SCRANTON, PA – Just north of Whittier Elementary School in Scranton, where voters queued on Election Day, lay the old train tracks that once powered the region’s economy. On a summer day, you can still hear the whistle, feel the ground vibrate, and see a locomotive appear from the smoke’s haze.
But that train doesn’t really take you anywhere.
The tracks running down the Roaring Brook River are a tourist attraction. There are no railroads that connect Scranton to other cities. The city’s locomotive repair facility closed long ago and has been turned into a weapons factory.
“My family would roll in their graves if they knew that the factory where they used to make rails is now making weapons for General Dynamics,” said Jack Gilroy.
He grew up in a coal town near Scranton, is a former high school teacher, a veteran of two military services, and a member of Veterans for Peace.
“I’m disgusted that we put 54% of our discretionary budget toward militaristic goals,” he said. “Meanwhile, Native Americans don’t have electricity in their homes.”
While Dunder Mifflin, the fictitious paper company in the famous TV show The Office, put Scranton on the international map, its weapons plants make it very important in the real world. The Scranton Army Ammunition Plant produces 155 mm howitzer rounds — some of the most requested ammunition by both Ukraine and Israel.
Just a 20-minute drive away is another major munitions plant operated by Lockheed Martin, and 30 minutes in the opposite direction is the Tobyhanna Army Depot, another defense company that claims to be the largest industrial employer in the region, boasting a $2.4 billion economic impact.
Scranton, a city of 80,000 people that once had coal at the heart of its economy, now relies on military contracts for high-paying jobs. But while Scranton’s companies play a crucial role in foreign wars, are those conflicts entering the city’s everyday life?
“Every day at least six or seven people call me to beg me to send them money,” said Brother Farouq, a Palestinian American and imam at the Center for Islamic Studies in Scranton. Their community counts 1,500 members. “So many people come here to donate money for the victims of the war.”
Farouq lost seven family members in Gaza. His niece, with her children, is still there.
“We organize protests, sit-ins, and call our senators,” he said. “We do everything we can, but no one else cares. If they cared, they would have already stopped.”
Farouq said that he’s going to vote independent, hoping that in the future politicians will realize that their constituency matters.
Gilroy, who now lives in New York, shares his same disappointment but arrived at different conclusions.
“Frankly, if I were voting in Pennsylvania, I would vote for Harris, hoping that she can be converted. There is no hope with Republicans.”
Since the start of the war in October, Gilroy has organized three demonstrations in the city.
“We laid on the ground to stop the trucks that are delivering weapons to Israel and Ukraine,” he said.
Over the years, Gilroy said he has been arrested six times for his protests against U.S. involvement in foreign wars. Yet his efforts leave him frustrated and disappointed.
“People don’t care,” he said. “They just don’t care. Thanks to those weapons manufacturers, they can buy food and a glass of wine. They prefer to ignore the war for the sake of a good job. Go ask students in Scranton if they even know anything about the weapon plants.”
At Lackawanna College, a private school in downtown Scranton, students gather in small groups, chatting about upcoming exams and weekend plans or getting ready to cast their vote.
“I don’t know anything about weapons or anything like that,” said Ziare Brown, 20. “I am just trying not to get my taxes raised, you know what I’m saying? I’m gonna vote for Harris.”
“I’m not well-informed enough to vote,” said Mia Carachilo, 18, who sat at a table outside a polling station selling snacks with three friends. They raised money to attend the presidential inauguration ceremony. “I just want to be at the inauguration day, whoever wins.”
For such a small city, Scranton has offered quite a few historic photo opportunities lately. In the last few weeks, Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, and even Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have come here.
“Ah, that’s why the roads were blocked?” asked Carachilo. “They always do that. It’s so inconvenient. Why can’t I just go to the mall?”
(Photo credit: Chris Caurla)
About the author(s)
Chris Caurla
Chris Caurla is an award-winning multimedia reporter with a focus on on-the-ground coverage of social justice issues. He is currently based in New York, where he is pursuing a Master of Arts in Politics at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.