24 February 2009

Ash Wednesday, 25 February 2009 Annual liturgy of Repentance and Resistance
 to nuclear war preparations

Since 1984, Christians have gathered annually at the Ministry of Defence on Ash Wednesday to call the Government to repent and reject nuclear weapons and nuclear war preparations, through a powerful liturgical witness and acts of nonviolent civil disobedience which use the traditional symbols of the day – blessed ash and charcoal. During the course of the liturgy, the Ministry of Defence will be marked with blessed charcoal. This action is organised by Pax Christi with Catholic Peace Action and Christian CND.

In 2007 the British Government voted in favour of a programme to replace and up-grade the existing British nuclear weapons programme, Trident.  The act of witness and call on 25^th February will urge the Government to cancel these plans and to take a moral lead in the global elimination of nuclear weapons.

This annual witness seeks to articulate messages and teaching of Christian churches.  In his 2006 World Peace Day message Pope Benedict XVI said “What can be said, too, about those governments which count on nuclear arms as a means of ensuring the security of other countries? Along with countless persons of good will, one can state that this point of view is not only baneful but also completely fallacious.  In a nuclear war there would e no victors only victims…” and from 20 Anglican Bishops, writing in 2006, “Nuclear weapons are a direct denial of the Christian concept of peace and reconciliation, which are social and economic as well as physical and spiritual…The costs involved in the maintenance and replacement of Trident could be used to address pressing environmental concerns, the causes of terrorism, poverty and debt, and enable humanity and dignity to be the right of all..”

Those risking arrest on the day, by marking the building with blessed ash and charcoal are:

Rosemary Gomes – age 27 – lives Hackney, London Catholic Worker (LCW)
 
Henrietta Cullinan – age 47 – lives – Hackney, LCW
 
Katrina Alton – age 41 – lives – Hackney, LCW
 
Emil Jansson – age 19 – lives – Listrop Nykrka, Sweden, LCW

Practical details:

Gathering in Embankment Gardens at 3.00 pm for the start of the liturgy which will then take the form of a procession with several stopping-points  around the Ministry of Defence in Horseguards Avenue.

For more information contact:

Pax Christi

December 2005

Dear Friend,

Please note the enclosed invitation to join us during Lent 2006. Let us know if you have any questions or if we can assist you in anyway in order to help you respond to this invitation from Pax Christi and us.

A few of us have re-started the direct communications with Ministry of Defence workers, handing out leaflets either at lunchtime or when they come into work. Let us know if you would like to join us. We have done three sessions since September and hope to continue, at least once a month. Liz Yates, one of the leafleters, has said, ‘It is imperative that we attempt to be as visually present as possible during these times.’

On Holy Innocents day last year, Liz and four others (Chris Cole, Fr Martin Newell, Angela Broome, Scott Albrecht) went to the MOD to dig graves and write on the walls in protest of the war in Iraq. For some unknown reason Angela was not arrested. The others were convicted of Criminal Damage on 6 June. After a day of moving testimony and at times vigorous discussion with the prosecutor, the magistrate made it clear that ‘it is not for this court to decide the legality or not of the Iraq war.’ They received various levels of fines and orders to pay compensation to the MoD. The bailiffs have already sent letters to Liz, who has informed them that she has no intention of paying.

On 16 November, Voices in the Wilderness (UK) founder Milan Rai was sentenced to 28 days imprisonment for refusing to pay £2000 ‘compensation’ to the British Government for spray-painting the Foreign Office with the words “Don’t Attack Fallujah. Black Watch Out” on 3 November 2004, just days before last year’s devastating US assault on the city (see www.j-n-v.org for background and pictures).

The Christmas season is fast approaching. We wish you strength in Spirit, health in body, and a joyous time with loved ones.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers of support for peace,

Carmel and Dan Martin
Pat Gaffney

60th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki

On 9 August, Dan Martin and Angela Broome chained themselves to the front door of the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall; they encouraged the closure of the MoD for the day in order to commemorate the incineration of Nagasaki 60 years ago and prevent future crimes against humanity. After a warning from the police and a refusal to leave the area the police cut the chains and carried/dragged the two down the steps, off the property. They were then told they could demonstrate freely there. No arrests were made. The two joined supporters and continued to distribute the leaflet below.
Close the Ministry of Defence
9 August 2005

In Memoriam

We call on all staff to return home and reflect on the anniversary of the incineration of Nagasaki, Japan, 60 years ago today; and to reflect on the nuclear war preparations carried out in the Ministry of Defence.

On Nov. 7, 1995, the mayor of Nagasaki recalled his memory of the attack in testimony to the International Court of Justice: ‘Nagasaki became a city of death where not even the sound of insects could be heard. After a while, countless men, women and children began to gather for a drink of water at the banks of nearby Urakami River, their hair and clothing scorched and their burnt skin hanging off in sheets like rags. Begging for help they died one after another in the water or in heaps on the banks.’

Quoted in ‘Apocalypse Soon’ by Robert S. McNamara, former Secretary of Defense of the USA, who further states:

‘Four months after the atomic bombing [of Nagasaki], 74,000 people were dead, and 75,000 had suffered injuries, that is, two-thirds of the city population had fallen victim to this calamity that came upon Nagasaki like a preview of the Apocalypse.
‘This in a nutshell is what nuclear weapons do: They indiscriminately blast, burn, and irradiate with a speed and finality that are almost incomprehensible.’
‘I would characterize current US nuclear weapons policy as immoral, illegal, militarily unnecessary, and dreadfully dangerous.’

Robert S. McNamara | Apocalypse Soon; www.truthout.org/docs_2005/050505B.shtml

Where Mr McNamara speaks of ‘US nuclear weapons policy’, we believe the UK policy, though with fewer nuclear weapons, is qualitatively the same: ‘immoral, illegal, militarily unnecessary, and dreadfully dangerous.’

The Ministry of Defence should be closed today:
• In memory of the atomic victims of yesterday and today (victims are still dying as a result of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki).
• As an act of repentance for that horrendous slaughter and for continued readiness to the repeat it, on a much greater scale.
• As an act of penance, however slight, to right this wrong.
• As an act of reparations for the money stolen from the poor of this world because of nuclear war preparations.
• As acknowledgment of our hypocrisy in the eyes of the world. While we possess, and are willing to actually use these horrendous weapons, we preach and enforce restraint to some countries (Iran, Iraq, North Korea) and ignore others (Israel).
• To give us a chance to recover our humanity and let our hearts of stone become hearts of flesh.
• Because nuclear weapons are not safe in anyone’s hands.
Catholic Peace Action

Peace-making on Ash Wednesday and in Lent 2005
In London over 50 attended a service followed every subsequent Wednesday by a few people to stand and pray, hold banners and sometimes mark the building with the ash/charcoal of repentance. Others held vigils and took action in Oxford (including the Oxford Catholic Worker), Cambridge and Newcastle. Let’s build on the past 24 years of witness against nuclear war preparations and make Lent 2006 more responsive to the ‘cry of the poor’ and the call of the peace of Christ.

Dan Martin said these few words at the Ash Wednesday service in London:

From the Vatican II document: ‘The arms race is a crime against God and humanity and injures the poor to an intolerable degree.’

Since this was written in 1965, we, as a church, have done little, or at least not enough, to show how intolerable this demon race is. We have tolerated numerous wars, an ever-quickening arms race and first-strike nuclear weaponry. The moral shadow this casts on our lives has been with us for so long, for most people it is hardly noticeable. Shadow becomes day and war is only twilight,

Like nocturnal creatures we have got used to the moral darkness; we open our eyes wide and because of that we think we can see.

We tolerate the race to oblivion by the building of weapons, which are immoral in ethical terms and unusable in military terms. We tolerate the unthinkable by our actual willingness to use these weapons. We tolerate the theft from the poor both in this country and throughout the world, which the production of these weapons represents.
Can this demon be cast out? ‘Lord I believe, help me in my unbelief.’ Mk 9:24

To The Black Watch – Largesse

By George Clark

“Home” he said, “by Christmas” “After your work is done.”
“Home to the wives and kiddies” “Free of the desert sun.”
“Home” he said “by Christmas”
“Choir boys lauding God”
“Presents in the Children’s hands”,
“Mince pies on the hob.”

“Home” he said, “by Christmas”
“After your work is done.”
“Work with the knife and bayonet”
“Peace from the mouth of the gun.”
Bush babies burn in the waste land,
Black hawks shatter the sky,
Foxes die on the stubble, Politics stink of the lie.

“Home” he said, “by Christmas”
“To warmth in the manger’s hay.”
“Angels and saints enfold you”
“Tho thousands may die on the way”
The cry of the new-born Christ-child
Keens the dead of this guiltless war.
“Home” he said, “by Christmas.”
“You can’t possibly ask for more.”

(The Black Watch regiment (an 850 strong force) provided support for US forces during the invasion of Falluja in November 2004. In the same month, the Prime Minister announced to the House of Commons the regiment would be home by Christmas. Most were; but five were killed during the month-long deployment to Camp Dogwood in central Iraq.

(Update 2012: this piece is reproduced to correct a one-line omission in the poem when it was first published in the 2005 December edition of the Catholic Peace Action newsletter.)

Demonstration at Dimona
Incident at the Bethlehem Checkpoint

By Carmel Martin
(In April this year, Carmel accompanied the 2nd international delegation to Israel since the release of Mordechai Vanunu. The hopes were that Mordechai would be allowed to leave Israel after a year since his release from almost 18 years in prison; but the restrictions were renewed for another year. It was a very full week of witnessing to peace and supporting Mordechai. For more information about this year’s delegation and the UK campaign, contact us and we will send the latest (and final) bulletin. Mordechai is currently under house arrest for violating his travel restrictions.)

Dimona
(Mordechai was a technician at Dimona, Israel’s nuclear installation, from 1976 to 1985. He discovered that the plant was secretly producing nuclear weapons. His conscience made him speak out and in 1986 he provided the London Sunday Times with the facts and photos they used to tell the world about Israel’s nuclear weapons programme. His evidence showed that Israel had stockpiled up to 200 nuclear warheads, with no debate or authorisation from it own citizens.)

As we made the long coach journey to Dimona there was no doubt that we were in occupied territory. Several military planes flew over while we travelled and the presence of the army was evident by the roadside.

We saw eight or ten army trucks parked just off the road and a large group of soldiers standing around a man in a white t-shirt who was sitting in the road, his fate unknown.
We arrived and gathered our posters and banners from the bus and began setting up for our vigil and witness under the scorching heat of the sun and in the shadow of the Dimona nuclear weapons factory.
Assembled were a group of international representatives from across the world including, Japan, Ireland England Norway, Israel and the United States of America.
Dimona was perhaps the most significant of all the places we had been during our few days in Israel.

It represented the witness of Mordechai Vanunu and his resistance to Israel’s government’s secret Nuclear Weapons Policy and production – the reason for his willingness to sacrifice his life to publicise its lethal potential.

Standing in close proximity to the site of such destructive and evil capability sent a chill down the spine.

The speakers were eloquent, dignified and moving in their delivery and in the content and power of their contributions.

The first speaker reminded us graphically of what was prevented by Mordechai’s act of resistance nineteen years ago. She was Ryoko Normq from Hiroshima. Her presence needed no words but she spoke movingly of the need for the world to disarm and prevent another Hiroshima from happening. She spoke about the continued suffering of the people that would be inevitable if these horrendous weapons were ever used.

I spoke and also invited everyone to scatter ashes in the desert as a symbol of what we would become should these weapons be used. I linked the witness at Dimona with the repentance and resistance that many others and I have been part of at the Ministry of defence in Whitehall, London for the past twenty-one years. ‘Countless others around the world are inspired by the high price of eighteen years spent in prison by Mordechai Vanunu.’

‘Only by exposing these places to the scrutiny of the public is it possible to begin the process of building a movement towards peace, a wound that is not exposed to the air will fester and infect the body, sometimes to the point of death. The hidden work of evil and corruption requires persistent struggle and a deep faith that peace is actually possible.’

I then read a defiant message from Mordechai.

‘Dimona is a real holocaust. The Israelis are producing Genocide weapons here. End the production of these genocide weapons. Shut Dimona.’

The next speaker was Nobel Peace Laureate Mairaed McGuire who made an impassioned plea for Israel to denounce Nuclear Weapons and sign the non- proliferation treaty. Other speakers included Rayna Moss from Israel, Kathy Kelly from Chicago, Knesset member Issam Makoul, Israeli poet Mati Shmueln and Akiva Orr also from Israel.
Mordechai Vanunu’s poem ‘I am your spy’ was read in Irish by one of the Irish delegates, Justin Morahann.
Entertainment and music was provided by Ben Inman from London who played his trumpet as he had done so passionately on the occasion of Mordechai’s release from prison twelve months earlier.
A group of Israeli grannies, dressed in aprons and hats covered in flowers, sang political protest songs with gusto and astute perception of the suffering of Mordechai and the Palestinian people in particular.

Incident at the Bethlehem Checkpoint

We went a few times to a particular Café, one of Mordechai’s favourite places to eat, a rooftop overlooking Jerusalem, and got to know one of the waiters there. On our last visit we were disappointed that he was not there.
We assumed it must be his day off. He arrived just before we left and he shared with us the reasons for his delay. He made the journey to work every day from Bethlehem to Jerusalem across a checkpoint. There are six members of his family and he is the only one who works. The others are dependent on his wage to keep the family going.
That morning his neighbour needed to travel to the hospital for dialysis. She did not have papers but he did and he agreed to accompany her through the checkpoint. He pleaded with the soldiers at the checkpoint to allow her entry and they eventually agreed to let her through but told him he would have to stay there for ten hours. He told them they could keep him for twelve hours, he did not mind as long as she was allowed through.
Then the soldiers began to take off their helmets, a sign that they are no longer considered to be on duty and also that they were about to beat him. The leader and most aggressive soldier was a woman. This was the festival of Passover and he told us that it was usual for them to put the most aggressive soldiers on duty during the holiday times. Again he told the soldiers that it was ok if they beat him up, he was not a troublemaker, he was non- violent. He stood with his head bowed and his hands behind his back and prepared himself for a beating.
After a couple of hours of waiting like this with the soldiers trying to provoke him, finally the police arrived and eventually they let him go. He would spend the following night sleeping at the restaurant to avoid this conflict at the checkpoint and to be sure he would not miss work the next day. He had enabled his neighbour to ‘Passover’ and receive the medical help she so desperately needed.
It is difficult to imagine the effect such continual harassment and brutality would have on people when they are required to live in this way at every moment of their lives. This young man is certainly one of the many silent heroes of the country. However, as Mordechai himself said, ‘It is not enough to be a hero, you have to know how to survive.’
The beautiful, forgiving and generous spirit of this young man was witness to the belief that goodness can overcome evil and its power is unquenchable.

Greenham – Non-violent Women-v-The Crown Prerogative
by Sarah Hipperson
A Review by Ray Towey
This is a book that is essential reading for anyone who looks back to the 80s and 90s and reflects on a time when the Cold War was at its height, Mrs. Thatcher’s government dominated the political arena, Mr. Heseltine Secretary of State for Defence was telling Parliament that protesters ran the risk of being shot and to be a peace activist often meant regular visits to court and sometimes jail. The women’s witness at Greenham Common against the installation of 96 cruise missiles each one with the explosive power of 16 Hiroshima bombs was an escalation of nuclear madness that became intolerable for thousands of people and resulted in scores of affinity groups developing and searching out non-violent ways of responding. Sarah Hipperson a founder member of Catholic Peace Action and a Greenham Common women peace activist was at the forefront of these activities and this is in many ways her story of Greenham. For me her journey is a fascinating story partly because my own faith journey brought me into membership of Catholic Peace Action and I was one of the support people who assisted in Sarah’s first non-violent action, which was at the Ministry of Defence London in 1983.
As Sarah puts it: ‘I had crossed over an invisible line, which marked out a commitment to no longer being a bystander.’

The line she crossed then, she was to cross so many times over the next 19 years at Greenham with severe consequences of many terms in jail. To live at Greenham was a hard choice with much harassment and brutal treatment by the authorities. For us in London with so many informed eyes watching and our secure and warm homes to go back to was a much gentler option. The peace camp at the early stages became a women only peace camp which she describes in her book as being strategically the right decision. The hardest process in taking actions of non-violent civil disobedience is not the police and courts but building the support community and I was always very respectful of the choice the women had made. There were so many military establishments available it was hardly going to limit others who wished to confront the nuclear madness with a different support community.

The book is short, 183 pages, has many black and white photographs and is essentially in two parts. The first includes some of Sarah’s personal background, a reflection on non-violence and a timeline of actions of significance to her during her stay at the camp for 19 years. It is of course necessarily brief in a book of this size but I would have liked to have read more on these topics, indeed you could have one book alone devoted to these topics coming from a Christian women with such a life experience. The second part is a description of the legal struggle against the State that accompanied her journey. This is by its nature complex and requires some detailed study but the result is an insight into the legal culture that permits the genocidal nuclear weapons to be given the full legal protection of the State. In short the legal structures are a culture of death and the so called “Crown Prerogative” puts the nuclear war plans above the law. However there were significant legal successes such as establishing the voting rights of the peace camp residents and the over turning of the byelaws which had been introduced to illegally arrest up to one thousand women.

The final chapter relates to the setting up of the Greenham Commemorative and Historic Site which now occupies the very place at which the Yellow Gate peace camp was situated and all monies generated from this book go towards the maintenance of this Commemorative and Historic Site. The real value of this book is that it is told from someone who lived the non-violent struggle herself with passion, commitment and persistence and took the often harsh and painful consequences.
Published, 2005, by Greenham Publications, 15 Sydney Road, London E11 2JW; Cheques payable to ‘Greenham Publications’, £11.04 (this includes p&p).

Ray Towey, raytowey@africaonline.co.ug, is a medical missionary currently working in Uganda with the Volunteer Missionary Movement and his support website is www.africanmission.org.uk

December 2004

Dear Friend,

As the ‘war on terror’ and the ‘terror of war’ takes in more victims we pray ever more deeply for peace and the courage to make peace and say ‘No’ to our own weapons of mass destruction.

It seems our efforts during Ash Wednesday and Lent take on a greater significance every year.  We try to expand this witness every year but that is not possible without more people taking that extra step towards resistance.  A leaflet is in preparation for this year’s event, which will list areas other than London, like Leeds, Derby and Liverpool.  So far, confirmed out-of-London actions are:

Newcastle City Centre.  Christine Wickens; Tel: 0191 281 4168

Cambridge: Stewart Hemsley; stewarthemsley@yahoo.co.uk

If you can organise a vigil or possibly resistance for Ash Wednesday (9 February 2005) or some day during Lent or need some help to do so, let us know.  Join us where and when you can.  The London liturgy will begin at 3 pm, in Embankment Gardens, off Horseguards avenue, SW1.  If you would like to participate in civil disobedience get in touch with one of the names on the leaflet or contact us for a meeting in London on 12 January.

There is growing menace and tragedy for so many people, but there are signs of hope too, even if not fully realised.  We think of Mordechai Vanunu’s release from prison after 18 years.  Very much unbroken and still committed to peace work and against nuclear weapons, his endurance and humanity have prevailed against the harshest of treatments.  He is an inspiration to all of us to keep on keeping on.  Carmel attended his release and writes (below) of her time there.  His journey to freedom is not yet complete as he is still confined to Israel, so the struggle continues in so many ways.

We wish you and your loved ones a joyous and holy Christmas.  May the light of peace shine ever brighter in 2005!

Yours in solidarity

Dan and Carmel Martin

Pat Gaffney

‘Mordechai Vanunu is the most significant man to walk out of prison since Nelson Mandela’

A Week In Israel: April 2004

(Below is one excerpt from a much longer account of Carmel’s journey, the time outside Ashkelon Prison just before Mordechai’s release.  If you donated towards her travel expenses we should have enclosed the full article.  Please let us know if it is missing.  Of course, the article is available to anyone on request.)

…We vigiled outside the prison on Tuesday, the day before the expected release and on the morning of his release, from about 8 a.m.  As the time of release came closer, the media, the crowds and the intensity multiplied.  The hostility was electric, placards were burnt, arguments provoked, abuse shouted.  I felt threatened, but in my ignorance of the language should have felt terrified.  I did not know what was being chanted.

One vociferous protagonist looked at me and said in a threatening way, ‘You are very fragile’.  ‘Yes, we are all fragile,’ I quipped.  He passed along the barrier, which separated us to continue the confrontation.  The police stood by, being little more than spectators.

Ben, a member of the delegation, played his trumpet and sounded above the throng ‘Joshua at the battle of Jericho and the walls come tumbling down’.  The music was a balm of healing peace which abated the swelling potential for violence.

The situation resembled being at sea, as the swell of abuse rose, we sang peace, shalom, the angry wave subsided.

I am convinced that our non-violent presence at the gate of Ashkelon Prison on April 21st not only enabled Mordechai Vanunu to be released, it actively prevented a riot from erupting.

At the time of release we planned to set free 18 white doves to symbolise each one of the eighteen years of imprisonment.  They were released amid a throng of reporters taking photographs, filming and confusion.  One flew free and entered the prison.

I moved away from the enclosed pen to form a protective ring around Mordechai should he decide to walk out to greet supporters, as he so badly wanted to do.

The pigeon flew out of the prison moments before Mordechai emerged through the blue prison gates in his brother’s car with his hand pressed against the car window, in a gesture of unbending defiance, reminiscent of his capture.  Hostile crowds gave chase, shouted, banged on the roof of the car, threw their chilling blackened roses, symbols of death to Mordechai.

I did not expect to see him again.

The crowd became increasingly hostile.  We gathered together and made our way back to the coaches.  Eggs were thrown, stones too–we were very fragile…

Carmel Martin  June 2004

FOR SALE!

Fighting the Lamb’s War: Skirmishes with the American Empire,

The autobiography of Philip Berrigan

By Philip Berrigan with Fred Wilcox

Introduction by David Dellinger, pp 226

Readers will know that Philip Berrigan died 6 December 2002.  This autobiography, written in 1996, covers his time as a proud warrior for the empire in World War II to be one of its fiercest non-violent adversaries.  I look forward to reading it so this is not a review. 

But to quote from Walter Wink, author of Engaging the Powers: ‘Few nations in history have had a prophet of Phil Berrigan’s stature.  With iron intransigency he has stood in the breach leading to nuclear omnicide.  The state has tried to quash his witness time after time: arrests, lockups, long sentences, all the paraphernalia of intimidation.  Why doesn’t it work?  What enables this jack-in-the-box prophet to pop up, again and again?  Find out. Read this book.’  To read this book, send a £12 cheque (this includes p&p) payable to ‘Dan Martin’ to the CPA address. 

2 October 2004, Greenham Common

A commemoration of the life and witness of Philip Berrigan

For this gathering, spearheaded by Sarah Hipperson, we were very pleased to welcome to this country and to the Greenham Common Memorial Site Frida Berrigan, the daughter of Philip.  She spoke movingly and encouragingly of her father, his peace work and Christian witness.  Her complete text is at www.paxchristi.org.uk/events along with some nice pictures.  Ourselves, Pax Christi, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and Christian CND co-sponsored the event.

Mordechai Vanunu protest at Israeli Embassy

On 30 September 1986, agents of the Israeli state kidnapped Mordechai Vanunu from Rome.  After 18 years in prison he was released on 21 April but is still prevented from leaving the country by the Israeli government.  To protest this ongoing oppression, on 30 September this year, Dan, Ernest Rodker, David Polden, Adeline O’Keeffe, Angela Broome, Hope Liebersohn, as members of the Campaign to free Vanunu and for a Nuclear Free Middle East, chained themselves to the gates of the Israeli Embassy.  We then put on masks depicting the face of Mordechai.  We wore T-shirts with the simple message:  Let Vanunu Go!

Vanunu has served his full sentence; he is not charged with any new offence and yet he is not a free man and he continues to be treated like a criminal.  His life is also in danger, from far-right groups, as shown by the many death threats made against him.

The use of chains at the Israeli Embassy symbolizes the restrictions imposed on Mordechai by the Israeli government.  Every day that Mordechai Vanunu is denied full rights of citizenship is a day of danger for him and a day of shame for the Israeli government.

As of this writing the harsh restrictions remain so the campaign and protest continues.  For more information and a great picture (!) log onto www.vanunu.co.uk/news.