(Editor's note Nov 24 99: a comprehensive 'Plowshares Chronology' has been published on the web by the authors of the book Swords Into Plowshares, Art Laffin and Anne Montgomery. The chronology can be found at www.geocities.com/alcyouth/chronology.htm)

PRINCE OF PEACE PLOWSHARES: Tom Borbely-Lewis was released from prison June 24, after serving an extra stint behind bars for refusing to pay restitution for the February, 1997 disarmament of a Navy destroyer at Bath Iron Works, Maine...

GODS OF METAL PLOWSHARES: Kathy Boylan was released from federal prison on July 21, after serving a ten month sentence. She has returned home to the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker community in Washington, D.C...

NEVADA TEST SITE: Joyce Parkhurst and Martha Scarbrough were released from the Nye County Jail in late July, after serving eight months behind bars for removing 400 yards of the fence from the Nevada Test Site in August, 1997...

MENWITH HILL: Lindis Percy was released from HMP Bullwood Hall July 30 after serving four and a half months of a nine month sentence imposed for breaching a permanent injunction banning her from entering the U.S. spy station in Yorkshire, England...

ALDERMASTON WOMEN TRASH TRIDENT: Rosie James and Rachel Wenham will face trial January 17, 2000, in Lancaster Crown Court, for their disarmament action of last February. The women swam to the HMS Vengeance in dock at Barrow-in-Furness and damaged testing equipment on the conning tower before being arrested and charged with two counts of criminal damage. "There's still a lot of disarmament to be done. The damage we've been charged with is just a start," remarked James. Both women remain free on condition they keep their same residence and not return to Barrow...

MINUTEMAN III PLOWSHARES: Prosecutors have appealed the reduced prison sentences given to Daniel Sicken and Sachio Ko-Yin [Oliver Sachio Coe] for their August 1998 disarmament of a Colorado nuclear missile silo. The appeal process could take up to a year. Prison addresses for the men are found on page 3...

BREAD NOT BOMBS PLOWSHARES: Three Swedish disarmament activists are scheduled for retrial October 11 in Preston, England. A jury in May failed to reach a verdict against the group, who acted in harmony with the goals of the Trident Plowshares 2000 campaign and attempted to disarm the Trident submarine HMS Vengeance just before its christening in September, 1998. A Celebration of Hope will take place on October 10 in Preston. For more information contact Swords into Plowshares, c/o 179 Ribbleton Ave., Preston PR2 6AA England or Ciaron O'Reilly at mobile phone 07930-961842, Email: ciaronx@hotmail.com ...

VOICES IN THE WILDERNESS: Andrea Needham overcame a hostile jurist in Horseferry Road (London) magistrates' court on July 12 with her passionate account of visiting Iraqi hospitals, a significant motivation for her refusal to pay a £1,300 fine for writing "Stop the Killing" and throwing red paint on the Foreign Office last December when the bombing of Iraq resumed. She was sentenced to one day instead, and released after court adjourned. In the United States, six members of the sanctions-defying group were sentenced on July 9 to 30 days probation for occupying Northwestern University President Henry Bienen's Chicago office last June 15. The sit-in highlighted the deadly impact of the sanctions...

PENTAGON: Over her objection, Kristin Betts' charge of "throwing an object at a building" was dropped. But Elizabeth McAlister's prosecution continued for the same Good Friday blood-pouring, owing to her longer peace-rap sheet. Questioning the government's sole witness, McAlister had the arresting officer describe the pouring, quite distinct from throwing. Grasping the distinction from the actual charge, the federal magistrate commented, "It can't get any better than that!" The officer went on to testify that McAlister had told him "This is the blood of Christ; this is the blood of the innocent; this is the blood of the people of Iraq and Yugoslavia!" He had asked about the blood and she told him that it was her own, drawn the night before. "It makes its point clearly!" he had said, and further that he had told her it was an honorable thing to do. McAlister moved for a directed verdict of acquittal on the charge, asserting that nothing was "thrown", and as well that blood, the fluid of life, is not an object. The magistrate agreed, and McAlister walked...

APPLIED PHYSICS LAB: Doug Matson pled guilty and was sentenced July 1 to probation and $55 court costs for his part in the March 1 citizen weapons inspection attempt at the military research facility at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. He refused to pay but was released anyway. Correction: co-defendant Max Obuszewski has yet to serve a ten-day jail sentence for his refusal to pay a fine...

REP. FARR/SANTA CRUZ: For the first time in its five-year history, the Santa Cruz Citizen's Police Review Board voted 5-1 on June 28 to conduct an independent investigation into possible police misconduct during a May 22 demonstration outside a campaign appearance by the local congressional war advocate. Nonetheless, activist Steve Argue, victim of clubbing and pepper spraying by officers during the police melee and one of five people facing criminal charges following the demonstration, was convicted September 23 of felony battery and resisting arrest. He is free pending sentencing November 13. Four other demonstrators face lesser charges in October court appearances...

ARREST HENRY KISSINGER: Four international-law-abiding Toronto activists will themselves be prosecuted March 8, 2000. Their attempt last May at a citizen's arrest of the visiting former U.S. Secretary of State and War Criminal was misunderstood by local police, resulting in criminal charges...

MEMORIAL DAY AT ALBRIGHT'S: Charges against Paul Magno from an anti-war protest at the Washington, D.C. home of the current Secretary of State and War Criminal were dismissed in June...

CHALLENGE GEORGE H. BUSH: Four of six people who interrupted commencement at Central Connecticut State University last March to confront the former president's warmaking had their cases nollied. One had the charge dropped and the sixth is appealing a fine...

REP. SANDERS/BURLINGTON: At a July 6 arraignment, 14 people arrested after a sit-in at the Congressman's Vermont office agreed to plead no contest in return for a $50 fine. Two defendants with longer records of civil disobedience were also ordered to "donate" $75 to a crime victims organization. The judge allowed one of the defendants to speak to the reasons for the action in Sander's office. University of Vermont Philosophy professor Will Miller, speaking for the group, pointed out that Sanders as a former anti-imperialist should have known better than to endorse such a bizarre notion as "humanitarian bombing" in the attack against Yugoslavia and the deadly sanctions against the people of Iraq. The judge commented that the defendants could always vote differently and Miller observed "We need a movement and a new party to be able to vote against U.S. imperialism..."

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE: Seven defendants and their supporters spent seven hours witness to the peculiarly efficient plodding of a military bureaucracy, in a courtroom on the Maryland air force base in August. They were formally charged with unlawful entry, and two additionally with disorderly conduct. Yet it was not an arraignment - no plea was taken as each had their own hearing. They await news of a court date...

ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS: Twenty-one people arrested last April at the Minnesota manufacturer of mines and missiles were fined $50 after a half-day trial and conviction by a Hennepin county judge. He then suspended the fine, citing the few hours the defendants had spent in custody. Affirming the prosecutor's fear that the lack of a penalty "may make some fence-sitters participate," one organizer told a reporter "I think this will encourage us to commit even more civil disobedience." (see Future Actions)