At the 2021 annual shareholder meeting of the U.S. weapons manufacturer General Dynamics, shareholders turned out to confront the company’s board of directors, asking how they justify the destruction and death they’ve helped cause.
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the peace group CODEPINK, to which I also belong, used her shareholder question last year to ask CEO Phoebe Novakovic how she justifies making $21 million a year, while in 2016 a 2,000-pound bomb made by General Dynamics hit a Yemeni marketplace killing 97 civilians, including 25 children. Novakovic, in response, said General Dynamics' role is ultimately to "support the U.S. military and U.S. foreign policy."
This year’s shareholder meeting, held on May 4, was completely online, with an audio-only broadcast, no chat function and a question submission box that was disabled without explanation halfway through the meeting. General Dynamics was able to speed through the 24-minute meeting with no pushback, criticism or engagement from shareholder attendees.
