About 125 peace and environmental activists gathered at the remote transmitter facility on Sunday, May 10, for the 11th annual Mothers' Day action at Project ELF.

"We used a homemade ladder to scale the chain linked fence, and blockaded the road for about 1-1/2 hours," said Nukewatch organizer John LaForge.  "This action against Trident and ELF helps relieve us of legal culpability in thecriminal threat to wage nuclear war," he said, referring to the July 8, 1996 decision by the International Court of Justice outlawing the threat or use of nuclear weapons.

On this Mother's Day, fourteen people were arrested for trespass.  Twelve were cited and released pending appearance in court June 2.  Anthony Ouckama and Joshua Trost were taken into custody on additional charges of obstructing an officer, and held overnight for arraignment.  They were released the next morning pending June 1 arraignments.

Project ELF is used by the Navy to maintain nuclear war readiness.  ELF sends one-way commands to submerged nuclear missile-firing submarines around the world.

MOTHER'S DAY 1997 UPDATE

On February 26, ELF resisters Jane Hosking and Ida Cunningham had separate trials for nonviolent resistance on Mother's Day, 1997.  Each was charged with forfeiture trespass and the more serious criminal obstruction of an officer.

Hosking, a member of the Loaves and Fishes Catholic Worker community in Duluth, represented herself and was found guilty of both counts.  Judge Robert Eaton sentenced her to a total of 76 days.  She was taken in handcuffs directly to jail.  She concluded her sentence in late April.

Cunningham's "trial" was a plea bargain: the state dropped the trespass and she pled no contest to obstruction.  The judge struck back at her strong anti-ELF statements, and Cunningham was initially hauled away to serve 60 days in jail.  Attorney John Bachman intervened when Cunningham agreed to pay a fine and friends paid it.

For more information, contact Nukewatch, POB 649, Luck WI 54853, (715)472-4185, e-mail:nukewtch@win.bright.net

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last updated July 10 1998