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People
from various areas of the United States and Canada spent the weekend of
August 6 - 9, 1998 at Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action.
Friday and Saturday were spent in education,
celebration and action planning. Jim and Shelley Douglass of Birmingham,
AL; Joe and Jean Gump of Bloomingdale, MI; Pamela Meidell of Port Hueneme,
CA; Frida Berrigan of Baltimore, MD and Brian Watson of Bremerton, WA shared
their experiences of nuclear resistance - past, present and future.
Friday's evening entertainment included
an encore performance of "Nuclear Jeopardy", starring our very own Elizabeth
"Alex" Roberts and Brian "Vanna" Watson. This year, Stephen Augustine
and his brother, Phillip, provided a high tech buzzer and light system
to solve the problem of which team buzzed first. |
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On
Saturday evening, under a clear summer sky, Tom Rawson gave his usual sterling
performance, a GZ history in song, which included a wonderfully comic duet
with Mary Hanson. Jim Douglass tried to convince Mr. Petersen of "Petersen's
Farm" fame to come to the concert but he was working in the fields
and declined.
On Sunday, proclaiming opposition to
the planned "upgrading" of four Trident Submarines to carry
the D-5 (Trident II) missile in place of the C-4 (Trident I) missile, over
100 persons marched to the main gate of Subase Bangor.
The Rev. Anne Hall of Seattle addressed
the group, inspiring us all. The Seattle "Raging Grannies", with
their satirical musical renditions, even had the guards smiling.
At the conclusion of the program, base
security guards apprehended the following persons as they entered |
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the
main gate to deliver a message calling for nuclear
abolition and citing the base for violations of International law:
Pamela Meidell, 48, Port
Hueneme, CA;
Cameron Chapman, 23, Seattle,
Amanda Jarman, 20, Seattle;
Ty Moore, 20, Bainbridge Is,
WA;
Adrianne Moore, 16, and
Roberta
Moore - both of Bainbridge Island
The second wave of arrests resulted
when, after walking down to the "blue line", six folks (listed below),
closed the swinging/rolling gate across eight lanes of traffic (in and
out lanes). Once the gates were closed and final connections were
made with yarn, the six hung signs announcing "BASE CLOSED FOR VIOLATING
(Continued
on page 6)
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In
October, 1997, a small group of women gathered in Great Britain for the
mobilization of Trident Ploughshares 2000, their sole aim is to "openly,
safely accountably and peacefully disarm the British nuclear weapons systems
which are deployed on Trident Submarines, by January 1, 2000."
Affinity Groups were formed and the
"Tri-denting Handbook" was published, and by February 1998 the first of
several workshop weekends began to prepare for a year of Ploughshares actions
culminating in the last action |
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in
December 1999.
Beginning August 11, thru August
25, several hundred protesters descended on the Faslane Trident base
in Scotland to protest the presence of the Trident weapons system there.
On August 18th, 3 activists from the international organization "For Mother
Earth", Katri Silvonen of Finland, Krista van Velzen from the Netherlands
and Rick Springer from the US, reached Berth 12 where a Trident was docked,
much to the surprise of the base security. "All the lights went on and
alarms went off. |
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All
hell broke loose!", said one of the protesters.
They were released on bail and given
a trial date of November 10, 1998.
More than 100 protesters were arrested
over the 10 days of actions, some several times, and were fined and sentenced
to up to 6 months in jail. Some still await trial and sentencing.
Said Jens Light, one of those arrested and in jail awaiting trial, "I take
this action for myself, so
(Continued
on page 9)
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