deflated.
We are asked to stand in solidarity with the Raytheon 9 nonviolent direct action undertaken two years ago as Lebanon burned and Raytheon and other weapons were unleashed. An action that was taken in solidarity with the victims of Raytheon and those who today live in the sights of Raytheon weapons yet to be unleashed. We are not asked to hero worship the defendants, canonise them or accept the political programs of whatever political parties and traditions from which they spring. We are asked to celebrate the NVDA at Raytheon and accompany the defendants through the courts and possible prison system for an act that was nonviolent and human in the face of overwhelming power, wealth and prestige.
Let there be no doubt – Raytheon made a killing in Lebanon!
Raytheon (”light form the Gods” 😉 claims to be omnipotent and untouchable. Raytheon was touched by this act of nonviolent disarmament in their Derry offices. All they want from you as they deal with these defendants is your silence and sedation (Your cynicism will be an extra bonus to them!). Raytheon has the reach to co-opt Nobel Peace Prize winners to open its Derry plant. Raytheon has geographic reach from the Australian outback where it maintains the secretive NSA Pine Gap base http://www.pinegap6.org to building an electric fence along the Saudi/Iraq border to home state Massachusettes corporate offices to manufacturing the cruise missile fired with such abandoned on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan to tendering for policing who exits and enters the U.K. A reach all the way to outer space!
The trial has been moved from the defendants community and site of the Raytheon plant in Derry to Belfast it is due to commence on Monday May 19th.
How can we show solidarity with the defendants on trial for this act of nonviolent resistance?
These are a few things I did yesterday….
-I spoke to three high school classes, showed them some Revolt Video anti-war footage and told them of the Raytheon 9. I suggested that when they go and see th box office hit “Ironman” they should think of Raytheon and those who resist its works.
-I stood for two hours outside the GPO with a sign
“Disable the War Machine.
Free the Raytheon 9 on Trial in Belfast! http://www.raytheon9.org ”
-I scribbled down the Raytheon 9 website for people who stopped to chat.
-From the looks I was getting- most people have never heard of Raytheon and are unaware they have a base in Ireland.
-I bought 15 copies of
“Resistng War Crimes is Not a Crime – The Raytheon 9″ by Eamonn McCann.
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/87408
A great resource for NVDA, on the works of Raytheon and the war on Lebanon. I mailed some to friends in England, Australia (cops seemed to have opened that letter!) and the United States and sold three copies (for the reasonable 3 euro price!) to people who engaged me on the vigil and activists who were looking for a copy. After I sell this lot I’ll buy another lot…it really is a good cheap read.
-I’m hoping to get up to Belfast for the first day of trial on Monday and whenever I can – otherwise I hope to sustain a daily solo vigil outside the GPO during the trial (predicted to last 4-6 weeks).
These are the limited ideas I’ve come up with so far that fit around my minimal resources and work commitments. I’m looking for other ideas if you’ve got some post them as comments here! I think it is important to get the Raytheon 9 website http://www.raytheon9.org out and about. It is a very good site and people need to know about it. So scrawl it on any surface that seems appropriate or if some can produce a sticker with it on that would be deadly.
They’re on Trial For Us, We’re on the Loose for Them!
Ciaron O’Reilly
Related Link: http://www.raytheon9.org
Love yer work people…solidarity and prayers from Melbourne.
LINK-May Day raid on General Dynamics Weapons Plant – Vermont, USA
http://www.counterpunch.org/dangl05052008.html
Well done for exposing Raytheon In Brisbane. I appreciate your commitment, courage and clarity.
Ian said – “[Editor’s Note: Raytheon actually has offices one of Brisbane’e oldest suburbs at Murrarie!]”
Well, actually, the Murrarie office is a temporary office. The main Raytheon centre, the Raytheon “centre of excellence” at Amberley air base which is, according to John Mickel, the Qld. minister for state development, employment and industrial relations….. “central to the management, development, and growth of Raytheon’s aerospace programs across Australia.”
http://www.raytheon.com.au/Default.aspx?x=409
Raytheon is in deep kahoots with the Qld government which has identified the aviation and aerospace industry as a growth priority for the Qld. economy.
http://www.investqueensland.com.au/dsdweb/v3/guis/templates/content/gui_cue_cntnhtml_iq.cfm?id=30237
QUT has an MBA program in arms dealing, partly funded by Raytheon and other arms manufacturers.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22320641-3102,00.html
Great work Sean, Jim and Lisa (and other one in the photo!).
Great to continue to hear of resistance to the horrendous war machine.
Jess
I can’t let this political excorcism stuff go unchallenged, especially since BT seems now to be a forum of the radical christian movement, whose curious and uncritically supportive minds might, I fear, be corrupted by such occultism..
Jesus healed when he chased out “evil” spirits. The Greek root of this word is “unclean” spirit. The result of his healing was things like lame people walking, blind people seeing and even peoples cardio-respiritory systems being restarted.
The healing message of Jesus has been bastardised by the demonism of the church of Rome and its protestent offspring right up to Ched Myers and his attempt at biblical apologism for “praying in public as the hypocrites do”.
Myers sermons on indigenous spirituality, however, are a blt more enlightened than the perspectives of some of his Australian radical christian comrades.
Ched Myers says……..
“The Roman authorities understood perfectly the implications of Jesus’ renewal of the Dreaming as it concerned Yahweh’s sovereignty. The church since Constantine, however, has not been so clear, and thus has succumbed repeatedly to the politics of
domination. Jesus invites us to turn back to the wisdom of indigenous peoples to reanimate our imaginations about how we might work to disperse political power today, under the shadow of history’s most dominating empire.”
From “Led by the Spirit into the wilderness…”
Reflections on Lent, Jesus’ Temptations and Indigeneity
by Ched Myers http://www.bcm-net.org/theological_animation/articles/assets/LedbytheSpirit.pdf
Jesus’ political resistance to Roman Imperialism, based on his spiritual and healing paradigms, is quite clear through his advocacy of boycotting Roman coins (and economy), placing indigenous customary law above Roman law even when Roman Law is administered by the religious authorities, healing and preaching in defiance of religious and state authority, create a socialist economy amongst the Judean clans and their new associates from everywhere – just like the Raytheon 9 and Derry Anti War Coalition do in their local indigenous struggle against imperialism. The Raytheon 9 have more to do with the message and method of jesus than CAAT’s exorcism.
To take jesus’ methodology for healing the lame, blind and diseased and applying it as a universal (catholic) template for political resistance, replacing the mode preached by Jesus, is simply blasphemous.
A lessen for the exorcists –
Acts 19
11God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.
13Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15(One day) the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” 16Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
In mid-88 I boarded the U.S.S. New Jersey docked in Brisbane with Jim Dowling (arrested in this action) and four others to carry out an exorcism of this death ship that had killed so many children in Vietnam and Lebanon. We passed through the military bag check, carrying blood we had donated to the action in blackcurrent juice bottles, and made our way to the foredeck overshadowed by its enormous guns. On another part of the ship parents and children were taking tours on what had been promoted by all levels of local state and Federal government as a tourist attraction. We poured the blood in a cross, named the ship for what it was and knelt in prayer. We were the arrested.
In late 1994 I accompanied Jim (again) and a heavilly pregnant Lisa (arrested in this recent action at Raytheon, Brisbane) into the offices of Petroz mining company in our hometown of Brisbane. We poured blood from bottles on the boardroom table, pasted photos of East Timorese around the boardroom and prayed. We were arrested. We had named Petroz as coluding with the genocidal Suharto governments crimes in East Timor to exploit the reserves in the Timor Sea.
We had been introduced to the political relevance and the radical praxis of exorcism in scripture by the theologian Ched Myers in his work of Mark’s Gospel “Binding the Strongman” (Orbis Press).
Now Raytheon, recently arrived in Brisbane, has been named and unmasked. See this link for an essay on political exorcism
http://www.ecapc.org/articles/article-5117.htm
Raytheon, and its works of war, stretches from Brisbane to Derry to Iraq to Lebanon. Our humble resistance community streches over 30 years of sustained nonviolent resistance. I first met Jim in police custody in 1978. Lisa in the mid-80’s. My brother Sean (who I have known the longest!) accompanied Lisa & Jim into the Raytheon offices. While companies like Raytheon keep profiting form the killing of children, we’ll keep on keeping on.
Related Link: http://www.ecapc.org/articles/article-5117.htm
Yay, Good on you all. Sounds like a job will done.
Margaret
Here’s a challenge for Brizzneyland radicals –
can you do a tour of anti-war sites around Brizvegas like this ?
Might be educational for the new kids on the block and a chance for the old folks to pass on some local knowledge as “elders” of protest ?
HISTORY WARS Part 457
About 50 cyclists who attended Melbourne Critical Mass on Friday 25th April, 2008 ANZAC Day, were treated to a special history tour on Remembering war and protesting for peace. While perhaps 30,000 people attended the dawn ANZAC day dawn service at the Shrine of Remembrance War Memorial in Melbourne, an alternative to the jingoism and nationalistic patriotism was presented at the Melbourne Critical Mass ride undertaken shortly after dusk.
At each site visited a short talk was given on its significance and
history as part of remembering war and protesting for Peace in
Melbourne. Melbourne has a rich culture and history of anti- conscription, anti-war and peace protest which the ride attempted
to highlight. Sites visited included:
1. State Library – 14/2/03 200,000 people gather against war on Iraq
2. RMIT – Bowen Street – 20/1/1842 – 2 aboriginal freedom fighters executed in the frontier war and European invasion
3. RMIT – Guild hall – 1916 – Women’s Peace Army – Women such as Vida Goldstein organise against conscription
4. 171 Little Bourke Street – 1914-1917 – IWW Headquarters – organise against conscription
5. GPO Elizabeth Street – 9/5/1970 – Jim Cairns leads 100,000 people to sit down to stop the war in Bourke street in the first Vietnam Moratorium
6. 330 Collins St – Uranium Information Centre – our link to the
Nuclear Fools cycle that started with Hiroshima and Nagasaki
7. 400 Flinders st – Immigration Museum – 1934 the story of antiwar and antifascist Egon Kisch
8. Yarra Bank – 1916-1917 Tens of thousands oppose conscription
9. Man and his donkey Memorial – the hidden history of Simpson
Kirkpatrick, radical and socialist.
10. Shrine of Remembrance – 1966 Save our Sons; 1971 – PEACE painted on the shrine columns; 1980s – Women against Rape in War highlight the terrible suffering inflicted on women and children in war; 2003 – Women for Peace attempt a silent Peace Vigil
11. US Consulate 553 St Kilda Road – 2003 – Women for Peace Vigil – Reta Kaur
A report of the ride has been posted to my blog on Melbourne Cyclist along with links to the leaflet handed out and photos taken on the ride by Moz.
http://www.melbournecyclist.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1684380%3ABlogPost%3A10144
Thanks to ‘Radical Melbourne 2’ for valuable historical background information
Takver
sometime radical historian
Lest We Forget
solidarity greetings from Melbourne – well done folks !
Here some of us are down at Boeing wildcat strike community assembly where Food not Bombs/scabs catered a great dhal and cauli curry and cous cous salad today which went down well after nearly four weeks of sausages !
for more on the 700 Boeing workers’ struggle and other local disputes and community and industrial news see
http://www.unionsolidarity.org
keep a smile on yer lips and a song in yer hearts kids !
Viola Wilkins
Melbourne IWW
Bloody protest ends in arrests
Article from Courier Mail
by Alex Dickinson and David Earley
April 26, 2008 12:00am
A UNIVERSITY of Queensland lecturer has been arrested after allegedly painting walls with human blood during a protest at a weapons manufacturing facility in Brisbane’s East.
Lisa Bridle a part-time lecturer with the Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability at UQ, was one of two people arrested after the ritual in the lobby of Raytheon Australia at Murarrie on Thursday.
Several people from the protest group Christians Against ALL Terrorism entered the building about 10am before lighting candles and placing a crucifix on a stand.
They allegedly chanted an exorcism prayer as they painted a cross on a door with human blood and posted photographs of human corpses on the walls.
Raytheon produces guided missiles. Its arsenal includes the Tomahawk cruise missile and the portable Javelin “fire-and-forget” missile system.
Brisbane’s Aerospace Centre of Excellence was opened last year at Murarrie as a part of Raytheon’s Australian aerospace team, which provides electronic warfare training for the navy, support for F/A-18 Hornet training simulators and maintenance for F-111 jets at RAAF Base Amberley.
Raytheon Australia also produces tactical radios, driver vision enhancers, thermal weapon sights and the Phalanx weapon system.
“The real crime here is causing the deaths of innocents in wars around the world,” Dr Bridle said.
“We firmly believe that only demonic spirits could allow such a corporation to function as it does and we sought to drive out those spirits.”
She said the human blood had come from a member of her group and was collected in vials.
“I don’t think there would have been any point just walking in and telling them how to go about their business. This would be more dramatic,” the academic said.
A spokeswoman for Raytheon said employees were shocked by the use of blood.
“We’re just happy that our employees are safe and well,” the spokeswoman said.
Police arrested Dr Bridle and another protester, Jim Dowling, after they allegedly refused to leave the Raytheon premises.
They were charged with contravening a police direction and will appear in Wynnum Magistrate’s Court on May 29.
Well done for exposing one again these merchants of death.