Woodstock Peace Economy: How to make Woodstock a "No Drone Zone"

Howard Zinn

"I'm gratified that citizens of Woodstock and its environs are organizing to transform the production of components now used for frightful weapons to peaceful and sustainable purposes. The bucolic setting of Woodstock is such a contrast with the ugliness of arms production. It is especially horrifying that this is taking place in a town whose heritage is peace and harmony. I support your work and hope other people will rally to your campaign to remove this blight from your areas, and perhaps other places in the country where war materials are produced will take up the struggle for a weapons-free, peaceful world. Thank you for what you and your friends are doing."

David Swanson

"Woodstock Peace Economy is providing the necessary answer to the claims of senators and congress members that they cannot shift funding from weapons to human needs because weapons mean jobs. While we know theoretically that non-military investment creates more and better-paying jobs while avoiding all the damage done by unnecessary weaponry, until local communities demand conversion from swords to ploughshares, and local workers demand conversion from swordmakers to ploughmakers, mere facts are not going to get in the way of legislators' loyalties. If other communities follow Woodstock in pursuing a peace economy, we just might all live to tell about it."

Monday, May 26, 2014

How to make Woodstock a "No Drone Zone"

The Town Board of Woodstock, NY, has passed a resolution stating the Town Board's desire that Woodstock be a "No Drone Zone". In a 4-0 vote this week, the board decided to urge Congress, the state Legislature and members of the Ulster County Legislature to keep the unmanned aircraft out of municipal skies. The resolution stresses the threats that surveillance drones pose to privacy and constitutional rights, and notes that "the use of drones by the United States military provides a dangerous precedent for their domestic use".

This is an admirable precedent that should spread to other towns. But it's worse than an empty gesture if Woodstock doesn't end its role as a source of crucial components for these same drones. We know that Woodstock's largest employer is the sole supplier of a crucial component of the military's Predator drone, and makes components for the Global Hawk spy drone. (And we can be sure that Woodstock's Ametek Rotron has other drone contracts, as only a few of the company's contracts come to public notice.)

Communities like Woodstock have an opportunity to play a positive role in making our skies safe from the scourge of drones, by cutting off the source -- by ending their role in the manufacture of drones and investigating ways to convert their local economies to peaceful, productive purposes. That way Woodstock can keep to the spirit, as well as the letter, of its resolution.