Two nuclear abolition activists arrested at Nevada nuclear test site

Posted on March 20, 2024

Jim Haber (photo by Felice Cohen-Joppa)

by Felice Cohen-Joppa

Members of the Pacific Life Community converged outside of Las Vegas from March 16 – 18 for their annual gathering to protest nuclear weapons. Two of them were arrested on Monday morning, March 18 during a nonviolent action at the Nevada nuclear test site.  

Before Rush Rehm and Jim Haber crossed the line onto the site, 40 people gathered for a ceremony in the desert outside of the boundary fence of the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). They placed a plaque honoring the life of Fr. Louis Vitale, OFM under a creosote bush. Vitale was a co-founder of the Nevada Desert Experience in the early 1980s, who often protested and was arrested at the Nevada test site over the years. The activists then joined hands in a circle to take part in the Elm Dance, which “celebrates commitment to life and solidarity with activists the world over”.

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U.S. Peace Activist Given Longest Prison Term in German Campaign to Oust U.S. Nuclear Bombs

Posted on March 11, 2024

Nukewatch photo

from Nukewatch

First Ever U.S. Woman Sentenced to Prison in Decades-Long Effort

Susan Crane, of the Redwood City, California Catholic Worker, has been sentenced to 229 days in prison in Germany for daring to interfere with the U.S. nuclear weapons stationed at Germany’s Büchel Air Force base, southeast of Cologne.

Crane participated in six nonviolent go-in actions, confronting the air force system on base which routinely trains to drop the U.S. H-bombs on targets in Russia,[1] most provocatively this winter in operation “Steadfast Defender 24” — which was launched in the midst of NATO’s war in Ukraine.[2]

As a result of convictions on misdemeanor charges of trespass and damage to the chain-link fence, Crane was fined a total of twenty-five-hundred Euros. Now, for refusing to admit guilt or pay, a mid-level court on Jan. 18, 2024 ordered Crane to report June 4, 2024 to Rohrbach penitentiary, a 450-bed, co-ed in southwest Germany. Crane’s 7.6- month penalty is the longest prison sentence ever imposed in the 25-year-long series of rallies, protests, marches, peace camps, and civil resistance directed at the NATO nuclear weapons base. Crane is also the first U.S. woman to be ordered to German prison in the decades-long effort.

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Drone whistleblower Daniel Hale released from prison

Posted on March 8, 2024

Daniel Hale (Photo posted on Twitter by the Daniel Hale Support Network.)

Daniel Hale’s case was part of a continuation of the U.S. government’s war on whistleblowers under President Joe Biden

Drone whistleblower Daniel Hale was released from prison in February after spending 33 months in some of the harshest confinement conditions ever imposed on a person for disclosing classified information to the press.

Hale remains in federal custody but is living in home confinement until July.

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Five nuclear abolition activists arrested at General Dynamics/Electric Boat

Posted on March 4, 2024

Photo by Bill Ofenloch

At 6 a.m. on March 4, 20 anti-nuclear activists brought banners and 27 life-size images of Robert Oppenheimer to block the main entrance gates at the General Dynamics Electric Boat facility in New London, Connecticut, where the Columbia class nuclear submarines are being designed and constructed. Some of the banners read: “Don’t be a ‘Destroyer of Worlds’ – Stop the Columbia Sub”. The aim of the demonstrators was to bring attention to a new nuclear arms race which is now heating up between the nuclear superpowers in violation of international arms control treaties. They also were protesting the fact that an Ohio class Trident submarine, built at Electric Boat, has been deployed in the Mediterranean Sea to enforce Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

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Christian Protesters Arrested at Downing Street in Gaza Protest

Posted on December 31, 2023

Photo by Pat Gaffney

Two Christian protesters were arrested at Downing Street in London on December 29 after pouring fake blood, putting bloody handprints on the gates and reading the names of dead children killed by Israel and Hamas.

Virginia Moffat (58) and Chris Cole (60) from Dorset said that the government had “blood on its hands” after refusing to demand Israel end its bombing of Gaza, calling it “a massacre of biblical proportions”.  Moffat said, “We did it because we can’t bear what we are watching day in day out. We did it because our government is complicit by continuing to arm Israel and refusing to back a ceasefire… We did it because every life is precious, Israeli and Palestinian. And because this violence has to end.”

They were held for eight hours before being released on bail, with conditions to not carry paint in public and to stay outside of the M25 (London orbital road). They are scheduled to appear in court the following week.

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Two arrested at the Pentagon to commemorate the Feast of the Massacre of the Holy Innocents

Posted on December 28, 2023

from Art Laffin, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker

Dear Friends,

From 7 – 8 a.m. on December 28, ten peacemakers witnessed at the Pentagon to commemorate the Feast of the Massacre of the Holy Innocents. The witness was organized by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker in conjunction with the Little Flower Catholic Worker and Norfolk Catholic Worker.

We act in prayerful solidarity with many sisters and brothers today in the U.S. and elsewhere who are commemorating this special feast day by engaging in acts of public witness in resistance to a warmaking empire.  

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2,400 Arrests Calling for CEASEFIRE NOW

Posted on December 28, 2023

Jewish Voice for Peace photo

From the Nuclear Resister

When the long-simmering war between Hamas and the state of Israel exploded into a rolling boil on October 7, demands for a ceasefire quickly dominated demonstrations around the world.

Following is a day-by-day chronicle of more than 2,400 arrests in the first two months since then, at more than 75 demonstrations across 22 states and provinces in the United States and Canada. It marks the largest surge of anti-war arrests since mid-April, 2003, when the Nuclear Resister chronicled over 7,500 anti-war arrests in the U.S. alone in the lead-up to and first weeks of the second U.S. invasion of Iraq.

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Eighteen arrested at U.S. Mission to the U.N. demanding the U.S. sign the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty

Posted on December 1, 2023

Photo by Felton Davis

On November 30, activists affixed a 10-foot-long sticker to the windows of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations which read, “U.S. sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.” This strong message to the U.S. Mission was delivered by members of the Atlantic Life Community, Catholic Workers, New York City War Resisters League and Nukewatch.  

The nuclear abolition activists, holding signs and banners and singing protest songs, blocked all three entrance doors to the U.S. Mission. Soon after the blockade was in place, the Mission played a taped message instructing employees to “shelter in place”.

After two hours, eighteen blockaders were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. They were processed within a couple of hours and released with a December 20 court date.

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Six activists arrested calling on Raytheon to end profiting from war crimes

Posted on November 15, 2023

photo credit of Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal

Activists from across the country gathered outside of Raytheon’s office in Arlington, Virginia at 12:00 noon on November 8 to confront the war profiteer on its role in producing weapons that are causing extreme suffering and death to innocent children, women, and men around the world.

As they gathered on the sidewalk outside of Raytheon, some of the individuals lay on the sidewalk and were covered with sheets representing people around the world who have been killed in U.S. wars using weapons made by the war profiteer. Others mourned over large dolls representing the children who have been killed by Raytheon’s weapons. Sidewalks are normally a public place where people can exercise their First Amendment rights. However, in this case Raytheon controls the sidewalk. When asked to leave by the police, a number of activists said that because of the suffering and death caused by weapons produced by Raytheon, they could not leave until Raytheon agreed to stop producing weapons. Eventually six people were arrested as they followed their conscience. 

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Activists shut down nuclear submarine facility in Connecticut

Posted on November 14, 2023

photo by Claire Schaeffer-Duffy

from the Atlantic Life Community

Nine peace activists were arrested and charged with criminal trespass, criminal mischief and breach of peace on the morning of November 13 during a blockade of the two main entrances to the General Dynamics-Electric Boat (GD-EB) nuclear submarine engineering complex in New London, Connecticut, where nuclear submarines are designed. 
Holding long banners spanning the driveways, the activists blocked cars of employees entering the facility for the morning shift. The 24-foot banners read “Building Nuclear Weapons is Illegal, Abide By Our Treaties, Stop Building Weapons of Mass Destruction.”
At each entrance one activist wheat-pasted on the driveway Article 6 from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, ratified by the United States in 1968, which commits us to nuclear disarmament.  

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