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 website is the online companion to the quarterly Nuclear Resister newsletter, a more comprehensive chronicle.
» Read more…
Photo by Uprise RI
Early on the morning of August 12, members of the FANG Collective and RAM INC (Resist and Abolish the Military Industrial Complex) blocked entry and exit from the Raytheon Missiles and Defense factory in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Right at the gatehouse, they parked two old cars perpendicular to the four entry and exit lanes, and two people locked themselves onto the vehicles. Other members of the group held signs and banners across the roadway to greet arriving workers and live-streamed the action on Facebook.
» Read more…
photo by Hieu Nguyen
Thirty-one people were present on Monday, August 9 at a demonstration against Trident nuclear weapons at the Bangor submarine base in Silverdale, Washington. The demonstration, organized by the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, was at the Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor Main Gate during morning rush hour traffic.
At around 7:15 a.m., after peacekeepers entered the roadway and safely stopped traffic, eight demonstrators set themselves and their banners on the roadway blocking entry into the Main Gate.
Mack Johnson, Silverdale; George Rodkey, Tacoma; and Denny Duffell, Seattle carried a banner reading “Hiroshima Nagasaki Never Again.” Michael Siptroth, Belfair; Mark Sisk, Seattle; and Gilberto Perez, Bainbridge Island carried a banner reading “Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons/ Nuclear Weapons are Illegal/ Get them out of Kitsap County.” Sean Foley, Belfair; and James Manista, Olympia held a banner reading “Nuclear Weapons are: Immoral to use, Immoral to have, immoral to make.
» Read more…
Photo from disruptlandforces.org
From late May into June, the seven-day Festival of Resistance outside the Brisbane (Australia) Convention Center was an organizing cauldron. More than 300 participants cooked up public education events and a smorgasbord of nonviolent direct actions to confront Land Forces 2021, the largest international weapons exposition in the Southern Hemisphere.
Over the previous year, community organizing in anticipation of the arms bazaar was led by Wage Peace, a group dedicated to “disturbing war and militarism in Australia.” Organizers brought many diverse constituencies from radical youth, Quaker grannies, Aboriginal leaders, refugees, veterans and more into the action planning. During the six months leading up to the events, protests were held at several Brisbane area weapons manufacturers.
» Read more…
Photo by Dietrich Gerstner
Stop the next disaster before it happens – abolish nuclear weapons!
» Read more…
Daniel Hale – Codepink photo
On July 27, Daniel Hale was sentenced to 45 months in prison, having pled guilty in April to one count of violating the Espionage Act.
» Read more…
Photo by Nick Mottern. An image of Daniel Hale is projected on a D.C. building on June 26, 2021.
The whistleblower acted on behalf of the public’s right to know what is being done in its name.
by Kathy Kelly
July 6, 2021
“Pardon Daniel Hale.”
These words hung in the air on a recent Saturday evening, projected onto several Washington, D.C. buildings, above the face of a courageous whistleblower facing ten years in prison.
The artists aimed to inform the U.S. public about Daniel E. Hale, a former Air Force analyst who blew the whistle on the consequences of drone warfare. Hale will appear for sentencing before Judge Liam O’Grady on July 27th.
» Read more…
Photo by Jane Stoever, of Brian Terrell after his Memorial Day arrest (and resulting marks left by the handcuffs) at the Kansas City nuclear weapons plant
“If There Are Enough Shovels to Go Around”
Surviving the Nuclear Threat
by Brian Terrell
“Dig a hole, cover it with a couple of doors and then throw three feet of dirt on top. . . . It’s the dirt that does it. . . . . If there are enough shovels to go around, everybody’s going to make it.” This bit of cheery advice was offered by Thomas K. (“T.K.”) Jones, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, Strategic and Theater Nuclear Forces in a 1982 interview with Robert Scheer of The Los Angeles Times. Jones’ assurance that a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union could be survived with a little sweat and ingenuity, allowing for two to four years recovery time, reflected the optimism of his boss, President Ronald Reagan, before Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev talked some sense into him.
» Read more…
Photo of Br. Louis Rodemann, by Bennette Reed-Dibben
Memorial Day event: ‘We spoke truth, we cried, we witnessed, we rejoiced’
by Kristin Scheer
This Memorial Day was the first time I was able to join PeaceWorks-KC at the National Security Campus, where non-nuclear parts are made for nuclear weapons. It was our 10th annual event there. I was moved by the experience.
Jim Hannah was brilliant in reframing the facility we were about to see. In an oversized frame, he hung a flag naming the National Security Campus as it is. The very word campus, he said, conjured notions of a peaceful setting with trees and natural beauty, devoted to our nation’s security. But he contrasted that with the dangerous activity that was truly being manufactured there: the potential for planetary omnicide, he said, that leaves none of us feeling safe. Truly, they are manufacturing terror.
» Read more…
Daniel Hale – Copepink photo
Click HERE to sign the petition – Judge O’Grady, No Prison Time for Daniel Hale
from The Intercept
Drone Whistleblower Daniel Hale Jailed Ahead of Sentencing
It’s unclear precisely why Hale was arrested, and court documents show that his lawyers objected.
By Alex Emmons
May 5, 2021, 6:32 p.m.
Daniel Hale, a former Air Force intelligence analyst who pleaded guilty to sharing classified documents about drone strikes with a reporter, has been arrested ahead of his sentencing in July.
In March, Hale pleaded guilty to one charge under the Espionage Act, and he faces up to 10 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced in July, but a federal judge has ordered him incarcerated until then for violating the terms of his pretrial release, according to court records.
» Read more…
photo by Glen Milner
from Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action
Thirty people were present on May 8th (the day before Mother’s Day), at the demonstration against Trident nuclear weapons at the Bangor submarine base. At around 2 p.m., the five demonstrators entered the highway carrying two large banners stating, “Congress wants $1 trillion for nukes – What will be left for our children?” and “Trident Threatens All Life on Earth” and blocked all incoming traffic at the Main Gate of Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor for over 20 minutes. They were removed from the highway.
All five demonstrators were cited for violating RCW 46.61.250, Pedestrians on roadways, and released at the scene. Those cited by the Washington State Patrol: Brenda McMillan and Caroline Wildflower of Port Townsend; Sue Ablao of Bremerton; Elizabeth Murray of Poulsbo; and Michael “Firefly” Siptroth of Belfair.
» Read more…