Marcy Winograd of Codepink interviews protesting UCSB students, Kate Connell of Truth in Recruitment , and Michael Cervantes of Ventura Veterans for Peace regarding protest on Thursday October 17, 2024 at a Military Industry Job Fair on campus. The following text is a transcription from the radio interview conducted by Marcy Winograd.
To listen to audio program, go to KPFK Archive, Type in Search "Rebel Alliance News" and click "play" for Friday, October 18, 2024 6:00 pm It Starts at: 31 minutes
KPFK's Rebel Alliance News: Military contractors Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon were not on hand Thursday at the career fair at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Perhaps they got the message, war profiteers are not welcome on campus. But four other lower-profile weapons contractors did show up, and KPFK's Marcy Winograd reports on the protests outside the UCSB career fair.
As students, many of them dressed professionally. Suits, ties, dresses, heels, waited in line to enter the UCSB career fair. Protesters handed them a flyer. UCSB career fair survival guide. We know you want a killer job, but do you want a job that kills?
Protesting UCSB students chanting: America where's the moral (undecipherable). Over your weapons of mass destruction.
Students chanting outside the career fair. Inside, weapons and surveillance contractors tried to recruit students. The list of military contractors included two with local offices within a few miles from campus.
Teledyne Flir, supplier of armed drones to Israel, surveillance systems to Border Patrol. Toyon Research, seller of A.I. technologies for electronic warfare. Also on hand were Redwire Space, recipient of almost a billion dollars in Department of Defense funding to "modernize decision-making processes for combat operations." And ITT Inc., supplier of parts for Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jets bombing Gaza.
Marcy Winograd: So you are one of the organizers of this protest at the UCSB career fair. Why are you here?
Student activist: We're here because several military contractors, as well as the military itself, is actively recruiting on our campus, actively recruiting the next generation to fight for American imperialism and greed and colonization abroad and we can't stand for it.
Marcy Winograd: What kind of reaction are you getting?
Student activist: It's been relatively quiet from the student side, those who are going into the building, where these companies are recruiting. But we are heartened to see community members here, faculty, grad students, undergrads coming together to put on a display so far. And then we're going to get started with the speeches and hopefully make some noise.
Marcy Winograd: When you think about it, the university inviting a company like Teledyne Flir, which provides Israel with armed drones and weapons for its genocide in Gaza.
It takes a lot of nerve, right? So bold in the face of this genocide to elevate a company like that. Your thoughts.
Student activist: It's so incredibly bold. And the expectation that we should let this happen and that we ourselves are the violent ones, not America, not the state, not the institutions that support it that have killed over 12 million people since World War Two is absolutely preposterous. We are enraged and and we put up a fight in this country over the entirely wrong things. It is so completely a distraction. And we are here to show that we're the real violence is.
----------------------
Marcy Winograd: Yes, tell us what year are you at UCSB and what kind of career are you looking for?
Male Student #1: Hi, my name is Josh. I'm a fourth year student at UCSB. I'm a bio major. And right now I'm looking for a career either in biology, whether that's biotech or some career in sales, because right now I'm doing a sales internship. So that might be some avenue that I'm looking forward towards.
Marcy Winograd: So, Josh, tell us, Josh, right? Josh, tell us what you think about what we see here. Signs stand with Palestine tombstones representing the people who have been killed. Israeli armed forces have killed in Gaza the genocide. Apparently, they're here because Teledyne Flir is inside or has been invited to participate.
And they are sending weapons to Israel for this genocide. Do you think they should be at the career fair? What do you think?
Male Student #1: Well, I don't really know what is the best way to go about it, because at the end of the day, you know, these there's not some sort of legislation that's saying, OK, you know, just because you're sending out these weapons to other countries that you're not allowed to be at certain events. I think, you know, under First Amendment, we have the ability to express ourselves. And, you know, I'm glad that we have discourse on both sides, whether that's, you know, like these tombstones that we have here. But overall, it's just a very sad situation.
Marcy Winograd: So tell us why you're here. What you're looking for?
Male Student #2: I'm looking for a job. I have an internship for next summer, but I want to see if there's a better opportunity out there or something I would want to do full time that's not related to my internship this summer.
Marcy Winograd: What kind of internship?
Male Student #2: It's in accounting at Deloitte, but accounting sounds pretty boring. So we'll see if I can do better for myself.
Marcy Winograd: All right. So there are quite a few people out here with tombstones, the names of young people who have been killed by Israeli armed forces in Gaza. And they're here because one of the companies, Teledyne Flir, is arming Israel's genocide. What do you think about Teledyne Flir being featured at this career fair?
Male Student #2: Oh, it's one of the companies here. Are they selling weapons to Israel or giving them or how's it working?
Marcy Winograd: I believe Israel has been given billions of dollars, about twenty three billion since October 7th by the U.S. government, and then they're required to purchase weapons from U.S. military contractors.
Male Student #2: Sounds like the U.S. military industrial complex to me. Sounds about right. Thank you.
Marcy Winograd: Do you think that a company like Teledyne Flir should be featured at this career fair?
Male Student #2: Tough to say. I think it's a pretty complex issue not to do more research on it.
Marcy Winograd: So you're here at the career fair at UCSB. What kind of career are you looking for?
Female Student: I'm a third year mechanical engineering student, and I'm really interested in a career in sustainable development or product design or anything where I can be creative and work with a lot of different people.
Marcy Winograd: Are there any particular companies here that you're interested in working for?
Female Student: Yes, there are a few that I've.... some of them I've already applied for because I'm just really excited. There's Granite Construction and Trinity Consulting. I think those companies are really cool. And the projects they do are really cool. And I'm really excited to get the opportunity to work for them.
Marcy Winograd:: I noticed that you didn't say Teledyne Flir, which is providing arms. It's a weapons contractor. They're providing arms for Israel's genocide in Gaza.
What do you all think about that? Them featuring them at this career fair?
Female Student: No comment.
No comment, no comment, no comment, said one student after another, stepping back from the microphone. Meanwhile, community members who came to support the student protesters had a lot to say. First, Kate Connell, former director of Truth in Recruitment, then Michael Cervantes of Veterans for Peace.
Marcy Winograd: Your name and your affiliation.
Kate Connell: Hi, my name is Kate Connell. I use she/her pronouns. I am in Santa Barbara. I'm a member of the Santa Barbara Friends Meeting and former director of Truth in Recruitment.
And Truth in Recruitment was active the last eight years or so working with students and parents, veterans and community members to regulate or limit access by military.
Recruiters to schools.
So I came here today to be in solidarity with the students here who are suggesting, pleading, urging students to not pursue careers working for military contractors such as Raytheon (Now RTX), Lockheed Martin, etc. Who are here at this career day, a job and career fair, promoting work in their business. And I believe they're targeting college students because this is an educated, elite, very skilled group of people who they can basically pay a lot of money to for their talents and skills. And unfortunately, the military contractors do have a lot of money and have a future, obviously, because war doesn't seem to be going away.
So it's a somewhat secure income and a well-paying income and can be very interesting as well because you're applying your skills.
So I'm hoping that this group will show the true cost of war. We've got tombstones representing civilians, most a lot of young children killed in Gaza, that these weapons manufacturers created these weapons that killed these people.
----------------------
Marcy Winograd: OK, your name and affiliation?
Michael Cervantes: Michael Cervantes. I'm a member of Veterans for Peace.
Marcy Winograd: So, Michael, you came up from Ventura to Santa Barbara to Goleta, to Isla Vista to be at this career fair to protest. Why?
Michael Cervantes: Because of the dire situation, the very, very bad situation we are today in our foreign affairs. I've been to this university before. We brought the Arlington West Memorial display here to the university in 2009. We were invited by the veteran students here at the university. And so it's encouraging really to hear the voices of these young people here today. They're aware of what's going on.
And the time is just looking bleaker and it shouldn't look bleak for young people.
Marcy Winograd: Right. What do you think about the university inviting weapons contractors to the career fair?
Michael Cervantes: It's well, of course, it's just standard, you know, standard mentality on the part of, you know, capitalistic thinking.
It's not a good idea to have people who are now involved with their firms are now involved with with destruction and actually genocide. We all know there's a genocide going on in our country is providing, you know, the necessary armaments for that. It's all wrong. It shouldn't be happening.
Community members from Code Pink Santa Barbara, the Central Coast Antiwar Coalition and Ventura Veterans for Peace helped distribute a flyer to students standing in line for the career fair.
The flyer, titled Questions to Ask War Recruiters, urged students to ask the military contractors, as well as representatives from the Naval Surface Warfare Center and the U.S. Marines, key questions such as,
do you know how many people are killed each year by the products or services your employer offers?
In Santa Barbara, on Chumash Land. I'm Marcy Winograd for KPFK's Rebel Alliance News.
It's that time of the show again. KPFK's Rebel Alliance News goes internationally.
Source: Kate Connell Reporting & KPFK Rebel Alliance News October 18, 2024 https://rebelalliancenews.org/
Additional Links
- What We Know About UCSB’s Newly Disclosed Contracts With Defense Manufacturers, Story by Zoha Malik, KCSB, 30 June, 2024 | Listen to the story on SoundCloud
- California's New Law: ADL Genocide Deniers to Train Teachers on Genocide, Marcy Winograd, codepink, October 16, 2024
- UCSB UAW Local 4811 workers join rolling strikes against UC, Daily Nexus, Lizzy Rager and Anushka Ghosh Dastidar, UCSB, June 5, 2024
- A California University Reveals Its Ties to Israel’s Genocide in Gaza, Marcy Winograd, Commondreams, May 30, 2024
- Sociology Faculty Letter Concerning Student Protests, UCSB, May 13, 2024
- May Day Rally Calls for University to Divest from Military Contractors, Sierra van der Brug, Santa Barbara Independent, May 04, 2024
- UCSB: Sever Ties with the War Machine, Divest From The War Machine campaign, Codepink, 2021
- Looking Back: "March for Peace,” sponsored by the Peace Action Coalition. The UCSB branch of the Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (SMC), April 17th to April 22nd, 1972
Please consider supporting The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth
and our work to demilitarize our schools and youth by sending a check to our fiscal sponsor "in our name" at the Alliance for Global Justice.
Donate Here
###
