Peace activist James Manista appeared on Wednesday, October 23, 2019 in U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington, in Tacoma, Washington. Mr. Manista was charged with crossing the federal blue line onto federal property at the main gate of the Trident nuclear submarine base on May 11, 2019. Mr. Manista was the only demonstrator to enter federal property on May 11. Mr. Manista later stated, “Encouraged by the heroism of protestors and filled with a hope we can respond rationally and creatively to the threatening curse of planetary horror, I carried my banner asserting nuclear weapons are immoral (to produce, stockpile, and use) […]
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11 people cited at Trident nuclear submarine base at Bangor, marking the 74th Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombing
60 people were present on August 5th at a flash mob demonstration against Trident nuclear weapons at the Bangor submarine base. The demonstration was in the roadway at the Main Gate of the Trident nuclear submarine base during rush hour traffic. To see flash mob performance and related videos, please see https://www.facebook.com/groundzerocenter. At around 6:30 AM on Monday, over thirty flash mob dancers and supporters entered the roadway carrying peace flags and two large banners stating, “We can all live without Trident” and “Abolish Nuclear Weapons.” While traffic into the base was blocked, dancers performed to a recording of War […]
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No war should be called ‘good’
By David Swanson Originally published in the Kitsap Sun, July 27, 2019 The nuclear bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 74 years ago this August 6th and 9th did not save lives. They took lives, possibly 200,000 of them. The United States Strategic Bombing Survey concluded that, “… certainly prior to 31 December, 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November, 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.” One dissenter who had […]
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Whom Will We Honor Memorial Day?
The following essay by Howard Zinn urges us all to rethink Memorial Day, who we honor, and what resources we prioritize. It was published on June 2, 1976 in the Boston Globe and republished in The Zinn Reader with the brief introduction below. With great thanks to the Zinn Education Project. Memorial Day will be celebrated … by the usual betrayal of the dead, by the hypocritical patriotism of the politicians and contractors preparing for more wars, more graves to receive more flowers on future Memorial Days. The memory of the dead deserves a different dedication. To peace, to defiance […]
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Another War? Not in Our Name!
Dear Friends of a world free of nuclear weapons, It has been nearly three-quarters of a century since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet the nuclear armed nations continue to threaten humanity with extinction, and according to a number of experts we are in the midst of a new, and more dangerous, nuclear arms race. Nuclear weapons, of course, do not exist in a vacuum; and we will never abolish them without confronting, and bringing to heel, the fundamental militarism that puts them front and center in our nation’s (and other nations’) foreign policy and promotes countless wars […]
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