18 August 2024 – View on Unity of Fields Telegram
BREAKING: Local news reports that the Cambridge, MA location of Elbit Systems (Israel’s largest weapons company) is effectively shut down due to relentless community protest and militant direct actions! A small victory in the fight to #ShutElbitDown
Cambridge Day just reported “The Cambridge office of KMC Systems, a subsidiary of Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems, is virtually empty because “99.9 percent” of employees work from home, police say, and there are other signs that the company is leaving the city.”
The local movement against Elbit put the idea of “diversity of tactics” into action, deploying weekly pickets and canvasses, home demos, secondary/tertiary targeting, and militant autonomous direct action and property damage to build pressure on Elbit and its enablers. In response to arrests and state repression, the movement did not back down. Its militancy is what gave the movement teeth. We encourage other locales to learn from the successful tactics used in Cambridge to go on the offensive against their local police/military infrastructure.
We salute our friends in BDS Boston, PYM Boston, Pal Action, and all autonomous formations who participated in the fight to #ShutElbitDown in Cambridge. Wherever Elbit moves, we will follow, until every war profiteer is vanquished, until Palestine is free!
Report from BDS Boston:
Reporters find that operations seem to have stopped at Elbit Systems’ “Cambridge Innovation Center,” following relentless community pressure. Elbit & its Cambridge landlord Intercontinental refuse to confirm this information, hiding behind local police. Upon its opening in 2021, Elbit claimed the Center would host up to 60 engineers, while benefiting from proximity to MIT, Harvard, and “the region’s vibrant Life Sciences Corridor.” Three years later, the Center appears to be sitting virtually empty.
Elbit’s failure to realize its ambitions for the Cambridge Innovation Center is a testament to the power of community organizing. But now is not the time to rest. We must force Intercontinental to fully remove Elbit from 130 Bishop Allen Drive. Be there this Wednesday 12PM.
Furthermore we must prevent Elbit from quietly moving its Cambridge Innovation Center to another location in the Boston area. Share this mailer widely to make sure other real estate owners & leasing agents know: wherever Elbit goes, disruptive community protests follow. We will keep fighting until Elbit Systems is gone: From Cambridge and everywhere. Keep fighting with us.