***
"I believe that the United States nuclear arsenal is the linchpin of white imperialism being wrought upon the world," says Martha Hennessy, an anti-nuclear activist and the granddaughter of Dorothy Day, speaking from house arrest. "When I hear President Trump threatening these other countries, I can only take him seriously and take responsibility, personal responsibility myself, to try and raise a voice to make it obvious what is in the minds of these war planners."
We look at the resistance
against nuclear weapons here in the United States. On April 4, 2018—the 50th
anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination—seven Catholic Plowshares activists
secretly entered Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia, one of the largest
nuclear submarine bases in the world. They were armed with just hammers, crime
scene tape, baby bottles containing their own blood, and an indictment charging
the U.S. government for crimes against peace. Their goal was to symbolically
disarm the nuclear weapons at the base, which is home to at least six nuclear
ballistic missile submarines. Each submarine carries 20 Trident thermonuclear
weapons. The activists said they were following the prophet Isaiah’s command to
“beat swords into plowshares.” It was the latest of 100 similar anti-nuclear
Plowshares actions around the world beginning in 1980 in King of Prussia,
Pennsylvania. The first Plowshares action in 1980 was led by the late Daniel
Berrigan and Phil Berrigan. Phil’s wife, Liz McAlister, was one of seven
arrested at the April 4 action. McAlister and two other activists, Jesuit
priest Stephen Kelly and Mark Colville, remain locked up in pretrial
confinement in Brunswick, Georgia. Four others—Patrick O’Neill, Carmen Trotta,
Martha Hennessy and Clare Grady—are under house arrest. All seven could face
years in prison, if convicted. We speak with Martha Hennessy and Carmen Trotta.
Hennessy is the granddaughter of Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic
Worker movement. Carmen Trotta helps run the St. Joseph Catholic Worker House
in New York.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!,
democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, as we
look at the resistance against nuclear weapons here in the United States. Last
April 4th, the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination, seven
Catholic Plowshares activists secretly entered Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay
in Georgia, one of the largest nuclear submarine bases in the world, armed with
just hammers, crime scene tape, baby bottles containing their own blood, and an
indictment charging the U.S. government with crimes against peace. Their goal:
to symbolically disarm the nuclear weapons at the base, which is home to at
least six nuclear ballistic missile submarines. Each submarine carries 20
Trident thermonuclear weapons.
The activists said they
were following the prophet Isaiah’s command to “beat swords into plowshares.”
It was the latest of a hundred similar anti-nuclear Plowshares actions around
the world beginning in 1980 in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. That first
Plowshares act was led by the late Daniel and Philip Berrigan. Phil’s wife, Liz
McAlister, was one of the seven arrested at the April 4th action. Liz McAlister
and two other activists, Jesuit priest Stephen Kelly and Mark Colville, remain
locked up in pretrial confinement in Brunswick Georgia. Four others—Patrick
O’Neill, Carmen Trotta, Martha Hennessy and Clare Grady—are under house arrest.
All seven could face years in prison, if convicted.
Well, I recently spoke to
Martha Hennessy and Carmen Trotta here in New York at Mary House, a Catholic
Worker home here in the city. Hennessy is the granddaughter of Dorothy Day, the
founder of the Catholic Worker movement. Carmen Trotta helps run the St. Joseph
Catholic Worker House here in the city. I spoke to them shortly before Clare
Grady was released and put under house arrest. I began by asking Martha Hennessy
about what they did when they entered the nuclear sub base April 4th.
MARTHA HENNESSY: I was with my friends, seven of us. And we spent
nearly two years discerning and praying about what we could do. And we walked
onto the base at Kings Bay. It’s not a well-known site of the U.S. military.
And we walked there on behalf of people who couldn’t do such a thing or take
such an action. And we walked there to expose the Trident nuclear arsenal. And
we symbolically disarmed the nuclear weapons. We were not anywhere near nuclear
weapons. But Carmen’s group got a little bit closer to the bunkers. But,
essentially, we left Daniel Ellsberg’s book, The Doomsday Machine,
there on site at the administrative building of the Strategic Weapons Facility
of the Atlantic. We posted an indictment on the doors of the facility. We also
had banners that read, “The ultimate logic of Trident is omnicide.” And we put
up crime tape.
AMY GOODMAN: And where did you go? Where did your—
MARTHA HENNESSY: I was at the administration building.
AMY GOODMAN: And why did you feel this was so important to
do?
MARTHA HENNESSY: I believe that the United States nuclear arsenal
is the linchpin of white imperialism being wrought upon the world. I think that
we have used these nuclear weapons in ways, since Hiroshima 73 years ago. We
have used this threat against the world in many different ways throughout
history. And I felt that, for myself, I was able to take this kind of action,
to do this kind of discernment, and offer up an effort to wake the world to the
terrible dangers that we face. These weapons, as long as we have them, at some
point, they will be used. And I have had trips to Russia, Korea, South Korea,
and Iran. And when I hear President Trump threatening these other countries, I
can only take him seriously and take responsibility, personal responsibility
myself, to try and raise a voice to make it obvious what is in the minds of
these war planners.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Carmen Trotta, you, together with Martha
Hennessy and five others, went on this military base, the Kings Bay naval base.
Describe what you did that day?
CARMEN TROTTA: Took a very long walk inside the base. The small
group that detached with myself wanted very much to get as close as we possibly
could to the heart of evil, which is to say the weapons systems themselves, and
therefore we were disgruntled, really, initially, that there were no Trident
submarines being worked on at the base at the time. If that were so, we would
have tried to get to the Trident itself. The fact was that that was not so at
that time, and therefore we went to go to the bunkers, where the nuclear
weapons themselves are housed, and managed to cut a few fences and were very
perplexed by the complexity of the last fence, frightened by it, frightened by
being in a lethal-force zone.
And as we were
contemplating getting through that last fence, there was finally, after a
couple of hours on the base, a response from the base itself. And then we held
our banner, which said that nuclear weapons are illegal and immoral, and wanted
to show to the military something soothing to be able to say to them when they
came. And so, when they came, we told them immediately that we come in peace,
that we were unarmed, that we were American citizens, that we meant them no
harm.
AMY GOODMAN: And what did you have with you when you got to
that area near the bunker?
CARMEN TROTTA: There were—we had hammers and blood and bolt
cutters.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean, blood?
CARMEN TROTTA: They’re vials of blood that were taken from
people in the community, so it was our own blood. And the blood gets used as a
symbol of life. Particularly within the Catholic and Christian faith, blood is
the symbol of life. It is also—that level of red is also a constant danger
warning. And as I think I tried to say before, the Plowshares actions are
designed to sort of slap people awake to the reality that is before them. It is
more alarm than anger. We are more alarmed than we are angry. Although I don’t
want to put down the notion of being angry in the sort of persistent failure of
what could and should be, you know, one of the greatest nations in the world,
and the ongoing, persistent failure, particularly after World War II.
AMY GOODMAN: Martha Hennessy, what happened when you went to
the administrative building? How money people did you go with? What did you
come with? And how did the military find you on the base?
MARTHA HENNESSY: Well, they ignored us for a while. They had
their hands full with the people at the bunker. They were most concerned about
the people at the bunker.
AMY GOODMAN: With your group?
MARTHA HENNESSY: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: With Carmen and his group.
MARTHA HENNESSY: The three people. And so, I was with one other
person. And the two of us brought little hammers and vials of blood and Dan
Ellsberg’s book, The Doomsday Machine. And we put up our posters,
and we saw that there were people working in the building. And we did not go
into the building. The door was unlocked. But it was very quiet, very eerie.
AMY GOODMAN: And what happened when the soldiers came?
MARTHA HENNESSY: Well, we were able to post our indictment and
pour our blood and write “Love one another” and “May love disarm us all.” We
wrote that on the sidewalks. And then we joined two other people who were at
the display, the missile display, which welcomes visitors into the complex. And
we joined them, and we probably were there for perhaps an hour, in both
settings, before—we saw the cars going towards the other site, where our
friends were. But they didn’t bother to handle us until at least an hour later.
To continue this transcript, or to watch the full video interview,
please go here: https://www.democracynow.org/2018/7/23/kings_bay_plowshares_meet_two_of
No comments:
Post a Comment