raytheon in Derry: Significant victory for Direct Action

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday March 26, 2003 16:28 by Shane OCurry - FEIC (Foyle Ethical Investment Campaign) - personal capacity shaneocurry at fastmail dot fm

As Derry City councillors relent to FEIC's demands for open debate with missile makers raytheon

Wary of public attitudes towards the War and of the connections being made (thanks to FEICs persistent Direct Action campaign) by the Derry public between the war and the presence in Derry of raytheon (the worlds largest missile manufacturers) Sinn Fein shifted position yesterday, suspending standing orders and pushing a motion through Derry City Council calling for raytheon and FEIC to make presentations to a full, open session of Council.

Sinn Fein's shift away from uncritically accepting raytheon's assurances (given to councillors in ambiguous terms behind closed doors when they had been invited to tour the plant two years ago), that the software being developed in Derry is not defence related, should not be surprising. The party's position on the company's presence in Derry has always been out of step with its national policy on Irish neutrality, against the war on Iraq, and against the use of Shannon by the US military. Derry Sinn Fein councillors had already responded rapidly to the growing anti-war movement by proposing the motion which made Derry the first city in Ireland to have a policy against the war on Iraq. Still, we will wait and see what happens after the debate with raytheon.

Perhaps more surprising was the SDLP's endorsement of SF's motion. It was after all the SDLP's then leader, John Hume, who along with fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner David Trimble had invited the US makers of Cruise (Tomahawk), Sidewinder, Hellfire, Patriot and other missiles, to take advantage of Derry's new-found political stability and favourable grant and tax breaks to set themselves up. It was the SDLP who also lobbied their New Labour muckers for the UK government to award the MOD's £800 million contract to raytheon to develop ASTOR (Airborne STand-Off Radar, an electronic attack targeting system for missiles and attack aircraft). But even the Stoop Down Low Party knows when it has backed the wrong horse and can see it is time to get out. Even Culmore Road residents are disturbed to hear the name of various types of raytheon gear being used to blast yet another underdeveloped country into the dark ages.

(Unionist councillors, perhaps aware of the futility of voting against the nationalist majority, moderated their usual pro-war stance, and abstained on the vote.)

It is safe to say, none of this would have happened had it not been for FEIC, the Foyle Ethical Investment Campaign, a loose rag-tag band of community activists, artists,environmentalists, academics, politicos and malcontents, and its supporters, who have been waging a non-violent and highly imaginative direct action war of position with the local media, Derry City Councillors and with raytheon for the last 3 years. That the public knows and is outraged at raytheon's presence and arrogant refusal to engage in open debate with its critics is entirely attributable to all the stunts, die-ins, citizen's jurys, leafleting, petitioning, vigils, pickets, demonstrations, murals, graffitis, agit-prop, sketches, plays, concerts, email, postcard and letter writing campaigns carried out by us FEICers.

Three years ago , we demanded an open, frank, and honest debate with raytheon about their activities. They have consistently shied away from any public face-to-face debate about their activities, while dribbling lies and half-truths to media sources friendly to them. Today our City Council has supported us in that demand. This is the opportunity we have been waiting for for a public exposure of raytheon's activities.

It just shows- Direct Action Gets the Goods!