On Veteran’s Day, Nov. 11, the University of Connecticut student group UNCHAIN held a rally outside of Homer Babbidge Library. Participants wore masks and held signs in support of Palestine, while other members of UNCHAIN handed out flyers that listed statistics related to the ongoing conflict.
The UNCHAIN Instagram account describes itself as “a socialist mutual aid and education group serving the UConn community and beyond.” Other events hosted by UNCHAIN include rallies, study-ins, community letter writing and study groups. The group holds general meetings every Tuesday in the Student Union.
According to the UNCHAIN Instagram, Monday’s rally was specifically an attempt “to spread the word of UConn’s ties to the war industry.”
Izzy, a fifth-semester physics major and member of UNCHAIN who had asked to only be referred by their first name, described UNCHAIN as “UConn’s only left-wing group.”
“We’re kind of here, making sure that the interests of people internationally are respected, and the people who are oppressed by the American thumb are represented,” Izzy said.
Izzy also noted that UNCHAIN specifically focuses on “the oppressed people from oppressed nations,” as opposed to more domestic movements that other leftist groups tend to focus on. To Izzy, UNCHAIN instead looks outwards from the United States.
“There are very, very few of those voices, especially on college campuses,” Izzy said. “And we’re here to make sure that not only do those voices get represented, those movements get represented.” Izzy referenced the student group Students for Justice in Palestine as an example of movements that UNCHAIN supports. “We’re here to fight for that, too.”
In terms of the rally itself, Izzy explained that the event was meant to specifically highlight UConn’s connection to the conflict in Palestine.
“RTX, formerly Raytheon, has over 94 active contracts with UConn. UConn has ties to the Technion – so, the Israeli Institute of Technology – the IOF and IDF, as well as several other Israeli institutions, as well as the department of defense … Lockheed Martin has their name on a building, RTX as well,” they said, referencing the RTX Technology Research Center at UConn.
“These are institutions and organizations that profit off of mass slaughter, and we’re here to say that UConn has no part in that,” Izzy said. “Which, of course, means that we have to fight UConn’s place in that.”
Lockheed Martin and the RTX Corporation are two tech companies that specialize in defensive technologies. According to an article from Reuters, the two companies “stand to profit from $95 billion of mostly new weapons funding as the increasingly drawn out conflicts renew demand for pricey equipment.”
According to research from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, on a list of the top “arms-producing and military services companies in the world” in 2022, Lockheed Martin is first. RTX is second.
The rally on Veteran’s Day comes after a UConn Divest protest that included members of Veterans for Peace. The organization’s website describes itself as “a global organization of Military Veterans and allies whose collective efforts are to build a culture of peace by using our experiences and lifting our voices.”
Izzy explained that they had met a member of Veterans for Peace at a UConn Divest protest.
“They were just telling us how we were doing a lot of similar things that they were doing back in the 70s and 60s for Vietnam. And so we’re kind of here to protest the war machine, and nothing else,” Izzy said.
More information about UNCHAIN can be found on the group’s Instagram page or their UConntact.
This article was corrected on 11/19 to remove an incorrect attribution.
Is this a newspaper article or a press release? Also why isn’t there a picture of this “rally”?