Industrial Workers of the World

Catholic Worker gives Rakon Arms Corp paint job in Auckland (Aotearoa/N.Z.)

Youtube of Rakon Kills nvda (3 mins) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p47L9INLAw

Still photos http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/76733/index.php

RAKON GETS A NEW PAINT JOB Today, at an Auckland protest against the invasion of Gaza and the contribution of the Rakon company to death and destruction around the globe, Catholic Worker Tyler Culpepper was arrested for an act of non-violent direct action. Tyler climbed onto the roof of Rakon's manufacturing facility and revealed the true nature of the Rakon company, using red paint to adjust the building's signage to say 'Rakon Kills', an accurate and unfortunate reality.

This action was taken during a protest of around 400 people opposing the ongoing israeli invasion of GAZA. In addition to Tylers action others threw water baloons of red paint at the front of the building. These paint bombs were to symbolise the blood shed of hundreds of palestineans by israel. Components manufactured and sold by the Rakon company from right here in Aotearoa have undoubtedly helped guide the missiles that have killed and injured thousands of people in the Gaza Strip over the last three weeks and millions more in Iraq and Afghanistan over the courseof the so-called War on Terror.

Tyler said, "We can't sit back and do nothing when there are people being slaughtered. Especially when companies in our own country are helping to facilitate that killing." The following was written last night as Tyler was preparing for this action: All the nations will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks.All wars will stop, and military training will come to an end. Micah 4:3 Wars today are no longer fought using simple weapons like swords and spears. Instead, complex weapons, capable of much greater damage are used. These weapons require complex components from all over the world, even from here in Aotearoa. If we are to participate in the fulfilment of this ancient prophesy – the beating of swords into ploughshares - we must know where to find these modern swords and spears, including the components essential to their operation.

The Rakon company supplies crystal oscillators to weapons companies. These oscillators are used in guidance systems for guided missiles and munitions systems - weapons of mass destruction. Rakon's components have undoubtedly been used in the invasion and on-going occupation of Iraq, as well as in the current invasion of the Gaza Strip. The invasion of Gaza over the last three weeks has cost the lives of over 1100 men, women and children, and injured thousands more, while Rakon made record profits last year.

Tomorrow I will take a can of red paint to the rooftop of the Rakon manufacturing facility and attempt to modify the signs on the front of the building. It is my intention to reveal the fact that Rakon is helping to manufacture weapons of war, for those that have forgotten and those who never knew. Then the process of beating these swords into ploughshares can begin. The red paint symbolises the blood that Rakon helps to shed by selling components to the weapons companies. It stands in contrast to the sterile white walls of the Rakon factory which give the false impression of purity, so far removed from the death and destruction Rakon facilitates.

http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/76733/index.php

The Strongest Weapon of All

By Kathy Kelly Co-Coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence January 19, 2009 kathy@vcnv.org http://vcnv.org/the-strongest-weapon-of-all Dr. Atallah Tarazi, a General Surgeon at Gaza City's Shifaa Hospital, invited us to meet him in his home, in Gaza City, just a few blocks away from the Shifaa Hospital.Early this morning, he and his family returned to their home after having fled five days earlier when the bombing attacks on Gaza City had become so fierce that they feared for their lives.

"Believe me, when I would drive from the hospital to the place where my family was staying, I prayed all the way," said Dr. Tarazi, "because the Israelis would shoot anyone on the roads at night." Dr. Tarzi has been practicing medicine as a General Surgeon all of his adult life. Now, at age 61, he says he has never seen such terrible and ugly wounds as he saw during the past three weeks when he and a surgical team tried to help numerous patients with broken limbs, shrapnel wounds, and severe burns.

Neurosurgeons, vascular surgeons, orthopedic and general surgeons worked together on patients, as a team, trying to save them, but there were many whose lives they couldn't save. He described patients with shrapnel wounds in their eyes, faces, chests, and abdomens, patients whose legs were amputated above the lower limbs. Most, he said, were civilians. "These are strange ways of destroying the human body," said Dr. Tarazi. "Please, come tomorrow to the Burn Unit, and you will see patients suffering from the use of white phosphorous." Dr. Tarazi said that he began to understand the extent of the trauma and danger by listening to the stories of wounded and injured patients.

"Some were sitting in their houses when a tank bomb hit them. They didn't know what happened to them," said Dr. Attalah. "Survivors would reach the hospital after many of their relatives had been killed." Patients from Beit Lahia told him that in one home, an extended family of 25 people had been attacked while inside their home. When relatives came to help them, Israeli snipers shot eight of them. Many of the wounded were left to die. Ambulances and Red Cross relief workers weren't allowed to enter the area. At one point, Israel announced a lull in the fighting, but then bombed the Palestine Square, near the municipal offices.

Four people came to the hospital, severely injured. "We couldn't save them," said Dr. Tarazi. "Seven others were injured, and they survived." "In Gaza City, all of the important buildings necessary for maintaining a city have been bombed," said Dr. Tarazi. "From ministries to civilian police stations, all have been destroyed. Some were Hamas buildings, but not all." We had just walked through the area where the buildings housing ministries of justice, education, and culture were completely destroyed.

Driving into Gaza City we saw mosques, factories, houses and schools reduced to rubble. We asked Dr. Tarazi to tell us why, in his opinion, the Israelis had attacked Gaza so fiercely. He believes that the attacks are essentially irrational but that a main cause for the timing and the magnitude of these attacks is that certain Israeli candidates for upcoming elections want to assure the Israeli public that they are willing to use military force to insure security for Israelis.

"Palestinians all the time pay the taxes in blood," said Dr. Tarazi. "One of the worst aspects of this war," says Dr. Tarazi, "is the lack of respect for the UN. Three United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) schools were bombed. In Jabaliyah, more than 45 people were killed at a UN school; F16s bombed UNRWA supplies and stores." "In Shifaa Hospital, we saw plumes of smoke for day and night. All Gaza, every day, was covered with smoke and chemicals. We don't know how it affects the health."

"Yes, 'rocklets' did go out," says Dr. Tarazi, referring to Hamas rockets fired into Israeli towns, "and we felt sympathy for any Israelis hurt by the rocklets. But, if someone hurts you with a pin, you don't cut off his head. You ask WHY the person tried to prick you with a pin. Consider that people here are trapped in a prison and there is a shortage of everything. No one can repair anything.

People wanted borders opened so that goods could come and go. After six months of closed borders, people are frustrated. Now, one side declares a cease fire, they say nothing about opening the borders, nothing about withdrawal, and yet they want NATO to help tighten the siege." "I hope President Obama will be much better than George Bush concerning these things," said Dr. Tarazi. "Human beings that have such a strong army should be civilized and not behave like a terrorist group.

Fanatics can be expected to use terror, but a democratic state shouldn't use fallacious statements as an excuse for massive killing. A state which does this should be brought before an International Court of Justice." "And yet," he said, "we must experiment with ways of love. We are trying, with Jewish people…by feelings and actions.

We need to succeed. We need to live together. We are trying to be in good relations with all the partners, all the views." "The strongest weapon all over the world is love," says Dr. Tarazi, adding that he has always believed this and has said this to his colleagues, whether Muslim, Christian or Jewish, throughout his career. He recalled declaring this same belief at the Eretz border crossing, shortly after the Israelis launched "Operation Cast Lead." He had been among the 200 Christians who were chosen (800 had applied) to cross the border and celebrate the Orthodox Christmas holiday with family members in the West Bank.

When the attacks began, he ended his holiday and hurried to the border, knowing he must return to his work and his family. At the border crossing, he greeted soldiers, "Merry Christmas." Soldiers answered, "Do you have weapons?" "Yes," Dr. Tarazi replied, "I have the strongest weapon of all, the weapon of love."

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Conscripts of the world resist - you have nothing to lose but your Generals ! www.iww.org.au

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