Demonstrators urge Textron to cease making cluster bombs and to develop clean energy instead; Wilmington, MA, October 5, 2006. Photo: AnnaMarie Russo

Frances Crowe, an 87 year-old mainstay of the peace movement in Western Massachusetts, recently uncovered the fact that Textron, located in Wilmington, MA, is one of the two largest producers of cluster bombs in the US. So Crowe, and the Northampton Committee to Stop the War in Iraq, initiated a call for a demonstration outside Textron's headquarters to protest.

Cluster bombs came to public attention in August, 2006, following a report by the UN's Mine Action Coordination Center that civilians in southern Lebanon were being wounded and killed each day by cluster "bomblets." The bombs had been fired in great numbers by Israel during its pullout from Lebanon. The intention by Israel seems to have been to depopulate the region by making it dangerous for people to return to their homes or to harvest their olives and other crops. (Ed. note: please see United Nations Urges Ban on Cluster Bombs [5] on the previous page for more information about Israel's and Hezbollah's use of cluster bombs).

UN officials estimate that there are a million unexploded cluster bomblets scattered in civilian areas across southern Lebanon. "A lot of them are at entrances to houses, on balconies and roofs," a spokesperson for the UN's Mine Action Coordination Center told BBC News, adding, "most were made in America." Another spokesperson for the Center told Reuters, "They get caught in bushes, trees, wire fences. They are lying in people's front gardens."

To protest the carnage being generated in the local area, other organizations responded to the call to action, including Code Pink, Merrimack Valley People for Peace, the Traprock Peace Center, the Raging Grannies, the Progressive Democrats of America, the Peace Abbey, Veterans for Peace, the North Shore Coalition for Peace and Justice, and Cambridge AFSC.

On October 5, 2006, over 70 of us gathered outside the Textron plant in Wilmington, MA. One aim of the demonstration was to encourage Textron to consider replacing its manufacture of cluster bombs with the manufacture of products such as hydroelectric pumps or wind turbines.

We counted 13 uniformed policemen, plus Textron security, waiting for us as we arrived at the plant for the demonstration, although Textron did allow us to protest on their property without interference.

Next steps in this campaign are being coordinated by the Middle East Crisis Coalition (MECC).

For more information or to get involved, contact Marilyn Levin at crisismiddleeast@yahoo.com; [6] www.northamptoncommittee.org [7].

For more information about cluster bombs, please see www.stopclustermunitions.org [8].