Recent CW visitors to Dublin among 50 CWs arrested at New Nuke Bomb Plant in Kansas City U.S.A

international | anti-war / imperialism | other press

Wednesday May 04, 2011 08:43

by Prison Solidarity

Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A.

Frank Cordaro & Steve Jacobs among 50 CWs arrested at New U.S. Honeywell Nuke Bomb Plant in Kansas City U.S.A

* PHOTO - Frank & Steve outside G.P.O Dublin for Bradley Manning
http://www.flickr.com/photos/frank_cordaro_and_the_dm_c...8005/

**LONDON YOUTUBE Frank & Steve blockading Downing St. on Good Friday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pFCQthlxgg

This is the SECOND story to come out of the big Midwest Catholic
Worker Faith and Resistance Retreat at the Honeywell nuclear weapons
plant in Kansas City, MO. The FIRST article was published in the
Kansas City Star and was sent out this morning.

The article below is from the National Catholic Reporter. Please
click on the link......... There are a lot of pictures and video on the website.

NCR SLIDESHOW & REPORT on CW Blockade of Kansas City/ Honeywell Nuclear Bomb Factory Site
http://ncronline.org/news/peace/over-50-arrested-protes...plant

Over 50 arrested protesting nuclear weapons plant

Latest in sustained campaign to re-purpose facility

May. 03, 2011
By Joshua J. McElwee
National Catholic Reporter

Peace

Art Laffin holds a sign as activists surround a pick-up truck outside
the construction site for the new Kansas City nuclear weapons
facility. (NCR photos/ Joshua J. McElwee)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Fifty-two peace activists, most connected to
Catholic Worker houses throughout the nation, were arrested here May 2
after blocking to gate to the construction site of what will be the
nation’s first nuclear weapons production facility to be built in 33
years.

The acts of civil disobedience came 78 years and one day from the
founding of the first Catholic Worker community by Dorothy Day and
Peter Maurin, and were the culmination of a three-day “faith and
resistance” retreat hosted by two Catholic Worker communities, which
drew some 150 to this city.

The new facility, expected to cost $1.2 billion over the next two
decades, is to replace an existing plant here. Health concerns at the
current complex were stoked last month when the administrator of the
General Services Administration confirmed that detectable levels of an
unidentified carcinogen were found at that site.

Before their arrests, protestors walked onto the main road leading
onto the construction site. Holding hands, they sang the traditional
hymn "Down by the Riverside" before forming a circle around the truck.

After about 10 minutes, police officers warned the activists to leave
the area before they began making arrests. Officers tapped those being
taken into custody on the shoulder one-by-one and placed plastic
zip-ties around their hands.

Moments before joining hands with those being taken into custody,
Diane Leutgeb Munson, a member of the Winona, Minn., Catholic Worker
said she thought of her action as “one more way to add to the public
outcry” against the nuclear weapons facility.

Kansas City police sergeant Craig Hope, the officer in charge of the
presence at the facility, said after the arrests that police wanted to
be sure the protestors could “exercise their rights.”

Over a period of three hours after the action activists were moved
from the facility to the downtown headquarters of the Kansas City
Police Department in a yellow police bus. They are charged with
trespassing and were originally held on between $100 and $400 bond.
Organizers say as few as five agreed to pay the bond.

Most of the remaining protestors were released periodically over the
night, with the last being released around dawn. Trial date is set for
July 19.

Those arrested came from places as far away as South Dakota and
Colorado. In the group are several vowed religious, including
DeLaSalle Christian Brother Louis Rodemann, Charity Sr. Mary Cele
Breen, and Notre Dame Sr. Theresa Maly.

Yesterday’s action is the latest in a sustained campaign by local
activists aimed at building awareness of and resistance to the
construction of the weapons complex. Last August, 14 peace activists
were arrested at the construction site after they halted work for over
an hour by surrounding earth moving equipment.

The number of the arrests outside the gates of the facility represents
a step forward in progress for those opposed to the plant, said Jane
Stoever, one of the event’s organizers.

“This is the largest number we’ve ever had. ... [People] left their
work, they left their schools. They came out here to place their
bodies in support and some to step across the line,” said Stoever.

“It’s another step in our long struggle. It signifies hope that the
word is spreading.”

Five of those arrested may face prolonged jail time because of their
witness. As participants in the August action, they refused to pay the
fine levied on them by the local judge then and have warrants out for
their arrest.

Gina Cook, a member of the Holy Family Catholic Worker community in
Kansas City, is arrested yesterday at the protest.

Frank Cordaro, one of those possibly facing a longer sentence, said he
saw whatever jail time he receives as a way to “change people’s
hearts.”

“The way you do that in this country, in the long, long line of civil
disobedience is to protest and go to jail,” said the member of the Des
Moines, Iowa, Catholic Worker community.

“Only when people do that do people start catching on that’s
something’s really wrong.”

The five were given between 60 and 90 days to pay the fines from their
previous arrest or face additional jail time.

Mixing serious discussions of nuclear deterrence with games of Frisbee
and football, anti-nuclear activists spent the weekend here to attend
the conference in a local high school leading up to the act of civil
disobedience.

On Saturday, activists heard from Art Laffin, a member of the Dorothy
Day Catholic Worker in Washington, D.C, on the conference's theme:
"The hope of Easter and a disarmed world."

Summing up a life of what he calls "Gospel obedience" -- ranging from
involvement in two Plowshares actions and weekly vigils outside the
White House and Pentagon -- Laffin explained how he thinks nonviolent
actions against nuclear weapons facilities "keep telling the story" of
Jesus resurrection.

Laffin told the activists their peace witness shows "the reign of God
is at hand. Right here. Right now."

On Friday, people gathered for a standing-room-only showing of "The
Forgotten Bomb," a new film portraying the dangers of the nation's
nuclear weapons arsenal.

Part documentary, part diary, the film follows the personal journey of
director Bud Ryan as he visits survivors of the nuclear weapons blasts
in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and talks to nuclear weapons analysts,
including former Secretary of State George Shultz.

Local people opposed to the nuclear weapons plant are gathering
signatures for a local ballot measure that, if enacted, would require
Honeywell, the operate of the complex, to cease nuclear weapons
operation at the site in favor of green energy work. As of Friday
afternoon organizers estimated they had over 4,000 of a needed 3,573
signatures to have the measure included in the local fall ballot.

The Kansas City Plant is responsible for the production and assembly
of approximately 85 percent of the non-nuclear components for the U.S.
nuclear arsenal. The plant is due to be relocated starting in 2012.

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a division of the
U.S. Department of Energy, has said the new facility will carry an
estimated price tag of $673 million for construction. The city
government has subsidized the facility’s construction with $815
million in municipal bonds.

Once completed, it is thought the new Kansas City Plant will be the
first nuclear weapons complex in the world to be owned by a city
government. Through a myriad of lease agreements, Kansas City will
hold title for the facility until the bond measures the city approved
are paid off by private developers in a lease-to-purchase scheme.

The new Kansas City facility is one of several where new nuclear
weapons projects are underway. The new Chemistry and Metallurgy
Research Replacement Project at Los Alamos, N.M., is also under
construction, and a new uranium processing facility in Oak Ridge,
Tenn. is in the final stages before approval.

SCROLL DOWN THE LINK BELOW FOR SLIDESHOW OF THE NONVIOLENT RESISTANCE ACTION...................

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Comments (4 of 4)

Steve Jacobs found guilty

by Steve guilty

Wed Jul 20, 2011 06:16

Media Release:
July 19, 2011

Two Columbia activists along with 20 other members of the christian/anarchist Catholic Worker movement were found guilty of trespass today in Kansas City Municipal Court for blocking the entrance of a construction site on May 2, 2011 where a new federal atomic weapons plant is being constructed. Brit Hultgren was given 25 hours of community service and Steve Jacobs was given a $500 fine. Jacobs informed K.C. municipal court judge Franco that his conscience would not allow him to pay fines to a city that helped make weapons of mass destruction but he would do any jail time she chose to give him. Court clerks informed Jacobs that a warrant would be issued for him in Kansas City if he didn't pay the fine after a period of time. Jacobs returned home to Columbia. Hultgren and Jacobs are members of the St. Francis Catholic Worker and operate homeless shelters for men and women and operate the Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen.

Kansas City activists sucessfully petitioned for a municipal election in Kansas City on November 8, 2011 which calls for production of wind turbines at the site and prohibits production of any component for nuclear weapons. There have been repeated arrests of activists blocking work at the construction site including last May 2, when 53 Catholic Workers were arrested.

Jacobs statement to the judge follows:

Your Honor;
I am guilty of trespassing at the site of Kansas City's new nuclear weapons plant. And I am guilty of knowing the difference between what is legal and what is right. Jesus tells us that the law is meant to serve humanity; humanity is not meant to serve the law. Laws are just when they serve humanity and not when they protect those who create a mortal threat to its existence. Trespass laws which protect the makers of weapons of mass destruction against non-violent resisters have no authority over my conscience and act of resistence.

I am guilty of trespass the same way a firefighter or a policeman is guilty of trespass when entering property in order to prevent a greater crime from occuring. You may believe the danger of nuclear annihilation is not imminent or that building these weapons of mass destruction are legal, but I believe that any weapon that indiscriminately kills hundreds of thousands of innocents along with those who are targeted are immoral and have no right to exist. Creating more makes their use more imminent so we have a duty to stop their production now.

Catholic bishops tell us that these weapons are immoral because if used, they will continue to kill the innocent year after year from the effects of nuclear fallout and contamination. I am guilty of believing them.

I am guilty of believing that any city which wishes to operate facilities to manufacture weapons of mass destruction should have to put the issue to a vote before the citizens and that those who are morally opposed to these weapons cannot be made to pay taxes which enable their production because it is a violation of their conscience.

I am guilty of believing judges have a duty to protect society from criminal schemes which condemns farm land under "urban blight" laws so that WMD's can be produced there and that they (judges) also have a duty to protect citizens from war profiteers who socialize construction of WMD's and privatize the profits.

I am guilty of loving my planet more than I fear your jail. I cannot in good conscience pay any fines to a city that helps make nuclear weapons and I cannot do community service because I do that every day at St. Francis House in Columbia serving poor people but I am ready to serve any amount of jail time you wish to give me.

Youtubes & Report of action at new KC Nuke Weapons Plant under construction

by Youtubes & Report

Tue May 10, 2011 15:20

5 min - Press video of arrest::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSHCWOJvRYg

(14 min) "Transformation Not Annihilation" a must see video featuring
a street theater piece satirizing the "Religion of the Bomb":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-s329ZW97k&feature=related

------

COVERAGE
NBC
http://www.nbcactionnews.com/dpp/news/local_news/groups...plant

KC Star
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/02/2843484/police-arr...itter

Common Dreams:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/04-9

PHOTOS:
http://blog.ericbowersphoto.com/2011/05/nuclear-bomb-pa...nday/

https://picasaweb.google.com/joshua.mac/ProtestOutsideT...22011

------

Summery Reports:

1) Report on Retreat
2) Report on Witness
3) Report post arrest and jail time
4) List of 53 arrested & e-mail addresses
5) List of past Midwest CW Retreats

-----
1) Report on RETREAT:

This year's Midwest CW Faith & Resistance Retreat "The Hope of Easter
and a Disarmed World" held in KC MO at the De La Salle Education
Center April 29—May 2, 2011 was a Spirit filled, Resurrection event
for all who attended!

Over 120 people attended the retreat at some point or other, a good
many from the KC area. Representatives from 20 different CW
communities attend. Listed by state and city they: AZ: Tucson - Casa
Mariposa CW / IL: Chicago – White Rose CW, Chicago - Sue Casa CW,
Chicago – St Francis CW, Champagne - St Jude CW / IN: Bloomington CW
/ IA: Des Moines CW, Maloy - Strangers and Guest CW, Farm, Ames -
Mustard Seed CW Farm, La Motte - Hope CW Farm / KS: KS City - St
Lawrence CW / MN - Winona CW, Duluth CW / MO: Columbia CW, KS City–
Holy Family CW, KS City – Cherith Brook CW, St Louis CW / South
Dakota: Yankton - Emmaus House / TX: Austin - Mary House CW / WI:
Milwaukee - Casa Maria CW / Wash. DC - Dorothy Day CW

Also attending and getting arrested - John LaForge from Nuke Watch
http://nukewatchinfo.org/index.html in Luck WI. Check out John's
posting on Common Dreams "Up Against the War Machine in Kansas City"
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/04-9

Also attend and getting arrested - four members of the Possibility
Alliance from LaPlata MO:
http://www.detoursmagazine.com/blog/2010/04/02/63-possi...iance

Friday night began with supper, introductions and the showing of the
movie "Forgotten Bomb" http://www.forgottenbomb.com/

Saturday morning Art Laffin from the Dorothy Day CW in Wash DC set the
tone and theme for the retreat with his talk "The Hope of Easter and a
Disarmed World " Read full text of talk at:
http://groups.google.com/group/National-CW-E-mail-List/...29715

Art's inspiring talk was followed by a presentation by Jay Coghlan of
Nuke Watch New Mexico http://www.nukewatch.org/index.php. Jay gave the
history and story behind the two Nuke Weapons Parts Plants in KC - the
old plant and the new plant being built. A sad and dark history
begging for the light of truth and spirit to set the KC area a right.

Saturday afternoon was taken up with workshops that included:
"Nonviolence 101", "Green Jobs", "Sick KCP Workers", "Possibility
Alliance", "Bradley Manning", "Gospel Obedience", Jay Coghlan & more
on the history and story of the nuclear weapons industry, "Integral
Nonviolence", "Fukushima+Chernobyl", "Borders Within & Without" and KC
area stop the nuke plant petition campaign.

Sunday morning started with a visit and prayer served on site at the
entrance, next to the bill board that reads "Future home of NNSA -
National Nuclear Security Administration Campus". Folks than returned
to the De La Salle Education Center and a liturgy. The rest of the day
was sent planning the witness and presence the following day at the
site.

The whole retreat was filled with prayer time, singing and socializing
- as is the costume of any of our Midwest CW gatherings.
-----

2) Report on WITNESS:

At 8:15 a.m. on Monday, May 2nd over 160 people gathered at the main
entrance of the new Nuke Weapons plant. The witness started with a
street theater piece satirizing the "Religion of the Bomb," followed
by an ecumenical liturgy and an act of "Gospel Obedience," also known
as nonviolent direct action.

Before moving on to the main drive to block the only entrance to the
work site the following statement entitled "Transformation, Not
Annihilation: No Nukes" was read:

"The spirit of Easter has brought us together in hope--hope for life
over death. We are here to call for the conversion of this plant from
an instrument of war to an instrument of life... We lament this, the
first new nuclear weapons production plant in 32 years, which will
continue to make 85% of the non nuclear parts for nuclear weapons. We
lament that over $815 million of Kansas City municipal bonds--which
should be spent on social uplift--is being spent on building this
plant. We lament the health risks posed by this plant to its workers
and the people and environment of Kansas City. We have hope for the
conversion of this plant--we imagine a rebirth where this site would
provide beneficial, peaceful and green jobs, such as solar and wind
energy jobs. We support the local ballot initiative of the KC Peace
Planters and other efforts for disarmament."

En masse the whole group moved onto the drive and blocked a security
pick up truck that closed the gate to the entrance to the work site
before the protesters reach it. After about 10 minutes of joyful
singing and prayer the KC police warned all on the drive that if they
choose to remain on the drive they will be arrested. Henry Stoever,
our legal observe explained what was happening and soon after that the
KC police began to arrest those left on the drive blocking the gate
and entrance to the site. In all 53 people were arrested and charged
with criminal trespass, a KC City ordinance that has the maximum
penalty of 6 months in ir $500 fine or both. Contrary to what was
reported in the Kansas City Star newspaper that "most of the people
arrested were from out of state," 32 were from the home state of
Missouri and 17 of them from the KC area.

A July 19 court date was assigned on all citations.
-----

3) Report post arrest and jail time

Those arrested were cuffed (until the police ran out of cuffs) and
escorted off the drive and into a separate location on site until the
KC Police Arrest School Bus arrived to take us down to the KC police
station to be book and held. The Police bus had to make two trips. We
were all book and processed on the 8th floor of the KC Police Station
into two holding cells, one for the men and one for the women. This
process took about four hours. It was not until 7 p.m. that we were
informed that people could bond out for $100 or wait until latter on
that evening to be released on a PR signature bond. Since by law the
city could only hold a person up to 20 hrs without seeing a judge
before they had to be released on a PR signature bond, because the
trespass offense we are being charged with, is a petty misdemeanor
charge. Five people choose to bond out and the rest of us waited until
the mandatory release time.

For the men and women locked up in the KC Police holding cells, the
hours spent together were perhaps the best learning experience of the
whole weekend. The bars were real, the cement was hard, the baloney
sandwiches stale. It was just a dip into the world of urban jails
where KC's poor and black people are housed and justice is so badly
served. That both the men in our holding cell and the women in theirs
were all together was a rare thing for such actions. This gave us
hours to discuss, tell stories and share experiences. It was an
extended workshop on doing time and being community in a hard place.

By 5:30 a.m. everyone was set free except five people who had standing
warrants out for our arrest because of not paying past fines and court
cost from previous witnesses at the nuke weapons plant site. The five
were: Eric Garbison and Josh Armfield of the Cherith Brook CW in KC,
Steve Jacobs of the Columbia MO CW and Ed Bloomer and Frank Cordaro of
the Des Moines CW. During the 9 a.m. morning TV court the Judge gave
all five 60 to 90 days to pay their pass due fines and set us free
with a PR signature bond. We were not allow to say anything to the TV
judge. The judge did not look any of us in the eye. She essentially
pushed the issue of our refusing the pay any fines and court cost down
the line to a future time. All five of us were out of jail by 11:30
a.m.

A legal defense committee is being formed. With some many
co-defendants it is certain that a variety of responses will be made
through out they court and trial process.... more info and ways to
help and show support will be forth coming in the weeks a head. Stay
tuned....
--------

4) Previous Midwest CW Resistance Retreats:

2010- Works of Mercy vs Works of War - Chicago IL
2009 - Blackwater N IL - Stockton IL
2008 - Immigration - KC MO
2007 - ROTC - Notre Dame, South Bend IN
2006 - Military Recruitment - Columbia MO
2005 - Alliant Tec - Mpls MN
2004 - STRATCOM - Omaha, NE
2003 – Boeing & Monsanto - St Louis, MO

nothing changed. People are easily manipulated

by Auntie War

Wed May 04, 2011 20:18

As they said today on RT

In reality, all that happened was that the US navy seals murdered a frail old man who was a spent political force

Kathy Kelly reflects on the U.S. extrajudical assasination of Bin Laden after 10 years of war

by from Kathy Kelly

Wed May 04, 2011 20:08

***In the 1990's Kathy Kelly was a founder of the Iraq sanctions busting "Voices in the Wilderness" . She has been associated for decades with the U.S. Catholic Worker movement. She has served time in both U.S. county jails and federal prisons for nonviolent anti-war resistance. She has recently returned to the U.S. from a delgation visit to Afghanistan.
She attended all three Pitstop Ploughshares trials in Dublin offering testimony from her on the ground experience in Baghdad during the U.S. "Shock and Awe" bombardment of March 2003.

"10 years ... Over 6000 US Soldiers killed. Trillions of Dollars
wasted. Hundreds of thousands of civilians killed. Tens of thousands
imprisoned. Torture as part of foreign policy. And we are supposed to
celebrate the murder of one person? I am not excited. I am not happy.
I remain profoundly sad."
Matt Daloisio NYC CW

Published on Tuesday, May 3, 2011 by CommonDreams.org Beyond Retaliation
by Kathy Kelly

This morning, a reporter called to talk about the news that the U.S.
has killed Osama bin Laden. Referring to throngs of young people
celebrating outside the White House, the reporter asked what Voices
would say if we had a chance to speak with those young people.

We'd want to tell them about a group of people who, in November of
2001, walked from Washington, D.C. to New York City carrying a banner
that said, "Our Grief is not a Cry for War." Several of the walkers
were people who had lost their loved ones in the attacks on 9/11. When
the walk ended, they formed a group called "Families for Peaceful
Tomorrows" to continually represent the belief that our security is
not founded in violence and revenge.

Often, during that walk, participants were asked what we'd suggest as
an alternative to invading Afghanistan. One response was that the U.S.
and other countries could enact a criminal investigation and rely on
police work and intelligence to apprehend the perpetrators of the
attack. As it turns out, the U.S. discovered where Osama bin Laden was
through those means and not through warfare. How have the past ten
years of aerial bombardments, night raids, death squads,
assassinations and drone attacks in Afghanistan benefited the U.S.
people? Did the carnage and bloodshed bring the U.S. closer to
discovering the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden? Have we defeated
terrorism or created greater, deeper hatred toward the U.S.?

Article continued.....
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/03-6

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Recent CW visitors to Dublin among 50 CWs arrested at New Nuke Bomb Plant in Kansas City U.S.A

Comments (4 of 4)