Honeywell project
Encyclopedia
The Honeywell Project was a peace group based in Minneapolis, Minnesota
that existed from the late 1960s until about 1990. During its existence, the organization waged a campaign to convince the board and executives of the Honeywell Corporation
to convert their weapons manufacturing business to peaceful production.
wrote an article calling for anti-war activists to oppose the Vietnam war by taking the struggle to the corporations that were profiting from it. In response to this Davidov and other activists in Minnesota began researching the local corporations and their ties to the military. At the time, the Honeywell corporation was Minnesota's largest military contractor. Over the two decades, Honeywell corporation's military contracts included the production of conventional weapons such as cluster bombs and guidance systems for both nuclear weapons and military aircraft
. The group formed to challenge Honeywell's participation in the Vietnam war specifically, but also to oppose the corporation's military contracts in general.
Most of the banners and signs appearing at the organization's events referred to one of these slogans. The first three of these demands seems to have had the most support within the organization and thus received the highest attention. However when leafleting the Honeywell plants the labor activists in the organization also focused on the fourth.
program the group revived and in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union
filed a lawsuit against the FBI. This led to a low level of activity that lasted through the mid 1980s when the suit was settled out of court.
and the Plowshares Eight
inspired the group to once again take action in the streets. Davidov and a few members of the Catholic Worker Movement
began to meet and plan a nonviolent civil disobedience action for November of that year. The action received a small amount of press. Thirty-six participants were arrested for blocking the entrances of the corporate headquarters. From this action came a trial and Honeywell Project organizers recruited activists for another, larger action in the spring of 1983 in conjunction with Honeywell's annual shareholders meeting.
This set a pattern that would be repeated over the next few years. There would be two large civil disobedience actions per year, one in the spring and one in the fall. Each action would be preceded by a large rally with an educational speaker and musicians, designed to reach out to the public and educate the activists. Notable speakers at these rallies included Daniel Berrigan
, Phillip Berrigan, Daniel Ellsberg
, and Noam Chomsky
. The cultural component of these events included musicians and authors such as Utah Phillips
, Meridel Le Sueur
, Dean Reed
http://www.deanreed.de/presse/minn19851106.html and Robert Bly
.
The following day the group would hold a mass action at Honeywell's corporate headquarters with places for people risking arrest and supporters. The largest of these demonstrations took place on October 24, 1983, when thousands of protesters blockaded the entrances to Honeywell's corporate offices for over twelve hours, resulting in the arrests of 577 people.
In 1983 media reports of the demonstrations became much more prominent with the arrest of Erica Bouza, wife of Minneapolis's Chief of Police, Tony Bouza
.
Between the large actions, several smaller actions took place. Some were sponsored directly by the Honeywell Project and other indirectly by affinity groups affiliated with the organization. Over the seven year campaign several thousand people were arrested, resulting in hundreds of court trials. Those convicted usually received light sentences of two to four days in jail, moderate fines, or mandatory community service. A few cases resulted in acquittals. At one point over a thousand court trials were scheduled in Hennepin County as a result of these demonstrations.
was showing signs of age and they began looking for an alternative site to test their weapons. Two attempts to find a suitable site elsewhere in Minnesota met organized opposition from local residents, some of whom had participated in the demonstrations in Minneapolis.
In 1987 Honeywell purchased land in the Black Hills
of South Dakota
with a plan of creating their testing site there. Honeywell Project members worked in Minneapolis to support a group of white ranchers and Native Americans that called themselves the "Cowboy and Indian Alliance" or "CIA". The Honeywell Project reasoned that if Honeywell could not find a place to reliably test its weapons it would be unable to manufacture weapons of sufficient quality to sell to the military. In the end Honeywell was unable to install its testing site anywhere and Honeywell converted the land into a sanctuary for wild horses.
The main focus of the Honeywell Project at this time was still on its large civil disobedience oriented events and the main force behind the opposition to all three test site proposals came from local activists.
In the end many of the activists that made up the core of the Honeywell Project moved on to other struggles or changed their tactics. Some affinity groups continued to meet but related less to the Project as an organization. By 1990 the Project had ceased to formally meet.
. At the time, corporate spokespeople dismissed the notion that the Honeywell Project's activities had any part in their decision to do this. Honeywell Project activists disagreed.
Some of the activists that once worked on the campaign against Honeywell, and others, became involved in AlliantACTION, a similar group that conducted weekly vigils outside of Alliant Techsystems' headquarters in Hopkins
, Edina
, and Eden Prairie, Minnesota
, from 1996 to 2011. AlliantACTION conducted its final weekly vigil on October 5, 2011, after Alliant Techsystems moved its corporate headquarters to Arlington, Virginia. http://www.alliantaction.org/scoop/s1go/2004/faithandvalues/082804trib.html
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
that existed from the late 1960s until about 1990. During its existence, the organization waged a campaign to convince the board and executives of the Honeywell Corporation
Honeywell
Honeywell International, Inc. is a major conglomerate company that produces a variety of consumer products, engineering services, and aerospace systems for a wide variety of customers, from private consumers to major corporations and governments....
to convert their weapons manufacturing business to peaceful production.
Purpose and beginning
Marv Davidov, founder of the organization, says that in 1968, Staughton LyndStaughton Lynd
Staughton Craig Lynd is an American conscientious objector, Quaker, peace activist and civil rights activist, tax resister, historian, professor, author and lawyer. His involvement in social justice causes has brought him into contact with some of the nation's most influential activists, including...
wrote an article calling for anti-war activists to oppose the Vietnam war by taking the struggle to the corporations that were profiting from it. In response to this Davidov and other activists in Minnesota began researching the local corporations and their ties to the military. At the time, the Honeywell corporation was Minnesota's largest military contractor. Over the two decades, Honeywell corporation's military contracts included the production of conventional weapons such as cluster bombs and guidance systems for both nuclear weapons and military aircraft
Military aircraft
A military aircraft is any fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type. Military aircraft can be either combat or non-combat:...
. The group formed to challenge Honeywell's participation in the Vietnam war specifically, but also to oppose the corporation's military contracts in general.
Activities
In its early days the Project sponsored cultural and educational events coupled with large demonstrations outside of Honeywell's corporate headquarters in south Minneapolis. In the 1980s the group turned to large actions of nonviolent civil disobedience as its primary tactic. Additionally, the organization leafleted workers at Honeywell's various plants and sponsored study groups and trainings in nonviolence. As the civil disobedience actions grew larger, the Project began organizing people into affinity groupsMembership
The Honeywell Project had no formal membership, but the base of the organization was a coalition of secular and religious pacifists, socialists, anarchists, and activists from the anti-war, labor, solidarity movements. Participants came from a wide variety of occupations and ages and was open to anyone. Like many similar organizations of the time, participants were mostly white, though a few native Americans, African-Americans, and Hispanics were involved.Slogans or demands
Over the years the organization focused on four main demands, the exact wording of which varied from time to time. Roughly speaking, these demands were:- Peace conversion without loss of jobs
- No components for nuclear weapons
- No cluster bombs or other conventional weapons.
- Worker and community control over Honeywell and the nation's corporation.
Most of the banners and signs appearing at the organization's events referred to one of these slogans. The first three of these demands seems to have had the most support within the organization and thus received the highest attention. However when leafleting the Honeywell plants the labor activists in the organization also focused on the fourth.
Vietnam era and COINTELPRO, 1968-1970s
The Project's activities came in three phases with a dormant period in the mid 1970s. Between 1968 and 1972 the group focused on the Vietnam War. With the end of the war, the Project appeared to die off. When it was revealed that the organization had been infiltrated by FBI agents during its COINTELPROCOINTELPRO
COINTELPRO was a series of covert, and often illegal, projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations.COINTELPRO tactics included discrediting targets through psychological...
program the group revived and in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
filed a lawsuit against the FBI. This led to a low level of activity that lasted through the mid 1980s when the suit was settled out of court.
Civil disobedience campaign, 1982-1990
In 1982 a burgeoning anti-nuclearAnti-nuclear
The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes the use of nuclear technologies. Many direct action groups, environmental groups, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, national, and international level...
and the Plowshares Eight
Plowshares Movement
The Plowshares Movement is an anti-nuclear weapons movement that gained notoriety in the early 1980s when several members damaged government property and were subsequently convicted.-History:...
inspired the group to once again take action in the streets. Davidov and a few members of the Catholic Worker Movement
Catholic Worker Movement
The Catholic Worker Movement is a collection of autonomous communities of Catholics and their associates founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933. Its aim is to "live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ." One of its guiding principles is hospitality towards those on...
began to meet and plan a nonviolent civil disobedience action for November of that year. The action received a small amount of press. Thirty-six participants were arrested for blocking the entrances of the corporate headquarters. From this action came a trial and Honeywell Project organizers recruited activists for another, larger action in the spring of 1983 in conjunction with Honeywell's annual shareholders meeting.
This set a pattern that would be repeated over the next few years. There would be two large civil disobedience actions per year, one in the spring and one in the fall. Each action would be preceded by a large rally with an educational speaker and musicians, designed to reach out to the public and educate the activists. Notable speakers at these rallies included Daniel Berrigan
Daniel Berrigan
Daniel Berrigan, SJ is an American Catholic priest, peace activist, and poet. Daniel and his brother Philip were for a time on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list for their involvement in antiwar protests during the Vietnam war....
, Phillip Berrigan, Daniel Ellsberg
Daniel Ellsberg
Daniel Ellsberg, PhD, is a former United States military analyst who, while employed by the RAND Corporation, precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War,...
, and Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
. The cultural component of these events included musicians and authors such as Utah Phillips
Utah Phillips
Bruce Duncan "Utah" Phillips was a labor organizer, folk singer, storyteller, poet and the "Golden Voice of the Great Southwest". He described the struggles of labor unions and the power of direct action, self-identifying as an anarchist...
, Meridel Le Sueur
Meridel Le Sueur
Meridel Le Sueur was an American writer associated with the proletarian movement of the 1930s and 1940s...
, Dean Reed
Dean Reed
Dean Cyril Reed was an American actor, singer and songwriter who lived a great part of his adult life in South America and then in communist East Germany.-Life and career:...
http://www.deanreed.de/presse/minn19851106.html and Robert Bly
Robert Bly
Robert Bly is an American poet, author, activist and leader of the Mythopoetic Men's Movement.-Life:Bly was born in Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota, to Jacob and Alice Bly, who were of Norwegian ancestry. Following graduation from high school in 1944, he enlisted in the United States Navy, serving...
.
The following day the group would hold a mass action at Honeywell's corporate headquarters with places for people risking arrest and supporters. The largest of these demonstrations took place on October 24, 1983, when thousands of protesters blockaded the entrances to Honeywell's corporate offices for over twelve hours, resulting in the arrests of 577 people.
In 1983 media reports of the demonstrations became much more prominent with the arrest of Erica Bouza, wife of Minneapolis's Chief of Police, Tony Bouza
Tony Bouza
Anthony V. Bouza is a 40-year veteran of municipal police, serving as Minneapolis police chief from 1980 to 1989. Bouza came to the United States with his family at age 9. After graduating from Manual High School in Brooklyn and serving in the U.S...
.
Between the large actions, several smaller actions took place. Some were sponsored directly by the Honeywell Project and other indirectly by affinity groups affiliated with the organization. Over the seven year campaign several thousand people were arrested, resulting in hundreds of court trials. Those convicted usually received light sentences of two to four days in jail, moderate fines, or mandatory community service. A few cases resulted in acquittals. At one point over a thousand court trials were scheduled in Hennepin County as a result of these demonstrations.
Campaign against testing sites, 1987-1988
In the late 1980s Honeywell's testing site in Arden Hills, MinnesotaArden Hills, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 9,652 people, 2,959 households, and 2,228 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,087.3 people per square mile . There were 3,017 housing units at an average density of 339.9 per square mile...
was showing signs of age and they began looking for an alternative site to test their weapons. Two attempts to find a suitable site elsewhere in Minnesota met organized opposition from local residents, some of whom had participated in the demonstrations in Minneapolis.
In 1987 Honeywell purchased land in the Black Hills
Black Hills
The Black Hills are a small, isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, USA. Set off from the main body of the Rocky Mountains, the region is something of a geological anomaly—accurately described as an "island of...
of South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
with a plan of creating their testing site there. Honeywell Project members worked in Minneapolis to support a group of white ranchers and Native Americans that called themselves the "Cowboy and Indian Alliance" or "CIA". The Honeywell Project reasoned that if Honeywell could not find a place to reliably test its weapons it would be unable to manufacture weapons of sufficient quality to sell to the military. In the end Honeywell was unable to install its testing site anywhere and Honeywell converted the land into a sanctuary for wild horses.
The main focus of the Honeywell Project at this time was still on its large civil disobedience oriented events and the main force behind the opposition to all three test site proposals came from local activists.
Decline
As the demonstrations grew in their regularity and predictability, their newsworthiness changed. Articles still appeared in the local paper, but as often as not they began to appear in the society pages, rather than in the news section. The Honeywell corporation adapted to the regularity of the events taking moves to minimize the disruptions they caused. Factional and personality splits within the organization led to a number of participants leaving.In the end many of the activists that made up the core of the Honeywell Project moved on to other struggles or changed their tactics. Some affinity groups continued to meet but related less to the Project as an organization. By 1990 the Project had ceased to formally meet.
End results
In September 1990, Honeywell spun off most of its military contracts business and formed a new company Alliant TechsystemsAlliant Techsystems
Alliant Techsystems Inc., most commonly known by its ticker symbol, ', is one of the largest aerospace and defense companies in the United States with more than 18,000 employees in 22 states, Puerto Rico and internationally, and 2010 revenues in excess of an estimated...
. At the time, corporate spokespeople dismissed the notion that the Honeywell Project's activities had any part in their decision to do this. Honeywell Project activists disagreed.
Some of the activists that once worked on the campaign against Honeywell, and others, became involved in AlliantACTION, a similar group that conducted weekly vigils outside of Alliant Techsystems' headquarters in Hopkins
Hopkins, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 17,145 people, 8,224 households, and 3,741 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,205.9 people per square mile . There were 8,390 housing units at an average density of 2,058.2 pe square mile...
, Edina
Edina, Minnesota
Edina is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and a first-ring suburb situated immediately southwest of Minneapolis. Edina began as a small farming and milling community in the 1860s. The population was 47,941 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...
, and Eden Prairie, Minnesota
Eden Prairie, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 54,901 people, 20,457 households, and 14,579 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 21,026 housing units at an average density of 649.2 per square mile...
, from 1996 to 2011. AlliantACTION conducted its final weekly vigil on October 5, 2011, after Alliant Techsystems moved its corporate headquarters to Arlington, Virginia. http://www.alliantaction.org/scoop/s1go/2004/faithandvalues/082804trib.html
Some references
- http://www.alliantaction.org
- http://www.circlevision.org
- http://www.angelfire.com/punk2/walktheplank/marv.html
- http://www.nationarchive.com/Summaries/v210i0024_09.htm
- http://sunrisedancer.com/radicalreader/library/sds/sds23.asp
- http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ht/36.3/howlett.html
- http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=18066%2329
- http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/ZoltanGrossmanAAG2001.doc
- http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00470.html
- Minneapolis Tribune Article: April 1970: Jerry Rubin leads Honeywell protest