Dear friend,

Last week as part of our national week of action to Ground the F-35, CODEPINK traveled to Wisconsin to resist against the F-35 fighter jets that were being placed at their air base. We created a human blockade in front of the entrance and successfully blocked the morning shift change at the Wisconsin Air National Guard 115th Fighter Wing. 

👉 Tell your representatives in Congress we don't want anymore fighter jets, Ground the F-35! 

President Biden just announced his 2024 military budget, which requests funding for dozens of additional nuclear capable F-35s right as we inch closer to nuclear war with Russia over Ukraine. Moreover, in just a few months F-35s will move to Madison, Wisconsin, bringing environmental destruction and nuclear capabilities to the midwest. We need to be present everywhere in the country against nuclear proliferation.

Join CODEPINK's Ukraine organizing community for a planning call on April 11 at 8PM ET!

After Biden announced he was buying more fighter jets, we needed to act promptly, so we held actions in DC, Wisconsin, Vancouver, Massachusetts, New York City, Burlington, and Philadelphia. Here's what our resistance looked like: 

In DC, we disrupted a Women's History Month event that hosted one of the VPs of Lockheed Martin – the main contractor behind the F-35 – where they were talking about empowering women in the defense industry. We got on stage to say fighter jets aren't feminist and that her company was profiting off of Israel's use of F-35s against Palestinian women in Gaza. Watch the video!

You can watch a video of our blockade of the air base in Wisconsin here, and we didn't stop our actions in the midwest after that. While a big chunk of our group risked arrest to demand a meeting with the governor about bringing the F-35s to Madison, we dropped a banner in the capitol rotunda! 

Our friends at Massachusetts Peace Action did a stand out in front of Raytheon, and CODEPINK joined Mindful Rebels outside of BlackRock. Folks in Philadelphia also gathered at their federal building to call for the cancellation of the F-35 program. Even our friends in Vancouver, Canada joined us! 

At Burlington, Vermont's City Council meeting, peace activists took over the public comment section. They called on their city government to take a stance against having F-35s in their community and demanded investments into housing instead!

Help us keep the momentum against the ridiculous and harmful F-35 fighter jet by writing to your member of Congress before they vote on the Pentagon budget!

Towards Peace,
Danaka and the whole CODEPINK Team 

P.S. SAVE THE DATE: Latin America and Caribbean Policy Forum April 28 & 29 !