Disarm & Divest During COVID19

Webinar Before Sentencing

SATURDAY, MAY 16, 12-1pm.  

The Kings Bay Plowshares defendants will hold their final webinar before sentencing, this Saturday, May 16, 12-1 pm ET. Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of the Intercept, will host the defendants. Lead attorney Bill Quigley will join the webinar followed by Q & A.

You are invited to the Zoom webinar.
When: May 16, 2020 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Topic: Kings Bay Plowshares Pre-sentencing Gathering

Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81679745485

Or iPhone one-tap :
US: +16465588656,,81679745485# or +13126266799,,81679745485#
Or Telephone:
Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):
US: +1 646 558 8656 or +1 312 626 6799 or +1 301 715 8592 or +1 669 900 9128 or +1 253 215 8782 or +1 346 248 7799
Webinar ID: 816 7974 5485
International numbers available: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kuNizVJWo

The panel will be discussing the need for civil resistance disarmament actions such as the Kings Bay Plowshares 7, the continued build-up of militarism, and the destitute condition of our world before and during the pandemic. They will also speak on divesting military funding to serve human needs during COVID-19 and beyond.

Carmen Trotta of NYC St. Joseph House Catholic Worker; Mark Colville of New Haven, CT Amistad C.W.; Clare Grady of Ithaca C.W.; Fr. Steve Kelly, S.J. (held for the last two years in GA county jails); Martha Hennessy of NYC Maryhouse C.W. and a granddaughter of Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement; Elizabeth (Liz) McAlister of Baltimore’s Jonah House and widow of Phil Berrigan, and Patrick O’Neill of Fr. Charlie Mulholland C.W. in Garner, N.C. The sentencing recommendations call for 18 months for Liz McAlister (already served 17 months), up to 47 months for Steve Kelly (served two years), and up to 27 months for the others. We do not know at this time if the sentencing will take place in person on May 28 and 29 in the Brunswick, GA courtroom or remotely by video conferencing.

The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 are scheduled for sentencing for their nonviolent symbolic disarmament action at the largest nuclear sub-base in the world, on April 4th, 2018. Kings Bay is the Atlantic home port to a fleet of Trident submarines that contain one-quarter of the U.S. deployed nuclear weapons. Their action occurred on April 4, 2018, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It’s time to wash our hands of Trident, to demand that money should be directed towards health care for all, particularly during the COVID-19, for all future pandemics, for all human needs, and to cut funding for the military. The next generation of Trident submarines will cost $1.2 Trillion over the next ten years. The Nobel Prize-winning International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has pointed out that the U.S. spent $35.1 billion on nuclear weapons in 2019. This could have provided: 300,000 intensive care beds, 35,000 ventilators, and the salaries for 150,000 nurses and 75,000 doctors. Furthermore, if only a small portion of conventional weapons spending were redirected many more resources could be available to provide for the rest of the world’s survival needs rather than the endless wars our government pursues now. Our world would discover its real security lies in shared humanity, not in nationalist arrogance or domination.

Action Items

Call Congress to redirect funding from the military, particularly Trident, towards human needs. More info here.

Call for Justice for Ahmaud Arbery, a 25 year-old black man who was killed by two white supremacists while out running in Brunswick, GA. See website: Run with Maud 

or Facebook page: I Run With Maud