Lockdown against Weapons Manufacturer in Anoka

UPDATE: As of Thursday morning all of the arrested are out of jail and amongst friends!

UPDATE: As of Wednesday evening, 8 of the arrestees have been bailed out, and have had court dates set for July. One, who is under 18, is still in custody and may or may not be held until Monday due to the holiday on Friday.

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At approximately 7:30 am on Wednesday, July 2nd, 8 people locked down to the driveway outside ATK (Alliant Tech Systems), a weapons manufacturer in Anoka, MN. The protesters, who call themselves People to Stop the War Industry, were locked in until approximately 9:30 am, after which police officers from two different departments cut them out. The action disrupted the flow of equipment and supplies to ATK, which is the largest producer of cluster bombs in Minnesota, as well as other ammunition.

The 8 protesters who locked down were arrested and are currently being processed in the Anoka County Jail. A protester who worked as a liaison between the police and those locked down was also arrested and is also being processed. The Anoka County Police department told Indymedia that all those arrested will be charged with obstruction of justice, disorderly conduct, and unlawful assembly.

More details will be posted to Indymedia as they develop.

***Statement from PSWI***

Declaration of Dependence

As Americans here in Anoka, throughout Minnesota, and all over the country begin gathering together to celebrate the founding of this nation and the preservation of freedom, liberty, and justice for all, we believe that a different response is in order. In this sixth year of war, we continue to watch as bombs fall on Baghdad and Fallujah. We continue to read as the casualty count of American youth and Iraqi citizens climbs. We continue to read as politicians use threats of pre-emptive war against an Iranian civilian population as political currency to secure the next presidency. We are forced to wonder who this freedom and liberty is meant to serve, how military aggression can be accepted as a peacekeeping measure, and how we can all fire up the grill when people are needlessly suffering under the pretense of democracy.

The prosperous collusion of the US government with private weapons manufacturers like ATK tells us that our reason for staying in Iraq have nothing to do with human welfare, and everything to do with the preservation of power and profit. As a direct result of our government's total dependence on private contractors to make war, corporations like ATK benefit from the escalation of violence and the indefinite extension of armed occupation. And while there remains at best an illusion of a democratic structure regulating the actions of the US government, contractors like ATK that supply the raw material of military aggression are entirely unaccountable to the taxpayers from whom they draw their profits.

In this anti-democratic atmosphere, working to stop the war means taking direct action to halt the means of its production. We must realize that we live near the war's laboratories, that the war is embedded in our communities, and that we can confront its operation. While we may be unable to end the war in a day, we can work to stop the flow of armament from our cities to Iraq. We see our action today at ATK as one small part in an overwhelming yet necessary project. We are doing what we can to disable local branches of the war industry in order to challenge the wars of aggression that are being fought in our name. Because elected officials will never block the cycle of death and destruction with legislation, we have to do it with our selves.

- Project to Stop the War Industry (PSWI)