3 THINGS YOU SHOULD
KNOW ABOUT
AND WHY YOU SHOULD CARE
Shenandoah Liberation Collective For further reading visit https://linktr.ee/shenandoahliberation
© 2024 licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
1)
They build weapons.
With $13.81B in US government contract obligations in 2023, Northrop Grumman is, at this writing, the 6th largest military contractor in the United States.[1]
While the allure of their contributions to the fields of
aviation and space exploration cannot be overlooked
(and setting aside the fact that the soviet space program
evolved in tandem with that of the US as an outgrowth
of mass popular working class revolution despite
lacking the accumulation of several hundred years’
worth of stolen capital in the form of land theft and
enslaved labor), let us pierce the veil to gaze into the
heart of the bloody beast.
“Weapons kill people.”
Weapons kill people. Most people have, over time, come to agree that it’s generally bad to kill people. A common exception to this oft-pondered ethical dilemma is when someone in a position of authority can justify the act of killing – typically by appealing to some unifying (often nationalist) faith-based ideology – transforming it into either an act of defense on behalf of their subjects: a lamentable, yet necessary net positive for the prevailing social order; or a display of power: a morally righteous rebuke against the perceived enemy of their particular status quo.
Killing can result as an extreme response to some existential threat or emotional trigger. It can also be used as a means to accumulate resources. As our species organized into more complex social systems,
killing became commodified, as with every other aspect
of human existence.
War profiteering: Northrup Grumman stocks climb 8.4% – increasing total valuation to $71 billion – in the days after Al-Aqsa Flood and subsequent invasion of Gaza by Israeli forces in early October, 2023 https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/sypn3yewp
According to the American Friends Service Committee, Northrop Grumman “designs, manufactures, and sells many weapon systems, including missiles and guided projectiles, electronic warfare systems, military aviation systems, ammunition, cybersecurity systems, and surveillance technologies.” What does this look like?
A quick tour of their website reveals a range of products and services that Northrop Grumman touts to militaries and government agencies: the B-2 stealth bomber, unmanned autonomous vehicles such as the MQ-4C Triton and MQ-8B Fire Scout, the US intercontinental
ballistic missile system, aircraft navigation and radar
systems, the Bushmaster® Chain Gun®, precision
guided artillery and missile munitions, satellite hardware,
advanced laser tech, and much more.
Northrup Grumman boasts of how its pioneering
technologies are revolutionizing warfare – however, the
human and environmental tolls are conveniently left out
of the sales pitch. Its shareholders profit from global
destabilization under the pretense of defending colonial
borders and capitalist interests, at the expense of
international working class solidarity.
Death from above: an AARGM-ER Missile in flight
2) Their weapons are used to commit war crimes.
Besides continuing to advance the national security of the settler-colonial entity known as the United States (whose existence owes to the ongoing genocide of its native peoples), Northrop Grumman contracts with allied governments, working to maintain a unipolar,
capitalist, US-dominated world order. One noteworthy
client, the State of Israel, has come under international
scrutiny over the past decades for its ethnic cleansing
campaign in Palestine.
Northrop Grumman produces the center fuselage, AN/
APG-81 AESA radar, and communications subsystems
for F-35 fighter jets[2] used by the Israeli air force to
carry out air strikes in Palestine, resulting in thousands
of recorded civilian deaths (and many more injuries)
between 2008 and 2022 alone.[3] The most recent Israeli
offensive has undoubtedly inflated that number. Human rights organizations including Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch, and the United
Nations have documented Israeli war crimes for years.[4]
As of 2022, at least 16 student governments on US
campuses had passed resolutions to divest from
Northrop Grumman due to the company’s complicity in
Israel’s human rights violations.[5] Again, this figure is
surely growing as Israeli assaults proliferate.
[2] https://www.northropgrumman.com/what-we-do/air/f35-lightning [3], [4], [5] https://investigate.afsc.org/company/northrop-grumman
If it isn’t bad enough that Northrop Grumman is destroying innocent lives and lands overseas, it is also poisoning local ecosystems domestically at its manufacturing plants.
3) They pollute.
Northrop Grumman has an unfolding history of releasing harmful contaminants into the environment. In a 2021 report based on data collected in 2019, Northrop Grumman was named the number 1 top corporate water polluter in the United States by the Political Economy Research Institute at University of Massachusetts Amherst, as well as ranking 16th in terms of toxic air pollution.[6]
A notable case comes from Bethpage, NY, where
chemical runoff from a former Grumman site has
resulted in a plume of contaminated soil and
groundwater up to 750 feet deep and covering over
3000 acres[7] containing volatile organic compounds,
polychlorinated biphenyls, and heavy metals[8], all of
which are known to cause adverse health effects.
Northrop Grumman agreed to a $35 million settlement
for environmental cleanup costs in 2022, however,
[9]
[6] https://grconnect.com/tox100wt/ry2019/index.php?
[7] https://www.epa.gov/hwcorrectiveactioncleanups/hazardous-waste-
cleanup-naval-weapons-industrial-reserve-plant-and
[8], [9] https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/northrop-grumman-agrees-
pay-united-states-35-million-cleanup-costs-bethpage-site-costs
recently unearthed drums of toxic waste in the city park[10] and evidence of cancer-causing chemical hexavalent chromium in residents’ attics[11] indicate that the community of Bethpage will be dealing with fallout from Northrop Grumman’s irresponsible business
practices for years to come.
To conclude
, Northrop Grumman, under
contract of the US government and foreign allies (hence
a State-sponsored, taxpayer-funded enterprise),
develops technologies that cause human and ecological
destruction wherever they are wielded and produced.
Their mission can only be one of mutual ruin of our
shared humanity and biosphere.
[10] https://abc7ny.com/large-chemical-drums-found-at-bethpage- community-park-on-long-island-former-northrop-grumman-aerospace- dumping-ground/14612627/
[11] https://abc7ny.com/toxic-compound-hexavalent-chromium-northrop-
grumman-nassau-county/13663600/
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