Ground the F-35 now!
Speech at the Climate Strike rally at Burlington City Hall October 23, 2020
Hundreds of students and community members marched down Main Street from UVM to City Hall for a rally that united the campaigns for climate, racial justice, and grounding the F-35 at the city airport. To see all the demands: https://www.facebook.com/climatestrikebtv/
Following is the City Hall rally speech given by James Marc Leas.
In 1967 Martin Luther King identified the US government as “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” He called for a revolution to abolish racism, materialism, poverty, and militarism.
We need that revolution to bring all our soldiers home from the endless wars for oil--and keep them home.
We need that revolution to protect families from state violence targeting Vermonters with the outrageous noise of F-35 jets.
Each F-35 burns 1,100 gallons an hour to train for war for oil. Wars we must abolish. The F-35 can drop conventional and nuclear bombs in wars based on lies, like Iraq and Afghanistan.
But the F-35 cannot protect us from climate change, hurricanes, and pandemics. The F-35 cannot protect from racism. Or from killer cops. Or from a failed criminal justice system. Or from corrupt Vermont politicians serving the military industrial complex as their first priority. Nor from income inequality, job loss, or eviction.
The F-35 cannot protect women, African Americans, immigrants, refugees, LGBTQ, or veterans.
The F-35 program drains $1.4 trillion from health care, education, and affordable housing.
The F-35 does not fight the billionaire class. Or the fossil fuel industry. Or white nationalists. It does not drive money out of politics. Or abolish tuition or student debt.
The F-35 flights in a city are for practice making war against poor people of color in oil-rich countries. That is why they chose Burlington: the runway aims at Winooski. The military gets to practice intentional neglect–what the Air Force calls “disproportionate impact on low income and minority populations.” The F-35 is environmental racism on steroids.
The Air Force said that the extreme noise of the F-35 in a city can make 3000 affordable homes uninhabitable with noise so loud it can permanently damage hearing, learning and cognitive development. Thousands of working class children and families flagrantly abused by Vermont political and military leaders to serve the military-industrial complex.
F-35 training flights in a city benefit only the 1%. Jet fuel dealers and developers. The Mayor cleverly used F-16 afterburner noise to get grants for the city to buy up and demolish 200 homes on 44 acres across from the airport for profitable redevelopment.
We say, ground the F-35 now.
The federal government brought the F-35 to Vermont. But under the constitution, training the Guard is under the authority of the states. That means the governor has authority to ground the F-35, and, instead, order Guard training to fight the COVID pandemic, global warming, and racism.
To save the planet and our futures we are determined to build the campaign to ground the F-35 and build unity among students and working people of all races and genders to abolish racism, materialism, poverty, and militarism.