Fighting the Defense Industry: Asheville Group Organizes Local and National Effort

The winding French Broad River is home to a number of rare and endangered species. Along the banks of the river outside Asheville, the oaks, river birches, sycamores, and willows provide crucial shelter for animals and the river alike.  

But 100 acres of the area beside the river have been cut down to make way for a plant that will be producing aircraft parts for Pratt and Whitney, a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies, one of the largest aerospace and defense companies in the world. 

The destruction along the river and the construction of a plant that will make components for F-35 fighter jets has galvanized ongoing opposition to the company led by local peace group Reject Raytheon. The group has organized to resist the factory and educate the public about the dangers of and environmental destruction brought about by military-industrial companies in local and national communities. 

“It’s the combination of climate emergency, ecological destruction, war,” said Ken Jones, an activist, leading member of Reject Raytheon and former professor at the University of Southern Maine. 

The group said their work won’t stop when the plant is built.  

“Continuing to resist this facility is going to be an ongoing part of what we do,” said Claire Clark, a member of Reject Raytheon. “Certainly because of the potential environmental impact of the site, we want to monitor that as a means of maintaining pressure.” 

‘All of the wheeling and dealing was done’ 

Reject Raytheon was born after the Buncombe County Commissioners met in November 2020 for the first time publicly to consider the tax incentives they negotiated with Pratt and Whitney for the 1.2 million square-foot factory. Community development firm Biltmore Farms sold the land for the plant to Pratt and Whitney for $1. Over 20 people made opposing comments to the commissioners, forming the basis of Reject Raytheon.  

The commissioners voted unanimously to approve the deal, which the public wasn’t alerted to for over a year. The quiet nature of the deal is what drew some Reject Raytheon members to the group. 

“I was indignant about the lack of citizen input,” said Melody Shank, a member of Reject Raytheon and former professor at the University of Southern Maine.  

When the project was announced, officials said the deal was a milestone that would create opportunities for hundreds of families in the region. Pratt and Whitney said they will employ 800 workers with an average salary of $68,000 and will invest $650 million in the local economy. In return, the Buncombe County Commissioners approved $27 million in incentives for Pratt and Whitney.  

“By the time we knew about it, pretty much all of the wheeling and dealing was done,” said Elsa Enstrom, a member of Reject Raytheon. 

The Buncombe County Commissioners did not respond to a request for an interview for this story. 

Jones said local government is seeking to make Asheville a regional hub for the aerospace and defense industries. One of the requests made on a petition that Reject Raytheon presented to the Buncombe County Commissioners earlier this year is to “enact a moratorium on additional permits for new military-industrial and aerospace facilities until sustainable development policies are crafted with public input.” 

The group said that because the parts produced at the plant will be shipped outside of North Carolina and to foreign countries, the plant does not contribute to local self-reliance.  

“Public policy should favor local investors and businesses dedicated to creating community wealth, who generally have strong roots in the community, over investors and businesses that come only to extract wealth from the community.  PW is extracting wealth from Buncombe County. The profits from the plant will not be invested in the local economy,” Reject Raytheon’s website states. 

‘The most notorious weapon ever produced’ 

While war rages on in Ukraine, American defense companies—including Raytheon—are expecting to turn a massive profit. In calls with investors, Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes said he fully expected to see benefits from “the tensions in Eastern Europe,” while Lockheed Martin CEO James Taiclet said the “renewed great power competition” would lead to increased sales. Since the beginning of the year, defense companies’ stocks have soared and Congress passed its largest-ever defense spending bill.  

In addition to producing parts for civilian aircraft, the Pratt and Whitney plant will produce parts for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which has been called “the most notorious weapon ever produced.” It is the most expensive weapons program the Department of Defense has undertaken, has a host of unresolved technical issues and is expected to cost taxpayers over $1 trillion. 

The Biden administration has committed to selling $23 billion worth of F-35 aircraft to the United Arab Emirates, despite strong human rights concerns. The UAE is part of the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia that continues to commit war crimes in Yemen, including killing thousands of civilians in airstrikes, torturing prisoners, committing rape and sexual violence against vulnerable groups, and using children as soldiers. The coalition has already killed scores of civilians with Raytheon weapons made in the U.S. 

‘An ecologically very significant area’ 

One of Reject Raytheon’s main concerns about the Pratt and Whitney site is the serious risks to the environment the plant may pose. The site is bordered by the French Board River, the Blue Ridge Parkway and Interstate 26. 

“It’s right near the French Broad River, one of the oldest rivers in the world, which is already dangerously polluted,” Enstrom said.  

Construction at the Pratt and Whitney site has already resulted in the destruction of acres of crucial riparian buffer along the French Broad, Clark said. Riparian buffers are vegetated areas near water that play a key role in increasing water quality by reducing erosion, filtering sediment and pollution, providing shade to control water temperatures, and reducing flooding.  

Additionally, the stretch of the river near the site is an important spawning habitat for fish and the surrounding area is home to the threatened gray bat species.  

“It is a an ecologically very significant area,” Clark said.  

The impact of the military industrial companies on the environment is a main focus for the group. Between 2001 and 2017, the Department of Defense emitted 1.2 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases. This year alone, it is expected to burn through more oil than the entire oil consumption of Finland. 

“The U.S. military is the world’s single largest institutional polluter,” Clark said. 

‘From coast to coast’ 

“We won’t stop Raytheon as we know it, but if these other companies see the protesting and the thorns in the flesh that we’re giving Raytheon, I think they’ll think twice before they want to come here,” said Reject Raytheon member Rachel Bliss. 

Reject Raytheon has expanded their work nationally. The group is a founding member of the War Industry Resistors Network, a coalition of organizations associated with Veterans for Peace that have joined together to resist “corporate control over U.S. foreign policy.” Veterans for Peace is a global organization comprised of military veterans who advocate for ending wars and dismantling the war economy. 

After Reject Raytheon presented at a Veterans for Peace national conference, the group began reaching out to like-minded groups across the country that protest defense companies in their local communities. Jones put together the national coalition, which has member groups across the country from Maine to California and had its first meeting in January. 

“We’ve been in contact with groups from coast to coast,” Clark said. “It is very difficult to stop these on a piecemeal basis, with small groups fighting these very large corporations.” 

The coalition began hosting webinars to help the public understand the war industry on topics ranging from Indigenous resistance to the military industrial complex to weapons sales by the U.S. to Eastern Europe prior to the invasion of Ukraine. 

In April, the War Industry Resistors Network will be putting on a week of national mobilization against war corporations and their funders from April 17-24 that coincides with Tax Day and Earth Day. 

“I’m going to take a public stand, and in a sense it’s about my identity.  I have to stand up for what I know is the truth,” Jones said. “Who are you in the midst of this world going to hell in every different direction you look—who are you going to be? What’s your identity? What do you bear witness to as a human being on this planet for your children, for your grandchildren, for future generations, for humanity? Where do you take your stand?”