DBNY Communique on the Eviction of Easy Aerial |
CounterPunch Exclusives
CounterPunch Exclusives
DBNY Communique on the Eviction of Easy Aerial
Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard, February 11, Occupation at Building 77 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Image courtesy of DBNY Campaign.
Formation / Foundational Principles
Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard (DBNY) was formed in September 2024 in response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, with the specific aim to materially disrupt the supply chain of weapons and technology being used to exterminate our brothers and sisters in Palestine.
Unlike actions that have targeted politicians and liberal institutions, appealing to power at the top (e.g. the UN, NYT, Gracie Mansion, etc.), or ‘permitted protests’ organized in collaboration with the NYPD, we believe that our actions here in the imperial core must move beyond symbolic and performative solidarity.
Our frustrations with the insufficiencies of extant mobilizing efforts and our commitment to the liberation of Palestine led to the formation of DBNY, with the goal of directly targeting these supply chains of imperial domination and bloodshed.
We believe that it is our urgent duty to organize our communities to effect material change and disrupt the U.S.-Israeli death machine – by shutting down weapons factories that hide in plain sight.
Conditions in Gaza and Beyond
Despite the implementation of a so-called “ceasefire,” we have witnessed the war, occupation, and genocide continue unabated. Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) attacks have led to upwards of 680 martyrs and 1800 injuries in Gaza during this time. The IOF continues to bombard Iran and Lebanon, while settler militias storm the occupied West Bank on a daily basis, taking more and more land by force. Palestinian prisoners suffer starvation, torture, rape, and new legislation that will lead to mass executions. The Palestinian Authority colludes with Israeli forces to subjugate its own citizens in the West Bank, while the ruling class of the imperial core salivates at the prospect of colonizing the devastated Gaza Strip.
U.S. imperialists back all of these horrors with immense financial and material support, most significantly supplying the IOF with American-made weapons and equipment. Some of these weapons and tactical gear are developed and manufactured here in NYC on public land, subsidized by your tax dollars, and are used by the U.S. military, ICE, and the NYPD to carry out the American settler colonial project.
At the same time, we witness the imperialist war machine escalate its attacks against Iranian, Venezuelan, Cuban, and Yemeni sovereignty and self-determination. We must work towards building a mass movement capable of choking the flow of capital and weapons toward the imperialist mission.
These systems are intimately connected; we can see the machinery of empire operating on a scale from local to global. We must take aim at all of it.
Easy Aerial & Crye Precision
Easy Aerial supplies the IOF and Elbit Systems (Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer), Customs and Border Patrol, and the U.S. Military with their drone technology for surveillance and death. In 2022 they lobbied the NYPD to start using drones as “first responders in high crime areas,” targeting Black and Brown communities in NYC. Crye Precision produces uniforms and tactical gear for special forces in the Israeli military. They supply the same equipment to U.S. special forces, such as the Marine Special Response Team and the Delta squad that kidnapped Nicolas Maduro. Border Patrol agents wearing Crye Precision plate carriers murdered community members in MN. Crye Precision has contracts with BORTAC and ICE SRT, the units responsible for the large scale operations in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Canal Street in New York City.
Easy Aerial supplies the IOF and Elbit Systems (Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer), Customs and Border Patrol, and the U.S. Military with their drone technology for surveillance and death. In 2022 they lobbied the NYPD to start using drones as “first responders in high crime areas,” targeting Black and Brown communities in NYC.
Crye Precision produces uniforms and tactical gear for special forces in the Israeli military. They supply the same equipment to U.S. special forces, such as the Marine Special Response Team and the Delta squad that kidnapped Nicolas Maduro. Border Patrol agents wearing Crye Precision plate carriers murdered community members in MN. Crye Precision has contracts with BORTAC and ICE SRT, the units responsible for the large scale operations in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Canal Street in New York City.
Brooklyn Navy Yard & Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC)
Easy Aerial and Crye Precision were/are tenants of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where they are labeled as “photography” and “fashion” businesses respectively – to obscure the fact that they are military suppliers. All tenants of BNY receive rent subsidies and are exempt from paying property taxes on the public land. BNYDC manages the Navy Yard on behalf of the City of New York and currently consists of 27 board members appointed by the City. As of today, none have been appointed by Zohran Mamdani: all are holdovers from the Adams and DeBlasio administrations.
Easy Aerial and Crye Precision were/are tenants of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where they are labeled as “photography” and “fashion” businesses........