BURLINGTON -- A group of demonstrators that included University of Vermont students held a protest rally this morning at General Dynamics on Lakeside Avenue.

Burlington police were on the scene before 8 a.m., monitoring the event.

In a news release, students said they planned to "come together to engage in non-violent civil disobedience and hold a rally at war-profiteer General Dynamics' Weapons Development and Design Facility to protest the theft of millions of Vermont tax dollars to support General Dynamics."

Under the banner "Peace Economy not War Profiteering", students say, protesters are calling on General Dynamics to immediately cease receiving corporate welfare in the form of Vermont Tax Subsidies.

UVM students say they have called on their Alma Mater to divest it's investment in General Dynamics.

"As a UVM student I was outraged to learn my tuition dollars and tax dollars were being invested in the production of Weapons of Mass Destruction at General Dynamics," said UVM student Sam Maron. "UVM's identity as a green university is shallow and empty until it refuses to do business with war profiteers like General Dynamics that parasitically steal from the American economy”.