Today in Labor History October 9, 1980: The Plowshares movement began when Father Daniel Berrigan, his brother Philip, and six others (the "Plowshares Eight") trespassed onto the General Electric Re-entry Division, in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, where Mark 12A reentry vehicles for the Minuteman III missile were made. They beat on the reentry vehicles with hammers and poured blood on documents and prayed for peace. In 1983, Plowshares activists entered AVCO Systems Division in Wilmington, Massachusetts, where MX and Pershing II missiles were made, and damaged plans and equipment there. There were several other similar Plowshares actions. Many of the activists were imprisoned, including the Berrigan brothers. The longest Plowshares sentence was 18 years, given to activists for entering a Minuteman II missile silo in 1984. The Berrigan brothers’ legal battle was depicted in Emile de Antonio's 1982 film “In the King of Prussia,” which starred Martin Sheen and featured appearances by the Plowshares Eight as themselves. Ploughshares actions have continued into the 21st century with the April 30, 2008, action in Blenheim, New Zealand, where activists damaged the ECHELON signal interception program, causing $1.2 million in damages; with the 2009, action at the U.S. Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, where Trident nuclear weapons are stored or deployed on Trident submarines; with the 2012 action at the U.S. Department of Energy's Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which forced a temporary closure of the weapons facility; and the 2018 action at King’s Bay Naval Submarine Base.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #ploughshares #directaction #civildisobedience #danielberrigan #film #nuclear #bombs #imperialism #missiles #peace
