Turi Vaccaro completes seven more months in prison

Posted on February 6, 2023

Photo by Comunità delle Piagge

The Italian pacifist Turi Vaccaro, known for his ascetic lifestyle and numerous barefoot and silent protests against war, was arrested and again imprisoned on December 2, 2021. When last released from prison in April, 2020, the anti-war activist anticipated his eventual return to jail “because I’ll break some law to stop the war.”

His repeated acts of principled noncooperation with war making, police and the courts led to his being apprehended that day at the train station in Florence. Authorities said that he still had five months left to serve from earlier convictions, plus two more months for good measure. His most recent arrests were during widespread protests of the American-run MUOS military satellite ground station in Sicily.
Friends concerned over the 72-year-old activist’s declining health arranged for Vaccaro to serve any remaining sentence with the Comunità delle Piagge in Florence, and he was released there on July 25, 2022.

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Irish peace activists acquitted on charge of criminal damage

Posted on January 29, 2023
January 25, 2023

The trial of two peace activists, Edward Horgan and Dan Dowling, ended today at the Circuit Criminal Court in Parkgate Street, Dublin after a trial that lasted ten days.

Almost 6 years ago on 25th April 2017, the two peace activists were arrested at Shannon Airport and charged with causing criminal damage by writing graffiti on a US Navy aircraft. They were also charged with trespassing on the curtilage of Shannon Airport. The words “Danger Danger Do Not Fly” were written with a red marker on the engine of the warplane. It was one of two US Navy aircraft that had arrived at Shannon from Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia. They subsequently flew on to a US air base in the Persian Gulf having spent two overnights at Shannon.

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Two women locked-on at the entrance of the UK’s Trident nuclear submarine base in Scotland

Posted on January 22, 2023

Photo by Finlay Hobson

Margaret and Willemien, greeted by name on arrival, locked-on at the North Gate at Faslane HMNB Clyde on January 22 in celebration of the 2nd anniversary of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons coming into force, and to make peaceful protest against the UK government’s continued intention to retain and proliferate Nuclear Weapons of Mass Destruction. 

The protest lasted just under five hours in the usual cauld and damp. There were over seven police vans including the cutting crew; two cars, one 4WD; four of the vans full of police; plus 16 assorted officers around us outside the gate, and the usual MOD officers behind the closed gate.

American Activist Enters German Prison for Protesting U.S. Nuclear Weapons Based There

Posted on January 10, 2023

John speaks outside of the prison before the start of his sentence (Photo by Marion Küpker)

Amidst heightened nuclear tension between NATO and Russia in Europe, U.S. peace activist John LaForge entered a German prison on January 10, 2023 to serve jail time there for protests against U.S. nuclear weapons stockpiled at Germany’s Büchel Air Force Base, 80 miles southeast of Cologne. LaForge entered JVA Billwerder in Hamburg as the first American ever imprisoned for a nuclear weapons protest in Germany.

The 66-year-old Minnesota native and co-director of Nukewatch, the Wisconsin-based advocacy and action group, was convicted of trespass in Cochem District Court for joining in two “go-in” actions at the German airbase in 2018. One of the actions involved entering the base and climbing atop a bunker that likely housed some of the approximately twenty U.S. B61 thermonuclear gravity bombs stationed there.

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Peace activists take on the Pentagon and its corporate outposts – Decry the Merchants of Death

Posted on January 3, 2023

Decry the Merchants of Death
by Kathy Kelly

Peace activists take on the Pentagon and its corporate outposts.

Days after a U.S. warplane bombed a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing forty-two people, twenty-four of them patients, the international president of MSF, Dr. Joanne Liu walked through the wreckage and prepared to deliver condolences to family members of those who had been killed. A brief video, taped in October, 2015, captures her nearly unutterable sadness as she speaks about a family who, the day before the bombing, had been prepared to bring their daughter home. Doctors had helped the young girl recover, but because war was raging outside the hospital, administrators recommended that the family come the next day. “She’s safer here,” they said.

The child was among those killed by the U.S. attacks, which recurred at fifteen minute intervals, for an hour and a half, even though MSF had already issued desperate pleas begging the United States and NATO forces to stop bombing the hospital.

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Celebrating 42 years and 200 issues of the Nuclear Resister!

Posted on December 26, 2022
Thanks to all of the people who joined us on Zoom on December 3 to celebrate – not just 42 years and 200 issues of the Nuclear Resister – but four+ decades of a vibrant, persistent, creative, international, inspiring, courageous and hopeful resistance movement for a peaceful and nuclear free future!

Since 1980, the Nuclear Resister has reported on more than 100,000 anti-nuclear and anti-war arrests while encouraging support for more than 1,000 imprisoned activists. The special online celebration includes photos, songs and stories from decades of direct actions and more, honoring our resistance history and drawing inspiration for today’s movement for a peaceful, nuclear-free future.

For those of you who weren’t able to attend, here’s the link to watch the video. 

https://youtu.be/gDu9UCK632o

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Why John LaForge won’t pay fines imposed for nuclear weapons actions in Germany

Posted on December 23, 2022
Nuclear resister John LaForge, co-director of Nukewatch, writes about why he will not pay fines imposed for trespass convictions for two nonviolent actions at Büchel Air Base in Germany, where up to 20 U.S. nuclear weapons are stored. On January 10, he will begin a 50 day sentence at Billwerder Prison in Hamburg.

from CounterPunch

December 16, 2022
by John LaForge
Why Not Pay Fine Imposed for Actions Against Nuclear Threats

I’ve been sentenced to a 50-day jail term in Germany for refusing to pay fines imposed for trespass convictions after two “go-in” actions against nuclear weapons threats. The actions were two uninvited entries into Germany’s Büchel Air Base where up to 20 US hydrogen bombs are stationed under a policy called “nuclear sharing.” The sentence will begin January 10 at the Billwerder prison in Hamburg.

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EarthCare, Not Warfare – Australians disrupt Land Forces 2022 arms expo

Posted on October 24, 2022

Police move in to arrest Ash and Claudia, who had occupied a small robot tank being towed into the exhibition centre – photo by WagePeace

by Jack Cohen-Joppa, from reports by WagePeace

A broad spectrum of Australian activists returned to Meanjin (Brisbane) during the first week of October for a Festival of Resistance and nonviolent actions to disrupt Land Forces 2022, the largest weapons expo in the Southern Hemisphere at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCC). As they had last year, organizers welcomed many diverse constituencies – radical youth, Quaker grannies, Aboriginal leaders, refugees, climate activists, veterans, a clown army, musicians and more – into the action planning.

It was a festival of ideas, story telling and culture with the voices of First Nations and West Papuan people central. The stated goal was to “disrupt, interrupt, and obfuscate [the arms dealers’] efforts to generate conflict as the by-product of profit”, the organizers invited all who shared that goal to participate and plan Festival events according to just two rules:

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Russia prosecutes activist for citing IAEA report

Posted on October 21, 2022

from the Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Work Group 

By Aleksei Ovchinnikov

Translated by Jennifer Castner

Expert anti-nuclear Russian campaigner and public figure Andrey Ozharovsky was accused in August 2022 of discrediting Russia’s state atomic energy corporation, RosAtom. An administrative legal case is being filed against him. In the meantime, Ozharovsky has repeatedly made public statements and continues to serve as a regular expert guest in mass media, including on official Russian channels.

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Three women arrested at Creech drone base 

Posted on October 20, 2022

Photo by Chris Knudson

Killer Drone Base Blockaded to Oppose Remote-Controlled Killing of Humans

from Shut Down Creech

Anti-drone activists, in Nevada for a week-long protest at a U.S. assassin drone base north of Las Vegas, continued their resistance on Wednesday morning, October 19 with a nonviolent blockade of the entrance road into Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs. After nearly 30 minutes, three protesters were arrested.

Dozens – maybe hundreds – of vehicles were stalled on the highway trying to enter the base. Protesters hope to motivate Air Force personnel involved in the U.S. drone program to follow their conscience and no longer participate.

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