Archive for the 'Blog' Category

photo by Shane Franklin

by Jane Stoever and Ann Suellentrop

PeaceWorks – Kansas City held 4 actions over the May 31-June 1 weekend. On Saturday morning, May 31, we held two rallies in Leavenworth, Kansas. At one rally, we sought pardon for Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. She’s begun serving 35 years there for revealing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. The second rally, two miles up the road at the Federal Penitentiary, called for pardon for Greg Boertje-Obed, now serving about 5 years in the pen for the Y-12 Transform Now Plowshares action against nuclear weapons at the uranium processing site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Saturday afternoon we went to the old Kansas City Plant for making parts for nuclear weapons, to demand comprehensive cleanup of about 900 known toxins there. The contaminants have poisoned workers at the Kansas City Plant and other federal agencies at the Bannister Federal Complex.

by Kathy Kelly

[Followed by an article by Dr. Hakim]

May 24, 2014

Jeju Island, South Korea – For the past two weeks, I’ve been in the Republic of Korea (ROK), as a guest of peace activists living in Gangjeong Village on ROK’s Jeju Island. Gangjeong is one of the ROK’s smallest villages, yet activists here, in their struggle against the construction of a massive naval base, have inspired people around the world.

Since 2007, activists have risked arrests, imprisonment, heavy fines and wildly excessive use of police force to resist the desecration caused as mega-corporations like Samsung and Daelim build a base to accommodate U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines for their missions throughout Asia. The base fits the regional needs of the U.S. for a maritime military outpost that would enable it to continue developing its Asia Pivot strategy, gradually building towards and in the process provoking superpower conflict with China.

from Bonnie Block

Six hardy souls vigiled at the gates of Volk Field in Wisconsin on May 17 for over an hour with a new banner, a kite flying, and Kathy’s colorful signs saying “Fly Kites, Not Drones” which was repeated on our new t-shirts. Vigilers were Kathy (the birthday woman), Mary Beth, Jim, Cassandra, Charles, and me. Charles had to leave for his meal program dishwashing duties so he dropped off Jim and me at Nelson Park. There were carnival rides and a stage with a National Guard musical group from Peoria, IL but there weren’t many people there at all.

photo by Nina Carter-Brown

Early in the morning of May 19, a group of people in England began blockading the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) site at Burghfield, near Reading. The protesters, acting as part of ActionAWE, a campaign of nonviolent direct action, are trying to disrupt construction of a new nuclear warhead factory on the site.

The eight protesters, aged between 19 and 40, were locked together using handcuffs inside “lock-on” devices – made from drainpipes and vegetable oil drums filled with concrete in order to block the gate to the construction site to prevent further work on the site. Traffic queued up, unable to enter the facility. The Christian protesters sang hymns.  The blockade ended after four hours.

photo by Marcia Gagliardi

VERNON, Vermont — In pouring rain, Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin joined the Shut It Down Affinity Group on Friday, May 9 to block the gate at Entergy Corporation’s Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant here before police arrested twelve women for unlawful trespass. No court date has been set.

Before blocking the Vermont Yankee gate, the women stood with balloons and banners across from nearby Vernon Elementary School to urge love for mother earth as Mother’s Day approached.