The Nuclear Resister

Photo by Ellen Grady

Nine peace activists were arrested on April 14 during a Good Friday witness against drone warfare at Hancock Air Base in New York.  While blocking the entrance into the base, some of them stood with arms outstretched against replicas of cross-shaped drones, while others held cut-outs of drones topped with signs, some of which read “Drones Crucify Love”, “Drones Crucify Families”, “Drones Crucify Due Process”, “Drones Crucify Diplomacy” and “Drones Crucify Peace”. 

Photo by Clancy Dunigan

from Truthout

March 28, 2017

by Allison McGillivray

It was March 7, and I wasn’t expecting the snow. I tucked my fingers into my sleeves, wishing I hadn’t left my gloves in California. I had traveled to the Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor to demonstrate at the site of the largest stockpile of deployed nuclear weapons in the United States, likely the world. With a dozen protesters, I occupied lanes of traffic. Down this road, past the gate on Trigger Avenue, on the Hood Canal just 20 miles from Seattle, sits a deadly fleet of nuclear submarines. Each vessel has the capacity for 24 Trident II D5 missiles, eight warheads apiece, with a 4,000-mile target radius. The US has 14 Trident submarines, eight to 10 of which are at sea at any given time.

Brisbane-area Catholic Workers and friends visited the Australian city’s historic Toowong Cemetery on Ash Wednesday afternoon, March 1. At the gate stands a large stone crucifix, adorned by a metal sword that marks it as a war memorial.

“From the moment I saw that sword on the cross… I knew I could not not remove it,” said Jim Dowling. From a ladder leaned on the crosspiece, he used a crowbar to remove the sword. He handed it down to Tim Webb, who placed the sword on an anvil and reshaped it into a garden hoe, echoing the Biblical prophecies of Micah and Isaiah that, “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”

from Occupy Beale Air Force Base

Anti-drone activists blocked traffic at the Main Gate into Beale Air Force Base for over 30 minutes on February 28 during early morning commute hour.

Flora Rogers, Mike Rufo, Pamela Osgood and Toby Blomé were later arrested for trespassing as they entered the base. One was trying to deliver a group letter to the base commander, expressing opposition to the unlawful drone assassination program (see letter below).

from the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee

January 18, 2017, in a letter addressed to Leonard Peltier’s lawyer, the Obama administration formally denied the request to grant clemency to Peltier.

Leonard Peltier, a Native rights activist and member of the American Indian Movement, has been incarcerated since 1976 convicted of a crime he did not commit. Peltier’s struggle to gain freedom has crossed the globe and supporters include the likes of Mother Theresa and Desmond Tutu, whom have all called for his clemency.