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Copter Stoppers 
Posted by FoM on March 21, 2001 at 09:03:52 PT
By Hank Hoffman 
Source: New Haven Advocate 
It is just before 6:30 a.m. and still dark Monday morning when two dozen activists push shut the right half of the main gate at Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford. Sikorsky security guards rush to the scene, joined shortly by Stratford police. In the chilling cold, the protesters kneel in a long line to block the plant's main entrance. Holding hands, they sing pacifist anthems, changing the words to suit the situation. 
"No more Black Hawks for Colombia, we shall not be moved," they hymn, frosty breath billowing and dispersing in the darkness. Across the street, another 75 protesters hold banners reading "Sikorsky kills Colombians" and "Violence is the most dangerous drug." The action marks the first substantial demonstration of civil disobedience at Sikorsky over the sale of Black Hawk helicopters to the Colombian military, long a notorious violator of human rights. Six activists were arrested last December after they tried to deliver a letter protesting the sale to company President Dean Borgman. At a teach-in on Colombia in Bridgeport the afternoon before, Mark Colville, a 39-year-old resident of the New Haven Catholic Worker house, said he would join the blockade of Sikorsky even though it meant risking arrest. "I dread getting arrested and going to jail," said Colville, who was arrested for the first time at the December action. "But I think it's necessary. There needs to be a dramatization of the fact that we're killing people daily in Colombia." Concern over Colombia has blossomed since Congress passed a $1.3 billion aid package for the South American country last year. Part of the so-called "Plan Colombia," the package--which overwhelmingly consists of military assistance, including 30 Sikorsky Black Hawks--was promoted as a brawny escalation of the "war on drugs." Military contractors, Sikorsky among them, were the primary lobbyists for the aid package. Military training and equipment, supporters argued, would beef up the Colombian army's capacity to fight coca production. To many opponents, however--including Colombia Action Connecticut, which called this week's protest, along with a coalition of faith-based pacifist groups like the Catholic Worker movement, peace activists, drug law reformers and anti-corporate-globalization activists from the Connecticut Global Action Network, or CGAN--it looks more like counterinsurgency aid. They say the weapons and training will embolden the military to step up its war against the country's two main guerrilla armies, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the National Liberation Army, or ELN. The civil war in Colombia has been going on more than 30 years; the FARC was formed in 1964. Following up on his 1998 election pledge, Colombian President Andres Pastrana initiated peace talks with the guerrillas. Hopes are not high. Several times during the past two decades, when guerrillas laid down their arms to participate in conventional politics, waves of assassination and repression decimated the ranks of activists. It isn't safe to be a progressive in Colombia. According to a Human Rights Watch report, one-third of all trade unionists assassinated in 1999 were Colombian. "There were 27 massacres in January of this year," noted Mark Colville on Sunday, with more than 200 civilians reportedly killed. Although the massacres are blamed on so-called "paramilitaries" rather than the regular army, this is a distinction without a difference. At the Sunday teach-in, Colombia Support Network member Tricia Smith charged that the paramilitaries are just an "extension of the state. The paramilitaries act as a glove so the military leaves no fingerprints on the crime." "To say that our sending military aid to Colombia is not promoting these massacres is fantasy," Colville declared. The military aid and subsequent waiver of human rights restrictions, Colville added, "is like a go-ahead to the death squads of Colombia." The blockade is not well received by most Sikorsky workers arriving for the first shift. Traffic on the Merritt Parkway backs up for almost four miles north of the Stratford exit. Workers are forced to detour from the main gate down to the sprawling plant's second gate. Many can be seen mouthing angry words at the demonstrators. Some flip the bird and peel out when they realize they can't turn into the main entrance. But at least a dozen passing of motorists honk their horns in solidarity and support. Activists with the coalition aren't surprised at the hostile reception. They say they sympathize with Sikorsky workers' concern for their livelihoods. In a phone interview a week before the demonstration, Jeff Cederbaum, who heads the Teamsters local that represents most Sikorsky employees, said, "We're in favor of selling these Black Hawks and we've actually been pushing our congressional delegation to make sure these go through." Cederbaum deflected questions about human rights violations, saying it's his understanding that the aircraft will be used for "drug interdiction." "Our concern is making sure our members are working," said Cederbaum. "Building helicopters is what we do." In the end, the police choose not to arrest the demonstrators. After a bone-chilling hour-and-a-half vigil, the activists reach a consensus to end the demo and return in the future, possibly to block more gates. Mark Colville is not disappointed at not being arrested. "We stopped business as usual. I think we touched the consciences of people who work here. What they do with that is up to them," Colville says. "We wanted to act in solidarity with the people of Colombia, and we hope they hear about it and draw hope from it." Note: Blocking "business as usual" at Sikorsky.Source: New Haven Advocate (CT) Author: Hank HoffmanPublished: March 15, 2001Address: 1 Long Wharf Drive, New Haven, CT 06511 Fax: (203) 787-1418 Copyright: 2001 New Mass Media, Inc. Contact: jmamis newmassmedia.com Website: http://www.newhavenadvocate.com/ Related Article:Sikorsky Sells 30 Copters for War on Drugs http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread8051.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by New Mexican on March 21, 2001 at 10:41:35 PT
Is your job responsible for killing a Columbian?
Look who supported the Nazi Holocaust...Henry Ford, theBush Family (well documented), other major corporations.This is old news. Why don't Americans stand up againstthis tyranny? They're to busy making a living, trying to pay their corporate paymasters. Bush has turned the clockback 200 years in 90 days, wait another year and the landscape will have been forever changed. Speak up now or forever hold your peace folks. The psuedo-energy crisisis a ruse for martial law and the big clampdown that yousaw under Clinton in Seattle, L.A., D.C. inaguration. Watch!
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Comment #2 posted by Ethan Russo, MD on March 21, 2001 at 10:00:25 PT:
Make that Ecocidal
that's an ecocidal farce
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Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo, MD on March 21, 2001 at 09:59:37 PT:
Military Industrial Complex Rules!
"Military contractors, Sikorsky among them, were the primary lobbyists for the aid package."There you have it. Just the problem Eisenhower warned us about. Too bad nobody is listening, but war is good for business. "To say that our sending military aid to Colombia is not promoting these massacres is fantasy," This statement will be discounted, coming as it does from a peacenik, but he is absolutely correct. We should not be there. A more progressive European Union is avoiding Plan Colombia as the festering sinkhole that it represents. I hope to see massive dissent against this expensive, dangerous, ecocical farce.
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