Nine people cited in Mother’s Day demonstration at Trident nuclear submarine base

Posted on May 8, 2022

photo by Glen Milner

from Ground Zero

by Glen Milner

Over 50 people were present on May 7, at the demonstration against Trident nuclear weapons at the Bangor submarine base. Nine demonstrators blocked the main highway entrance into the base for about 10 minutes and were cited by the Washington State Patrol.

At around 2:15 p.m. on Saturday, the nine demonstrators entered the highway carrying a large banner stating, “THE EARTH IS OUR MOTHER—TREAT HER WITH RESPECT” and blocked all incoming traffic at the Main Gate at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor. They were removed from the highway by the Washington State Patrol.

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Peace Activists Criminalized While War Criminals Go Free: Shannon Two Fined 10,000 Euros

Posted on May 4, 2022

photo by Ellen Davidson

from Stop These Wars

by Ellen Davidson

May 4, 2022—Judge Patricia Ryan sent a clear message to protesters objecting to illegal U.S. military flights through Shannon Airport today by fining the Shannon Two 10,000 euros after they were convicted of interfering with the operation, management and safety of the facility.

On May 3, the jury found Tarak Kauff and Kenneth Mayers not guilty on the two charges of criminal damage and trespass at Shannon airport, but guilty of the unusual charge of interfering with the airport operation, management or safety, which was added to the case two years after the fact. Mayers and Kauff had pleaded not guilty to all charges.

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Shannon Two: Not Guilty on Damage, Trespass; Guilty of Interfering with Airport Operations

Posted on May 3, 2022

Photo of Ken Mayers and Tarak Kauff, by Ellen Davidson

from Stop These Wars

by Ellen Davidson

DUBLIN, May 3, 2022—A mixed verdict came down in the case of the Shannon Two today. They were found not guilty of the charges of criminal damage and trespass with intent to commit an offense, but they were convicted, by a vote of 10-2, of interfering with the operation, management, and safety of an airport. That charge was added two years after the original charges. They have to surrender their passports until they are sentenced.

Tarak Kauff, 80, and Ken Mayers, 85, went onto the airfield at Shannon Airport on March 17, 2019, to inspect any aircraft associated with the U.S. military that were at the airport. There were in fact three planes there at the time—a Marine Corps Cessna jet, and an Air Force Transport C40 aircraft, and one Omni Air International aircraft on contract to the U.S. military that they believed carried troops and weapons through the airport on their way to illegal wars in the Middle East, in violation of Irish neutrality and international law.

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Hancock drone resisters’ charges dismissed “in the interest of justice”

Posted on May 3, 2022

2019 action photo by Mary Anne Grady Flores

from Upstate Drone Action Coalition

On April 28, 2022, in DeWitt, New York night court, Judge David Gideon presiding, pro se defendants Mark Scibilia-Carver and Tom Joyce of the Ithaca Catholic Worker and the Upstate Drone Action Coalition had their 2019 violation charges for blocking, with several others, the main entrance of Hancock drone base, home of the 174th Attack Wing of the NYS Air National Guard. dismissed “in the interests of justice.”

According to Sujata Gibson, stand-by counsel and Cornell Law School faculty, the dismissal “was significant, not just to this movement but to our collective conversation about the role of nonviolent peaceful action in our democracy.” Gibson continued, “It was an honor to witness the thought that Judge Gideon put into his decision and deeply moving to hear the words of those who put themselves on the line to bring attention to these issues.”

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Eight arrested after two hours of blockading construction traffic to stop new Pratt & Whitney plant

Posted on April 26, 2022

Photo by Pamela Mumby

Reject Raytheon AVL shuts down Pratt & Whitney

by Ken Jones
It was an Earth Day to remember. On a beautiful sunny spring day, our local citizen coalition Reject Raytheon in Asheville, North Carolina pulled off a three-part demonstration for the protection of the earth and earthlings and against the U.S. military-industrial complex. We rallied, we paraded, and we took direct action.
The event on Friday, April 22, began at 10 a.m. in the Bent Creek River Park, on the banks of the French Broad River. The park sits exactly next to the new bridge being built for the 1.2 million square foot Pratt & Whitney plant and in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Parkway bridge over the river. Across the river from the park is a dirt road, called Old River Road, that provides access to the many trucks coming and going from the plant every day. On this morning, it was busy, full of power and commerce.

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Good Friday arrests at Lockheed Martin in Pennsylvania

Posted on April 25, 2022

Photo by Harold Penner

from Brandywine Peace Community

At noon on April 15, the Brandywine Peace Community held their annual Good Friday Stations of Justice, Peace and Nonviolent Resistance at the Lockheed Martin facility in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Crosses were placed between banners and signs, while a bell of peace tolled. Tom Mullian sang two peace songs. Next, each Station received a reading appropriate for being at the site of the world’s largest nuclear weapons contractor and war profiteer. 

When the readings concluded, a number of those present risked arrest by walking onto the driveway of Lockheed Martin and blocking the entrance. Eventually, three of those in the driveway moved forward onto Lockheed Martin property in an attempt to deliver a copy of the U.N Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to officials in the main building. They were stopped by Lockheed Martin security and Upper Merion police. A copy of the Treaty was handed to the head of Lockheed Martin security, and the three were then arrested for trespass. Tom Mullian, Fr. Patrick Sieber, OFM, and Paul Sheldon were charged and released on site.

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Arrests after line crossing at Nevada nuclear test site

Posted on April 25, 2022

Two arrested at the close of the Sacred Peace Walk

by Brian Terrell

On Thursday, April 14, Ray Cage of Tucson, Arizona and Catherine Hourcade of Stockton, California entered the gates of the Nevada National Security Site and were briefly detained by Nye County Sheriff’s deputies and National Nuclear Security Administration police. The evening before, Catherine and Ray and about a dozen other activists with the Nevada Desert Experience (NDE) arrived at the historic “Peace Camp” across Highway 95 from the site after walking more than 60 miles from Las Vegas. This land, formerly known as the Nevada Test Site, was commandeered by the United States government from the Western Shoshone nation, and since 1951, is the most bombed and poisoned place on the planet.

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Kings Bay Plowshares legal updates, four years after their nuclear disarmament action

Posted on March 30, 2022
March 28, 2022
On April 4, 2018, the Kings Bay Plowshares Seven trespassed onto a U.S. Naval base in Southern Georgia, bearing a message from the great Dr. King: “The ultimate logic of racism is genocide.” There they performed a symbolic act of nuclear disarmament at the home port of the most deadly, omnicidal weapons of mass destruction ever created in human history, the Trident submarine. Four years later, all have served lengthy prison terms, while the exact kind of geopolitical scenario threatening nuclear annihilation which the Seven were trying to warn the world about is now becoming a reality with the war in Ukraine.

First, the Kings Bay Plowshares would like to express our deep gratitude for the wonderful prayers and support we have received these last four years from all of you and our legal team. We are especially grateful for the Brunswick, Georgia community of friends that made our time in their city a love-filled experience.

Five activists arrested after locking down on Raytheon roof

Posted on March 22, 2022

Activists Climb onto the Roof of Raytheon’s Cambridge Facility in Protest of War Profiteering, Killing of Civilians

Photo from Resist and Abolish the Military Industrial Complex

On the morning of March 21, a group of activists scaled onto the roof of Raytheon’s facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts to call attention to the company’s weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and Israel, and their record of human rights violations. As part of the multi-tiered protest, the facility’s parking garage was also blockaded, while another group disrupted inside of the Raytheon offices.

The group that scaled the roof used several smoke flares to draw attention to their protest, while chanting and dropping flyers down to workers as they arrived at the facility. Several banners were also unfurled from the roof of the building. Two of the banners read “End All Wars, End All Empires”, and “Raytheon profits from death in Yemen, Palestine & Ukraine”.

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Kansas City judge gives nuclear weapons protester 2 years of probation, plus fees

Posted on February 25, 2022

Photo by Jim Hannah

from PeaceWorks Kansas City

“We are addicted to war and, with nuclear weapons, we are on the verge of omnicide. It is necessary to do an intervention. Our tool is the courage of nonviolence.” – Henry Stoever, in his trial brief  

by Mary Hladky

Henry Stoever was arrested with four other line-crossers at last year’s Memorial Day demonstration at the Honeywell nuclear weapon parts plant in Kansas City, Missouri. At the initial arraignment, the prosecutor insisted that Henry’s case be separated from the other four defendants, as he was a retired lawyer. Henry was tried on February 23, and the other four on February 18.

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