Anti-Nuclear Activists Coming to Puget Sound in March

The Pacific Life Community (PLC) is dedicated to ending nuclear weapons and war-making through nonviolent direct action.

Courtesy: pugetsoundanarchists.org

(SEATTLE) - Activists from around the country will come to Puget Sound in resistance to nuclear weapons and war-making during the first weekend of March.

The annual Pacific Life Community Faith & Resistance Retreat is being held at the All Saints Camp in Gig Harbor from March 1st through March 4th.

The Pacific Life Community (PLC) is dedicated to ending nuclear weapons and war-making through nonviolent direct action. Those engaged with PLC come from Catholic Worker houses as well as other of organizations directly involved in abolishing nuclear weapons.

The retreat is an opportunity for members to share in the work of the previous year and to plan for the work ahead. In addition to the retreat, the group has planned a free, public event at the University of Puget Sound (UPS) on Saturday, March 2nd as well as a vigil and nonviolent direct action at the U.S. Navy's Bangor Trident nuclear submarine base in Silverdale, Washington on Monday, March 4th.

"A Nonviolent Future Without Nuclear Weapons?" is the theme for the Saturday event at UPS. Beginning at 7:00 PM at Kilworth Chapel the event offers speakers, music and an opportunity for discussion about the public's role in abolishing nuclear weapons.

Master of ceremonies Felice Cohen-Joppa has published The Nuclear Resister, a publication dedicated to supporting imprisoned anti-nuclear and anti-war activists, for 30 years.

Other presenters include Michael Honey, Professor of Labor and Ethnic Studies and American History at University of Washington, Tacoma. Honey’s rich, personal history includes southern civil rights and civil liberties organizing from 1970-1976. His most recent book is Going Down the Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King’s Last Campaign.

Two of the evening's speakers are with Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Poulsbo, Washington. Tom Rogers is a retired US Navy Captain. A career submariner, he commanded a nuclear attack submarine during the Cold War. Elizabeth Murray is an ex-CIA analyst and former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East at the National Intelligence Council, and served for 27 years with the agency. Ground Zero Center, located adjacent to the Bangor ballistic missile submarine base, works for the abolition of nuclear weapons with a primary focus on resisting Trident.

Father William "Bix" Bichsel, who will also speak on Saturday evening, lives and works at the Tacoma Catholic Worker and is a member of the Disarm Now Plowshares, a group of activists who entered the nuclear weapons storage bunker area of the Strategic Weapons Facility, Pacific in 2009 to make a plea for the U.S. government to meet its obligations to work with other nations toward global nuclear disarmament. He also received the 2012 Greater Tacoma Peace Prize. Bichsel recently returned from Europe where he attended the Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies and met with many anti-nuclear activists in an effort to work together in efforts to abolish nuclear weapons.

The weekend finishes with an early morning vigil and nonviolent direct action at one of the entrance gates to Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, the largest operational concentration of nuclear weapons in the United States and home port of eight of the nations 14 Trident (OHIO Class) ballistic missile submarines. The action is intended as a symbolic closing of the base and its conversion to peaceful, sustainable jobs. Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action is hosting the PLC's vigil and action at Bangor.

More information on the the weekend is available at the Pacific Life Community Blog: http://pacificlifecommunity.wordpress.com/.

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Leonard Eiger

Puget Sound Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (Coordinator) www.psnukefree.org

Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action (Media & Outreach) www.gzcenter.org

Disarm Now Plowshares (Media & Outreach) http://disarmnowplowshares.wordpress.com

Email: subversivepeacemaking@gmail.com

Blog: http://theloosenukes.blogspot.com/

Blog: http://nuclearabolitionist.blogspot.com

Blog: http://subversivepeacemaking.blogspot.com