RAYTHEON – OUT OF DERRY NOW !
MERCHANTS OF DEATH IN MIDDLE EAST
The Republican Network for Unity has described weapons manufacturer, Raytheon, as a "war machine" and has urged Derry City Council to ask the company to leave their Branch Road premises.
Speaking at the Derry Anti War Coalition demonstration outside the Raytheon offices on Friday morning, Danny McBrearty of the RNU stated that a letter requesting the company leave Derry from Town Clerk, Valerie Watts, should be sent immediately.
The protest was in direct response to the brutal bombing of the people in Gaza by Israel and aimed to disrupt Raytheon workers entering the building.
“This is a moral, ethical and humanitarian issue. And indeed we are confident in the RNU that the people of Derry, who have witnessed the slaughter of innocence on their televisions over the past number of days will wish to have no truck with the war machine which sits on the Branch Road and whose stay there is being facilitated by Derry City Council.”
Mr McBrearty continued: “We strongly believe that Raytheon and the technology developed there should be the focal point for our opposition to the Israeli Government.
“Raytheon by their own admission manufacture technology use in weapons currently being used by Israeli’s in Gaza at this time.
“We would like to challenge our local politicians especially Sinn Fein and the SDLP to have the courage to implement the motion passed in council which states that support for Raytheon will be withdrawn if it is apparent that the plant on the Branch Road was involved in military applications.
“We feel that nothing short of a letter from the Town Clerk to Raytheon asking them to leave Derry will suffice on this issue.”
When asked what he thought of Raytheon workers losing their jobs if the company were to leave Derry, Mr McBrearty replied that “mass murder” and “oppression” can not justify local employment.
“Does keeping jobs in Derry justify mass murder of innocent children? Do jobs justify oppression? Do jobs justify tyranny?,” he said.
“As a result we call on the Irish government to withdraw all diplomatic relations with Israel to highlight the Irish peoples’ contempt for these actions.
“Moreover we call on all our citizens to lobby their MEPs to end the shambolic preferential trade arrangement that the Israeli government enjoys with the European Union at present.”
Finally, Mr McBrearty called upon the people of the North of Ireland to contact their political representatives on the issue of the Israel Gaza conflict.
“As a result of what is taking place in Gaza we call on the Irish government to withdraw all diplomatic relations with Israel to highlight the Irish peoples’ contempt for these actions.
“Moreover we call on all our citizens to lobby their MEPs to end the shambolic preferential trade arrangement that the Israeli government enjoys with the European Union at present.”