Honeywell, best known for their automatic controls and thermostats, bought the patent to the thermostat in 1916 from Albert Butz boosting the company’s sales to almost $300,000 that year (Honeywell Project 1988: 7). However, just prior to World War II, Honeywell consented to its first contract for the defense department. The United States government wanted its war plane cameras to be able to point downwards toward the ground at all times. Subsequently, Honeywell developed the first electric auto-pilot. Honeywell took pride in their newly formed reputation as a defense contractor and saw the contracts as a new corporate frontier. During World War II, Honeywell defined itself as, “the man behind the man behind the gun” (Dugger: 30). Honeywell received ensuing defense contracts, and in 1968, Honeywell President Stephen Keating visioned “a continuing healthy level of activity in aerospace and defense” (Honeywell Project 1968: 3). His vision was realized. According to an advertisement Honeywell put in Ordnance magazine, Honeywell was, “ready to build weapons that work, to build them fast, and to build them in quantity. And always with one goal uppermost in mind: a more effective military man now . . . and in the future” (Honeywell 1969).

It was obvious Honeywell did not mind the reputation as a military contractor during World War II. This changed with the Vietnam War; an era in which the corporation would prefer to be more discreet with its military contracting role. Honeywell provided the United States government with a variety of antipersonnel weapons. The primary purpose of these weapons was not truly the destruction of the Viet Cong Army, but rather the destruction of the morale of the civilians. The weapons were used to destroy their culture and push the Vietnamese into ghettos where they could be dominated and manipulated easily. It is apparent that Honeywell’s “common good” was nowhere to be found in this equation.

The Honeywell Project also asserted that the weapons production of the Honeywell corporation was, in fact, illegal according to the Nuremberg Agreements after World War II. In a speech presented by Even Stark, a Honeywell Project member, at the annual stockholders’ meeting for Honeywell on April 29, 1969, he stated the legal argument:

Article 6(b) of the Nuremberg Agreements defines war crimes as “including (but not limited to) . . .attacks on and murder of civilians during wartime.”  Article 6(c) clearly states that ” . . .accomplices participating in the formulation or execution” . . . of attacks on or murder to civilians are . . . “responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such crimes.”

Clearly according to proponents of the Honeywell Project the men responsible for this production are accomplices to war crimes against civilian poor. In its opening statement for the defense, Honeywell claims that it is “entirely appropriate and correct” to produce such weapons “as a matter of good citizenship.”  The Nuremberg Charter clearly responds to this defense. “The Charter recognizes that one who has committed criminal acts may not take refuge in superior orders nor in the doctrine that his crimes were citizenly acts of state” (Honeywell Project April 1969).

The U.S. Press began reporting on the use of cluster bombs in the Vietnam War . The August 2, 1965 edition of Newsweek made reference to Honeywell’s production of cluster bombs by stating, “These are the high explosive, anti-personnel bomblets being dropped on North Vietnam” (Newsweek: 51). During World War II, Honeywell found no resistance to its Army contracts. The anti-personnel bomblets were first used against the Japanese during World War II in an area where most of the buildings were made of paper or wood. On June 2, 1966 the New York Times started the first of a group of four articles about the “highly improved anti-personnel bomb” being made by Honeywell and other defense contractors such as, ACF Industries fromSt. Louis, Missouri and Hoover Ball and Bearing Company in Erwin, Tennessee. However, it was not until the company learned of the newly formed activist group called the Honeywell Project that Honeywell seemed to have, “preferred to be known as the thermostat company” (Honeywell Project 1970) once again.

The Honeywell Project’s leader and founder Marv Davidov has been described as a “non-violent revolutionary.” He does not have an ordinary job; he is a full time radical whose “job” is the non-violent transformation of the United States. Davidov feels he has been a revolutionist since his birth: “I was a breech birth. I was brought kicking and screaming into this world. My first act of defiance was to piss in the doctor’s eye” (Berg: C3). Davidov’s father was a Jewish immigrant from Russia who worked in the Ford plant in Detroit. The family lived in Gross Pointe a small working class suburb of Detroit. The prejudices Davidov and his family experienced helped generate Davidov’s radical leftist philosophy. Having many of his relatives die in the Nazi gas chambers and being in Detroit during the 1943 race riots helped encourage his radical ideas (Birchard 1997). He and his family eventually moved to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota. He started school at Macalester College until he was drafted into the army in 1953. Davidov recalled, “I went into the army an anti communist liberal but, I came out a radical. The army has a way of making someone confront his beliefs” (Berg: C3). Davidov ended his army career being court marshaled for wearing his brass upside down and saluting with three fingers as if he were a boy scout (Davidov 1997). He moved back to Minneapolis where he started to share his ideas with other radicals in the area. In 1961 Davidov found himself on a bus to Mississippi where he worked with other black and white people to integrate the Greyhound buses and stations. They became known as, “The Freedom Riders,” and as Davidov states, “I knew this is what I’d do for the rest of my life” (Davidov 1996). Davidov moved to California for a short time to help in the draft resistance of the Vietnam War. While reading the August 1968 edition of Liberation Magazine, he noticed an article asking activists to protest the production of weapons at the large corporations that were making them. It was at this time Davidov became completely aware of Honeywell’s participation in the production of weapons for the United States government

There was only one protest at Honeywell against the production of fragmentation bombs, and this occurred in 1967. Twenty-five Unitarians demonstrated for one-half day at the Honeywell ordnance plant in Hopkins, Minnesota. There were just a few letters written to the editor because of this demonstration (Davidov 1969: 1). This lack of protest provoked Davidov to take action.

Those who are involved in the peace and justice movement know the importance of coalitions. It is important to realize the connections from movement to movement; unity is an important factor in success. An injustice to one person is an injustice to all people. Davidov said, “I don’t jump between causes because there is only one cause, they’re all tied together. That’s what true radicalism is.” (Berg: C3). Identity and collective action are crucial aspects of social movements. Della Porta and Diani in their book Social Movements offer, “Identity is that which emerges from the individual’s process of self-identification and external recognition” (Diani: 91).

Davidov utilized his belief in the strength of coalitions while forming the Honeywell Project with members of other activist groups. Davidov, whose reputation as a social change activist was already established in Minnesota, moved back to Minnesota after living in California for a short time, and launched the Honeywell Project in December of 1968. He called a meeting of twenty-five local people including clergy, university professors, students, American Indian Movement members, active members for the black community, members of Students for a Democratic Society, draft resistors and the Women’s Liberation Movement (Davidov 1996). Although it combined many causes, the Honeywell Project was initiated for one major reason: to stop anti-personnel weapons from being produced in Davidov’s home state ofMinnesota. “A movement against (Honeywell) corporation grew out of (this) horrifying realization” (Honeywell Project 1988: 1) that to Honeywell, the dollar was more important than human life. Said Davidov, “We had planned . . . to build a political power base which co uld force Honeywell directors to cease all war production and convert to production of creative products” (NAMRIC: 79) Honeywell claimed increased bomb production would mean more jobs. In the eyes of the Honeywell Project, increased bomb production meant more war and the genocide of humans and their cultures.

“A North Vietnamese delegate to an East Berlin conference told a Macalester College Chaplain, ‘This is an anti-personnel fragmentation bomb dropped upon men, women and children inNorth Vietnam. It was made by Honeywell in Minneapolis. Ask the people of your city why they have done this to us. We have done nothing to them” (Honeywell Project 1970: 1).

The Honeywell Project also viewed this current bomb production in Minnesota as a means to destroy job security for Minnesotans due to the fact that war-time weapons production is temporary, ending when the current war ends, and to raise taxes by producing un-necessary products at the taxpayer’s expense (Honeywell Project 1969: 1). The Honeywell Project believed Honeywell had the ability to reconvert its production to peaceful products and projects without the loss of jobs. Also, the Honeywell Project wanted Honeywell to focus on products such as housing, safe cars, health, education and a clean environment forUnited States citizens. The Project visioned this conversion to create more jobs, real job security and lower taxes, based on public demand and not the need of the corporate elites to make larger profits.

The group did extensive research from past local newspapers and public information documents from Honeywell. According to Davidov, the Honeywell Project, “discovered that Honeywell is a corporation with diverse activities around the world, with an integrated global network of manufacturing, sales, service and training facilities in some 160 cities in 64 nations”(NARMIC: 75). Davidov was asked by the National Action Research on the Military Industrial Complex in an interview in January 1970, “Where and how did you get most of your information? Was the classified nature of Honeywell’s operations a problem?” In reply, Davidov stated:

“Honeywell provides a wealth of information concerning every aspect of its operations. For example, we have a map which Honeywell produced showing locations of its sales and offices and plants around the world. This information and the annual reports are available to the public at Honeywell’s main offices. We used Department of Defense manuals, ordnance trade journals and other reference materials found in the public library” (NARMIC: 75).

Honeywell was the chosen target because their world headquarters was located in Minneapolis and it was the number one weapons producer in the state of Minnesota and number sixteen nationally. The board of directors symbolized the upper controlling gentry of Minneapolis, who had a large control of insurance, banking, and business. Honeywell was the top private employer in Minnesota and had a great political and economical impact on Minnesotan’s.

Honeywell opened its main world headquarters in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis in 1963. The building was formerly Honeywell’s main plant located in Minneapolis’ inner city. Honeywell felt this “attractive, new and remodeled building and new park would provide Honeywell with efficient, comfortable offices while helping to halt the decline of the Phillips neighborhood and helping stabilizeMinneapolis’ inner-city” (Honeywell 1985). Also, according to a speech by Honeywell’s Vice-President of Communications, Karen Bachman, Honeywell built its world headquarters, “in the middle of one of the poorest sections of Minneapolis (because they) wanted it to be available and welcoming for our neighbors” (Bachman: 2). This self-serving angle was presented as a means for the people of the “poorest sections” to prosper.

The Honeywell Project viewed Honeywell as having a patronizing and self-righteous attitude toward the surrounding community. The Honeywell Project believed the directors of Honeywell were only concerned with filling a quota by employing large numbers of Black Americans and American Indians. The Honeywell Project considered this to be an ideal public image that satisfied a wide political spectrum, but when the groups members asked Honeywell if this meant poor blacks, whites, and American Indians would one day control Honeywell, they received the expected answer: “No, but they (can) work their way up through the channels” (Davidov 1969: 2).

The Honeywell Project aimed for a transformation of the corporation into the hands of employees, instead of Minnesota’s corporate elite. The idea of worker and community control of the decision-making processes at Honeywell became a clear goal for the project. With this aim in mind, the Honeywell Project saw the business of manufacturing weapons by the Honeywell elite as a piloted effort to oppress not only the Vietnamese but also the exploitation of the poor and people of color in theUnited States. While the Honeywell elite were overseeing mass production of antipersonnel weapons used to destroy and control the Vietnamese people, many of the laborers in the Honeywell factories had backgrounds similar to the Vietnamese. Many were people of color and/or were from a poor background, and were easily controlled with the threat of layoffs. Honeywell was hiring people of color to build weapons to kill, maim and control other people of color.

The logic behind the Cluster Bomb Units (CBU’s) was not to blast through army tanks, or even to kill the Vietnamese people. Rather, the main purpose was to severely wound civilians.These cluster bombs did not only occupy several other people, they also worked to confine people to a central location where people could be easier to manipulate. The Vietnamese were confined to the city, which created easier control for the attackingUnited States forces, and a weakening of the peoples’ will to resist. This relates to the conditions of people of color in this country. White society through industrialization and its resultant oppression pushed many people of color to either reservations or the inner city with worsening social conditions such as poverty, unemployment and other inequities. Thus when corporations such as Honeywell build and create factory jobs in the inner city or on reservations they create the illusion of being saviors of a community in despair. The Honeywell elite found weapons production as a method to create quick revenue with disregard to human life. While weapons production satisfied Honeywell’s need for increased profits, and because of this Honeywell directors needed to protect and struggled to keep the profits from the “workers, minorities, the community as a whole and, of course, the Vietnamese” (Honeywell Project 1968: 3).

In May of 1969, Honeywell Project member Ed Anderson, a University of Minnesota Professor of Mechanical Engineering who had worked at Honeywell on development of war material and had, “quit in disgust over the hideous weapons manufactured there,” (Honeywell Project 1971: 1) wanted to set up a meeting with James Binger, chairman of the Honeywell Board of Directors, to inform Honeywell of the Honeywell Project’s planned goals and actions. Binger refused, but later agreed when he was told the Honeywell Project was planning a demonstration at Honeywell’s annual shareholder’s meeting (Davidov 1969: 1). During the meeting, Honeywell Project members outlined the project as simply as possible:There would be consistent political pressure on the decision makers at Honeywell until Honeywell stopped production of fragmentation bombs and all other war materials. The Honeywell Project members made certain that Honeywell decision makers knew this was non-negotiable. However, it was stressed continuously to Honeywell officials that Honeywell Project members would bring in economists, scientists, and engineers, free of charge, to convert Honeywell from a war material producer to a company of peaceful and creative products.

From this point on, Honeywell took a solid position. The size of the defense budget and the weapon complexes were decisions that were made by the elected members of Congress.Honeywell appealed to the Honeywell Project and others who had disagreed with this by directing them to talk to their Representatives or to elect someone else. Honeywell took the stand that they would take the orders of the country’s defense needs (Honeywell Ad 1984). Honeywell pronounced, “As long as Honeywell can be a competent, cost effective supplier we will supply the products for which we are called upon” (Honeywell 1985).

Honeywell perceived the Honeywell Project as an organization that had a dubious economic, social and political agenda. They believed the Honeywell Project looked to them as the “immorals” of the country and that its members believed all problems would be solved with the repeal of private property and worker take-over of business. Honeywell viewed the Honeywell Project using them as an emblem to bring notice to their cause (Bachman: 3-5).

However, the Honeywell Project realized while the Honeywell Corporation’s employees were from all socioeconomic classes a small wealthy elite was at the helm. The role of this elite was to produce military weapons which helped to sustain military rule over Southeast Asia and to repress social activism in the United States’ ghettos by providing jobs to residents of these ghettos (Honeywell Project 1972: 1). This would mean the world would be safe for United States business to profit off Third world countries and underdeveloped areas in the United States. With capitalism, moneymaking is the sole consideration. The “bottom line” supersedes any other factor in the pursuit of wealth. It is this detached approach that allows the corporate heads to make those hard decisions. For example, moving a corporation from one area to another in a quest of a cheaper labor market and fewer environmental restrictions makes perfect business sense, but the ramifications it has on the communities involved are overlooked. Instead of wrestling with their conscience, decisions are based solely on the calculated accumulation of capital rather than on the ethical consequences of these actions.