CPTnet
24 January 2009
CHICAGO: Coffins bear truth to Boeing

On 19 January 2009 fifty CPTers and supporters carried cardboard coffins covered with Palestinian flags through downtown Chicago, dramatizing Boeing's deadly connection to Israel's recent offensive in Gaza. Chicago police arrested four of the mourners when they knelt to pray beside the coffins placed at the front door of Boeing Headquarters.

Boeing makes the GBU-39 small diameter bombs and the Apache helicopters used by the Israeli military during its recent war on Gaza.  More than 1300 Palestinians, mostly women and children, lost their lives, and thousands more were injured when bombs fell on neighborhoods, schools, hospitals and UN food warehouses.

Participants in the 19 January Martin Luther King Day witness sought to honor Dr. King's call to end racism, militarism and poverty.

"Taking this step to expose one of the biggest perpetrators of militarism is a fitting memorial to Dr. King," said CPT training participant Janie Stein. "The people of Palestine and Israel will have a greater chance for peace and security when corporations like Boeing stop sending weapons to the region."

Mourners dressed in black shrouds and white face paint to symbolize death slowly led the two-block-long silent procession through the frigid Chicago streets for about 3/4 of a mile from the Federal Building to Boeing's headquarters.

The group attempted to enter the building to request a meeting with Boeing executives. Stein gained entry before police and security guards moved to block the doorways. Mourners then placed the coffins at Boeing's doors and began to sing and pray, laying candles and photographs of those killed in Gaza around the coffins.

Boeing personnel repeatedly denied Stein's request to schedule a meeting, so she rejoined the group outside and proceeded to lay her body down next to the coffins along with CPT Reservist Tracy Hughes of Chicago and training participant Joe Wyse.  Trainee Martin Bates knelt in prayer over the bodies and coffins.

When Chicago police ordered everyone to leave Boeing property, vigilers continued singing and praying as they slowly moved onto the pubic sidewalk. Bates, Hughes, Stein and Wyse remained with the coffins. Shortly before 5:00 p.m., police arrested the four for trespassing and they spent the next six hours in jail.

Wyse, a 25-year-old freelance journalist, participated in civil disobedience for the first time. "I wanted to join others to send a strong message to Boeing that we're opposed to what they are doing--producing and profiting from bombs used on civilian populations," he said.

CPT training participants who organized the witness were: Ellen Johnson Arginteanu (State College, PA), Martin Bates (Salina, KS), Eloy García (Albuquerque, NM), Kathleen and Paul Helbling (Liberty Center, OH), Scott Nicholson (Missoula, MT), Muriel T. Stackley (Kansas City, Kansas), Janie Stein (Salina, KS), Ben Wert (Toronto, ON), and Joe Wyse (London, OH).