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Protest UPenn’s Fueling of war, drone attacks…during Penn Relays
April 29, 2016 @ 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
FREE
Fri.., April 29 , Noon, 34th & Walnut Streets, Phila., PA 19104. Protest University of Pennsylvania involvement and representation in the U.S.’s unrelenting policy of endless war and drone attacks, the military-industrial complex, mass incarceration, and domestic handgun violence
Thousands from around the world will be at UPenn for these historic games and UPenn’s flagship. And will hear our message
The University of Pennsylvania engineering department maintains the high level GRASP Lab [General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception] that researches and develops drone technology, funded by the Pentagon, and applicable to the worldwide U.S. drone warfare and the remote controlled killing of people thousands of miles away.
The protest will also call on Amy Guttman, president of the University of Pennsylvania and board member of the Vanguard Group, to take a public position against the Vanguard Group’s investment in war (1), mass incarceration (2) and small arms (3). Guttman appears to have been paid over $1.2 million by the Vanguard Group as a member of its board of directors, Guttman’s salary at UPenn is reportedly $3.4 million and has been on the Vanguard board since 2006. We call on Guttman to resign from the board, and even considering giving the money she received from Vanguard to justice and peace efforts
- Military contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Honeywell Corporation, and Boeing, all of which profit from from drone killing and war in general. Military hardware is Vanguard’s largest investment sector.
- The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest for-profit private prison company in which Vanguard is the largest investor.
- Smith & Wesson (SWHC) and Sturm-Ruger firearms manufacturers. Smith & Wesson manufactured two of the guns used in the San Bernardino massacre. Vanguard also invests in ammunition makers in Vista Outdoor (VSTO) and Orbital ATK (OA).
Today, racism, xenophobia, Islamaphobia, the hatred of immigrants and the undocumented fuels the investments of the Vanguard Ground no less than presidential candidates that speak of bigger and bigger walls, more bombing, and banning refugees fleeing U.S. wars from Syria to Afghanistan. Drone warfare, gun violence, for-profit prisons and mass incarceration are the death ships on which the investments of the Vanguard group sail.
Brandywine Peace Community, Phila.Area Anti-Drone Network, and Phila.Anti-War Drone Death Walk, and other justice and anti-war activists.