The Nuclear Resister
E-bulletin, May, 2011
URGENT! Support needed for imprisoned activist
On May 28, supporters learned that imprisoned nuclear resister Jackie Hudson was experiencing severe chest pain and pressure, as well as difficulty breathing. The privately run Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia has refused to date (May 30) to take her to the hospital emergency room, after numerous calls from doctors, lawyers and concerned family and friends. Her attorney was not allowed to speak with her.
If you are reading this on May 30 or 31, please contact the Irwin County Detention Center right away and request that they transfer Jackie Hudson to the hospital for needed medical evaluation and care.
Phone: 229-468-4121
Fax: 229-468-4186
Email: info@irwincdc.com
And please keep Jackie in your thoughts and prayers.
Updates will be posted at the Disarm Now Plowshares blog.
IN THIS E-BULLETIN:
1) MORE NUCLEAR RESISTERS IN PRISON THAN IN THE LAST DECADE
2) U.S. BASE FOES ON HUNGER STRIKE IN KOREAN JAIL
3) FIFTY-TWO CATHOLIC WORKERS ARRESTED AT KANSAS CITY NUCLEAR WEAPONS PLANT UNDER CONSTRUCTION
4) FASLANE, SCOTLAND TRIDENT BASE BLOCKADE
5) MOTHER’S DAY ACTION AT BANGOR, U.S. TRIDENT BASE
6) GREENPEACE ACTIVISTS BLOCK CONSTRUCTION OF FRENCH NUCLEAR REACTOR
7) OVER 2,600 ACTIVISTS ARRESTED IN U.S. PROTESTS
8) FDC SEATAC, Poem by imprisoned nuclear disarmament activist Lynne Greenwald
9) WRITE A NOTE OF SUPPORT TO ANTI-NUCLEAR & ANTI-WAR PRISONERS
10) UPCOMING NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTIONS
More nuclear resisters in prison than in the last decade
In the United States, the nuclear disarmament movement’s firmest rebuke of the Obama administration’s commitment to completely rebuild U.S. nuclear weapons production and delivery capacity for the next half century has come from its resurgent nonviolent resistance wing. Evidence comes from the fact that more nuclear resisters are presently in prison than at any time in more than a decade, and the largest number of arrests at a nuclear weapons protest in several years was reported from Kansas City in late April.
The largest group now in federal custody was convicted of trespass at the Y-12 uranium production facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Seven of twelve defendants on trial refused conditional release and are being held for sentencing.
Defendant Fr. Bill Bichsel was already in prison serving time with four co-defendants in the Disarm Now Plowshares action.
Rounding out the recent additions to the roster of jailed nuclear resisters is Mark Kenney, a serial line-crosser at Offutt Air Force Base, where the U.S. nuclear Strategic Command is headquartered.
Read more about these actions and imprisoned nuclear resisters at the Nuclear Resister blog, www.nukeresister.org. Complete list of imprisoned activists can be found here.
U.S. base foes on hunger strike in Korean jail
On Jeju Island, South Korea, a jailed local opponent of a new U.S. navy base is in his 57th day of a hunger strike. Korea’s most prominent film critic, University professor Yang Yoon-Mo, was arrested April 6 as he and other residents of Gangjeong village disrupted construction by locking themselves under the earth moving equipment. Yang, who was released from jail just three months before, following an earlier protest, was jailed again for violating a restraining order. He has refused food since that day, and declared his willingness to fast until death unless plans for the base are abandoned.
Read more here.
Fifty-two Catholic Workers arrested at Kansas City nuclear weapons plant under construction
by Joshua McElwee, National Catholic Reporter
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Fifty-two peace activists, most connected to Catholic Worker houses throughout the nation, were arrested here May 2 after blocking the gate to the construction site of what will be the nation’s first nuclear weapons production facility to be built in 33 years.
The acts of civil disobedience came 78 years and one day from the founding of the first Catholic Worker community by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, and were the culmination of a three-day “faith and resistance” retreat hosted by two Catholic Worker communities, which drew some 150 to this city.
Read the full story at the National Catholic Reporter website here.
Faslane, Scotland Trident base blockade
Trident Ploughshares and Faslane Peace Camp activists in Scotland jointly blockaded Faslane starting at 7 a.m. on May 10, shutting down the Trident submarine base for two hours. Four members of Trident Ploughshares blocked the North Gate of the base while six Peace Campers blocked the South Gate by locking themselves together. Just four days after the Scottish elections the activists called for the anti-Trident SNP government to fulfill its commitments and demand immediate disarmament of Trident and a global ban on nuclear weapons.
Read more here.
Mother’s Day action at Bangor, U.S. Trident base
“Disarm, Disarm! The Sword of murder is not the balance of justice” rang out as nuclear resisters symbolically closed the United States’ largest operational nuclear weapons base. Eighty-three people gathered at the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action on Saturday, May 7 to celebrate Mother’s Day weekend, honoring nurturing women and resisting the Trident nuclear weapons at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Kitsap County, Washington.
Following a reading of Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation, Ground Zero Center peacekeepers entered the roadway to safely block traffic just before seven nuclear resisters symbolically closed the base by crossing the roadway and standing with a long banner that read “THE EARTH IS OUR MOTHER — TREAT HER WITH RESPECT.”
Read more here.
Greenpeace activists block construction of French nuclear reactor
From Nicolas Chauveau of Greenpeace:
At dawn on Monday, May 2, Greenpeace activists began blocking the construction of the European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) under construction at Flamanville, France. Two trucks were anchored to the ground, blockading the entrance carrying activists. More activists scaled four cranes, attempting to impede further construction work at the site.
[Some of the activists were attacked by the police. Forty-two people were arrested, with twenty-six of them scheduled for trial in Cherbourg on June 16.
Police appeared at the Greenpeace France office the following day to question the director, but he was not there at the time.]
Read more here.
Over 2,600 activists arrested in U.S. protests
by Bill Quigley
Since President Obama was inaugurated, there have been over two thousand six hundred arrests of activists protesting in the U.S. Research shows over 670 people have been arrested in protests inside the U.S. already in 2011, over 1290 were arrested in 2010, and 665 arrested in 2009. These figures certainly underestimate the number actually arrested as arrests in U.S. protests are rarely covered by the mainstream media outlets which focus so intently on arrests of protestors in other countries.
Read more here.
Poem by imprisoned nuclear disarmament activist Lynne Greenwald
FDC SeaTac
by Lynne Greenwald
Concrete walls and locked doors
cannot take away images of bright lights,
fences and towers protecting tombs
of unimaginable horrors.
We remember fertile lands, natural
forests, mollusk-rich beaches, early morning
fog clinging to water and earth until
the sun brightens the sky,
exposing Olympian mountains.
Trident IS Illegal and Immoral.
We mourn. We cannot be silent.
Resistance is a song, a dance,
an act of love.
We must resist.
Write a note of support to anti-nuclear and anti-war prisoners
They’re in there for us; we’re out here for them!
A regularly updated list of imprisoned military refusers, anti-nuclear and anti-war activists is available on the Nuclear Resister blog.
Upcoming nonviolent direct actions (click here).
Take part in a nonviolent civil disobedience/civil resistance action, play a role in supporting those who do, carry signs and banners… be part of the movement for a peaceful and nuclear-free future!
Click here to sign up for the Nuclear Resister E-bulletin
To unsubscribe, send an email with “unsubscribe” in the subject line to nukeresister@igc.org
This E-bulletin is a monthly supplement to the print edition of the Nuclear Resister newsletter. For the only comprehensive chronicle of information about anti-nuclear and anti-war related arrests and peace prisoner support, please subscribe to the print edition of the Nuclear Resister.
Also look for the Nuclear Resister on Facebook!
http://www.nukeresister.org/