Coalition Endorses Call to Drop Boeing from Chicago Air and Water Show

The Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo has endorsed the following call by Anti-War Committee – Chicago, Jews for Justice in Palestine, U.S. Palestinian Community Network and 8th Day Center for Justice:

Protest Boeing Death Machines in Gaza:

Demand Chicago Drop Boeing from Air and Water Show!

Press Conference & Die-in

Wednesday, July 30, 10:00 a.m.

City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle St., 2nd Floor

UPDATE: see event photos and press links on No Drones Illinois website.

READ: statement by Father Bob Bossie representing
Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo.

More links and discussion on the Facebook event page.

Boeing Company is a major sponsor of Chicago’s annual Air and Water Show this summer. Many people come to the lake shore every year to see displays of jets and other aircraft.

Boeing weaponry are responsible for many of the over 1000 dead and over 6000 seriously wounded Palestinians in Gaza in the past three weeks. The dead are mostly civilians, including over 200 children. Israel’s fighter jets – the F15s and F16s – as well as Apache helicopters are all made by Boeing.

Boeing has made billions from the sale of weapons for use in Israel's attacks, as part of its eight year old siege of Gaza.

The City of Chicago should drop Boeing from the sponsors of the Air and Water Show. No company that makes profit from the slaughter of civilians should be included.

Protest initiated by: Anti-War Committee – Chicago, Jews for Justice in Palestine, U.S. Palestinian Community Network and 8th Day Center for Justice. Endorsed by: Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo, Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights, Chicago Faith Coalition on Middle East Policy, Illinois Coalition Against Torture, American Friends Service Committee, Jewish Voice for Peace

Statement by Father Bob Bossie representing

Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo

 
In 1991, my brother Paul Bossie, organized the first of many protests of Chicago’s Air and Water show. He did so because he knew the 2 million persons who filled the lakefront each year looking for family entertainment were being subjected to a military commercial (or propaganda) with three goals: (1) to recruit our young to learn to kill (2) to promote support for huge military budgets, a large portion of which goes to corporations like Boeing and (3) to foster support for wars around the world.

Boeing Corporation, with headquarters here in Chicago and the second largest weapons maker in the world, knows only too well these goals of the Air & Water show and is most glad to be a sponsor because it supports their bottom line through their weapon sales. In 2012 alone, Boeing received $27.6 Billion of U.S. income tax dollars for weapons.

We know, those in the halls of power in our country know, and Boeing certainly knows that their weapons reign down death and destruction on our sisters and brothers world-wide and destroy the environment upon which we all depend. Today, this is especially true in Gaza where over one thousand Palestinians have been killed and thousands more maimed by, among other weapons, Boeing’s weapons supplied to Israel and used by Israel to foster U.S. interests.

While we in the Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo oppose the Air & Water show as a whole as a propaganda tool for death, today specifically we call upon the Chicago city council to rescind Boeing’s sponsorship of this military commercial. This is the least they can do to say NO to the carnage in Gaza and to pay homage, in a small way, to the innocent men, women and children who already have been killed and maimed by Boeing’s weapons.

Boeing is not a sponsor to be proud of.

Thank you.


Related posts

Now that the Israeli government's killings in Gaza are front-page news -- particularly the way military aircraft is being used to mow down innocent men, women, and children -- Boeing's involvement is in everyone's face.

(See Boeing Has an Israel Problem . . . and Chicago Has a Boeing Problem)

Year after year, hundreds of thousands of people from Chicago and the surrounding area gather on the lakeshore to watch aerial displays by an array of planes. Most don't suspect that they are being subjected to an intense propaganda effort by multiple branches of the U.S. military.  The Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo views this as a perfect opportunity to engage with the public and enlist them in the growing movement against U.S. war, torture, surveillance, and other crimes.  We will join activists from many other peace and justice groups who have had a growing presence at this event in recent years.

(See August 16-17: Protest U.S. Kidnapping, Torture, and Drone Assassinations at the 2014 Chicago Air and Water Show Protest )


As reported on local TV news, at Fight Back News, and by Progress Illinois, Dozens of activists came to the Field Museum in Chicago last Monday (4/28) to speak out against Boeing's involvement in developing the next generation of killer drone.

(See Activists Challenge Boeing to Disinvest from Drone Research )