Early Spring 2018
IN THIS E-BULLETIN
SEVEN KINGS BAY PLOWSHARES ACTIVISTS ARRESTED INSIDE TRIDENT NUCLEAR SUB BASE
THREE ACTIONS AT NEVADA NUCLEAR TEST SITE
TWO ARRESTS AT CREECH DRONE BASE DURING SACRED PEACE WALK, FOUR MORE DURING CODEPINK DRONE RESISTANCE WEEK
SIX PEOPLE ARRESTED AT ARMS FAIR PROTEST IN WALES
FRENCH POLICE SMASH NUCLEAR DUMP PROTEST CAMP, ARREST AND JAIL ACTIVISTS
GOOD FRIDAY ARRESTS AT LOCKHEED MARTIN, THE PENTAGON, LIVERMORE LAB AND NEVADA NUCLEAR TEST SITE
A CATHOLIC WORKER DISCUSSION ON PROPERTY DESTRUCTION AND NONVIOLENCE
U.S. CIRCUIT COURTS OF APPEAL AGREE: FACTS ABOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS CAN BE KEPT FROM JURIES IN PROTEST CASES
PLEASE SUPPORT IMPRISONED ANTI-NUCLEAR AND ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS – THE NUCLEAR RESISTER NEEDS YOU!
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Seven Kings Bay Plowshares activists arrested inside Trident nuclear sub base
Seven Catholic plowshares activists were arrested in the early morning hours of April 5 inside the Kings Bay Naval Base in St. Mary’s, Georgia, the largest nuclear submarine base in the world. Carrying hammers, crime scene tape, baby bottles of their own blood and an indictment charging the U.S. government for crimes against peace, the Kings Bay Plowshares entered the base on the night of April 4 in order to convert weapons of mass destruction, following the prophet Isaiah’s command to beat swords into plowshares. Before being detected and arrested, they had split up and proceeded to three sites on the base where they spray painted nuclear disarmament messages, poured blood and hung banners: the administration building, the D5 missile monument and the nuclear weapons storage bunkers.
Elizabeth McAlister, Fr. Steve Kelly SJ, Carmen Trotta, Clare Grady, Martha Hennessy, Mark Colville and Patrick O’Neill chose to act on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who devoted his life to addressing the triple evils of militarism, racism and materialism. They are being held at the Camden County Jail in Woodbine, Georgia, currently charged with three Georgia state crimes – misdemeanor criminal trespass and two felonies: possession of tools for the commission of a crime and interference with government property. Jail addresses and mail restrictions can be found here.
Read more here.
Three actions at Nevada nuclear test site
DOWNWINDERS DAY
On January 27, National Downwinders Day, activists with the Nevada Desert Experience gathered in the road leading into the Nevada National Security Site (formerly known as the Nevada Test Site). Five of them crossed onto nuclear test site property and were arrested for trespassing. They were issued citations and released on site.
Read more here.
PACIFIC LIFE COMMUNITY
Members of the Pacific Life Community converged at the Las Vegas Catholic Worker house from March 2 – 4 for their annual gathering to protest nuclear weapons. Twenty-four of them were arrested on Sunday, March 4 during a nonviolent action at the Nevada nuclear test site. They first gathered for a liturgy in the desert outside of the boundary fence of the Nevada National Security Site (formerly known as the Nevada Test Site), then proceeded with signs and banners to the boundary line. There Sr. Ardeth Platte told the test site/NNSA employees and Nye County sheriffs on the other side of the line that the group was there to let them know about the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons that was signed by 122 countries at the U.N. on July 7, 2017. With copies of the treaty in hand, two dozen nuclear disarmament activists then crossed onto test site property. They were escorted to the nearby pen, where they were briefly held before being processed and released.
Read more here.
SACRED PEACE WALK
The 24th annual Sacred Peace Walk, organized by the Nevada Desert Experience, took place from March 24-30. The group of peace walkers began in Las Vegas and concluded a week and 60 miles later at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS, formerly known as the Nevada Test Site). On Good Friday morning, March 30, after a Stations of the Cross and prayers with Western Shoshone spiritual leader Johnny Bobb at the nuclear test site, twenty of the activists crossed onto NNSS property, which the U.S. occupies in violation of the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley. The line-crossers carried branches of Western Shoshone medicinal plants with them, signifying the denial of Western Shoshone rights to gather plants there. After being briefly held in a pen, the activists were charged with trespass, processed and released on site.
Read more here.
Two arrests at Creech drone base during Sacred Peace Walk, four more during CodePink Drone Resistance Week
The Sacred Peace Walk (see above) also stopped at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs for an action early on the morning of March 28, where they held signs and banners. Darcy Ike and Robert Majors were arrested for blockading the entrance road into the base with crime scene tape. Charged with failure to yield right of way and failure to disperse, they spent 13 hours in custody at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas before being released with an arraignment date.
Read more here.
Four women – Toby Blome, Eleanor Levine, Susan Witka and Maggie Huntingon – were arrested on April 3 while blocking the entrance to Creech drone base in Nevada. The funeral procession and action, protesting drone warfare, was part of the Codepink Drone Resistance Week at Creech. They were charged with misdemeanor jaywalking and failure to disperse.
Read more here.
Six people arrested at arms fair protest in Wales
On March 27, six activists were arrested while protesting outside a defense industry fair in Cardiff, Wales. They were charged with aggravated trespass after blocking an entrance of the arena where the Defence Procurement, Research, Technology and Exportability (DPRTE) event was taking place. The protesters were held in a police cell for 12 hours before being released.
Read more here.
French police smash nuclear dump protest camp, arrest and jail activists
Before dawn on the morning of February 22, hundreds of French police in riot gear and equipped with trucks, bulldozers, helicopters and drones, evicted dozens of nuclear waste dump opponents who had occupied a disputed woods in the Meuse district for the last 18 months. To isolate the resisters from their supporters, police blocked roads leading into the woods while arresting activists in the lookouts and surrounding their treehouse homes. As news of the raid spread, cars approaching from several nearby villages were stopped for identity checks of the drivers and passengers. The streets in the village of Bure were blocked as police also surrounded the House of Resistance, where local opposition to the national project has been based for more than 20 years. At least 30 occupants took refuge upstairs as police broke down the door to enter. Some locked themselves together and had to be cut apart, but over the next few hours, all of the occupants were escorted out while police searched the building. Many were taken to surrounding police stations for identity checks. In anticipation of such police action, a recently-established support network among nuclear opponents across the country was pressed into action. That night, there were demonstrations in front of Prefecture offices in more than 70 cities across France.
Read more here.
Good Friday arrests at Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon, Livermore Lab and Nevada nuclear test site
LOCKHEED MARTIN
The Brandywine Peace Community held its annual Good Friday action at Lockheed Martin in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania on March 30. Crosses, each with a Lockheed Martin logo at the crucifixion nail points, were hammered into the ground next to large, striking banners and posters. A big wooden blue sign with the Lockheed Martin logo stated “We’re making a killing.” After an hour, people walked up the driveway entrance to Lockheed Martin, intoning a bell that has become a mainstay of Brandywine actions over the past four decades. Seven people stretched across the drive with banners, signs and crosses. All seven were arrested by Upper Merion police, cited for “disorderly conduct” and released.
Read more here.
THE PENTAGON
From Holy Thursday afternoon to Good Friday afternoon, about 25 people gathered in Washington, D.C. for a Faith and Resistance retreat and public witness that was organized by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker. On Good Friday morning, a nonviolent public witness was held at the Pentagon. Carrying a copy of the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, seven of the nuclear disarmament activists walked to the police check point closest to the building. They spoke with a Pentagon police officer and requested to speak to a Pentagon official about the urgent necessity for Secretary of Defense Mattis and the Trump Administration to ratify this historic U.N. treaty. After awhile, they were told they needed to go to the designated protest area, where the rest of the group was holding signs and banners and conducting a liturgy. When the seven refused, they were placed under arrest for “disobeying a lawful order”, taken to the Pentagon Police Center, processed and released within two hours.
Read more here.
LIVERMORE LAB
About 75 nuclear disarmament activists went to Livermore, California on Good Friday, March 30 to protest at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Twenty-six people were arrested for unlawful assembly, and later released. The Good Friday nonviolent direct action has been an annual event for more than three decades.
Read more here.
NEVADA NUCLEAR TEST SITE
Please see the Sacred Peace Walk action report under Nevada nuclear test site actions, above.
Read more here.
A Catholic Worker discussion on property destruction and nonviolence
Tom Cornell wrote an article about Christian nonviolence and the Plowshares movement that was published in the December 2017 issue of The Catholic Worker. Here it is, followed by many thoughtful responses:
“…Thomas Merton held nonviolence to be essential. Nonviolent action embodies a moral truth in response to a serious moral crisis by way of protest and acts of resistance, including civil disobedience, that do no harm, conducted in openness and truth with willingness to pay the legal penalties.”
Read more here.
U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal agree: Facts about nuclear weapons can be kept from juries in protest cases
Judicial Protection Racket Keeps the Bomb Behind a Wall of Silence
by John LaForge, Nukewatch
If you were thinking that protest and resistance against the Bomb will be easier in the United States now that the United Nations General Assembly, on July 7, 2017, overwhelmingly approved a treaty outlawing the possession and threatened use of nuclear weapons (voting 122 to 1), think again.
Read more here.
Please support imprisoned anti-nuclear and anti-war activists – The Nuclear Resister needs YOU!
The Nuclear Resister is a bare bones operation that depends on grassroots support to chronicle anti-nuclear and anti-war resistance, and support the women and men in prison for their acts of conscience. We need your help to continue this work – please read more here!! Or go directly here to make a secure online donation and find information about how to send a check. Each and every donation, large or small, will be gratefully received – thank you!