Woodstock Peace Economy: Woodstock's military contractor expands

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."

Sunday, January 20, 2019

Woodstock's military contractor expands

In December 2018, Woodstock's Ametek Rotron was awarded $604,000 of New York State regional economic development funding for an expansion of its facilities off Route 375. Now they'll need some zoning changes to go through with the expansion project, which will bring them the latest digital technology in their quest for the ever-more-perfect weapons component.

The Rotron facility has the distinction of being Woodstock's only Superfund site, after Rotron poured TCE in the groundwater for decades -- the byproduct of earlier generations of Rotron ballistic missile, tank, fighter jet, rocket launcher and warship components. This Woodstock Times front page from 1995 reminds us of that era. The TCE is still there.

The local economy needs all the jobs it can get, including the ten that this expansion will allegedly provide. State development grants are a great idea and to be encouraged. But even as we support militarism with over half our Federal taxes, we find that some of our State taxes are also feeding the military-industrial complex. We should demand our taxes fund human needs instead. Studies indicate that funding human needs creates more jobs (per dollar spent) than funding military technology.

State policy could be nudging companies like Rotron to devote their know-how to peaceful ends and a green economy, rather than driving them even further into the arms [pun intended] of the military.