More workers support conversion of BIW

 

• Thirteen of us were at Bath Iron Works yesterday for the weekly Lenten season vigil. Maureen Ostensen, one of the key organizers, shared during the closing circle a story about a young worker who took one of her flyers as he was leaving the shipyard.  He said, "You know I really appreciate that you are here.  I'd rather be building something different but need this job.  Others inside feel the same way."  Maureen told him that we respect him as well and understand his need for work.  She reminded him that we are doing these vigils as a way to challenge the company and the community to do more to convert BIW from building destroyers to making products that help us deal with climate crisis. (Photos above taken by retired BIW worker Peter Woodruff)
  

• One of the places that Bath-built Aegis destroyers have been increasingly sent in recent months is into the Black Sea.  The US is continually sending warships, fighter planes, and bombers right up to the Russian borders. Couple that with US-NATO moves to get the Ukrainian military to do more provocative shelling of their own citizens living in the Donbass (eastern Ukraine) right along the Russian border. Many fear that a full US-NATO directed assault could happen any day. This will put Moscow in a tough position - do they defend the people just on the other side of the border? It must be remembered that Joe Biden (during the Obama administration) was in charge of the 2014 US directed coup that installed a neo-Nazi regime in Kiev.  Since then it has been a non-stop war against their own Russian speaking population in Ukraine. Read more about the past & current situation here.

• I will be doing a webinar Zoom talk on March 17 (Wednesday) at 1:00 pm EST.  I will speak about the new Space Force and other current space issues.  You can register for it here.

Bruce