The Nuclear Resister networks the anti-nuclear and anti-war resistance movement while acting as a clearinghouse for information about contemporary nonviolent resistance to war and the nuclear threat. Our emphasis is on support for the women and men jailed for these actions. This blog is the online companion to the quarterly Nuclear Resister newsletter, a more comprehensive chronicle.
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photo by Aaron Jorgensen-Briggs
Veterans for Peace and Des Moines Catholic Worker 2nd Annual Armed Forces Day “Stop the Killing” Rally and Direct Action at Iowa Air National Guard Drone Command Center
On May 19, Armed Forces Day, members of Veterans for Peace, Des Moines Catholic Worker and Iowa’s religious community held a rally and direct action at the Iowa Air National Guard’s Drone Command Center on the south side of Des Moines.
Elliott Adams, former national president of Veterans for Peace, stressed the fundamental importance of diplomacy, rather than violence, in resolving international conflicts.
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by Patrick O’Neill, Kings Bay PlowsharesAt a May 17 bond hearing in United States District Court in Brunswick, Georgia, U.S. Attorney Karl Knoche told U.S. Magistrate Stan Baker that the government recommended that the seven Kings Bay Plowshares activists be held without bond pending their federal trial for conspiracy, destruction of property on a Naval Station, depredation of government property and trespass.
Calling the action “serious criminal activity” carried out by defendants with “long criminal histories” who were a threat to the safety of the community, Knoche asked Baker to withhold bond.
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Photo by Glen Milner
from Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action
Ten cited in peaceful demonstration at Trident nuclear submarine base at Bangor, WA
Silverdale, WA, May 12, 2018: Forty-two activists were present at the Bangor Trident submarine base to celebrate the true meaning of Mothers Day for Peace and to protest nuclear weapons.
Ten activists symbolically closed Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor for about 20 minutes by blocking the road to the Main Gate in a nonviolent direct action on the Saturday before Mothers Day. They held two banners across the inbound lanes. One read “The Earth is our Mother. Treat her with Respect”, the other stated “We can all live without Trident”.
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After being released by police, Dr. Babu Rao addresses the meeting.
Farmers near the uranium mine and mill at Tummalapalle, in India’s Andrha Pradesh state have been protesting contamination of soil and groundwater and the depletion of their irrigation wells by the operations of the nuclear industrial site. Some have had to abandon their homes to the invisible blight and have suffered health problems they blame on the widespread pollution. When independent testing documented the levels of contamination, the Uranium Corporation of India (UCIL) arranged for their own tests before scheduling, then postponing, a meeting with village leaders to dispute the findings and try to calm the growing protest in the heart of India’s richest uranium deposits.
The meeting was finally set for Monday, April 9. That day, police arrested three prominent activists as they traveled to the meeting at the invitation of the farmers.
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Mother-daugher Liz McAlister and Frida Berrigan
From Waging Nonviolence
“Our grandma is in jail,” Madeline tells a woman wrestling a shopping cart at Target.
“She went over a war fence and tried to make peace,” Seamus adds helpfully. “They arrested her, and she is in jail now.”
“Where?” the woman asks, looking from them to me in disbelief and maybe pity.
“We don’t remember,” the kids say, suddenly done with their story and ready to make passionate pleas for the colorful items in the dollar section over the woman’s shoulder.
“Georgia,” I say, but I don’t have a lot of energy to add detail to my kids’ story. They hit all the high points.
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Seven Catholic plowshares activists were arrested early Thursday morning, April 5 at the Kings Bay Naval Base in St. Mary’s, Georgia. They entered the base late in the evening of April 4, 2018 in an attempt to nonviolently transform weapons of mass destruction and inspire Americans to reject racism, militarism and economic injustice. They are being held at the Camden County Public Safety Complex in Woodbine, Georgia. » Read more…
The Kings Bay Plowshares – Clare Grady, Patrick O’Neill, Liz McAlister, Steve Kelly SJ, Martha Hennessy, Mark Colville and Carmen Trotta (L-R)
(Updates at the Kings Bay Plowshares Facebook page here, and website here)
Seven Catholic plowshares activists were detained early Thursday morning, April 5 at the Kings Bay Naval Base in St. Mary’s, Georgia.
They entered on Wednesday night, April 4. Calling themselves Kings Bay Plowshares, they went to make real the prophet Isaiah’s command: “beat swords into plowshares”.
The seven chose to act on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who devoted his life to addressing the triplets of militarism, racism and materialism. In a statement they carried with them the group quoted King, who said: “The greatest purveyor of violence in the world (today) is my own government.”
Carrying hammers and baby bottles of their own blood, the seven attempted to convert weapons of mass destruction.
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photo by Michael Kerr
Four women – Toby Blome, Eleanor Levine, Susan Witka and Maggie Huntingon – were arrested on April 3 while blocking the entrance to Creech drone base in Nevada. The funeral procession and action, protesting drone warfare, was part of the Codepink Drone Resistance Week at Creech.
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U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal Agree: Facts about Nuclear Weapons Can be Kept from Juries in Protest Cases
Judicial Protection Racket Keeps the Bomb Behind a Wall of Silence
by John LaForge, Nukewatch
(Originally published in the Nuclear Resister #187, March 14, 2018. This version has been corrected by the author.)
If you were thinking that protest and resistance against the Bomb will be easier in the United States now that the United Nations General Assembly, on July 7, 2017, overwhelmingly approved a treaty outlawing the possession and threatened use of nuclear weapons (voting 122 to 1), think again.
Between 1980 and 2005, seven U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal have ruled that federal district courts may (in one case must) prevent juries from hearing a defense of necessity or any expert testimony about international treaty law, etc. in nuclear weapons protest cases.[i]
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Nevada Desert Experience photo
The 24th annual Sacred Peace Walk, organized by the Nevada Desert Experience, took place from March 24-30. The group of peace walkers began in Las Vegas and concluded a week and 60 miles later at the Nevada National Security Site (formerly known as the Nevada Test Site).
From the Nevada Desert Experience website: “We walk in the footsteps of a long legacy of peace walkers and spiritual leaders to draw attention to the nuclear dangers that continue to threaten our planet, and the violent robots (RPAs or drones) continuing to kill people monthly, damaging the community of life in the desert. We also focus on the threats of nuclear waste to the Sacred Yucca Mountain.”
Early in the morning of March 28, the Peace Walkers held signs and banners at Creech drone base in Indian Springs. Darcy Ike and Robert Majors were arrested for blockading the entrance road into the base. (See video of action here.)
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