The infamous arms dealer’s about to get millions from local governments to build one of their murder factories right here in our city
Above: ‘Not Our Town.’ Special to the Blade
Caution: This article contains images and descriptions of horrific violence
First it was “Project Ranger,” a mysterious effort shrouded in secrecy, unveiled late last month as a massive industrial development. Then, as the details were rushed through the public eye (to breathless endorsement from local officials and major media), it became the more formal “Pratt and Whitney Economic Development Agreement.” That’s what it’s called on the official county commissioners agenda for their Tuesday meeting, where they’re set to give the project millions in incentives.
So at this point one has probably heard about the “amazing” deal. A $650 million investment! Eight hundred jobs!
But one word was conspicuously missing from all the celebrations: Raytheon.
You may have heard of Raytheon, the notorious weapons company that sits atop the military-industrial complex like a bloated tick. Raytheon the favorite of Saudi despots and Trumpist oligarchs alike. Raytheon whose bombs level marketplaces, schools and weddings. Raytheon the killer of doctors and refugees. Raytheon the murderer of children.
That Raytheon.
Raytheon owns Pratt and Whitney.
Indeed, Pratt and Whitney is just another division of Raytheon’s $100 billion, world-spanning conglomerate. Given the company’s reputation, it’s perhaps not surprising that the first Asheville Citizen-Times article on the issue didn’t even mention Raytheon, nor did the Asheville Chamber of Commerce. The county’s official announcement finally did, in passing, but their promotional video did not. They instead pointedly hid behind the Pratt and Whitney name, suitably far more bland and obscure.
This is what Raytheon does. Poster from Food Not Bombs, modified by Veronica Coit
This summer county officials spurred a massive COVID-19 outbreak by re-opening hotels and forcing locals back to work. Intent on buoying profits, both they and city hall refused to take any public health measures as numbers skyrocketed again during leaf season. Tourism has long been a brutally extractive industry, happy to demolish communities and sacrifice local lives to create a facade the wealthy will enjoy. In 2020 that’s clearer than ever.
Apparently not satisfied, local governments are now ready to shell out millions to Raytheon in their never-ending quest to base the economy here on the worst industries imaginable. County government announced the deal to a slick video with images of fancy jet engines and civilian planes flying over green lands. There were even space invader-style fonts and graphics.
The elevator music they chose for that production is certainly a contrast to the sound of one of Raytheon’s Paveway missiles slamming into a hospital.
Millions for murderers
During the announcement, County commission Chair Brownie Newman claimed officials were proud of the deal, that it was “without precedent.”
If one’s referring to the boatloads of cash local governments want to give one of the richest and most blood-soaked companies on the planet, then he’s correct. In a vote this coming Tuesday, the county is set to shell out $5 million for infrastructure and $27 million in incentives (mostly property tax refunds) to Raytheon.
Keep in mind this is the same year that Buncombe’s government cut the health department, during a pandemic, because of a supposed COVID budget crunch. County officials shut down test sites for weeks this summer, supposedly because of a lack of resources. Throughout the area, thousands of cash-strapped locals are facing the loss of food and housing while local government lets millions sit useless in reserves and writes checks to arms dealers.
Newman was once an environmental activist. Perhaps some days he looks in the mirror and realizes how far he’s fallen.
The whole project will be built on Biltmore land, because the terrible old magnates want that war drone cash. After all the Vanderbilts made their fortune crushing unions, the Biltmore estate was built on the ruins of evicted Black communities. The Cecils tallied their blood money killing wiping out whole communities in Africa and India on behalf of an empire. This is just the latest part of a long, ugly tradition.
A shot from Buncombe County’s official video announcing the Raytheon deal, complete with space invaders-style font. There is nothing amazing about this unless one is rich and has no soul
Suitably Biltmore Farms CEO John Francis Amherst Vanderbilt Cecil got up at the press conference to praise that the deal “truly took a team effort.” In the sense of servile governments doing the bidding of the rich, he’s totally correct.
City hall’s role in this rotten deal isn’t public yet, but given the past history of such “public-private partnerships,” it will run into the millions as well.
These are largely property tax refunds, meaning that local government will basically give Raytheon all the property tax they pay back for over a decade. I’m sure the many Black elders and the other community members pushed out by rising property values during gentrification would have loved that kind of deal, but clearly they haven’t bombed enough people into oblivion for county officials to consider them worthy of relief.
There’s a reason Raytheon’s name has been largely kept out of the p.r. blitz around “Project Ranger” and why county commissioners are trying to rush this through in their last session before newly-elected (and slightly less conservative) members are sworn in. This is a left-leaning city in a desperate time. Pushing millions to one of the most hated companies in the world will not go over well. Many here don’t want another predatory industry backed with cash stolen from their communities.
Asheville’s gentry and governments are, however, fine with any evil as long as it’s out of sight, which is one reason they’re so afraid of loud, public anger they can’t control.
The status quo here is expert at keeping the damage wrought by the tourism industry out of the headlines, at spinning everything as just fine while it’s getting far worse. Partnering with war profiteers like Raytheon so they can more effectively rain death and destruction around the world is a logical next step.
A few years from now, when a drone – with parts built right here – wipes out a neighborhood far away I’m sure officials will beam with pride.
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