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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Nuclear resisters on trial in Kansas City courtroom

Posted on February 21, 2022

Sketch by Pat Marrin

from PeaceWorks Kansas City

Judge tells nuke resisters, ‘Continue to fight for what you believe is right’

by Christopher Overfelt

The trial for four of the five line-crossers from last year’s demonstration at the Honeywell nuclear weapons plant in south Kansas City, Missouri took place on February 18. The four men on trial were Tom Mountenay, Brian Terrell, Louis Rodemann, and Jim Hannah. The fifth line-crosser, Henry Stoever, will be tried separately on February 23.

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California peace activist convicted in German court for protests against U.S. nuclear weapons 

Posted on January 26, 2022
A long-time U.S. peace activist was found guilty of four counts of trespassing January 17 in Cochem, Germany, charges that stemmed from multiple protests against the stationing of U.S. nuclear weapons at Germany’s Büchel Air Force Base* in the west-central state of Rhineland-Pfalz. 
Susan Crane, a member of the Redwood City, California Catholic Worker House and a Plowshares disarmament activist, was tried by District Judge Alexander Fleckenstein who imposed a fine of 1,000 Euros or 200 days in jail. The sentence was heavier than in recent related protest cases, the judge explained, because Crane showed no remorse for joining several “go-in” actions involving entry into the base.

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Prison as an unavoidable and useful part of resistance, by Stellan Vinthagen

Posted on January 12, 2022
It is simple: If you resist, you take a risk. As a logical consequence, prison must be part of our movement strategies and preparation as individuals.
from Waging Nonviolence
by Stellan Vinthagen 
November 10, 2021

No one wants to be locked up in a prison. It is a punishment, an absurd medieval form of punishment that’s really quite primitive. In some prisons, violence, abuse and threats — among guards, prison gangs and individuals — are notorious and systematic. All prisons are not equally violent, but all prisons lock up inmates in a “total institution” that controls every little aspect of their life, 24/7. Therefore, all inmates are — without exception — disciplined, humiliated, deprived, socially isolated and exposed to a meaningless life of “killing time.” In this way, prisons dehumanize everyone involved, those carrying keys and those who don’t.

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Court update re: scheduled compliance hearing, from Mark Colville of the Kings Bay Plowshares

Posted on January 8, 2022

Mark, wife Luz and Bodhi

[Most of the Kings Bay Plowshares, now done with their prison sentences, are on three years of supervised release. Noncooperation brings consequences, as Mark Colville writes about below. His court hearing is now scheduled for February 4.]

by Mark Colville

January 7, 2021

For those who have been trying to keep abreast of my never ending mud-wrestle with the federal government: Thank you, and, uh, there’s an update…
Back in November, I received notice of a summons to appear in a Hartford courtroom for a “compliance hearing” before the honorable Michael P. Shea. At issue is my polite refusal to be housetrained by the local probation office here in New Haven, which expects me to pee in a cup for them and voluntarily disclose all of my personal financial information (which, let’s face it, ain’t much to tell anyway!), simply because I’ve been found guilty of blaspheming against the almighty nuclear god of the national security state. We managed to get the thing postponed until this coming Monday, and have spent the last few weeks getting ready for possible retaliatory strikes that might ultimately include another sojourn in prison.

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Arrests in Two States for Drone War Foe

Posted on December 9, 2021
A principal organizer for more than a decade of periodic protests at two U.S. drone warfare bases was arrested with little warning as she held signs near the entrance of each base this fall. 
The first of Toby Blomé’s two unintended arrests came during the Shut Down Creech actions held September 26 – October 2 outside Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nevada. Creech is the heart of training and operations for all U.S. remotely-piloted armed warplanes.  This year, more than two dozen people – including members of Veterans for Peace, CodePink and Ban Killer Drones – greeted the “chair force” commuters twice a day, morning and evening. With banners and dramatic tableaus depicting innocent victims, they demanded an end to U.S. drone attacks and a ban on “killer drones.” Other messages urged the military personnel to follow their conscience, and visit askvets.org for support to leave warmaking behind.

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