FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 25, 2024
Media Contacts: Phil Trachtenberg, [email protected]; Christa Bruhn, [email protected]
MADISON GROUPS TO PROTEST WEAPONS MANUFACTURERS CONFERENCE AT MONONA TERRACE
MADISON, WI– As Israel continues its horrifying genocide of Palestinians with American-made weapons, arms manufacturers and war profiteers, including corporations such as Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Northrop Grumman and others, are meeting in the comfort of Madison’s Monona Terrace in a convention that is highly secret and secure. Madisonians, whose tax money supports the venue, will have virtually no access to the building during the convention, known as the NSMMS (National Space & Missile Materials Symposium) & CRASTE (Commercial and Government Responsive Access) Joint Symposium, to be held from June 24-June 27.
The Monona Terrace is partially funded by the city, which means the City of Madison is using taxpayer money to cater to these war criminals instead of funding the needs of Madisonians. This is DESPITE the Common Council passing a ceasefire resolution on December 5, 2023. We demand that Madison put its money where its mouth is and stop profiting from genocide and climate collapse!
A coalition of Madison-based groups will peacefully protest the convention on Wednesday, June 26, at 5:00 pm at the Monona Terrace entrance facing MLK Jr Boulevard with the demand “War Profiteers Out of Madison!”
We demand that Madison’s Mayor and the City Council not allow this conference to be held in our city. Madison has shown its support for the Palestinian people who have lost and continue to lose whole bloodlines–children, women, men, elders–to the Israeli campaign of decimation and ethnic cleansing. People and corporations which profit from this bloodletting are not welcome here.
We are also watching the rapidly increasing devastation of our planet’s ability to sustain life due to climate change. The materials, mining, transportation and manufacturing of the armaments the Monona Terrace guests are creating, let alone the wars in which these weapons are used, are huge contributors to both climate change and the growing degradation of the environment. It is time to end the numerous murderous wars in which the US is engaged and promote peace, within this country and all over the globe.
This action is endorsed so far by CODEPINK-Madison, Jewish Voice for Peace/Madison, Madison chapter of Veterans for Peace, Madison Democratic Socialists of America, Madison for World Beyond War, Building Unity, and Madison Rafah Sister City Project.
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