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KING OF PRUSSIA, SUN.,SEPT 5 - PEACE DEMONSTRATION TO CELEBRATE 30th ANNIVERSARY OF ‘PLOWSHARES 8’ AT GE (NOW: LOCKHEED MARTIN)
by
Brandywine Peace Community | 08.27.2010
Area peace and anti-nuclear activists, organized by the Brandywine Peace Community, from throughout the region and other places on the East Coast will on Sunday, September 5, celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the “Plowshares 8” with a peace demonstration and ceremony of rededication to justice and peace...On September 9, 1980, eight peace activists – The Plowshares 8 (including two Catholic priests and a Catholic nun)—entered a General Electric plant (now Lockheed Martin) in King of Prussia and hammered on nuclear warhead casings...The Plowshares 8 was the hallmark action of the burgeoning anti-nuclear weapons peace movement of the early 1980s that continues to inspire people around the world to act for peace and a world free of nuclear weapons. PEACE DEMONSTRATION TO CELEBRATE 30th ANNIVERSARY OF ‘PLOWSHARES 8’ Area peace and anti-nuclear activists, organized by the Brandywine Peace Community, from throughout the region and other places on the East Coast will on Sunday, September 5, celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the “Plowshares 8” with a peace demonstration and ceremony of rededication to justice and peace. The peace demonstration and ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. in front of the Lockheed Martin building complex, located at 230 Mall Boulevard (Mall & Goddard Boulevards) in King of Prussia, PA, directly behind the King of Prussia Mall. On September 9, 1980, eight peace activists – The Plowshares 8 (including two Catholic priests and a Catholic nun)—entered a General Electric plant (now Lockheed Martin) in King of Prussia and hammered on nuclear warhead casings. The following spring in the Montgomery County Court in Norristown, PA, all eight were tried and found guilty of burglary, conspiracy, and criminal mischief. The eight, who included legendary activists Daniel Berrigan and his brother, Philip, who has since died, took their name from the Biblical passage in the book of Isaiah that speaks of “…beating swords into plowshares, and spears into pruning hooks….” The Plowshares 8 was the hallmark action of the burgeoning anti-nuclear weapons peace movement of the early 1980s that continues to inspire people around the world to act for peace and a world free of nuclear weapons. Nearly seventy-five "swords into plowshares” actions at corporate weapons plants and military facilities have occurred during the past thirty years across the country and in Europe, many resulting in long prison sentences for their participants. The peace demonstration on September 5 will begin at 2 p.m. with a bell-tolling vigil at the corner of Mall & Goddard Boulevards, behind the King of Prussia Mall. The vigil will be followed by a short walk to the arms giant’s main driveway entrance where the assembled peace activists will stand before the entranceway’s large corporate logo and hold a ceremony of rededication to the work of justice, peace, and nonviolent action. An actual nuclear warhead, like the ones on which the Plowshares 8 hammered in 1980, will also be positioned at the driveway entrance. The ceremony will include a reading of the Plowshares 8 statement from 1980, music, poetry, and speakers, including John Schuchardt, a lawyer, Marine veteran, and one of the Plowshares 8 who currently lives at the House of Peace in Ipswich, MA, as well as Elizabeth McAlister, widow of Philip Berrigan, who lives in Baltimore, MD, at Jonah House, a community devoted to war resistance that she and Berrigan formed thirty-five years ago. The peace ceremony will be followed by a short car caravan from the opening vigil site through King of Prussia, to the building where the Plowshares 8 action actually occurred. There will be description of what happened on September 9, 1980, and a time of peace vigil dedicated to the two deceased members of the Plowshares 8: Philip Berrigan and Elmer Maas. The remaining members of the Plowshares 8 are Father Carl Kabat, Molly Rush, Dean Hammer, Sister Anne Montgomery, and John Schuchardt. General Electric (GE) was, in 1980, among the U.S.’s top nuclear weapons and military contractors. However, in 1993, through a process of corporate mergers, the GE plants in King of Prussia and throughout the Delaware Valley became Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin is now the world’s largest war profiteer and the U.S. chief nuclear weapons contractors. The Brandywine Peace Community, formed in 1977, organized the initial acts of protest and civil disobedience in King of Prussia at GE and provided the support organizing for the Plowshares 8 action. Since 1980, the Brandywine Peace Community has been at the center of the region’s peace movement, organizing campaigns of nonviolent action against GE, nuclear weapons, and the continuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Since 1993, the Brandywine Peace Community has made Lockheed Martin the chief target of its protests and civil disobedience, for which its members and supporters are regularly arrested. Brandywine Peace Community |
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