- Plowshares Movement
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The Plowshares Movement is an anti-nuclear weapons movement that gained notoriety in the early 1980s when several members damaged government property and were subsequently convicted.
Contents
History
On September 9, 1980, Daniel Berrigan, his brother Philip Berrigan, and six others (the "Plowshares Eight") began the Plowshares Movement under the premise of beating swords to ploughshares.[1] They trespassed onto the General Electric Nuclear Missile facility in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, where they damaged nuclear warhead nose cones and poured blood onto documents and files. They were arrested and charged with more than ten different felony and misdemeanor counts. On April 10, 1990, after 10 years of appeals, the Berrigans' group was re-sentenced and paroled for up to 23 and 1/2 months in consideration of time already served in prison.[1] Their legal battle was re-created in Emile de Antonio's 1982 film In the King of Prussia,[2] which starred Martin Sheen and featured appearances by the Plowshares Eight as themselves.[3]
Other actions followed. As of 2000, some 71 such actions happened on several continents, sharing these elements: 1. absolutely nonviolent to people, 2. each actor claimed personal responsibility for her or his actions, never fleeing the scene but rather standing accountable, 3. making some effort, big or small, real or symbolic, to turn swords into plowshares. There have been several more such actions in the new millennium. Over the years, some of these have resulted in acquittals and the vast majority end in prison time for the actors, the longest of which were those meted out to the 1984 group, the Silo Pruning Hooks (after the Biblical verse admonishing people to turn swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks—both Micah and Isaiah), two of whom earned 18 years in federal prison.[4] The "swords" have included live nuclear weapons, components of the nuclear arsenal, and even armed forces personal field weapons.
Actions
On April 30, 2008, three Plowshares activists entered the GCSB Waihopai base near Blenheim, New Zealand and vandalized a government installation, causing $1.2 million in damages. In March 2010 the three men stood trial by jury at the District Court in Wellington and were acquitted.[5]
On November 2, 2009, a Plowshares action took place in the U.S. at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, where Trident nuclear weapons are stored or deployed on Trident submarines.[6] These weapons constitute the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the US.[7]
External links
See also
References
Categories:- Catholic Worker Movement
- Peace organizations
- Anti–nuclear weapons movement
- Christian anarchism
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