Large protest outside Textron HQ in Providence

"Textron is a huge contributor to the global arms trade and they have made billions in profits from selling weapons and military equipment to the apartheid state of Israel," said protesters.

Over 200 students and allies marched to Textron World Headquarters on 40 Westminster Street in Providence on Thursday at noon, to protest the company’s role in providing arms to Israel and to call out the company for its role in the death of as many as 10,000 Palestinians, including more than 4000 children.

The action was organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation and RISD Students for Justice in Palestine. People held signs, spoke out, and chanted for around four hours outside the company’s downtown offices, which were protected by private security and local law enforcement. The event was entirely peaceful.

“Peace everyone, and thank you for coming out to join us in demanding an end to the complicity of our government and war profiteers in the genocide being carried out in Palestine,” said Andira Alves, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. “We're here today to highlight the role of this gigantic war profiteer based right here in Providence, Textron.”

Alves continued:

“For a lot of us, Textron may not be the first company we think of. When we think of giant weapons manufacturers in the country that profit off of war and oppression, we usually think of companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, or more locally, General Dynamics. But Textron is a huge contributor to the global arms trade and they have made billions in profits from selling weapons and military equipment to the apartheid state of Israel. In the last two decades alone, Textron has sent armored cars, drones, reconnaissance and trainer airplanes, attack helicopters, bombs, missiles, and more to Israel, to be used against the people of occupied Palestine.

“In 2020, Textron sold over $3.5 billion worth of weapons around the world, making them one of the largest war profiteers in the country. Textron provides reconnaissance aircraft under its subsidiary brands, Beechcraft and Hawker to Israel Air Force 100 Squadron. These aircraft are then routinely used as spotters to help Israeli warplanes hit civilian targets like residential towers, hospitals, schools, and water treatment plants, which is a shame, right?

“Despite the unassuming title of defense contractors, nothing above these weapons is defensive. Nothing. The very existence of companies like Textron is based on profiting from destruction and death - whether [by] sending weapons to enforce apartheid and ethnic cleansing in Israel, or using the same planes to surveil and harass immigrants at our borders.

“Everything these giant firms produce is only to oppress people - not to defend them. That's why we're here today. We're here to demand an end to this complicity of ethnic cleansing and genocide. We're here to make it crystal clear that the people of Rhode Island do not support war crimes and will no longer tolerate our local economy being dominated by a weapons manufacturer. We demand an end to all military aid and sales to Israel, and an end to the capitalist economy of oppression and death.”

Last week two students from the Rhode Island School of Design [RISD] were arrested for vandalism after stenciling the words “KILLS KIDS” beneath the Textron logo outside the building. In court and some media reports, the students were accused of stenciling the words “KILL KIDS” on the building, not “TEXTRON KILLS KIDS.” The distinction is small but important since at the last report the city had not ruled out the possibility of charging the students with a hate crime.

“Since October 7th, more than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the West Bank,” said a RISD student representing RISD Students for Justice in Palestine. “I, like all of you, am completely outraged by these genocidal Israeli war crimes. I understand these events as not existing within a vacuum. Since 1948, Palestinians have been subjected to ethnic cleansing, genocide, apartheid, settler colonial violence, and state-sponsored killing occurring with little to no attention from the world. There are nearly seven million Palestinian refugees scattered around the world. There is no rest for the people of Palestine. That is why we are here today to stand in solidarity. We're answering the calls of Gaza.”

The student continued:

“As a student of RISD, I reject the neutrality adopted by President Williams and the institution as a whole. Rather than standing by her claims to amplify student voices and promote equity and inclusion, our president and our institution have failed to acknowledge what is going on in Palestine for plainly what it is. Genocide.

“Every single day that RISD does not support a call for ceasefire, does not materially stand by its so-called decolonial, indigenous-centered education, and does not divest from Textron, is another day of endorsing war crimes and giving the green light to kill thousands of innocent Palestinians.

“RISD and Textron are just another extension of the war machine state of the US and they aren't even trying to hide it. On the RISD website, available to all of us and the general public, is a detailed synopsis of RISD's 80-year-long relationship with Textron. Since 1944, four years since the occupation of Palestine by Israel became official, our university has received $23 million in funding from Textron...

“Our entire education is funded by a profit that is directly tied to the killing of the Palestinian people. Our own campus in Providence next to Textron is funded by blood money!

“We demand that RISD divest from Textron immediately and recognize its complicity in the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the occupation as a whole. None of us are innocent in this matter. It is more important now than ever to stand up for Palestinian liberation. Every single day we see more and more atrocities being committed and a never-ending barrage of violence in Gaza. Our voices as artists, students, and people of the free world must be heard. As an institution that puts heavy emphasis on the rights of indigenous people and decolonial education, it's time to extend that state solidarity to indigenous Palestinians under violent, settler colonialism.

“Free Palestine from the river of the sea, by any means necessary.”