Widespread Resistance to War Threats:

Thirty-two people, among about 200 participating in Pax Christi's Ash Wednesday liturgy and march, were arrested in New York City as they approached the U.S. Mission to the U.N.  At their trial, the judge heard testimony about the situation in Iraq, and dismissed the cases in "the greater interest of justice."  He also accepted recent photos of sick Iraqi children taken in Iraq by one of the defendants, and he promised to send them to the U.S. State Department.

In Baltimore, members of the Baltimore Emergency Response Network undertook their annual Ash Wednesday leafletting to protest nuclear weapons research at the Applied Physics Lab of Johns Hopkins University.  The dozen leafletters were quickly ordered to leave.  Ellen Barfield refused, was arrested for trespass, then released pending trial April 28.

At a bench trial before Judge James Vaughan, Barfield was found guilty and sentenced to ten days in jail and $55 in court costs.  She was immediately jailed, andr eleased May 5.

On the west coast, 20 people gathered at the San Francisco office of Bechtel Corporation, one of the managers of the Nevada Test Site, to protest four subcritical nuclear weapons tests scheduled for this year.  Some protesters burned palm fronds and anointed the gathering group and the sidewalk in front of Bechtel with ashes.  A smaller group asked to present a bowl of ashes to Bechtel employees, but were refused entrance.  This group then knelt in prayer, blocking the front doors.  After much singing and praying, six were arrested.  All were charged with trespass, while Marcus Page and Cindy Pile were also charged with vandalism.  Charges were later dropped.

For more information, contact Felton Davis in NYC at (212)777-9617, Max Obuszewski in Baltimore at (410)323-7200 or e-mail: maxo@igc.org, and the Livermore Conversion Project, (510)832-4347.

next:      Project ELF
back to Resistance Notes
back to The Nuclear Resister, #112

last updated July 10 1998