Activists Work to Push Companies Complicit in Genocide Out of Brooklyn Navy Yard

"Brooklyn Navy Yard, Building 77, building exterior, Brooklyn, New York. Plexi Images / GHI / UCG / Universal Images Group via Getty Image Most New Yorkers are not aware that companies contributing to Israel's genocide in Gaza operate in their backyard. That is, unless they happen to walk, bike, or drive down Flushing Avenue outside the Brooklyn Navy Yard on a Wednesday afternoon, as I did a month ago - in which case, they are absolutely aware."

"Since September 2024, a decentralized coalition of Brooklyn Navy Yard neighbors, workers, and community members have organized under the banner Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard. Affinity groups operate autonomously, pursuing diverse tactics in their own arenas and then converging for Wednesday noise demos. Together, DBNY's tactics are plentiful, persistent, and vociferous. The strategy of pairing escalated direct action with consistent public rallies was inspired by campaigns in Cambridge and the U.K. that successfully pressured landlords to evict weapons manufacturers."

Weekly demonstrations target two companies at the Brooklyn Navy Yard—Easy Aerial, an autonomous drone manufacturer, and Crye Precision, a tactical gear company—whose products are used by the Israeli military in Gaza. A decentralized coalition of neighbors, workers, and community members organized as Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard (DBNY) in September 2024. DBNY operates via autonomous affinity groups that pursue diverse tactics and converge for loud Wednesday noise demos featuring drums, airhorns, pickets, chalking, zine-folding, and flyers. The campaign pressures the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, the nonprofit landlord that manages leases for 550 businesses, to evict weapons manufacturers.

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