An Introduction to the Ghost Robotics Corporation

Submission

Ghost Robotics Corporation is a Philadelphia-based robotics company. They are located in the Pennovation Works compound in the Grays Ferry neighborhood in South Philly. They specifically cater to the military and “defense” markets. This article will go over some basic information about the company that readers opposed to colonialism, militarism, technological advancement, or gentrification may find interesting. Others are encouraged to verify this research and supplement it with their own.

Ghost Robotics is best known for their robot dogs. The robot dog, officially known as the VISION 60 Q-UGV, is billed as a “mid-sized high-endurance, agile and durable all-weather ground drone.” It is being used by US and foreign militaries, border security, and commercial companies. The robot is able to operate autonomously to some degree or accept real time instruction from a human operator via remote control. The dog has the capability of accepting add-ons, the most controversial of which have been weapons such as SWORD’s SPUR (basically an unmanned sniper rifle). Researchers have also put together a “guide to combat robot war dogs” that addresses dealing with Spot, a very similar robot dog developed by Boston Dynamics, which is linked below.

Those opposed to the war on Gaza, and Israeli colonization generally, may be interested to know that Ghost Robotics Corporation partners with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. Rafael is Israel’s national R&D defense laboratory, developing and producing weapons for the Israeli Occupation Forces. The Ghost Robotics website touts its “cutting edge solutions addressing defense, homeland, and enterprise customer needs.” In an article on The National Interest a journalist covers a demonstration of Rafael using a robot dog from Ghost Robotics alongside a Raven drone to “clear nine rooms and identify the threats there.” An archived version of the article is linked at the end.

In addition to the roboticization of war and policing, and assistance in the genocide of Palestinians, Ghost Robotics Corporation is also part of the Lower Schuylkill Master Plan. The master plan is a scheme concocted by University of Pennsylvania, the City of Philadelphia, and corporate interests to develop the lower Schuylkill River into an “Innovation District,” a “Logistics Hub,” and an “Energy Corridor.” The Pennovation Works compound that Ghost Robotics is located in is an early step in creation of the “Innovation District” along the Schuylkill in South and South West Philly. This same district threatens the Bartram’s Garden area with a bio-technology campus. Also of note is that the master plan’s “Logistics Hub” is responsible in part for the destruction of South Philly’s FDR meadows, building an artificial wetland in FDR Park to offset having destroyed wetlands by the Philadelphia Airport. The Lower Schuylkill Master Plan and the zine Fuck A “Cellicon Valley” are linked below.

Links and Information

Ghost Robotics Corporation

Address
Ghost Robotics Corporation
3401 Grays Ferry Ave, Bldg 200, 2nd Fl
Philadelphia, PA 1914

Website
ghostrobotics.io

Contact
sales@ghostrobotics.io
vendors@ghostrobotics.io
careers@ghostrobotics.io
press@ghostrobotics.io

Social Media
instagram.com/ghostrobotics
linkedin.com/company/ghostrobotics
twitter.com/ghost_robotics

Staff
CEO and co-founder Gavin Kenneally
CTO and co-founder Avik De
President and chief executive Jiren Parikh (died March 2022)

Guide to combat against robot war dogs
https://www.jwz.org/blog/2021/02/guide-to-combat-against-robot-war-dogs/

Archived News Article Regarding Relation With Israeli defense company Rafael
https://web.archive.org/web/20230206160050/https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/how-israel-brings-together-robots-and-ai-lethal-combo-175518

More Information About Rafael
https://web.archive.org/web/20130514133537/http://duns100.dundb.co.il/ts.cgi?tsscript=comp_eng&duns=600024863
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Advanced_Defense_Systems
http://www.rafael.co.il/

Pennovation Works
https://pennovation.upenn.edu

Lower Schuylkill River Master Plan
https://www.design.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/LSMP_Exec.pdf

Fuck A “Cellicon Valley” zine

Fuck A “Cellicon Valley” Zine

Philadelphia Area Military Contractor AgustaWestland

Submission

AgustaWestland Philadelphia Corp is a part of a $29,238,432 contract to provide AW119Kx Koala helicopters for the state of Israel and its military. The contract was announced on April 1, 2022 and the work associated with this contract is estimated to be completed by June 2024.

Find more information about this contract at https://www.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract/Article/2986932/

3050 Red Lion Rd, Philadelphia, PA 19114

Taken from these resources on major producers of weapons for the zionist entity on US dominated Turtle Island:
Map http://u.osmfr.org/m/1019524/
Spreadsheet https://cryptpad.fr/sheet/#/2/sheet/view/UFC48Halqnl+Vb5DGGx-NqWu-vupKNfgL251iWDOxE4/embed/

Free Palestine Freight Graffiti

from Mastodon

Free Palestine freight graffiti spotted in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

No pipelines. No borders. No genocide.

Submission

We hung up banners over the Schuylkill Expressway condemning BlackRock for their investment in both the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline and Elbit Systems.



Philadelphia Area Weapons Manufactures and Facilities

Submission

The United States is the single largest manufacturer and distributor of armaments in the world.  This means weapons producing facilities are all around us, yet seldom do anti-war/anti-colonial movements identify and target the private companies that profit and enable these wars to be fought.

In this particular historical moment, with a years-long land war in Ukraine depleting the global stockpile of munitions and armaments, any disruption to the supply chain related to the production and distribution of armaments and ammunition in the United States has an immediate and real world impact on the ability of forces to drop bombs, fire rockets, deploy mines or bombard with artillery.

Movements attempting to disrupt the live-streamed genocide by Israeli forces in Gaza for over the last hundred days have periodically managed to identify and disrupt the flow of arms from the United States to Israel by targeting facilities or blockading infrastructure such as ports.

In the spirit of free people’s taking matters into their own hands, of autonomous direct action and a refusal to wait for permission, salvation or the intervention of a higher power, we offer the following list of local area arms manufacturers.

As with anything you come across on the internet, we urge groups and individuals to do their own research and reconnaissance prior to engaging in any action.

Day and Zimmermann (D&Z)

  • 87th largest defense company
    • Headquartered at 1500 Spring Garden St, Philadelphia PA, 19130
  • Family owned company that operates several major US Army ammunition plants, producing 155mm artillery rounds, 120mm tank rounds, mines, hand grenades and more.  Does private security for US Embassy in Jerusalem.
  • Parent company of American Ordinance LLC, Kansas LLC, SOC, Mason & Hanger

L3 Harris

  • L3 Harris is the ninth largest defense corporation
  • Philadelphia location:
    • 13500 Roosevelt Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19116

Leonardo

  • 11th-largest defense company
  • Philadelphia location: 
    • 3076 Red Lion Rd, Philadelphia, PA 19114

Boeing

 

  • Fifth largest defense company in the world by revenue.
  • Philadelphia location: 
    • 300 Industrial Highway, Ridley Park, PA.

Ghost Robotics

  • Maker of weaponized robotic dogs
    • 3401 Grays Ferry Ave Bldg 200 (2nd floor), Philadelphia, PA 19146
    • 150 Rouse Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19112

Action Manufacturing Co.

  • Bristol Facility (Production and Testing)
    • 190 Rittenhouse Circle, Bristol, PA 19007 (20.5 miles from Philadelphia)
  • Atglen Facility (Loading Facility)
    • 500 Bailey Crossroads Rd, Atglen, PA 19310

 

Elbit Systems of America (Aydin Displays, Birdsboro, PA)

  • Aydin Displays (https://www.aydindisplays.com/), an Elbit Systems of America company
  • 1 Riga Ln, Birdsboro, PA 19508
  • Makes ruggedized displays for military application
  • Elbit systems is an Israeli arms manufacturer with operations in the US and contracts with Homeland Security for US Border security.  It is the target of an international campaign by Palestine Action

General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems

 

Lockheed Martin

  • World’s top defense company by revenue
  • Philadelphia-area locations:
    • 459 Kennedy Drive, Archbald, PA 18403
    • 199 Borton Landing Rd, Moorestown, NJ 08057
    • 6000 Midlantic Dr, Mt Laurel Township, NJ 08054 (
    • 230 Mall Blvd, King of Prussia, PA 19406
    • 1021 W 8th Ave, King of Prussia, PA 19406
    • 11 Federal St, Camden, NJ
    • 3 Executive Campus, Cherry Hill, NJ 08002

BAE Systems

  • Seventh-largest military contractor.
  • Philadelphia-area location:
    • 8000 Midlantic Dr # 700N, Mt Laurel Township, NJ 08054

Raytheon/RTX

  • Second-top defense company in the world by revenue
  • Philadelphia-area location
    • 8000 Midlantic Dr # 201N, Mt Laurel Township, NJ 08054

🚨 BREAKING: PALESTINE ACTIONISTS HIT ELBIT SYSTEMS IN PENNSYLVANIA ‼️

from Twitter

At this Birdsboro, PA location, an Elbit subsidiary “Aydin Displays” makes screen displays & technology installed in Israeli tanks, drones & vehicles used by the occupation to surveil & mass murder Palestinians. #ShutElbitDown

Calling on USians to Memorialize Jennifer Laude and call for American withdrawal from the Philippines

Submission

An Urgent Plea from the Philippines

Anonymous

To the brave comrades of Turtle Island:

Last year, we asked antifascists in the U.S. to act for us in commemorating our slain sister Jennifer Laude, killed by an American soldier. While there was some commemoration and remembrance of Jennifer Laude, this was done after her death anniversary on October 11 because the initial open letter calling for the commemoration initially fell on deaf ears. Earlier, Filipino/a/x autonomists, anarchists, and abolitionists in the so-called Philippines and its diasporas wrote an open letter asking US anti-fascists to resist the return of the murderer of Jennifer Laude to the United States, but his return was not resisted, and we received no report of any action protesting his return.

Let us review the facts for our comrades in Turtle Island:

Joseph Scott Pemberton committed a heinous hate crime by brutally murdering Jennifer Laude on October 11, 2014. Jennifer was murdered precisely because she was transgender, with Pemberton’s legal team even trying the so-called “trans panic” defense as a justification for her murder. The Philippine state appears to have sided with Pemberton’s excuse that Jennifer’s identity was a provocation in itself, inducing Pemberton to kill her. This defense frames Pemberton as the victim and sets a dangerous precedent for trans women in the archipelago and beyond.

Jennifer Laude is fondly remembered as a beautiful person who was confident in her identity and sexuality. She was well-loved by her family and friends and her nickname was “Ganda” meaning “beautiful.” However, Pemberton did not care for Jennifer Laude as a human being. He was unrepentant at his trial, even going so far as to dehumanize Jennifer Laude by referring to her as “it.”

Pemberton’s case was discussed again when the Philippine government considered him for an early release due to “good conduct” in early September, a charge that the Laude family questioned on the grounds that Pemberton could not have proved good behavior. Indeed, how could Pemberton have proven his “good conduct” if he had not interacted with any prisoner in his specially-designed cell?

The point is now moot, as Pemberton has received an absolute pardon from then-president Rodrigo Duterte. He can now walk free, absolved of any criminal liability. We have no doubt that the government of the United States has had a hand in Duterte’s granting of absolute pardon unto Pemberton.

As anti-fascists, we know all too well how the state employs a double standard in its policing between the privileged and the dispossessed. Pemberton’s whiteness protected him from facing any meaningful consequences, just as whiteness protected countless murderers in the so-called United States. His case has been rife with special treatment from the beginning, and his pardon from Duterte only confirms that. This murderer has known nothing but lenience and special treatment in his trial and during his imprisonment. He was detained separately during his trial and was the only occupant of a Camp Aguinaldo detainment facility that was specially constructed for him after his conviction. As the pandemic ripped through overcrowded prisons, the state in the Philippines dragged its feet on releasing non-violent offenders and condemned countless prisoners to a slow death by COVID-19. Yet the white man, the U.S. national, the violent offender, and a prisoner at no risk of contracting COVID-19 was the one prioritized for release. Upon his return to the so-called United States, the U.S. government went on record stating that the murderer would not face court-martial in the country.

The reason Pemberton’s whiteness protected him was due to the imperialized position of the Philippines in the U.S. empire. Since the U.S. invasion of the so-called Philippines in 1898, U.S. troops have enjoyed free rein in the archipelago. Pemberton was in the Philippines due to Balikatan, annual military exercises between U.S. and Philippine armed forces — a recurring program established following the ratification of the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

The VFA is a reminder of the neocolonial presence of the United States in the Philippines. It allows for the presence of U.S. military personnel, aircraft, and vessels in the Philippines. It also complicates the custodial process for U.S. troops accused of committing crimes while in the archipelago. Though the Duterte administration moved to suspend the agreement earlier this year, Duterte reneged 3 months before pardoning Pemberton. Now, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. revived the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) and its VFA, promising to use the Philippines as a base for American imperialist interests in Asia.

Militarization of the archipelago by U.S. troops has been correlated time and again with violence and sexual assault against women and sex workers. The violence that occurs at the intersections of racism, sexism, fetishization, and dehumanization is compounded for trans women who experience violence simply for being trans.

We anti-fascists already know that there is no justice to be had from the state, whether Philippine or American. This transphobic murderer continues to walk free as far as the states in the Philippines and the United States are concerned, so we reiterate our call to anti-fascists in the so-called United States to act.

While U.S. anti-fascists acted valiantly in response to the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and stepped up and defended communities where the state willfully failed, we have heard very little to suggest that Filipino/a/x trans lives matter in response to the return of the murderer to his country.

It has been nine years since the murderer took Ganda away from her family. There is still time to make up for this injustice.

We are writing this letter to ask antifascists and radicals of all strips on Turtle Island to act where we Filipinos could not. When the Spanish colonial government suppressed our people and murdered José Rizal, the anarchist Michele Angiolillo assassinated the Spanish Prime Minister Antonio Cánovas del Castillo. When US President William McKinley conquered the Philippines and murdered our people by the thousands, he was assassinated in turn by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. We mention these examples of direct action not because we are asking you to kill the murderer of Laude, but rather to show you that the anarchist movement has historically acted where Filipinos cannot.

To be clear, we are not asking you to kill Joseph Scott Pemberton. As anarchists and abolitionists, we abhor such cycles of violence. Killing Pemberton will not bring Ganda back, nor will it be justice for the Trans and Queer comrades among us. What we want is this to never happen again. Do not allow Pemberton to forget the vile crime he committed. You must prevent Pemberton from committing harm again. You must petition Pemberton’s prospective universities and employers not to accept him because of his violent past. You must picket his home, workplaces, and schools with memorials to Jennifer Laude. You must reveal to the world what a hateful and spiteful little man he is. You must make his life hell.

In terms of social justice, you must organize for the United States to withdraw its military assets from our islands, the Philippines. Their hateful and imperialist military can never bring good to our country. The biggest reduction of sexual and intimate violence from American servicemen would be in terms of their total withdrawal from the Philippines.

Above all, we ask you to remember Jennifer Laude as a victim of white supremacy and include her in your commemorations of the victims of white supremacy. She must be spoken in the same sentences as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and all other victims of U.S. imperialism and police violence. Remember her as Ganda, kind, and generous. Remember her family as brave and steadfast in their demands for justice. While Jennifer’s story is not well known in the so-called United States, the injustice surrounding her case deserves your anger and solidarity.

Filipinos/as/xs have thundered that trans lives matter and for justice for Jennifer Laude, but we regret that our voices were not joined by U.S. anti-fascists. Ganda’s death anniversary is on October 11. We expect you to remember. We expect you to act.

In anger and solidarity,

Filipino/a/x autonomists, anarchists, and abolitionists in the so-called Philippines and its diasporas

Stop Camp Grayling

from Instagram

Stop Camp Grayling
midwest(ish) tour
The larget military base in Turtle Island is planning to expand to twice the size of so-called chicago to develop, test, and train cops and troops in surveillance warfare, autonomous weapons, space warfare, counter-insurgency, and much more.

We are mobilizing an offensive against the camp and the so-called united states, along with everything that gives it life. If you are interest in figuring out what that can look life, come check us out!
11/15
7pm
Grays Ferry Crescent Skatepark

all out against empire, capital, and the war machine
all out against everything

intagram: @stop_camp_grayling
twitter: @graylingcamp
from Instagram

Graffiti in Memory of Jennifer Laude in South NJ

from Jersey Counter-Info

Trans and queer anarchists in so-called southern New Jersey stand in solidarity with our siblings in the Philippines. We remember and lift up the memory of our international trans sister, Jennifer “Ganda” Laude, who was hate-crime murdered by U.S. Marine and transphobe Joseph Scott Pemberton on this day October 11, 2014. Pemberton poses a serious risk to communities everywhere as an “international pig” who got away with murder with the help of the U.S. military.

When the police murder with impunity domestically, marginalized people and those who stand in solidarity rise up, burn shit down, demand action, and force those in power to bow before the people. We remember and don’t give the state or its agents an inch. We must respond the same way when “soldiers”, international pigs, act the same way. We cannot make excuses for international pigs and their violence simply because it’s not directly in our faces every day.

With this in mind, we stand in solidarity and in power with Ganda, the larger trans and queer Filipino/a/x community, and trans and queer anarchists in the Philippines.

Death to Imperialism!

Death to Capitalism!

Death to the State!

For Trans and Queer anarchy!

– some anarchists

 

Philadelphia: Anarchist Group ‘Bristling Badger Brigade’ Burns Cell Tower (U$A)

from 325

Another May Day, another cell tower set alight. A small act in the earliest hours, but an escalation beyond the norm. And we never want to return to ‘normalcy.’ We don’t know the difference between 4G and 5G. All we know is we want none of it.

The tower’s proximity to a train yard, a major pharmaceutical company’s office, and other military/mercenary enterprises in the Philadelphia Navy Yard was intended to interfere with their operations, however small the impact. It should also be a reminder that no one is untouchable if you have the appropriate determination. And this particular act was quite easy.

The first flame was a warm hug for the comrade Badger, allegedly on the run after a series of similar incidents in Bristol. Stay free!

The ensuing smoke a signal to the comrades undergoing the Scripta Manent persecution in Italy… we stand with you!

For freedom,
for anarchy!


Bristling Badger Brigade

“The Koch Brothers at Villanova” (Flynn and Dave in Forum)

from Radical Education Department

(Flynn and Dave’s article was originally published in Forum.)

RED’s Introduction to “The Koch Brothers at Villanova”

The article that follows was recently published in the Villanova student magazine Forum. It uncovers the hidden influence exerted by the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers on Villanova University’s campus.  The Matthew J Ryan Center, Flynn and Dave show, receives large sums of money from the Kochs precisely in order to serve as their puppet in peddling neoliberal indoctrination under the disguise of the academic pursuit of
knowledge.

RED has a particular interest in the Koch’s secret influence at Villanova, since our group first banded together–under the name “Nova Resistance”–to disrupt a Ryan Center event. In early 2017, the center hosted a talk by the widely disgraced pseudo-intellectual Charles Murray, who became infamous in the 1990s for openly embracing the eugenicist view that workers, women, and people of color are genetically inferior to rich, white men. The event was billed as an expression of Villanova’s deep commitment to academic “free speech”–a ridiculous claim, given that the talk was secretly purchased by billionaires spreading an agenda that does not stand up to academic scrutiny, on a campus that refused to allow the “free speech” of an openly gay performance artist on campus.  Moreover, it came to light that the university paid between $10,000 and $15,000 for additional “security” from the local police department out of fear that activists would exercise their purportedly constitutional right to protest the Charles Murray event. For more on our disruption of this corporate bank-rolled, over-securitized, pseudo-intellectual spiel, see this official statement.

Dave and Flynn’s article highlights a problem that goes far beyond Villanova University, however. Corporate and military interests regularly shape academic life on college campuses, in what some aptly call the military-industrial-academic complex. See, for instance, this article and this piece. The university system is not set apart from the forces of social domination that structure our society. It is neither a pure “ivory tower,” nor simply a harmless public service aimed at helping students find jobs. It is a site of social struggle.  In it, reactionaries seek to advance, by any means necessary, an agenda of social domination.  But history repeatedly shows the university can also be a means to infect society with radical, liberating social change.

The aim of the Left should not just be to protest corporate and military interests on university campuses. Such a reaction is defensive; it fails to make a lasting change, leaving the university at the mercy of reactionaries. Instead, the goal must be nothing short of a radical offensive: transforming universities into spaces from which to spread radical social change. This is precisely one of the reasons why we founded RED in the wake of our disruption of the smooth functioning of the military-industrial-academic complex at Villanova University.

– RED