Antinuclear

Faith-Based Peace Activists, Facing 25-Year Sentence, Defend Disarmament Action at Nuclear Submarine Base Common Dreams,

“I would argue our communal criminal history has been all about upholding the basic tenets of love and providing for the common good.”

The Kings Bay Plowshares Seven (KBP7) nonviolently and symbolically disarmed the Trident nuclear submarine base in Kings Bay, Georgia on April 4, 2018. Last week in federal court, District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood heard the peace advocates’ pre-trial arguments asking her to dismiss the felony and misdemeanor charges against them.

Lawyers for Mark Colville, Father Steve Kelly, Elizabeth McAlister, Martha Hennessy, Clare Grady, Patrick Michael O’Neill, and Carmen Trotta say the federal government violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) when it charged the KBP7 with conspiracy, trespassing, and destruction and depredation of property.

The activists say they were acting in the name of their Catholic faith when they cut through fencing and wire at the submarine base and allegedly vandalized a building and static missiles. ………

Circulating their petition on social media after the hearing, the KBP7’s support committee called on the public not only to join their call for the government to dismiss their charges, but also to help rebuild the anti-nuclear weapons movement “that helped disarm the world’s nuclear arsenals from 90,000 down to 15,000 weapons in the 1980s.”

“We who share the moral vision of the Kings Bay Plowshares Seven proclaim our support for their courage and sustained sacrifice and call for the immediate dismissal of all charges against them,” reads the petition, addressed to Attorney General William Barr. “The defendants invite us to act creatively. They invite us to join global coalitions working to promote governments’ adherence to, and full implementation of, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. They also invite us to participate in campaigns for divestment from nuclear weapons as complementary efforts towards the realization of a world free of nuclear weapons.”

A number of global peace advocates and Nobel Peace Laureates are among the signers of the petition, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Poor People’s Campaign leaders Rev. William Barber and Rev. Liz Theoharis, and Medea Benjamin.

Judge Wood is currently considering the KBP7’s arguments. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/12/faith-based-peace-activists-facing-25-year-sentence-defend-disarmament-action