The Nuclear Resister

Digging For Life:
For an End to Military C02 Emissions & the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons

Today, August 9, the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, 16 nuclear abolitionists and climate activists were arrested when they started to dig a tunnel under the fence of Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands. The international group of Dutch, German, Italian and American activists meant to occupy the runway and again call to abolish nuclear weapons and CO2 emissions by the armed forces. U.S. nuclear weapons are stockpiled at Volkel as part of NATO’s “nuclear sharing” practice that continues in contradiction of the 1970 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

“Again” because yesterday ten participants of a Peace Camp at Volkel blocked the runway after climbing over the fence, and were then arrested. Today the intent of a “pink shovel action” was to create an entrance that allows everyone, including those with disabilities, to engage in the life-affirming action. Sigrid Hossbach came out of her wheelchair to take up a pink shovel and start digging.

World BEYOND War photo

from World BEYOND War

OTTAWA — On May 31, over a hundred people have disrupted the opening of CANSEC, North America’s largest military weapons convention in Ottawa, where 10,000 attendees were expected to gather. 

Activists carrying 50 foot banners saying “Stop Profiting from War,” “Arms Dealers Not Welcome” and holding dozens of “War Crimes Start Here” signs blocked vehicle and pedestrian entrances as attendees attempted to register for and enter the convention centre, preventing attendees from getting in for Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand’s planned opening keynote address. In police efforts to remove the protesters, they grabbed banners, and handcuffed and arrested one protester, who was later released without charges.

from the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action

photo by Glen Milner

Activists blockaded the entrance to the U.S. Navy’s west coast nuclear submarine base, which is home to the largest operational concentration of deployed nuclear weapons, in a nonviolent direct action the day before Mother’s Day.

Eight peace activists from the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, holding banners reading “The Earth is Our Mother, Treat Her With Respect” and “Nuclear Weapons are Immoral to Use, Immoral to Have, Immoral to Make,” briefly blocked all incoming traffic at the Main Gate at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Silverdale, Washington as part of a May 13th Mother’s Day observance.

From left to right: Inga Blum, Ernst-Ludwig Iseknius, Ria Makein, Johannes Willbold, Gerd Büntzly, Miriam Menzel-Krämer, Lies Welker, Christiane Danowski

On May 8, the day Germans commemorate the end of a fascist regime and the end of World War II, seven opponents of war entered the Büchel air base. They nonviolently disrupted the preparation for nuclear war by obstructing construction work for the new runway. The new runway is a prerequisite for the deployment of new nuclear weapons that will soon be stationed in Büchel. 

The participants from all over Germany, aged between 43 and 75, thus set a sign for life on the anniversary of the end of the war and demanded an end to the threat of mass destruction, which violates international law. They were arrested and taken to the police station in Cochem before being released.