Monthly Archive for January, 2015

by Felice Cohen-Joppa

[Thanks to Paco for his sharing of breaking news and the Gangjeong Village Story newsletter for background information.  Please scroll down to read the first-hand account from Ddalgi (Gangjeong villager).]

Resistance to the construction of a naval base on Jeju Island, S. Korea, which began in 2007, continues with daily mass/blockades, 100 ritual bows, community meals and other activities. More than 600 villagers and supporters have been arrested over the years, and many have spent time in jail.

An intense confrontation with authorities took place in Gangjeong Village on Saturday, January 31. There are initial reports of 24 arrests throughout the day, including the mayor, vice-mayor, priests and nuns.

Activists began to gather during the previous night, building barricades and a watchtower, with the aim of protecting a sit-in tent from government-ordered demolition. The protest tent had been erected on October 24 outside of the construction site for military housing in the center of Gangjeong Village, next to the primary school.

Bonnie Urfer

from counter punch

by John LaForge

A former Army Brigadier General was busted two ranks and fined $20,000 this year after being charged with sexual assault of an Army Captain — a subordinate he reportedly threatened to kill if she revealed their affair. Jeffrey A. Sinclair’s multiple convictions should have gotten him thrown out of the military, sent to prison and registered as a sexual predator, but the judge in the case, Col. James L. Pohl, allowed him to retire as a Lt. Col. with full benefits and a $105,000 pension. Sinclair, 51, spent 28 years in the Army.

Meanwhile Nukewatch just celebrated the retirement of peace activist Bonnie Urfer, 62, who has stopped answering the Nukewatch phone after co-directing here for 28 years.

Photo by L. Eiger, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action

from Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action

Activists from a local peace group blocked the main gate and staged a mock funeral at the Navy’s West Coast Trident nuclear submarine base in an act of civil resistance to nuclear weapons.

Over sixty people participated in Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action’s annual celebration of Martin Luther King Jr’s life and legacy on Saturday, January 17, 2015. The event concluded with a vigil and nonviolent direct action at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Silverdale, Washington.

Drone protester Bonny Mahoney of Syracuse, New York was convicted by Judge David S. Gideon in DeWitt Town Court on January 16 on a single count of trespass stemming from her arrest during a nonviolent protest at Hancock Air National Guard Base on April 28, 2013.

When Mahoney arrived in court on January 15 for her jury trial on charges of obstructing governmental administration (OGA) and 2 counts of disorderly conduct (DisCon), she was arraigned on a new charge (trespass) stemming from the same event where she was arrested 17 months earlier with 30 other protesters. Her reasonable request for some time to modify her preparations was refused.