We Deserve Better Than The Military-Industrial Complex

WAR PROFITEERING AND THE ACADEMIC MILITARY COMPLEX

War profiteering: When entities significantly profit from war and militarization. The relationship between universities and the military, wherein research and development are conducted with war and profit in mind, is rapidly growing and is a dominant industry. It is also causing the increasing privatization of public education in the US. Where inconceivable amounts of money and intellectual labor could be used to address the housing crisis, healthcare, and student debt, instead it is going into mass weaponry and genocide, only for the top tier of major corporations to profit.

UML AND THE DEFENSE INDUSTRY

While RTX has played a pivotal role in arming Israel such as the development of Israel's Iron Dome, and co-produces missiles and bombs including the “ GBU-28 bunker buster”, RTX is not the only organization at the career fair equipping the militarized violence in Gaza. Another example is BAE Systems, which has made record profits through the genocide of Palestinian people, expecting as much as a 12% rise in sales this year. In 2023, BAE made over 32 billion in sales. Other attendees Elbit Systems of America, and General Dynamics join RTX and BAE systems on the American Friends Service Committee’s database which lists companies profiting off of the genocide in Gaza. The weapons created by Elbit, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, are also used for violence against migrants at the US-Mexico border, and violent repression by authoritarian regimes worldwide. According to the mapping project, General Dynamics, one of world's largest weapons developers, supports the Israeli military, the US military, and the US government’s “tracking, detentions, and deportations of Black and Brown migrants.” 

Here is a list of other companies and institutions with ties to the defense industry who participate  in our career fairs: 

• The Naval Undersea Warfare Center

• NAVFAC- Mid-Atlantic

• OSI systems-Rapiscan Systems

• Portsmouth Naval Shipyard

• PepsiCo

• SAIC Defense

• Portsmouth Naval Shipyard

• The U.S. Airfare

• The U.S. Army

• The U.S. Navy

UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT OF VIOLENCE

The current genocide in Gaza being carried out by Israel and paid for by the United States is part of a longer history of settler colonial occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing. 

Since October of 2023, Israel’s assault on Gaza has resulted in upwards of…

• 31,113 Palestinians killed. 

• 72,760 Palestinians Injured. 

• 1.3 million facing “catastrophic” or “emergency” levels of famine 

• 360,000 housing units damaged or destroyed 

• 184 mosques and 3 churches bombed 

• 22 hospitals and 64 healthcare centers out of service

This will not stop without an end to the US war machine. UML’s complicity in the US war machine must be called out. We deserve better opportunities than complicity in violence, death, and destruction.