Fr. Carl Kabat, plowshares activist and priest, dies at age 88

Posted on August 7, 2022

Photo by Lu Mountenay

Roman Catholic priest and decades-long Plowshares activist and nuclear resister, Fr. Carl Kabat, OMI, died on August 4, 2022 at age 88.

We met Carl for the first time in 1983 while in line to be searched at the D.C. Jail to visit Helen Woodson – we were on our way in just as he was leaving after visiting with her. It was always good to see him over the years: in the visiting room of a Colorado prison where he was locked up; at the 30th anniversary gathering and action for the Plowshares Eight, Nukewatch and the Nuclear Resister in Tennessee; at an action at the Kansas City nuclear weapons plant; at the trial of the Transform Now Plowshares.

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Eleven nuclear disarmament activists arrested after sit-in at U.S. Mission to the U.N.

Posted on August 3, 2022

photo by Ellen Davidson

from Ed Hedemann
On August 2, for almost four hours on a sunny and rather hot Tuesday, the NYC War Resisters League along with several other peace, social justice and environmental organizations were part of a nonviolent sit-in at the U.S. Mission during the second day of the U.N.’s month-long Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference. About 100 participated in the demonstration, eleven of whom were eventually arrested while blocking the two doors to the U.S. Mission.

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Dutch man jailed 30 days for nuclear weapons protest in Germany

Posted on July 5, 2022

On the Fourth of July, friends and fellow activists accompanied Frits ter Kuile to Wittlich Prison in Germany, where he began serving a 30-day sentence for his resistance to nuclear weapons. In the summer of 2018, ter Kuile and 17 others entered Büchel Air Base, which is home to 20 U.S. nuclear weapons.

His supporters held banners at a vigil outside the prison. Frits, a Catholic Worker from Amsterdam, spoke of his action and decision to go to jail rather than pay a fine. He warned of the powder keg of nuclear weapons already deployed across Europe, and the imminent arrival of new ones. By his actions, Frits seeks to promote alternatives to armaments and war, namely the Way of Jesus who advises us to pray for those who persecute, occupy and oppress us, to overcome evil with good.

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Woman arrested at U.K. nuclear weapons base

Posted on June 23, 2022

FABB photo

On June 15, the 6th day of the Faslane Action for Bomb Ban camp in Scotland, the morning vigil took place as usual at 7 a.m. at the main gate at Coulport, the storage and loading facility for the United Kingdom’s Trident nuclear warheads. At 10 a.m. the Glasgow Catholic Workers arrived for their monthly vigil against nuclear weapons. Graphic pictures of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were displayed around the fencing in the middle of the roundabout and the service began with speakers clustered by the Nagasaki Cross. Emotional testimonies were read out from various people involved in the war crimes of that time, including a Roman Catholic priest serving in the U.S. military repenting for his involvement in the bombing.

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Three nuclear abolition activists arrested after locking on and blocking road to Coulport

Posted on June 13, 2022

photo by Denise Laura Baker

Early in the morning of June 13, 20 peace activists arrived at the main gate of Royal Naval Armaments Depot (RNAD) Coulport in Argyll, Scotland for their daily vigil for nuclear disarmament. Coulport is the storage and loading facility for the United Kingdom’s Trident nuclear warheads. 

Five women from “Greenham Women are Everywhere” poured red paint on themselves to symbolize blood and staged a die-in right in front of the gates blocking one side of the entrance into the base. A little while later, three people from Peace Pirates, a Trident Ploughshares affinity group, locked on a little further around the roundabout road. They are all long-time peace activists, incensed at the waste of resources and dangerous stupidity of the UK government refusing to sign up and ratify the multi-lateral Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – the only safe way to nuclear disarmament.

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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