The Nuclear Resister

from a report by Bob Graf

Today, September 24th, is the 48th anniversary of the Milwaukee 14 nonviolent action that burned thousands of class 1-A draft cards, a draft that forced young men and women to “kill or be killed”.

On September 22, 2016, 14 people – Omar, Don, Roberta, Tiffany, Bob, Harvey, Sue, Joe, Phil, Eugene, Tom, Sue, Jim and Don – gathered on the Marquette University campus to close down the Department of Defense’s (DoD) new system to teach young men and women to “kill or be killed”. Since before 1968, students, faculty and citizens have asked Marquette, a Catholic, Christian University, to be faithful to the Gospel and close down the military, ROTC, NROTC and AFROTC DoD divisions on campus.

photo by Elaine Dickinson

from Cape Downwinders

Boston, MA – Three activists from the anti-nuclear group Cape Downwinders were arrested at the State House on Friday, September 9. After a rally at the Beacon Street entrance, the group delivered a letter to Governor Baker calling for him to demand the Nuclear Regulatory Commission immediately close Pilgrim nuclear reactor in Plymouth. Their action was prompted by another emergency scram that occurred on September 6th due to malfunctioning safety equipment. After a year of increase oversight by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Pilgrim remains at the lowest NRC safety rating, one step from federally mandated shutdown. This is the second shutdown in three weeks due to degrading equipment. Pilgrim remains closed today.

by Greg Rolles

For the last four years I have been doing peace activism. In 2003, I had been in the Australian Army. Australia’s murderous support of the U.S. invasion of Iraq saw me leave and seek a life elsewhere. After several years as a high school teacher, I left to live in a Catholic Worker House in another State of Australia (our States are really big). I learnt more about colonialism, capitalism and the opportunity to build friendship and community in the midst of it all. In that space, I started protesting, and then blockading what I saw as the preparations for murder through the military machine. The first arrest was scary, but I felt necessary to make a statement at a “Family Open Day” in one of Australia’s largest military bases.

Opening day of the Eurosatory Arms Expo, June 13, was enlivened by 50 activists from the French collective Désobéir (Disobey) as they took several simultaneous actions against war. Professionally attired activists entered the suburban Paris exhibition hall, where some crossed the rope lines and climbed on board a Leclerc tank and another vehicle, unfurling banners and pouring red paint on the weapons. A few took photos and video of the protest while others inside displayed banners and spoke out against the business of killing. Outside, more activists rallied and some blocked the doors to the exhibition hall, which had been marked with red paint as well.

Kathy Kelly & Brian Terrell

by Brian Terrell

“As a matter of fact, you have had a person attend your protests in Camp Douglas who has threatened to kill our Deputies.” This piece of startling news was revealed to me in a letter from Juneau County, Wisconsin, Undersheriff Craig Stuchlik dated July 25.

I had written to the sheriff’s department requesting documents under the Open Records Law and for an explanation of the department’s response to a demonstration at Volk Field, a Wisconsin Air National Guard base near the town of Camp Douglas, where my colleague at Voices for Creative Nonviolence Kathy Kelly and I had been arrested on February 23, carrying a loaf of bread and a letter for the base commander. There is a facility at this base where military personnel are trained in the operation of remotely controlled Shadow Drones that have been instrumental in the targeted assassination program that legal experts label war crimes and that military experts say recruit more enemies for our country than they kill.