Kayak-tivists Call Out “Radical Zionist” War Profiteer Building Drone Warships in Seattle

An autonomous group of anti-war “kayak-tivists” paddled across Lake Union and through Lake Washington ship canal this weekend to raise awareness about Anduril, a fast-growing AI weapons manufacturer in Seattle. While Seattle advocates have plenty of war profiteers to challenge in their backyard—from Boeing to Microsoft to Amazon— a particularly eye-catching Geekwire headline about the company appropriating one of Seattle’s most prominent natural features, the Lake Washington ship canal, to quietly build autonomous warships, sprung the usual peace advocates into action. 

Anduril, founded in Irvine, CA in 2017,  has quickly made a name for itself as one of the world's leading weapons start-ups, building autonomous and AI-powered weapons systems, missiles, aircraft, and warships. In 2020, the company expanded to Seattle, attracted to the area’s “incredible pool of talent,” according to founder Palmer Luckey. 

Anduril has an office space in Seattle on 2nd and Seneca  near Pike Place Market and almost 40,000 square feet of office space in Bellevue’s Skyline Tower, which it is subleasing from Meta. But the company's newest location is sparking intrigue.

As reported by Geekwire, Anduril announced last fall that it would spend tens of millions revamping the old Foss Shipyard, located on the Lake Washington Ship Canal, just northwest of Seattle Pacific University’s campus. And while Geekwire cofounder John Cook didn’t see many signs of life at the shipyard when he visited earlier this year, he confirmed that Anduril employees are hard at work, quietly building drone warships. 

At the Sunday action, anti-war kayak-tivists flew Palestinian flags and chanted “no with Iran,” signaling their concerns that these weapons will be used to carry out Israel’s military campaigns. 

Earlier this year, Anduril CEO Luckey visited Israel to meet with executives at  the top Israeli weapons companies, senior defense officials, and even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself. This indicates interest in potential partnerships or acquisitions between Anduril and Israeli defense companies, according to several tech news sources. Also, an Israeli news site claimed that “there is little doubt that Anduril’s products played a significant — mostly covert — role in” Israel’s recent attack on Iran because the company is one of the Pentagon’s most significant suppliers. 

These connections to Israel are not surprising to advocates. Beyond the obvious financial incentive to supply to Israel (or to Israel via the United States government), Luckey has also described himself as a “radical Zionist.” 

And to be clear, even if the company had now ties or interest in Israel, manufacturing weapons of war is — and follow me with this one — still bad. 

It is unclear where advocacy against Anduril goes next after the kayaks left the canal Sunday afternoon.

But the action comes at a potentially instructive time in local policy-making when municipalities have been experimenting with zoning regulations to keep unsavory actors out of Seattle. For example, several Washington cities have passed short-term moratoria on new detention sites in attempts to block the expansion immigration enforcement and detention. More recently, Seattle is considering a year-long ban on the construction of new data centers to give the City time to consider regulations. Theoretically, Seattle could institute a moratorium on weapons manufacturers through similar zoning tricks. 

This tool is limited of course. For one, lawmakers usually opt for a temporary ban, which may lead to permanent change or may just quietly end after they cashed in the political points of the moratorium to begin with. And two, the company could just move and continue war profiteering elsewhere. 

However, Seattle may have some special leverage in this case because it is a maritime powerhouse with plenty of tech workers to hire. That leverage may be more effectively wielded to impose taxes on war profiteering companies doing business in Seattle. 

And as many will point out, there are many other, less institutional ways to organize against war profiteers. If activists target Anduril again, The Burner will be there.