Students protest UConn ties with weapons manufacturing

Students gathered outside the Homer Babbidge Library to protest the University of Connecticut’s ties with weapons manufacturers on Tuesday, Nov. 10.  

The group, UConn UNCHAIN, is a leftist club aiming to educate its members about relevant political topics. Chalk statements around campus read “U.S. Imperialism Kills. UConn Pays the Bills,” “Remember the Victims, not the Murderers,” “UConn Employs + Recruits Murderers” and “There is No Peace on Stolen Land.”  

According to the official UConn UNCHAIN Instagram page, the rally, called “UConn is a War Factory,” stands to protest UConn’s close ties with RTX, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Pratt & Whitney.  

“We are here to oppose militarism, U.S. imperialism and UConn’s complicity in the war industry and the military industrial complex. The mass slaughter and mass genocide of people around the world, particularly in the third world,” an anonymous participant said. “I think we can all say we are against murder, against genocide, against the slaughter of innocent people and we are here to let UConn know ‘Hey, we are students who oppose this mass slaughter, this mass displacement, the apartheid going on around the world in Palestine, Sudan, the Congo.’” 

 The university has declined to comment on the protest. 

The students stood outside Babbidge Library, handing out pamphlets and holding up signs. 

“I’m here because our tuition dollars are enabling the United States and its partners to murder people across the globe. To enable people to spread imperialism everywhere,” another anonymous participant said. “These weapons have been designed here with our tuition dollars, have been used to murder people in Gaza, people in Sudan, it is enabling all these genocides and massacres to take place. As students, we should have no part in that.”  

The weapons mentioned refer to the pipeline of students trained in the School of Mechanical Engineering to working for companies such as RTX and Lockheed Martin.  

According to the official Lockheed Martin website, the Lockheed Martin Company specializes in “global security, innovation, and aerospace.” Their main business deals with the U.S. Department of Defense and provides military and rotary-wing aircrafts to all branches of the U.S. armed forces.

The RTX website states that the company “provides the United States and international partners with the combat power and technology needed to complete the direct attack, standoff and strike missions necessary to dominate the air and own the skies.” Its sister company, Pratt & Whitney, focuses on the engineering and development of aircraft engines.

“UConn is a training ground so they can continue building more weapons and continue to profit off of mass slaughter,” a UConn UNCHAIN participant stated.  

They also talked about the contracts UConn holds with these companies and their profits from Israel, the Department of Defense and RTX.  

“They fund our research, we have faculty members whose research is part of the Iron Dome and our students are being funneled into the military industrial complex…our students shouldn’t have to be encouraged into these spaces,” the participant said. 

The Iron Dome, according to CNBC, is an Israeli defense system designed to intercept incoming rockets through targeted missile attacks. BBC News reports that there are Iron Dome batteries across Israel, each containing 20 interceptor missiles. These missiles cost about $50,000 each.  

The group said they hope to bring awareness to these conflicts with a peaceful message. They stated that students should know that their message is “kind, not meant to be hateful. We are not here to recognize murderers, we are here to honor the victims of U.S. imperialism and UConn complicity.” They said they wish to show the university that there is a population that is opposed to the university’s partnerships with these companies.