A group of pro-Palestine groups will hold a rally Friday at Bath Iron Works (BIW) in Bath, Maine, to “protest the ongoing building of weaponry that feeds the imperialist genocide.”
[RELATED: Maine DSA Stages Pro-Hamas Rally in Portland, Calls Terror Attacks on Israel “Morally and Legally Legitimate”…]BIW is a shipyard that has been a subsidiary of General Dynamics since 1995, one of the largest defense companies in the world.
The rally will be held Friday, Dec. 8 at 2 p.m., and participating organizations will include Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights, Students for Justice in Palestine groups from various colleges in the state, the Communist Maine Party for Socialism & Liberation, Portland CONFRONT, and the Maine National Guard, according to a Monday press release.
The rally will take place just over two months after the Islamist militant organization Hamas led an incursion into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing approximately 1200 Israelis and taking almost 250 civilians and soldiers captive as hostages.
Since the Oct. 7 attack, Israel has conducted an ongoing extensive bombardment and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip in an effort to eliminate the terrorist organization.
The rally’s Facebook event page states that BIW is “currently making enormous profits from Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza.”
“BIW makes deadly warships that act as delivery systems for nuclear weapons that serve US military-imperialist interests, and they’re made right here in New England,” the event page reads. “We must not allow the genocidal machine to continue. We must take our action straight to the production of the war machine at the heart of the empire: Bath, Maine, USA.”
[RELATED: RFK Jr Confronted by Pro-Palestine Heckler Calling for Ceasefire at Portland Event…]The Maine Coalition for Palestine lists the following as “Principles of Unity” for the rally:
• We demand that Maine’s elected officials call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza;
• We call for an end to apartheid in Israel and an end to US military aid of Israel;
• We believe that the voices of Palestinian people must be centered in the struggle for Palestinian liberation;
• We support the liberation and freedom of all oppressed peoples;
• We recognize the inherent connections between the oppression of Palestinian people and settler colonialism in the United States.
The event encourages “covid protocol,” “masking during actions,” and “sanitizing shared surfaces.”
Additionally, the event page emphasizes “consciousness for prayer direction for Muslim folks during actions,” “connecting and intersectional analysis involving colonialism in Wabankik/So-called Maine/Turtle Island [sic],” and “anti-oppression principles; not using ableist language or behaviors.”
Maine State Rep. and 2024 CD-2 Congressional candidate Austin Theriault (R-Fort Kent) slammed the rally’s spokesperson Sam Pfeifle in a post to X Monday.
“Socialist Pro-Hamas groups are going to picket Bath Iron Works for its role in making the world a safer place for Jews,” Rep. Theriault wrote. “This type of hate doesn’t belong in Maine or anywhere else.”…Read more by Edward Tomic
