Palestine Action has targeted a major weapons factory run by Teledyne, that supplies parts for F-35 jets. These are, of course, the same aircraft the UK refused to stop exporting parts for to Israel. And, they’re the same jets the genocidal state is currently using to bomb Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen – and potentially soon Iran. Palestine Action: shutting down Teledyne’s F-35 ops

Activists from Palestine Action climbed onto the roof of an American owned weapons factory, Teledyne CML Composites, in Wirral, on Tuesday 2 October. From the rooftop, they cut holes into the roof and sprayed blood red paint into the factory:

In solidarity with the Palestinian, Lebanese, and Yemeni people subjected to Israel’s daily massacres, activists have once again successfully shut down the site known to supply crucial parts for the murderous F-35 fighter jet programme.

As Palestine Action said on X, the group contaminated Teledyne’s clean room. This will “will cause severe disruption to the production of Israel’s F-35 fighter jet components”: Teledyne: complicit in genocide

Teledyne CML’s parent company, Teledyne Technologies, is the single-largest exporter of weaponry from Britain to Israel, while ‘CML Composites’ specialises in ‘Aircraft Structural Components’ for the F-35 fighter jet programme.

The ties between Teledyne CML and Israel’s genocide in Gaza run deep, with the Wirral factory also acting as a supplier to numerous other ‘Tier 1’ F-35 partners – including BAE Systems, Marand, and Magellan. To BAE Systems alone, Teledyne CML provides at least ten different “Special processes” for their F-35 programme contributions.

By maintaining approval for F-35 component export licenses for end-use in Israel, the British government remains an activist participant in Israel’s genocidal, criminal attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.

The F-35 fighter jet has been responsible for the delivery of thousands of 2,000lb and 4,000lb bombs on targets including tented refugee encampments in Gaza, and healthcare workers in Lebanon. Today’s action serves to demonstrate that, while the British state might be comfortable in facilitating these acts – Palestine Action cannot permit them. Not the first time Palestine Action has acted

This action is not the first time that Palestine Action have struck at the Bromborough site, driving a van through the factory gates in July 2024, before drenching the premises in red paint as a symbol of the Palestinian bloodshed it facilitates.

Its sister site, Teledyne Defence and Space, Shipley, was targeted by an occupation in April 2024, preventing the manufacture of military electronics bound for Israel. Earlier this month, a jury at Bradford Crown Court refused to convict the activists, who stood accused of ‘criminal damage’ for their action.

  • btfod [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    Its sister site, Teledyne Defence and Space, Shipley, was targeted by an occupation in April 2024, preventing the manufacture of military electronics bound for Israel. Earlier this month, a jury at Bradford Crown Court refused to convict the activists, who stood accused of ‘criminal damage’ for their action.

    lea-happy

      • CrowTankieRobot [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 month ago

        Finally…an example of “jury nullification” for the left. Every other time I’ve heard that term, it’s always been from a MAGA chud. Too bad the incident (and court case) happened in the UK, though, not here.

  • neo [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    Far more effective action than slathering canned soup over the protective glass of a Van Gogh. Though I do not know why they photo documented themselves?

    • FunkyStuff [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      They were certainly already expecting to get arrested, the UK is the most surveilled country in the world and Pal Action have a very good legal team so they probably just commit to showing themselves to the public because it attracts more attention.

      • peeonyou [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        2 months ago

        Yeah maybe they thought it would be safer if people know who they are than if they just get anonymously hooded and shipped off to some hole in the ground to die.

    • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      Though I do not know why they photo documented themselves?

      Optics play a major role in public support and any activities that have the chance to have widespread public support can and should be carried out in the open. It brings more people to the cause and it causes people to think that this is not a thing anyone should be hiding or afraid of doing. It’s a component in why the juries are refusing to convict and it’s a component in local people coming out in their hundreds or thousands to block police vehicles and support the actionists.

      If you’re definitely 100% going to be caught for what you’re doing it is more effective to do it proudly and without shame.

      If you can get away with it? Yeah hide. Nobody here in the UK is getting away without being caught by police though.

      • communism@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        Nobody here in the UK is getting away without being caught by police though.

        PA UK do “get away with” actions all the time, it depends on the type. You can just check their social media, if they post about an action without asking for police station support that means the actionists weren’t arrested. Obviously some occupation-type actions like lockons they can’t do without getting arrested otherwise that defeats the point of occupying a factory for as long as you can if you run away.

    • communism@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      Though I do not know why they photo documented themselves?

      It was an occupation with the goal to not be removed except by force, ie arrest. Palestine Action cover up their faces when they’re doing actions where the aim is to not be arrested.

  • merthyr1831@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    This is likely keeping a number of F-35s grounded in Israel as we speak, without replacement parts for damage suffered last week (and from general attrition). Glory to the resistance!

  • rhubarb [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    Clean rooms are a really smart target for sabotage, we should be taking notes. I wonder what the most effective thing to use to contaminate them would be.

    • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
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      2 months ago

      Teledyne won’t suffer too much on that, they were insured, they will probably be bailed out if that’s insufficient, and the assessments of “12 months to resume production” while good if true, sounds too much like attempts to get more money.

    • underisk [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      Stock prices are completely divorced from material reality. The only thing you can glean from them is how much hype a company has in the financial sector.

    • FunkyStuff [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      While we’re at it, even though this is a clean room, this location appears to be a workshop, not an assembly line or anywhere that’s directly implicated in production. Therefore this probably wasn’t the optimal target for an intervention to interrupt the supply chain as much as possible.

      • penitentkulak [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        2 months ago

        Yeah there is levels to clean rooms, something like ISO 9 are basically just a well filtered work area whereas something like a semiconductor clean room is an absolute feat of engineering, and the complexity ramps up very quickly. Looking at the building construction and HVAC, this is either a very low level clean room or there was a small modular cleanroom elsewhere inside the manufacturing facility.

        • FunkyStuff [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          2 months ago

          Is there any indication that this was manufacturing facility in the first place? Looks more like a workshop or maintenance to me. IIRC from a thread on /r/trueanon this location would be used for repairing external structural components, not electronics manufacturing where contamination could set production behind in a huge way.