Over 7,000 miles and an ocean away from the sunny coasts of California, the Philippines are facing the ever-growing presence of militarization. Due to the billions of dollars the University of California (UC) has indirectly invested into weapons manufacturing companies, student organizations are concerned that the militarization will continue to escalate.
Gabriela Santa Cruz and Anakbayan Santa Cruz — student organizations that advocate for women and students in the Philippines respectively — are informing students about the effects of militarization worldwide through their “Lockheed Martin Out of Santa Cruz” campaign.
“Militarization is affecting all of these individual struggles that we’re going through,” said Ella Chapman, a member of Gabriela, during an interview with City on a Hill Press. “Violence against the migrants, violence against black people, police violence against black people, sexual assault, rape, violence against women and gender nonconforming people. All of that stems from our state.”
In a two-part event, Gabriela Santa Cruz and Anakbayan Santa Cruz hosted a plenary series titled “Lockheed Martin Out of Santa Cruz.” During the second event on Feb. 19, over 70 students gathered in Classroom Unit 1, waiting for the Anakbayan student leaders, Glo Ramos and Ash Bugaoan to address the problem at hand.
“The money people are [paying the UC] should go to helping the people,” Chapman said. “But instead, they’re reinvesting that money into war.”
Lockheed Martin is an aerospace company in BlackRock’s investment portfolio which the UC is heavily invested in. The military-grade weapons and aircraft Lockheed Martin manufactures are some of the same weapons that were used during Israel’s aerial attacks on Palestine. Lockheed Martin is just one of BlackRock’s controversial investments, as they have also funded major coal-mining industries and industries supporting law enforcement action, such as Axon.
The UC’s investment portfolio includes $163 million in BlackRock itself, and $2.1 billion in investments managed by BlackRock. BlackRock maintains a 7.4 percent ownership of Lockheed Martin.
Throughout 2024, Lockheed Martin sent 10 S-70i™ Black Hawk helicopters to the Philippines as part of a contract signed in 2022 by the Philippine Department of National Defense (DND), which looked to send 32 helicopters in total.
Because of the U.S.’s colonial history in the Philippines, Anakbayan and Gabriela believe that the Philippines’ alliance with the U.S. has changed the alignment of the Philippine governments’ goals.
“The Philippines is a neo-colony. They get money from the U.S., but their interests only align with the U.S. interests,” Chapman said. “So now, all of the Philippines’ decisions are pushing toward the U.S. favor. They say, ‘Okay, should we build structures, or should we boost up our military and follow what the U.S. says? Let’s follow what the U.S. says.’”
Tension between students and the UC system over investments is nothing new. In spring of 2024, the Gaza Solidarity Encampment and the United Auto Workers 4811 demanded the UC to divest from weapons manufacturers. The UC opposed these calls for divestment and has not indicated any plans otherwise since.
“[The UC has] sent billions of dollars to BlackRock and other investment agencies, whose number one customers are war manufacturers like Lockheed Martin,” Chapman said. “The UC can’t pay its workers, UCSC is in a deficit and UC can’t support its students’ basic needs.”
Anakbayan and Gabriela hope to bring awareness to this topic in the future, organizing with other organizations to heighten the awareness of militarization, whether it’s in California or the Philippines.
“Our next steps are to continue gathering folks to join the campaign and participate in it knowing that everyone has a role in it to play and also that we’re all affected by the militarization that’s happening,” Ramos said.
