ANZUS Plowshares - As a Nonviolent Campaign (Part 1)

Eds note: This article is the first of four parts.  The remaining three parts
will be published over the next three issues.

For radical Christians, our pacifism is rooted in the sanctity of human life.
Humans,  being created in the image of God, are under no conditions
expendable.  All demand defending with nonviolent resistance. Our anarchism
is rooted in the teachings and praxis of Jesus and the social organization of
the apostles and early Church.  Our anarchism and pacifism have not been
grafted onto an otherwise privatized piety and faith.  These principles are
implicit in the promise of the Gospels and fulfilled in the life, death and
resurrection of Jesus.  We view the public acts of exorcism and healing as
radical nonviolent acts of social transformation.

Prophesy calls us to two tasks.  Firstly, to incarnate, give flesh, in the
present to future hopes of peace, justice and liberation.  Secondly to point
to present trends, articulate their dangerous conclusions and resist them.

When the ANZUS Plowshares went to Griffiss Air Force Base, in New York State
on New Year's Day '91, it was the work of prophesy that we were about.  To
enflesh disarmament, nuclear and interventionary, by beginning the
disarmament of a B-52 bomber and the Griffiss runway.  To say the world is
not big enough for children and the B-52, and that it is the B-52 that will
have to go!  To say that the runway will not end at Griffiss but in the death
of thousands of children, the destruction of homes, earth and water.  To
prophesy that this is the future, unless we enflesh a different present. 
Unless, we begin to take up the hammer and begin the work now. As Dan
Berrigan simply puts it, "For swords into plowshares, the hammer has to
fall."

Like Marine Corporal Jeff Patterson's refusal to board the Saudi-bound troop
carrier in Hawaii - our disarmament would be both actual and symbolic.
Patterson's refusal was an actual threat to the Marine Corps - one less grunt
on the ground.  However, it was the symbolic nature of his refusal that
threatened the Corps to the core.  Radical Christians are particularly
sensitive to the powers of the symbolic battle that occurs for the hearts,
minds, wills and allegiance of people.  Referred to often as "The Battle of
the Myths", we know this to have deep and actual consequences in terms of
life, death, subservience  or resistance.  Symbolic  action is a matter of
life and death - physical and spiritual - in this battle that rages daily
around us.

We enter an "action" with  a certain detachment from its consequences. It is
our responsibility to prophesy, to witness, to resist - it is up to the Holy
Spirit (a.k.a. Paraclete [Advocate]) to convert.  This detachment should
preserve us from spiritual  pride, obsessions with technique or attempts to
codify results in terms of capitalist press coverage, applause or length of
prison sentences.

It is in this spirit that we entered Griffiss Air Force Base. Plowshares is
not "Earth First"; we don't believe it will be an elite of clever nonviolent
commandos that will save the day.  It will be people accepting their
complicity, responsibility and embarking on the road of repentance and
resistance.  It is not "hit and split"!  We stay on site to accept
responsibility, call for conversion and explain the  disarmament.

Community
The role of resistance is to defend, build up, and bring home to authenticity
- human community.  The "Swords into Plowshares" prophesy of Isaiah 2:4,
points not only to the converted sword, but to the converted community of
peace and justice.

In the Last Supper discourse, Jesus warns us of the struggle that is human
community.  He teaches that community contains both themes of intimacy and
betrayal - "This is my body broken for you, my blood spilled for you, there's
a narc here and everyone's going to deny me by morning!  But that is to be
expected.  What we have here - human community of service and resistance - is
the only show in town.  So forgive, be forgiven, and struggle on..."

Community is a struggle!

Since 1980, over forty Plowshare communities in North America, Europe and
Australia have begun the disarmament of a variety of weapon systems.  They
have broken into factories, bases and aboard warships to disarm first strike
components, F1-11's, Missile Silos, Sea Launch Cruise launchers,
heli-gunships and an array of other death machines.  The building of a
Plowshares community has taken from three to eighteen months of intense
retreats and discernment.  These are very serious and costly actions.  To
confront the State's idols in such a manner is to risk life and liberty. 
Plowshares people have received one, three, five, eight and eighteen year
sentences and many guns have been pointed in their direction.

Moana and I were in process from February of '90, exploring the prophesy and
possibilities of community on retreats, every second weekend.  Attempts to
form an action community involved some eleven people who came to explore and
concluded the moment was not right for them.  Bill and Sue joined us in July
and were quickly resolved to act following Bush's massive deployment to the
Middle East.  On these weekends we explored scripture, the nuclear and
interventionary weapon systems arrayed, history of plowshare actions, our
life stories that had brought us this far, self doubts, doubts about each
other etc.  It wasn't until we formed a community of intent that we began the
process of seriously choosing a site.

We were unique as a Plowshares Community - all being of a Catholic Worker
background.  We shared the gospels, Catholic tradition and experiences of
life with the poor - a common term of reference.  This was both a strength
and weakness.  Other Plowshare communities have involved people from a
variety of faith backgrounds - Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist and
agnostic - which offers a pluralism of experience and expression.  We were an
international group and keen to subvert the ANZUS ties that had bound our
countries in a pact of death and destruction.  We also sprang from a variety
of transplanted cultural backgrounds - Irish, Polynesian, Jewish, and German
- which made life together interesting and exciting.

Having the Catholic sacraments available during such a long and intense
process - that included a year of live-in community - was deeply sustaining. 
By the end, we had celebrated Moana's baptism, various Eucharists by
ourselves and with others and much needed rites of reconciliation facilitated
by a Spiritual Director.  On the night of our action we received the last
rites of oils and before the trial the celebration of Sue and Bill's
marriage.  The sacraments, in the context of an illegal community of
resistance, were powerfully authentic.  They were reminiscent of an earlier
Church that had a clear rejection of the seductions of Caesar.  The spiritual
depth of the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter were also
recaptured anew.

Secrecy was an issue with which we continually wrestled - to protect both the
action and also friends from Grand Jury conspiracy charges.  We need to build
a mature underground that has a handle on issues of ego and curiosity when it
comes to the need to know constraints of such high-risk actions.  I met
people in El Reno detained without charge or conviction, merely for refusing
to answer questions (inform on relatives) to the Grand Jury.  Recent
experiences with Puerto Rican nationalists and "Earth First" show that the
totalitarian powers of the "Drug War" can easily be turned on dissidents.  We
also need to discard elitism, and respect that without support roles, these
actions would be impossible.

We had two support people - both Plowshare vets - who accompanied us through
the entire process, right up to the drop off.  Other "specialists" - legal
advice, scoping, fatality issue, etc. were brought in for one-off retreats as
needed.

We made several preliminary trips to Syracuse, where we knew our trial would
eventually take place.  We introduced ourselves to local activists without
revealing our specific purpose.  One weekend we attended Griffiss A.F.B. Open
Day.  On another occasion, I gave a public talk on "The Peace Movement in
Australia".  We also did some initial scoping of the base on these occasions.

Action
After failing to penetrate base security and carry out the action in early
December, it was a testament to the depth of our community that we could
re-group, re-evaluate, come up with a fresh approach and return on January
1st, '91.  We had carefully selected our symbols after much reflection.  We
had collected blood from ourselves and friends.  We carried this rich symbol
in baby bottles covered in photographs of Iraqi children and infants who
lived with us.  The sledge and household hammers were bought or gathered from
community and family tool sheds where they had served in co-creation.  We
engraved them with scriptural, and other relevant quotes - "Swords into
Plowshares", "No more Bombing of Children - Hiroshima, Vietnam, Middle East
or Anywhere Else!"  "The War Ends Here" etc.  We prepared, signed and packed
a number of statements, including a ten-page indictment of Bush, Cheney and
Co. for planning War Crimes.  The preparation of these statements had helped
in the process of community clarification.  After the previous infiltration
of the Base and last minute scoping to observe the behavior of patrols, depth
of a stream, position of fences - there came the step of faith.  Faith does
not vanquish fear, but enables us to move in spite of our fears.

The action surpassed all our wildest expectations.  Bill and Sue were able to
make it through three fences into the "ten minute scramble area" of the
(nuclear tipped) Cruise loaded B-52's, poured the blood and began the
disarmament of a KC-135 Refueler and a loaded, ready to go B-52.  Moana and I
spent over one and a half hours working on the runway (passed six times by
patrols within 200 yards).  We were able to pour the blood in a huge cross,
write "No More Bombing of Children... Hiroshima, Vietnam, Middle East or
Anywhere Else!", "Isaiah Strikes Again!", "Love Your Enemies" and take up
many chunks of runway.  On January 1st, '91 the prophesy broke through and
the war ended at Griffiss.  The runway that was deploying B-52's, Galaxies
and Starlifters was closed for an hour.  The B-52 bomber addressed was
grounded for six weeks, three in which other B-52's would drop 30% of the
total explosives in the Gulf massacre.

The Strategic Air Command were to be so moved by this loss of control, that
they raised all S.A.C. bases to a higher state of security alert throughout
the country.  S.A.C. dispatched an investigatory team from its Omaha
headquarters and eventually court martialled five officers.  We responded to
the obsession with the security issue by pointing out that the action had
exposed the double illusion that "the weapons are secure/the weapons secure
us".  We assume that court-martials were also a side effect of the
resurrection.

Our role plays of the action's most dangerous moments - "discovery" and
"interrogation" proved helpful.  M16's were put to all our heads and the
F.B.I. proved to  be very sleazy.  We were to learn that one of the guards
killed an unarmed intruder in a similar situation the year before (Panama)
and had been duly decorated.  At the moment of discovery we dropped our
hammers, raised our arms, fell to our knees in prayer.  Moana and I went
through this routine six times in one and a half hours as the patrol vehicle
would pass by.  We would then pick up our hammers and get back to work.

I really can't think of anything too critical to say about the action.  Our
original intentions in December were to hit a B-52 in a lower-risk area of a
maintenance hangar.  Our last minute information reported that the scenario
was unavailable.  In December the four of us headed for a "parking lot" near
the scramble area where we believed an unarmed B-52 to be.   Once we got into
the vicinity they turned out to be (only) K.C.-135 Refuelers.  We made a snap
decision to withdraw.

The discussion over the next weeks concerned the nature of entry into a
"deadly force zone".  A position to maximize opportunity at night or in heavy
snow - vis a vis a position to maximize safety - at daylight in a relatively
open way.  The decision to address the runway, have two targets for
disarmament, two entry points around dawn, with the possibility of the
capture of one couple being a good diversion for the other, seemed to be a
good way to maximize the possibility of the community disarming.   However,
neither couple ended up waiting for dawn.  Moments after we were dropped off,
a  patrol car went by and we weren't going to wait the expected forty-five
minutes for the next one.  When Sue and Bill arrived at their drop off, the
security vehicle that had been there in December wasn't visible.  They said a
prayer of abandonment and moved off quickly.

Questions of acting around deadly force zones still remain and cannot be
treated flippantly.  Given that the action was at a major S.A.C. Base fifteen
days before a war deadline, the enormous hype of Arab terrorism and the fact
that recently an unarmed trespasser taking a short cut through Andrews A.F.B.
had been shot dead without much fuss - the question of where to act on base
vis a vis deadly force may have been mute.  Still all this remains a serious
question for future Plowshares communities.

To be continued...
Ciaron O'Reilly
03810-052,
Reeves County Law Centre.
PO Box 1560, Pecos, TX 79772.