You Can't Escape America's War Economy
http://www.alternet.org/story/144748/
December 22, 2009.
The New York small town has a worldwide association with peace, yet
its largest employer has been making components for nuclear missiles
for six decades.
--
Woodstock, New York -- I'm proud of my small town's worldwide
association with peace. Many times during the 24 years that I've
lived here, I've stood in peace vigils on the Village Green - and
provided a bit of local color for visitors' snapshots. Tourists and
other assorted pilgrims are drawn to Woodstock by peace as well as by
the festival that didn't happen here.
So I was stunned as I sat the other day in our excellent public
library, examining an archive which they store in a remote closet.
The documents told me that for six decades Woodstock's largest
employer has been making crucial, custom components for nuclear missiles.
In the 60s and 70s, hippies graced the Village Green. A mile away,
down a banal country lane, under the benign gaze of a statue of the
Buddha, skilled workers assembled fans that were "critical to the
success of nearly every U.S. military missile program," as the
company's promotional material boasted. And specially-designed
Woodstock fans were busy in the skies over Vietnam in B-52 bombers,
making possible the "Christmas Bombings" of 1972, which were the
largest heavy bombing strikes launched by the U.S. since World War II.
Today, Made-In-Woodstock components fly F-15s and F-16s and Apache
attack helicopters over Iraq, rumble through Afghanistan in Bradley
tanks, fire warheads from rocket launchers, and prowl the oceans in
nuclear submarines.
The Iraq War provided an upturn in Woodstock's weapons contracts, as
had the Vietnam and Korean Wars ("Woodstock Company Expands For War
Work" was the headline of a local newspaper in the early 1950s).
The Cold War work of Woodstock's Rotron Inc. fueled the growth of the
town and provided employment for some of its artists. The company,
which also makes civilian products alongside its core military work,
has been a notable supporter of community efforts such as the rescue
squad. Meanwhile (although this only became known in the 1980s), TCE
and other highly toxic byproducts of weapons production were
contaminating the wells of neighborhood homes, who to this day can't
drink their well water or grow their own vegetables.
In 1973, the company even received a Special Award from Rockwell
International, maker of the Minuteman nuclear missile. "Year after
year," the award said, "the Rotron fan has performed on the Minuteman
missile program without a single instance of failure."
Next to a model of a Minuteman, the award displayed a replica of one
of Sir Francis Drake's ships, likening Rotron's contribution towards
keeping the Soviets at bay to Drake's turning back the Spanish Armada
in 1588. (Today, the third generation of Minuteman ICBMs, now made by
Boeing, are still a lethal nuclear threat - and still rely on
Woodstock components.)
I stared at the nuclear missile and the sailing ship. What does it
mean, I wondered, that for 60 years Woodstock, with its
hippie-granola-peace reputation, has quietly had an economy anchored
in nuclear terror and arms manufacturing?
It doesn't mean that our tiny town is particularly evil. Rather the
reverse: it means that Woodstock - like all towns - is both special
and, at the same time, like everyone else.
All over the United States, in every congressional district,
communities depend upon the war economy. Our own weapons-components
plant, though it looms large in our local economy, is a small fish in
the huge and murky pond of military contractors.
It means that, yes, even in Woodstock, too much of our hard work and
creativity is expended producing products and services that go to
war, that is, to desolation and waste.
And it means that, together with towns around the world, we have a
responsibility to turn our local productivity in a positive direction.
Environmental, economic, and security crises are forcing us to
rethink the economy. War makes all these crises worse. We can help to
solve them by promoting peaceful, green manufacturing and services.
In a recession, people are naturally afraid of rocking the boat when
jobs are at stake. But so many things we actually need are
desperately underfunded. Fixing our infrastructure, for example, and
educating our children. When money is put into these, it creates more
jobs (per dollar invested) than war production.
Perhaps we shouldn't, after all, follow the example of that plunderer
and slaver Sir Francis Drake or any modern successors.
--
Laurie Kirby is a Professor of Mathematics at Baruch College of the
City University of New York, and a Woodstock musician. He is a member
of Woodstock Peace Economy.
http://woodstockpeaceeconomy.org/
.
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