 Okay, thank you for joining us here on Facebook live. My name is Rita O'Connell I'm the national organizer with CodePinx divest from the War Machine campaign and I am delighted this morning to be here with two Exploding young activists on the scene these days. They did an amazing action earlier this week in Missouri We're so happy to have them here to chat with us a little bit today about why they parked a school bus in front of a Boeing facility in St. Charles and what they're going to do next. So let's start with introductions We have we're lucky to have two folks squeezed into one tiny screen here today So tell us who you are and where you're coming to us from. Yeah, my name is Philip. I'm an activist from Austin, Texas I first got involved with activism with like the Bernie Sanders campaign Way back in the day since then I've kind of moved more into like direct action and particularly like peace activism This is actually the first action at this time that I've done, but hopefully it's the first of many. It's definitely something I'm interested in My name is Ash. I'm 21 years old. I'm from Florida I got into the activist scene from Standing Rock and I went down to sacred bar camp after Standing Rock and I met this lovely bus named Sophia The same bus that we parked in front of the Boeing facility And it's been an amazing venture since then No kidding. So so tell us when the action came about and and what led you to decide that that now was the time to target this facility Well, the bus has been Like given us life for at least three years now Many different missions of those three years on this latest was uh solely activism And we were on our way up to minnesota to help some people and be of service And the bus unfortunately started Breaking down on us. Um, there was uh, there was a bunch of white smoke A thick exhaust coming out of our exhaust and inside the bus So we're like, okay, we have to get this fixed. We have to see what's going on So we took it to a mechanic and they said after we spent all of our money there They said well, it's still messed up And you have internal engine problems and it can Blow on you at any moment and we're like great that what? What do we do now? um, so we're like, okay, where do we go and we were only about 120 miles away from st Louis, Missouri where we have um a local hub there of um great great family a great activist Seen there and we were like, okay, let's just take it there and figure it out So we took it there. We limped it all the way there and we stayed there for about I'd say like two weeks two three weeks trying to get like Some organization on what we should do about this problem I had the genius idea on the way down to st Louis to like instead of just sell the bus and capitalize over it To put her put her down with a bang and go outright And boy, did you do that the side of the bus now says Boeing gains from Yemen's pain Which has made for some amazing photographs that have been flying around the internet the last couple of days So this was first thing Monday morning Before before the crack of dawn there in Missouri Why why this facility why Boeing and why now? Well, so we heard about the bombing of the school bus in Yemen And so we were trying to we figured we're going to deploy the bus in some way Just it's just a question of what are we going to do and we heard about that bombing and we decided like That's what we want to do something about and we knew the image would be powerful because this is a bus And we're going to park it there a little bit forever It's gone from us And so we figured that's going to be a powerful message But unfortunately, you know Lockheed Martin made the bomb But there's no Lockheed Martin office in st Louis So we looked up, okay You know, there's other war contractors here Who else is there and the biggest one of course is Boeing And we happened to find out almost through just chance through reading articles on the internet That that st. Charles facility is where they make JDAMs, which are joint direct attack munitions It's basically a guidance package They put on a dumb bomb to turn it into a guided smart bomb and they're selling those to Saudi Arabia And so we were reading all about this and we were able to find out that facility We were where we were at is the exact facility where they make those So we thought that's the there's only one way in or out kind of So we figured that is the perfect place for us to click the bus and lock down And hopefully shut them down for at least a little bit And it seems that you did I know that they they were open for business But certainly they had to send their employees around to another entrance and you got you had police presence in the streets And you had local news out and so people people paid attention They knew you were there and I'd like to read the statement Boeing put out Yeah I this is I think this is an amazing thing that you that you Coerced them into doing Boeing said the following in response to this protest Boeing supports us government sales as requested by our customers Including development and procurement of new and existing weapons capabilities supporting more than 35 global allies And then they say this which I think is the best part Specific questions regarding international arms sales and operations should be directed to the u.s. government Wow, that is absolutely shameful. I can't absolutely What a dodge. I mean I laughed but in the bad way Yeah, I thought I thought they would do what all the cops they were saying to us Which is like, you know the bomb that used in that school bus wasn't even made by Boeing and I'm like, oh jeez Yeah, we spent hours researching this. We actually know what we're talking about So I thought bowie would go that route to black. We didn't do anything. We're innocent But it's amazing It's amazing how much it shows their complicity. They they know fully what they're doing Yeah, I think it's totally shameful. They basically just said yep We sell weapons to lots of people and if you have questions about talk to the government I have to say I think one of the best things about this action is that it wasn't Lockheed martin That you you're drawing attention to the fact that we're doing this all over the country From all kinds of different facilities from at least five major weapons contractors And that's just the big ones. You know, those are the ones that that we know for sure Exactly what kinds of bombs they're creating and when you get into things like guidance systems and surveillance technology and everything else I mean, we're we're all over the world with this stuff. So the point is not at all Lockheed did this let's punish Lockheed the point as I think you are making really clearly is let's take a look at this entire Complex of of us militarism globally. Now. You are not both specifically anti-war activists. Do you come out of out of Other other activism realms as well. What what brings you to this place? And where do you see the intersections with the other justice work you've been doing? At least for me, I think that this was like Learning about us foreign policy is one of the things that first got I mean like really outraged and radicalized about Like what's going on in the world in my personal role on that Before this it's been mostly like pipeline Things like from Standing Rock up until now But it's mainly because I didn't really know that there was other anti-war activism that was happening Like it just seemed like that was kind of an old thing and maybe there's groups about it But you know, I never heard about it And so, you know, we thought okay, whatever I'm going to do this action anyway But now that I realize there is this much larger network of people doing things I mean, I would say I am an anti-war activist now So before this I was and I just didn't realize there was like stuff I could really be doing about it Bravo First action of many Well said and what about you ash? um He hit that perfectly. Um, I'm more of uh, I want to go to the root cause of the issues and um It's it's very impactful to go to like The like capitalism is the output of like like They're causing pipelines and they're causing all of these things to disrupt this earth um, and That's just like They're causing that and I don't want to go to the effect. I want to go to the root of it and kill the root I want to stop the root and take it out of the soil so it doesn't further spread in For capitalizing over death. That's like the ultimate capitalism Yeah, absolutely. And he's both talking the intersection between like capitalism and imperialism is like there's these huge I mean massive corporations that literally make money off of killing people Like the more intense wars are and the longer they go on The better their share price does the more money going banks and Lockheed Martin And it's like and it's all made possible because of racism because oh these are just poor brown people in Yemen So they're just not seen by the corporate media. They're just discounted. They don't qualify for human status But for me, that's what motivates me is like Anti-war activism is like the intersection of like all of these other issues. It's like the apex of capitalism imperialism racism like It's all right there It's beautifully articulated and I know there will be a lot of Folks in the anti-war movement who are delighted to see young people from other movements moving into this space and seeing that So clearly I want to talk about how you didn't bring demands to Boeing you You didn't Come with any specific set of expectations You you acted in solidarity with the victims in Yemen and and Philip you said to the people of Yemen I'd like to say that we have heard your cries and that you are not alone That is tremendously powerful stuff and I know that it's been received by folks in Yemen I saw some facebook screen grabs of people people who saw you do this and who know Now that that they are not alone and that there are american citizens who are standing up Against what our government is doing there and then and then you go on to draw this amazing connection The same corporate state that is responsible for your suffering in Yemen is responsible for our suffering from plinth To furgusson to the bayous of louisiana Tell me more Yeah, I mean that's part of what we were doing is like we're not going to go to boeing and do like the usual activism thing Of saying we're upset and we would like you to do this and if you do this then we'll leave Because I think you know we think that's just futile like they need to make money. This is capitalism So instead we wanted to act out of solidarity with our victims in Yemen And say like look boeing. We're not talking to you. We're not addressing you We want to motivate other people and other americans to take bold and nonviolent action And it's not just like a sort of A charitable solidarity like people of yemen. We're going to help you and it's not just a self interest like We're being attacked by this corporate state. We must defend ourselves. It's a recognition that it's both We are under like the people of yemen and the people of the united states Share a common enemy in the united states government and it's corporate backers And so it's like we should collaborate on this. It's not just solidarity. It's not just self interest It's like the higher fusion of those two things And I hope that like more people come to recognize that like all of these struggles are related And it's you know, we just have to stand stand in solidarity with each other If we came with a list of demands They would just throw the paper away immediately because our demands in their eyes would be absurd like completely absurd and It wasn't about that it was about that we wanted the people to know That we feel for them and we are sorry And we this is all that we can do right now and I wish we could do more And i'm sorry we can't do more but this is all we have right now It's tremendously inspiring stuff The media attention has been like really great like way more than we expected But honestly we have been like most impacted by the fact that people in yemen have actually heard about this for us That's like more meaningful than all of the other media attention is knowing that they heard about this and they Were in this together Now I am glad to hear that you're getting some media attention. Um here at code pink We've been talking a lot about how there has been absolute abject silence On the subject of a lot of our foreign conflicts But specifically yemen and it wasn't until this this particular guided missile that you all are talking about was dropped on That school bus that we finally saw Outlets like cnn actually giving some coverage To the to not only to the existence of this ongoing conflict, which is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world Which we are we are funding at aggressive levels, but also Specifically pointing out american military contractor presence and they they ran this amazing graphic that showed Raytheon and lachid martin and the people creating these bombs and the places the bombs have landed That was a game changer in terms of the way mainstream media in this country Talks about our involvement in these foreign conflicts that we don't like to call wars So who have you spoken to and what has the reception been? It's all been uh, like local media at this point Surprisingly, one of the best articles that was local was written by like box And saying well, they were a really good article and they quoted like the statement we wrote Or made them like the whole thing including like that. We share a common enemy with the u.s. Government I was very surprised that they quoted that but it's mostly been local St. Louis media. I think I'm not sure if it's gotten a lot of like National publicity, but it's activism. So I guess the interview this morning with uh current affairs Oh, great It was it was like a 10 minute interview very brief, but that's probably been the biggest one But of course the corporate media is not going to want to talk about us. I know that Not not yet anyway, but we'll see what we can do about that So what's what's next now? You're in Missouri You well actually no, let's let's back up a second. You were were you both arrested? Yeah, okay, and and how did that all go down? um As much as arrested could be okay. Um I got bailed out for my personal safety. Um, I'm trans so I didn't want to stay in a facility um, especially st. Charles. They're known for being very white supremacists and Like racist and I I didn't want to put myself in harm's way um, but he was the strongest one of us for staying in there, uh for all of the time and uh going on a hunger strike as well Yeah, I mean so because I didn't take bail. I was they held me for 24 hours then released me I was on hunger strike while I was in jail um It was I guess it was all right. It was painful literally The bed was just like a piece of metal so I couldn't really sleep I couldn't get comfortable at all They kept the lights on I wasn't eating and but the whole time I was trying to think like I'm doing this To be experiencing the pain and suffering to a minuscule degree that the people of Yemen and other And to know like this is what that must feel like for them So I try to spend a lot of time meditating and like having it be like a spiritual experience for me is like I am feeling the same pain and the same hunger that they are feeling and I only went Not even 48 hours without eating and people over there are probably going weeks I think it's nine million people are at risk of famine or dying from starvation So that's you know what my suffering I think is Absolutely Well, it's a it's a fabulous display of nonviolent civil disobedience and for that we thank you and and um from all of us here at Code Pink and and my colleagues in the anti-war movement who have been enthusiastically forwarding me Information about this protest since Monday morning Congratulations and and thanks and we all stand with you. So so now what's next? Um, we're actually uh, Louisiana right now Uh, um longer story behind way longer story Okay, do with anti-war activism didn't take a bus No, no, um The bus actually had six solar panels and we had to unfortunately sell those to get another vehicle because um, I have a daughter and we At least Some sort of transportation is somewhere that we can stay other than Outside because it's frowned upon to live on earth out in nature. Yeah with the kid um, so we bought a vehicle and we're Traveling in the vehicle now We went down to Louisiana and now we're on our way to florida Because i'm going to get top surgery um, and then hopefully um We I I was born and raised in florida. So of course the water crisis there is a major issue in my heart Um, so that's on the forefront of my mind, but no set plans yet Fabulous and philip. Where are you heading? Yeah, we'll see not really sure yet. I know that there is um, There are things happening in massachusetts like actions against urethane because they have headquarters there I would be interested in going there and Maybe seeing what that's about but not really sure yet, but Yeah, this is definitely a beginning Well, if any of the folks in boston are watching, I know that they are excited to connect with you They've already reached out to me about it. So after this philip. I'll be sure to get you some contacts If you had some money, that's great We'll probably be together Okay unit Fabulous traveling together Seeing what comes next. Well, it's been a real pleasure to talk to you both. Um, I I can't say enough about about how how Um remarkable it was that you just really just the couple of you showed up and and pulled off this This fabulous stunt and I think it shows a bit of a sea change in the way Um, not just the activist community, but but everyone is starting to think about um American militarism in the world and and the intersection Of this with all of these other justice issues as you've discussed. So here at code pink We're working on a divest from the war machine campaign If anyone watching is interested in learning about how you can personally divest your own complicity or that of your institutions Or your communities, please email me divest at codepink.org We'd love to help you plug into that campaign and connect with these folks, too If you'd like to learn more about um, what their next actions might be briefly I want to say you seem to be working with um a group in Missouri environmental defense fund who have post defense coalition Earth defense coalition my apologies. Um, so so I assume they can find those folks online as well who are continuing to Do some great work there in Missouri Starting Um, I also want to uh, like Remind everyone you or anybody that is seeing this or that will see this that I like through my activism career so far, um I always thought that I needed my ducks in the row to like do an action to get media to get jail support to get like Like legal observers to have all of this stuff in line before I do something But that's not the point. We didn't do that with what we had. We had three people Um that put this on in a matter of four days Is we got kicked out of the bus and they're like, okay. Well, we can't we can't just leave it here We gotta do it and just to really Look deep down inside and to figure out why you're doing this And see the injustice and just do something about it no matter what it is just do it No matter what the consequences do it because you know, it's right in your heart That's a fabulous place to leave it. Thank you so much ash and philip will be in touch. I'm sure Thanks for watching uh online codepink.org to find out more about us and what we're up to have a beautiful day We'll talk to you all soon. Thank you