Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard, February 11, Occupation at Building 77 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Image courtesy of DBNY Campaign.
Formation / Foundational Principles
Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard (DBNY) was formed in September 2024 in response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, with the specific aim to materially disrupt the supply chain of weapons and technology being used to exterminate our brothers and sisters in Palestine.
Unlike actions that have targeted politicians and liberal institutions, appealing to power at the top (e.g. the UN, NYT, Gracie Mansion, etc.), or ‘permitted protests’ organized in collaboration with the NYPD, we believe that our actions here in the imperial core must move beyond symbolic and performative solidarity.
Our frustrations with the insufficiencies of extant mobilizing efforts and our commitment to the liberation of Palestine led to the formation of DBNY, with the goal of directly targeting these supply chains of imperial domination and bloodshed.
We believe that it is our urgent duty to organize our communities to effect material change and disrupt the U.S.-Israeli death machine – by shutting down weapons factories that hide in plain sight.
Conditions in Gaza and Beyond
Despite the implementation of a so-called “ceasefire,” we have witnessed the war, occupation, and genocide continue unabated. Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) attacks have led to upwards of 680 martyrs and 1800 injuries in Gaza during this time. The IOF continues to bombard Iran and Lebanon, while settler militias storm the occupied West Bank on a daily basis, taking more and more land by force. Palestinian prisoners suffer starvation, torture, rape, and new legislation that will lead to mass executions. The Palestinian Authority colludes with Israeli forces to subjugate its own citizens in the West Bank, while the ruling class of the imperial core salivates at the prospect of colonizing the devastated Gaza Strip.
U.S. imperialists back all of these horrors with immense financial and material support, most significantly supplying the IOF with American-made weapons and equipment. Some of these weapons and tactical gear are developed and manufactured here in NYC on public land, subsidized by your tax dollars, and are used by the U.S. military, ICE, and the NYPD to carry out the American settler colonial project.
At the same time, we witness the imperialist war machine escalate its attacks against Iranian, Venezuelan, Cuban, and Yemeni sovereignty and self-determination. We must work towards building a mass movement capable of choking the flow of capital and weapons toward the imperialist mission.
These systems are intimately connected; we can see the machinery of empire operating on a scale from local to global. We must take aim at all of it.
Primary Targets:
Easy Aerial & Crye Precision
+ Easy Aerial supplies the IOF and Elbit Systems (Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer), Customs and Border Patrol, and the U.S. Military with their drone technology for surveillance and death. In 2022 they lobbied the NYPD to start using drones as “first responders in high crime areas,” targeting Black and Brown communities in NYC.
+ Crye Precision produces uniforms and tactical gear for special forces in the Israeli military. They supply the same equipment to U.S. special forces, such as the Marine Special Response Team and the Delta squad that kidnapped Nicolas Maduro. Border Patrol agents wearing Crye Precision plate carriers murdered community members in MN. Crye Precision has contracts with BORTAC and ICE SRT, the units responsible for the large scale operations in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Canal Street in New York City.
Secondary Targets:
Brooklyn Navy Yard & Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC)
+ Easy Aerial and Crye Precision were/are tenants of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where they are labeled as “photography” and “fashion” businesses respectively – to obscure the fact that they are military suppliers. All tenants of BNY receive rent subsidies and are exempt from paying property taxes on the public land.
+ BNYDC manages the Navy Yard on behalf of the City of New York and currently consists of 27 board members appointed by the City. As of today, none have been appointed by Zohran Mamdani: all are holdovers from the Adams and DeBlasio administrations.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard is marketed to the community as a site that prioritizes women- and minority-owned businesses, as well as arts and environmental organizations. However, in reality, the Navy Yard has aligned itself with the military-industrial complex. Even high school students at the Brooklyn STEAM Center located at the Navy Yard are encouraged to do internships with weapons manufacturers.
Tertiary Targets:
Community Board 2, City Council, & City of New York
+ Community Board 2 – The Community Board advises city council members and city agencies. They can make recommendations about the budget with regard to economic development, land use, finance, and education.
+ City Council Members – Brooklyn Navy Yard is located in New York City’s 33rd City Council district, represented by Lincoln Restler.
+ City of New York – The City of New York owns the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It is public land and as such, the site should be used to host services that benefit the community, such as makerspaces, libraries, community urban farms, free headstart programs, and cooperative incubator spaces.
Tactics
The DBNY campaign utilized a multiplicity of tactics working in concert:
+ Weekly picket and noise disruptions outside of Building 77, a financial hub and food court that housed Easy Aerial on the 6th floor and the offices of BNYDC on the 8th floor.
+ BNY worker-tenant outreach
+ Neighborhood and local community organizing
+ Attending the public section of BNYDC and CB2 board meetings while organizing demonstrations and press conferences outside
+ Political education, teach-ins, and workshops
+ Focused outreach and noise demos exposing BNY board members and executives
+ Decentralized network of intervention, disruption, and direct action
Historic Victory
On February 11, the day that BNYDC was set to renew Easy Aerial’s lease, DBNY occupied the lobby of Building 77 for 6 hours. After almost 2 years of continuous pressure from the DBNY campaign, the board was forced not to renew Easy Aerial’s lease.
Movement Co-optation
Almost as soon as we received news of this historic victory, both “progressive” and reactionary social media channels were flooded with posts attributing our win to Zohran Mamdani and the DSA, completely erasing the campaign and its organizing effort from the narrative.
From the militant labor movement of the 1920s to the Civil Rights Movement, bottom-up people’s movements and victories have long been co-opted to funnel the population back into electoralism. We do not believe in a future which maintains the status quo of social programs funded by imperialism, and we refuse to let our campaign’s victory be used as an advertisement for electoralism. We have seen what works to obtain the people’s radical demands, and it is not electing “democratic socialists” that advance liberal agendas and institutions that maintain the status quo.
We fight against any form of co-optation. It is our duty to center the people’s power as the main focus of organizing within the campaign. People have only been radicalized by the inaction of politicians and lack of accountability. Co-optation of the campaign is yet another form of counterinsurgency that funnels people’s energy into electoral politics rather than empowering principled, local, grassroots organizing. No liberation can come through opportunism and liberalism.
Palestine Solidarity Movement in NYC
It has been made clear that significant parts of the Palestine solidarity movement here in New York City have been co-opted by a coalition of larger liberal organizations. These organizations have mostly remained silent on Easy Aerial and Crye Precision’s role in manufacturing and profiting off of genocide in Palestine.
We have seen groups with large platforms publicly criticize Mamdani for refusing to reform the NYPD, but they have not condemned him or his party for co-opting our material struggle for Palestine and our victory against Easy Aerial. This is a contradiction that cannot stand.
We insist on taking full credit for this victory. No elected official or party “gave us what we asked for.” This is the result of sustained militant and disciplined grassroots community organizing. It is a vindication of our community’s organized power.
Movement Journalism
Using the far-right tabloid The New York Post as a source, alternative news sites and large pro-Palestine social media accounts have spread misinformation about Easy Aerial’s eviction instead of doing their own research and investigation. Their lack of due diligence harms the DBNY campaign and the larger solidarity movement for Palestine. Many so-called journalists have opportunistically used the campaign’s victory to make connections with elected officials and to make a name for themselves.
We need to create strong anti-imperialist media outlets that can accurately cover anti-imperialist actions and progress. When “progressive” media has been so thoroughly co-opted by liberal organizations and politicians, radical movements and grassroots power are removed from the narrative, while politicians and liberal organizations that ignore or co-opt our work are inaccurately given credit for our victories.
For the record – what politicians did and didn’t do:
New York State Senator Jabari Brisport
+ Released a public statement and attended the DBNY campaign’s press conference outside of the BNYDC board meeting in September 2025.
+ In February 2026, his office issued another statement crediting the campaign for the victory and celebrating the upcoming eviction of Easy Aerial in response to DSA co-optation.
+ On March 11, Jabari released a video with DSA candidate Claire Valdez co-opting DBNY’s hard work without prior communication. Valdez has never helped or been involved with our struggle, yet the DSA believe they can use the DBNY campaign to try and launch her congressional career.
New York City Council Member Chi Osse
+ Showed up to a DBNY picket in October 2025 to give a speech and brought his videographer.
+ Released a video clip through his social media a few weeks later, completely erasing the DBNY campaign, with no footage of the picket he attended. He sat in front of an american flag while co-opting our work and movement.
+ Credited Zohran Mamdani for Easy Aerial’s eviction on Twitter with no reference or evidence of Mamdani’s involvement.
New York City Council Member Lincoln Restler
+ Did not respond to DBNY when we provided research materials about Crye Precision supplying ICE and the IOF in Summer 2025.
+ Refused to attend DBNY campaign’s press conference in September 2025 outside of the BNYDC board meeting.
+ In response to multiple outreach attempts from DBNY community members and neighbors, responded with talking points from BNYDC stating that Easy Aerial and Crye Precision “do not produce weapons” and that “drones are not weapons.”
+ Claimed to have no power over removing tenants from the Navy Yard located in his district, but immediately took credit for Easy Aerial’s eviction without any reference to DBNY’s consistent organizing for almost 2 years.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani
+ Despite DBNY community organizers reaching out to Mamdani’s campaign multiple times, neither he nor anyone from his team has ever responded.
+ In December 2025 we sent a letter outlining DBNY’s demands, and to date have not received a response.
+ While liberals have been quick to falsely attribute the eviction of Easy Aerial to Mamdani, the new Mayor is currently reinstituting homeless encampment sweeps while remaining silent on the genocide-supplying factories he presides over in New York City and condemning any criticism of zionist networks of occupation, exploitation and genocide.
DSA (democratic imperialists of “America”)
+ Attempted multiple times to co-opt DBNY’s campaign since the campaign’s press conference in September 2025.
+ Attempted to circulate a DSA sign-on letter for elected officials, but DBNY refused to let them co-opt the work of the campaign.
+ After BNYDC board members (none selected by Zohran Mamdani) refused to renew Easy Aerial’s lease, numerous DSA chapters circulated social media posts falsely attributing DBNY’s victory to Mamdani, incorrectly claiming that he appointed board members and was the decision maker.
Electoral politics has no space in DBNY’s campaign. We only pressure and expose politicians for their hypocrisy and inaction. They are not the campaign’s priority, none of them have taken any genuine actions to support oppressed peoples facing imperial violence here and abroad. DBNY does not trust any politicians; they have proven to be opportunistic and only interested in co-opting our movement when it can’t be ignored.
What’s next?
By forcing the eviction of Easy Aerial, the DBNY campaign has scored a significant and historic victory. But the battle is far from over. Crye Precision and many other Department of Defense contractors still reside in the Navy Yard. Just this January, Governor Hochul and BNYDC colluded to bring a company, Radical AI, making materials for hypersonic missiles used by the U.S. Air Force into the Brooklyn Navy Yard. With this announcement in January 2026, they are adding yet another DOD contractor on public land.
The genocide in Palestine continues. Iranians and Lebanese people are being slaughtered, displaced and poisoned by the ongoing U.S.-Israeli assault and bombardments. Western imperialist aggression is spreading like a cancer throughout the world. At the same time, the state is escalating its murderous violence on Black, Brown and Immigrant communities inside the U.S. settler colony.
To reiterate: we believe that our actions here in the imperial core must move beyond symbolic and performative solidarity, and that it is our urgent duty to effect material change by disrupting and shutting down the U.S. supply chain and death machine. As such, we will continue to refuse any act of co-optation and to escalate our campaign.
In militant love and solidarity until liberation,
Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard
“The establishment does everything in its power to ensure that revolutionary rage is redirected into empty outlets which provide pressure releases for desires that could become dangerous if allowed to progress.” –George Jackson, Blood in my Eye
To get involved, contact DBNY at
Email: demilitarizebrooklynnavyyard@proton.me
IG: @demilitarizebklynnavyyard
