Why Students for Social Justice Opposes Military Research like the Raytheon Project at UIC

We’re against military research because we oppose the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars were not launched to stop terrorism. They were launched for domination of a region strategic to US corporate interests. In short, they are wars for oil and profit. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis have died, plus over 3000 US military personnel and private contractors. All of this in the service of ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco.

For the same reasons, we’re against US support for Israel in its war in Lebanon and its attacks on the Palestinians. The US backed Israel this summer in its slaughter of over 1300 Lebanese civilians and over 240 Palestinians in Gaza. This backing is a result of the same corporate interests. Israel helps carry out the agenda for the oil corporations.

Raytheon is a major arms corporation which has produced weapons that have killed countless thousands – maybe 10s of thousands - in these wars. They have done this in pursuit of profit – they had over $20 billion in sales last year. Opposing US wars includes opposing the corporations that make the weapons.

Finally, the defense department funded military research we’ve uncovered at UIC is in conflict with the role of a university – to promote the advancement of knowledge in the service of society.

UIC’s Scope and Mission Statement, ratified by the Faculty Senate this year, claims their goal is “To create knowledge that transforms our views of the world and, through sharing and application, transforms the world.”

If it is true that the creation of knowledge on our campus will indeed transform the world, then it is first and foremost the duty of those creating the knowledge to understand what transformations will take place through the sharing and application of this knowledge. What will service society and the world is not advancement in the ways in which war can be waged, but advancement in the ways we can reconcile our needs with the needs of other nations and peoples.

We believe that the use of this research to create technology that will ultimately be used to kill countless civilians is decidedly unethical. When considering the ethics of research, we, as a research university, have a responsibility to maintain high ethical standards not only in the conduct of research but the final application of any research taking place on our campus."