A sticker slapped on telephone poles and utility boxes around Burlington highlights dissent among the dissenters on the issue of basing the F-35 military fighter jet at the local airport.

A small band of graphic guerrillas who call themselves the Sticker Gang are seeking “to up the political ante by depicting the depth of the opposition to both the weapons system and the pols fronting for the 1 percent’s continuing agenda of empire,” gangster Albert Petrarca writes in an email.

Designed by a local artist who won’t reveal his or her name, the sticker shows the war plane in a completely vertical ascent. It’s got a skull-and-crossbones emblazoned on one wing; the nuclear radiation symbol on the other. The exhaust from the F-35’s engine takes the form of the names of Vermont politicians who support the basing plan: Shumlin, Sanders, Weinberger, Leahy, Welch. 

“F the 35,” the sticker proclaims on top.

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Kevin J. Kelley is a contributing writer for Seven Days, Vermont Business Magazine and the daily Nation of Kenya.

10 replies on ““Sticker Gang” Seeks to Push F-35 Debate Leftward”

  1. NOISELESS
    Most of the noise concerning the F35 issues is about NOISE
    — and rightly so, as many Vermonters will be hurt, their lives and homes
    devalued and in some cases destroyed.
    But let’s not forget another aspect, at the moment
    relatively noiseless, but in the long run, equally worthy of note: the
    military’s push for the F-35 is intimately connected with Obama’s plan to
    upgrade the US’s nuclear strike capability. The current F-16 fleet is incapable
    of carrying and delivering the newly-designed “smart” nuclear bombs.
    The F-35 has been designed to do so.
    By supporting the development of the F-35, in Burlington or
    not, Vermonters are willy-nilly upholding the US’s evasion of the Nuclear
    Non-Proliferation Treaty — to which it is a signatory — which contains a
    pledge to slowly lower nuclear strike capacity to zero.
    The anti-F-35 movement itself has bracketed this issue, in
    part because the local, clearly predictable effects will be so severe, but
    partly out of wariness about being seen as “unpatriotic”. What I
    think is unpatriotic is to allow one’s own country to be the linchpin and
    supplier of WMDs beyond any local nightmare.
    Let this remain an undertone at least in the current
    symphony of noise.
    Marc Estrin

  2. I LOVE THE STICKERS DOWNTOWN!! I WISH I COULD GET A BUMPER STICKER! ARTISTS- PLEASE SELL BUMPER STICKERS SO WE CAN SHOW OUR SUPPORT AGAINST THE DISRUPTIVE F35.
    Not only does loud machinery disrupt our daily lives- it has a much bigger impact on wildlife. One, loud man-made noise can disrupt the activity and synchronicity of frogs for an hour past it’s happening. Think of the stress these sounds impose on wildlife; the planes that pass above now hurt my ears- imagine how an F35 would affect a deer. The F35s are far more disruptive than simply lowering housing costs. But it’s true – people come to Vermont for the solitude- and that image of peacefulness will be shattered by the with earsplitting F35. If one doesn’t care about the stress level of our wildlife, consider that the F35 could hurt our economy as much as it could help it.
    Not to mention hosting it in VT shows we support the outrageously disproportionate amount of gov funds going towards military muscle-flexing. We have bigger issues at hand- our own poverty, education, global warming, corruption…
    F THE 35!!!!!!!!

  3. Interesting. What you bring up should certainly be at the crux of this conversation- and yet ironically, I’ve heard no one speak of the F35’s connection to nuclear capacity.
    I’m curious how Obama reasons that “upgrading the US’s nuclear strike capability” will help us “lower our nuclear strike capacity to zero”…Very disturbing indeed. Possibly the worst of it is that they hide these misdoings in plain sight- let us bicker about house values, but if this were a true democracy the F35’s purpose would have been advertised to us, involving us in the true discussion. If we’re going to be hosting it we certainly deserve to know the details. The presumptuous secrecy of the whole affair is repulsive.
    Marc please find a way to bring this further into the public conversation- maybe stickering?? 🙂

  4. There is another part to this effort to oppose the F-35. Probably for the first time a group of primarily leftists are going after Pat, Bernie, Peter and Peter. For the first time our “liberal” politicians are being collectively attacked from the left flank. Could this be the start of the new Vermont revolution?

  5. “The Sticker Gang was dissatisfied, Petrarca says, with the visual quality of propaganda produced by the anti-F-35 coalition.”
    Propaganda is the correct term.

  6. The fact that these stickers bring Leahy, Welch, Sanders, and Shummy into it makes me want some…. almost. I think the republicans in this state may be convinced into opposing the F-35 if it means ousting our esteemed leaders.

  7. Of course you’re aware that last week the government changed old rules that they could not aim their propaganda at a domestic audience now they can. And they are vicious if anyone such as Manning or Snowden tell the truth about our military war criminals. So most of what you have learned Mr Hoo is propaganda from the government since all our news is owned by 5 corporations.

  8. Ah, yes. The paranoid strain of the American psyche is alive and well. It’s the same on the Looney Left and the Radical Right: the gub’men is out to get me; everyone’s lying; and I’m the only one who can see it.

  9. Thank you, Sticker Gang! Our so-called “leaders” should be held accountable for encouraging this trillion-dollar boondoggle for an antiquated killing machine.

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