With its roots in anti-militarist activism stretching back nearly 50 years, Demilitarize Western Massachusetts (Demil) carries forth a long tradition of peace and justice activism in the Connecticut River Valley region through divestment, civil disobedience, and advocacy efforts, spanning a range of anti-war and anti-racist battles, into the present day – a pivotal moment for intervention against the military industrial complex and the Euro-American empire it supports. Demil began as part of the American Friends Service Committee of Western Massachusetts, founded by renowned anti-war activist Frances Crowe in 1968, and continued its work through the peace and demilitarization committee of the Resistance Center for Peace and Justice until the Center’s closure in 2022. This committee, including some of its core members, continue to convene and organize. Today, Demil is a non-hierarchical, grassroots collective of anti-war, anti-imperialist activists working to dismantle the military industrial complex here in Western Massachusetts and beyond.
We address this by targeting weapons and military manufacturers working in our region – principally L3Harris, the 9th largest weapons contractor in the world, which operates a large facility in Northampton, MA. With 50,000 employees spanning six continents, L3Harris is a major player in the weapons and military equipment industry, boasting revenues of $17 billion in 2022. Its Northampton plant produces electro-optical targeting equipment and imaging masts for US Navy surface vessels and submarines. L3Harris produces a wide range of weapons, military equipment, and surveillance technology systems utilized by US and other world powers in numerous wars, occupations, and carceral settings. Beneficiaries of L3Harris’ sales include Israel (targeting Palestinians), Saudi Arabia (targeting Yemenis), the Philippines (targeting indigenous Lumad people), Brazil (targeting Afro Brazilians), US Border Patrol (targeting migrants at the US/Mexico border), US Special Operations Command (sending drone strikes in Somalia) and US police departments. US and other imperialist interventions consolidate power and resources that directly displace, dehumanize, and murder communities around the world.
Our efforts contribute to social justice efforts against imperialism, colonialism, carcerality, environmental destruction, and the use of public funds for profit in lieu of human needs. We use a wide range of tactics in our work, including demonstrations, standouts, political education, co-organizing and supporting actions and events with aligned individuals and organizations, and direct action – in the past year, we have successfully disrupted L3Harris’ operations twice through coordinated blockades of its Northampton facility. Through this work, we hope to generate outrage around L3Harris’ presence in our region and develop organizing power in Western Massachusetts to inspire a wider movement around confronting the military industrial complex and where it lurks in our communities.
Over the course of this last devastating, bloody year – a time in which the wanton brutality of the Euro-American military machine has been laid bare in Palestine following the events of October 7th, 2023 – Demil has joined forces with anti-imperialist and pro-Palestinian activists, organizations, and communities across our region to resolutely oppose this latest U.S.-Israeli assault and staunch the flow of American weapons facilitating the ongoing genocide. With our focus on military manufacturing and the US war industry, we seek to uncover and illuminate the connections between militarized violence in Palestine and the workings of Euro-American empire worldwide. As journalist and researcher Antony Loewensteinnotes, “Israel’s military industrial complex uses the occupied Palestinian territories as a testing ground for weaponry and surveillance technology that they then export around the world”; the struggle of the Palestinian people against US-backed Israeli settler colonialism is a key piece of the struggle against extractive white supremacist capitalism globally, one we believe must be fought in every corner of the world. Striking any part of the Euro-American imperialist apparatus damages the whole, paving the way for a more just world order. We see our work here in Western Massachusetts – one of the earliest sites of colonialism and its attendant genocide of Indigenous peoples here in North America – as an enactment of this principle.
Are you in or around Western Mass and want to get involved or support our work? There are many ways to contribute to our work: join us at our weekly protest standouts in front of 50 Prince Street on Wednesday mornings 6:30-7:15 AM; contact your Northampton city councilmembers and voice your opposition to L3Harris’ presence in our region; and educate friends, family, and community members about L3’s work and impact. If you’d like to get involved as a member, fill out the onboarding form at the link in our Instagram bio and we’ll be in touch! (see the link in our Instagram bio for more information).
