Dual disarmament in Sweden - final verdict

Press release 5th of November 2010

DUAL DISARMAMENT IN SWEDEN BILLED AT €70k (£6,540)
Historic peace action received final verdict yesterday

The striking double disarmament action in Sweden on Oct 16, 2008, when 12 grenade launchers and parts to 9 howitzers at two different facilities were damaged beyond repair, yesterday got what will probably be its final sentence from the courts.

A local judge in Eskilstuna town, where the € 2 645 (£250bn) arms and aerospace corporation Saab AB is headquartered, ordered yesterday peaceniks Anna Andersson, 28, and Martin Smedjeback, 37, to return the arms giant expenses equivalent to € 50 586 (£4,720) in costs interred in one of the nightly civil disobedience acts two years ago.

The couple, who say they took action to prevent the greater evil of the transfer of arms to the US military, which would employ them in the carnage in Iraq, have earlier been sentenced to four months imprisonment.

"I regret our court was not yet ready to rule on the level of its counterparts in Ireland, England and Germany, who have all vindicated peace activists following disarmament and ploughshares actions," said Martin Smedjeback, a nonviolence consultant since many years.

Smedjeback's and Andersson's co-activists Catherine Laska and Pelle Strindlund received a  €  20 682  (£2,000) in reparations and one of them served three months in jail for their act against a Saab Bofors and British Aerospace
enterprise, where they broke in and damaged inter alia nine howitzer coolers, bound for India.

The peace campaigners of the Disarm effort all refuse to pay the damages, instead calling it a reminder of Western privilege that they despite such arrears will continue to lead lives of relatively high standard. They intend to continue their nonviolent struggle against war profiteers.

"Arms made in Sweden cause wanton destruction overseas, hence it is the manufacturers who ought to be paying repairs," said Anna Andersson, a web designer, in a comment from her prison cell.

This coming summer, a multinational peace action camp will be held at an aerospace test range in northernmost Sweden, where Nato and Israeli military aircraft test weapons and systems.

Interview Anna Andersson in prison (Call Hinseberg correctional
facility, +46-581-79 78 10, office hours, and ask for her to call back.

Contact Martin Smedjeback, +46-70-2579097,
smedjeback(-at-)gmail.com and

See also:

http://ofog.org/press-releases - all the press releases from the disarm campaign
www.warstartshere.com - an action camp in July 2011 against training grounds for war in northern Sweden.

www.avrusta.se - The Disarm ("Avrusta") campaign was launched in September of 2008 and has been condoned by i.a. the Arch Reverend Desmond Tutu, Howard Zinn and Francis Boyle.

www.ofog.org - The Anti-Militarist Network Mischief ("Ofog"), has been working against nuclear arms and militarism, thru civil disobedience and peaceful direct action, since 2002.

Plowshares slide shows on resistance

The Plowshares Movement - A Chronology

This slide show presents a chronology of the plowshares actions from 1980 until 2010. (Produced by Susan Crane and Sr Ardeth Platte OP from the Jonah House Community in Baltimore, USA, 2010, mp4.)

Celebrating Nuclear Resistance & Plowshares

A slide show with music celebrating 30 years of the Nuclear Resister, Nukewatch, and the Plowshares Movement. Prepared for the Resistance for a Nuclear Free Future gathering, July 3-5, 2010, at Maryville College, Tennessee. (Produced by Felice & Jack Cohen-Joppa, mp4.)

Seven disarmers in Brighton, England, found not guilty - preventing British-Israeli war crimes

Read EDO Decommissoners Trial Blog http://decommissioners.co.uk/blog/

On 17th January 2009, as Israeli bombs rained down on Gaza, the disarmament group 'EDO Decommissioners' broke into the EDO factory in Brighton and nonviolently disarmed the production line, damaging their capability to make weapons to be used against Gazan civilians. The seven causing nearly £200,000 of damage and shutting down production, offered no defense other than the prevention of imminent war crimes. EDO produces components for the Israeli F 16's that were wreaking extensive damage, and claiming 'hundreds of lives, in Gaza' at the time.

5 of the defendants were acquitted by the unanimous jury, Wednesday afternoon June 30, 2010, during the fourth week of the trial. On Friday morning July 2nd. the Judge directed the jury to acquit the two remaining defendants.

Chris Osmond said "We brough the suffering of ordinary Palestinians into a British courtroom and confronted with the evidence they took the brave decision to find that our actions were justified"

to the Plowshares 8, with love by Daniel Berrigan - 30th anniversary

SOME
(to the Plowshares 8, with love)
by Daniel Berrigan

Some stood up once, and sat down.
Some walked a mile, and walked away.
Some stood up twice, then sat down.
"It's too much," they cried.
Some walked two miles, then walked away.
"I've had it," they cried.
Some stood and stood and stood.
They were taken for fools,
they were taken for being taken in.
Some walked and walked and walked –
they walked the earth,
they walked the waters,
they walked the air.
"Why do you stand?" they were asked, and
"Why do you walk?"
"Because of the children," they said, and
"Because of the heart," and
"Because of the bread."
"Because the cause is
the heart's beat, and
the children born, and
the risen bread."


Honoring the Plowshares 8
30th anniversary of the Plowshares Eight action
On September 9, 1980, eight people entered a General Electric weapons factory in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, where critical components for nuclear warheads were manufactured. With hope and a prayer, the activists entered the secure facility with relative ease. On the shop floor, they took household hammers and began beating on the missile warhead cones, giving substance to the biblical call of the prophet Isaiah to "beat swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks."

The symbolism – indeed, the manifest reality – of people with hand tools simply beginning the work of nuclear disarmament inspired a movement now thirty years old, and international in scope. Scores of action groups, involving hundreds of people as activists and supporters, have kept this vision of disarmament alive despite jail and prison sentences of up to 18 years.

Waihopai Ploughshares acquitted on all counts by jury

March 17, 2010

Adrian Leason, Father Peter Murnane and Sam Land – the three men who were charged with intentional damage and unlawful entry at Waihopai spy base – have today expressed their thanks to the jury, the judge, and the prosecution and defense lawyers.

At the conclusion of the trial, Father Peter, Sam and Adrian said they feel privileged to have helped uncover the true nature of the spy base. "Our actions in disabling the spy base and stopping the flow of information helped save lives in Iraq", added Adrian.

"What has been humbling for us to realize is how our witness has impacted on so many people around the world and at home", said Sam.

"We did not try to avoid the consequences of our actions, because we respect the rule of law although we do believe we are ultimately
accountable to a higher authority. We damaged property at the spy base in order to save victims of war and torture. It's all about Jesus' command for us to treat all people as our brothers and sisters", said Father Peter.

The jury heard that the Waihopai Echelon spy base is New Zealand's largest contribution to the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. The ongoing war has resulted in horrific war crimes, including more than one million dead Iraqi civilians, torture, and permanent poisoning of parts of Iraq by the use of depleted uranium munitions.

The jury also heard evidence from a former British Echelon intelligence analyst, Katherine Gunn. She blew the whistle on secret Echelon spying operations when she was instructed by the US National Security Agency to spy on United Nations Security Council members leading up to the US invasion in 2003.

"Evidence presented in the court confirmed that the ongoing war in Iraq is illegal, and causing massive human suffering", said Adrian. "As an outcome of this trial, we hope that New Zealanders will insist on an enquiry into the activities of the spy base and its links to US-led illegal wars".

Father Peter, Sam and Adrian expressed gratitude for all the support they have received from family, friends and the New Zealand public.

Commenting at the conclusion of the trial, Graham Bidois Cameron, Waihopai Ploughshares media spokesperson, said this Ploughshares action is part of an ongoing tradition: "The practice of non-violent resistance and direct action in the cause of peace has a long history in this country – the peaceful resistance to the invasion of Parihaka, and non-violent direct action against nuclear armed warships entering our harbours being just two examples", he said.

"The actions of Waihopai Ploughshares also need to be understood in relation to an international movement for disarmament and peace", said lawyer Moana Cole, herself a Ploughshares activist. "Adrian, Sam and Father Peter are part of rich history of activism in support of those without a voice and the movement is certainly growing".

Contact: Graham Bidois Cameron, tel 021 642 414, email
bidoiscameron(at)paradise.net.nz

Stay tuned more details to come on this historic decision... and what it might mean for the future of prophetic witness in Aotearoa.

For more information about the trial:
http://www.ploughshares.org.nz

Links can also be found on the Jonah House website: www.jonahhouse.org

Manuals for resistance with the help of Internet

Here are some manual-collections for disobedience with the help of Internet. How do you use darknet, cryptography, creative collaborative tools, etc? Some might be more in the spirit of civil disobedience and others more about integrity or avoiding surveillance. Some are for everyone and others more advanced. Quite a few of my postprotest hacker friends are involved in making the manuals.

Manual collections for Internet-resistance

werebuild.eu
instruction.telecomix.org
crypto.telecomix.org

Satirical video on Disarm Now Plowshares action

Quite funny satirical video on Disarm Now Plowshares action (5 1/2 min)

For continued updates on the plowshares action:

On Nov. 2, five senior citizens, using bolt and wire cutters, broke into Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor to disarm part of its storehouse of nuclear weapons.