By Triston Mendez
Contributing Writer
The Young Progressives of America (YPA) have started an anti-war petition to prevent Raytheon and other top war contractors from ever coming to our campus and recruiting our engineers. Raytheon is the manufacturer behind the 120,000 precision-guided bombs President Trump included within an arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
According to The New York Times, the situation has been described by the United Nations as “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”
Raytheon has influence over Congress members from 20 states, due to the inclusion of Raytheon employees making up a portion of constituents from those states.
According to a 2019 article from the Harvard National Security Journal, “Yemen: Is the U.S. Breaking the Law?,” a list of locations targeted for airstrikes by Saudi Arabia inlcude funerals, weddings and marketplaces. Nothing is being done to hold the U.S. accountable for violating Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, Article 16 of the ILC Draft Articles of State Responsibility and Common Article 1 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions because “Yemen is not part to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court” and also because the United States is “a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council” and “can veto any attempt by other countries to impose UN-enforcement.” Essentially, the U.S. would have to allow for any nation to hold the U.S. accountable, and clearly that is not going to be allowed to happen.
If our campus continues to invite Raytheon to come recruit Cal Poly Pomona engineers, then CPP engineers will be contributing to a humanitarian crisis. YPA is calling for all students to sign their petition. Send them an email at ypacpp@gmail.com with your name and number along with “Raytheon Petition” as the subject line.
Triston Mendez is the president of the Young Progressives of America at Cal Poly Pomona.