870 Winter Street, Waltham
Every third Sunday of the month, the Friends Meeting Cambridge gathers to “bring […] our Light to a barbaric assault on human dignity and life.”
Their Quaker Meeting for Worship takes place in front of a Raytheon research facility to bear witness to the activities of the Waltham-based corporation. Their specific concerns are Raytheon’s missile production and sales promotion—a tragic twist for a corporation that named itself for the “light of the gods.”
Launched in 1922 in Cambridge, Raytheon was originally a small manufacturer of radio batteries that rose to prominence during World War II when it produced magnetron tubes used in U.S. and British radar systems. In the post-war period, however, Raytheon developed new missile technologies which, by 2017, made it the world’s fourth-largest weapons contractor, with $22.3 billion in annual revenues. It is also the world’s biggest missile manufacturer, producing the Tomahawk and Patriot missiles as well as cluster and bunker bombs that are consistently used against civilians.
Troubling to organizations like the American Friends Service Committee are the corporation’s extensive lobbying efforts funded to the tune of an officially declared $5 million annually since 2006. Such efforts are not unrelated to the fact that, in 2017, over seventy-five percent of Raytheon merchandise sold was to the United States government.
Raytheon is the target of numerous, ongoing protests and boycotts. Among the most recent is one organized by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS), which originated in a call from Palestinian civil society “to end international support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law.” The movement calls attention to the Israeli military’s use of Raytheon missiles and bombs against Palestinian civilians. Another focuses on the company’s weapon sales to Saudi Arabia, which has put them to deadly use in Yemen.
In 2010, the Guardian revealed that the corporation had developed an “extreme-scale analytics” system named “Rapid Information Overlay Technology” or RIOT, with the capacity to monitory social media including Facebook and related platforms. The technology promised to predict an individual’s movements and activities in real time. Raytheon opaquely noted that it had not sold the technology but “shared it with the US Government and industry.” In 2013, the Electronic Privacy and Information Center (EPIC) confirmed that Raytheon’s program was operational.
Beyond the corporation’s sheer size and influence peddling, its political power is amplified by the 70,000 relatively well-paid workers it employs globally. Its corporate philanthropy, often driven by employee initiatives, provides the corporation with a benign face. Its research activities are often tied into area universities, particularly the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Its deep regional ties are suggested by the fact that notwithstanding several relocations over the decades, the corporation’s headquarters moved between cities in the Greater Boston area, from Cambridge, to Lexington, Newton, and presently, Waltham.
In June 2019, Raytheon and United Technologies (a manufacturer of aircraft engines, aerospace systems, and military technologies) announced their merger. The new company, Raytheon Technologies, will be headquartered in the Boston area.
Getting there:
MBTA buses and Commuter Rail bring passengers to within two miles or so of the headquarters.
Image: Quakers outside of Raytheon facility, Cambridge, October 2018. Photo by Eleni Macrakis.