****************************** For Immediate Release*********************************

Contact UVM Student Labor Action Project's Sam Maron (914) 400-6542 or samrangzen (at) gmail.com
Contact War Profiteers Decommissioning Alliance's Jonathan Leavitt (802) 859-3456 or jonathan.c.leavitt (at) gmail.com

Students and Community Members Engage in Civil Disobedience at General Dynamics to Launch "Peace Economy Not War Profiteering" Campaign

Burlington, VT - 7:30 a.m. Outraged taxpayers, UVM Students, and High School students will come together to engage in non-violent civil disobedience and hold a rally at war-profiteer General Dynamics' Weapons Development and Design Facility at 128 Lakeside Ave to protest the theft of millions of Vermont tax dollars to support General Dynamics, the Iraq War's sixth largest war profiteer, while working Vermonters struggle with joblessness, an "Iraq recession", and an increased cost of living in Vermont .

Under the banner "Peace Economy not War Profiteering" a diverse cross section of Vermonters is calling on General Dynamics to immediately cease receiving corporate welfare in the form of Vermont Tax Subsidies. Additionally the students and community members implore Vermont's congressional delegation, which claims to be against the war, to bring peaceful, high paying jobs instead of military contracts which further bind Vermont to the Bush administration's failed Iraq policy and General Dynamics profit margin.

"For a war profiteer that made $27 Billion Dollars last year to steal millions of Vermonters' tax dollars while people in this state live in sub-standard housing, cannot afford health care and attend dangerously under-funded schools is a moral disgrace”, explained Burlington taxpayer Jonathan Leavitt. These Vermont tax dollars should be spent enriching the lives of Vermonters, not killing innocent Iraqis in an immoral and illegal war.

UVM students have called on their Alma Mater to divest it's investment in General Dynamics. UVM student Sam Maron said, “as a UVM student I was outraged to learn my tuition dollars and tax dollars were being invested in the production of Weapons of Mass Destruction at General Dynamics. UVM's identity as a green university is shallow and empty until it refuses to do business with war profiteers like General Dynamics that parasitically steal from the American economy”.
"Peace Economy not War Profiteering", is a campaign that will not end in Burlington today; organizers are clear that Vermont's anti-war community will continue to challenge General Dynamics’ and the war profiteers’ theft of Vermont’s community tax dollars until honorable green jobs and a peace economy are available to provide a high standard of living for all Vermonters.


Contact UVM Student Labor Action Project's Sam Maron (914) 400-6542 or samrangzen (at) gmail.com

Contact War Profiteers Decommissioning Alliance's Jonathan Leavitt (802) 859-3456 or jonathan.c.leavitt (at) gmail.com