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Brandywine Peace Community-Resisting Lockheed Martin

For 15 years, from 1978 - 1993, the Brandywine Peace Community waged a campaign of public education and nonviolent resistance to General Electric and the GE Aerospace weapons production plants in the Delaware valley.

In April 1993, GE sold its Aerospace Division to Martin Marietta for $3.05 billion, causing Martin Marietta to double in size. In 1995, with an announcement stating "And this is just the beginning", alongside rows of pictured weapons, Martin Marietta merged with weapons giant, Lockheed, to become Lockheed Martin, the world's largest weapons corporation. To complete the merger, the US government paid out at least $855 million in consolidation costs, $92 million of which went to top management personnel. Within months, Lockheed Martin acquired the Loral Corporation for 9.4 billion and a list of other large military contractors.

Lockheed Martin spent more than $9.8 million in 2001 lobbying members of Congress and $2.7 million in campaign contributions for the 1999-2000 election cycle, including large campaign contributions to the senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and the self-described "pit-bull" for Star Wars missile defense, Representative Curt Weldon (PA, R-7)

 

A 2004-2006 Peacemaking Chronology

  End the War in Iraq

    Nonviolent Resistance to Lockheed Martin

2006

Sunday, January 8 - Area premiere of  FORWARD MARCH TO PEACE, in which Canadian film producer, Laura Jones, depicts the history of GI resistance around Fort Bragg, Fayettville, NC, from the Vietnam War to today's opposition to the war in Iraq.

The film presents the history of the Vietnam War resistance among soldiers of the 82nd airborne in 1969, a 1970 rally with Jane Fonda, and the subsequent fire bombing of Quaker House in Fayetteville, NC, the gathering place for the GI resistance then and now. The film relates early protest history to last March's 2nd Anniversary of the

Iraq War march and anti-war rally in Fayetteville, NC, featuring extensive footage and interviews with members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Veterans for Peace, and Gold Star Families for Peace. The film will be accompanied by Sean Crane, long-time associate of Quaker House.

 

Monday JANUARY 9, 7PM, Friends Center (Martin Luther King Room), 1501 Cherry St., Phila., PA - Planning & Preparation Meeting for those doing civil disobedience on King Day [Jan. 16] at Lockheed Martin, Valley Forge, PA. [See below!] 

It is important that those who are planning or considering civil disobedience on King Day to attend. These pre-civil disobedience meetings are not briefings, they are for participants to actually plan the civil disobedience within the context of the overall demonstration and prepare for what we will do.  If you planning or considering civil disobedience on King Day, you need to be at the meeting on January 9!

 

Monday, January 16, 2006, 12 Noon Martin Luther King Day of Nonviolent Resistance Lockheed Martin, Mall & Goddard Boulevards, Valley Forge, PA. "Dissent without disobedience is consent" - Henry David Thoreau.

"The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours" (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking in 1967 about the Vietnam War, resounds today about the war in Iraq. Complete text of speech here. Listen to the speech here.)

Complete account of the protest: click here.

 

Sunday, February 12 - Iraq & Beyond: Stopping the Merchants of Death - Rev. Simon Harak, SJ, National War Resisters League. Simon Harak entered the Jesuits [the Society of Jesus order of Catholic priests] in 1970. He has a Ph.D in Ethics from Notre Dame University and was professor at Fairfield University. He is the author of

numerous books including Nonviolence for the Third Millennium: Its Legacy and its Future.  As co-founder of Voices in the Wilderness, Rev. Harak traveled to Iraq three times before the war and organized a number of national peace tours. Rev. Harak is on the national staff of the War Resisters League, the oldest secular pacifist organization in the U.S., serving as the Anti-Militarism coordinator and national organizer of the Stop the Merchants of Death campaign.

Unfortunately, this potluck was cancelled due to the blizzard which occurred. Simon Harak may be rescheduled at a later date.

 

"A Celebration of Democracy, Dissent, & Civil Liberties" - March 8, 2006, Media, PA

March 8, 1971: A group calling themselves the "Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI" break into the Media, PA FBI office, removing hundreds of files which when made public document the FBI's COINTELPRO
[Counter-Intelligence Program] policy of spying, infiltration, and harassment of civil rights and anti-war activism at the time. 
March 8, 2006, 4PM: "A Celebration of Democracy, Dissent, & Civil Liberties" and protest of the Bush Administration widespread policy of domestic spying and USA Patriot assaults on democracy and civil
liberties. See the full account.

 

Sunday, March 12 "Venezuela's Option for the Poor versus U.S. Greed", panel discussion on Venezuela and U.S. policy, 4:30PM, University Lutheran Church, 3637 Chestnut St., Phila., PA
Panelists, all of whom have just recently returned from Venezuela will include: Pat Albright, Global Womens Strike.
Eric Gjertsen, Payday (a mens network who work with Global Womens Strike); and Ray Torres, Mid-Atlantic Regional Organizer for Witness for Peace, has made numerous trips to
Haiti, Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras, and Venezuela.

 

Sunday, March 19 (3rd anniversary of war's start), Area Candlelight Vigil & Service, Independence Visitors Center, 5th & Market Sts., Phila., PA; 6:15 PM.


Monday, March 20: A Global Call for Nonviolent Resistance to End the U.S.-Led Occupation of
Iraq . www.globalcalliraq.org  Nobel Laureates; Cindy Sheehan, Eduardo Galeano, Harold Pinter, Ernesto Cardenal, Daniel Berrigan, SJ, John Dear, SJ,  the Brandywine Peace Community and many others from around the world have called on people to engage in acts of nonviolent resistance to the war on Monday, March 20, and several dates later in the year. Events being planned for the third anniversary of the war include a march on the Pentagon, direct action at military recruitment centers, and war profiteers like Lockheed Martin. From Mourning to Resistance, Join us!


Monday, March 20, Noon, Nonviolent Resistance to the War's Chief Profiteer, Lockheed Martin, Mall & Goddard Boulevards, Valley Forge, PA (behind the King of Prussia Mall) (Map and directions) resisting the continuing war and in solidarity with National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance action at the Pentagon and weapons corporations nationwide. Those participating need to attend the nonviolent resistance/civil disobedience preparation meeting. Call the office for more information.

 

Wednesday, March 22nd 6:30-8:30 PM -- FILE A FOIA! A workshop for concerned activists and community members Featuring Baltazar Pinguel (AFSC) and Mary Catherine Roper (ACLU-PA)
15th and Cherry
Sts. , Philadelphia - American Friends Service Committee - MLK Room. Hosted by The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania , American Friends Service Committee, Brandywine Peace Community, National Lawyers' Guild, and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

SUNDAY, APRIL 2nd, 2pm: A TIME TO BREAK THE SILENCE: END POVERTY, STOP THE WAR, COMING TOGETHER FOR JUSTICE & PEACE - A GATHERING OF ANTI-WAR AND ANTI-POVERTY ACTIVISTS - OLD FIRST REFORMED CHURCH 4th and Race Sts. Philadelphia, PA. see report

April 9 [Palm Sunday] - Shane Claiborne, Simple Way (www.thesimpleway.org) religious activist and author of the
just published The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical.

 

Good Friday, April 14, Noon : Annual Good Friday observance. Stations of Justice & Peace, Lockheed Martin, Valley Forge , PA. (Map and directions) Mourning to Resistance: Stations of Justice & Peace  -  Nonviolent Resistance at Lockheed Martin, the Iraq war's #1 profiteer and the world's largest weapons corporation. Lockheed Martin, Mall & Goddard Boulevards, Valley Forge, PA. (behind King of Prussia Mall) Account & Full Observance, Stations, readings. (click here)

 

Sunday, May 14 - Special Mother's Day program. IN THE SPIRIT OF THE ANTI-WAR ORIGIN OF MOTHERS DAY...
MOTHERS DAY CONCERT FOR PEACE with Paulette Meir -  singer-songwriter, peace educator.   Come Join The Circle: LessonSongs for
Peacemaking (www.lessonsongs.com)  MOTHERS DAY FOR PEACE PROCLAMATION

 

June 11 - "OCCUPATION DREAMLAND" (78 minutes, large screen showing) is an unflinchingly candid look into a squad of American soldiers deployed to war ravaged city of Falluja during the winter of 2004.  The film chronicles the daily life of young soldiers on patrol in an environment of violence creeping steadily towards catastrophe.  Filmmakers Garrett Scott and Ian Olds were given unrestricted access to operations of the Army's 82nd Airborne division as the Iraqi city's waning stability gives way to the final Marine assaults of 2004 "One of the best pieces of visual reportage to have emerged from the war in Iraq." - Jessica Winter, LA Weekly. "Unnervingly intimate." - Dennis Lim, Village Voice.

   
Wed.  
June 14, Noon Phila. 'DON'T SPY ON ME' Campaign - Area Peace Groups Taking FOIA action - , National Constitution Center. 
About 75 people attended the Phila. 'DON'T SPY ON ME' Campaign launch rally in front of the National Constitution Center and public filing of Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] requests by area anti- war, peace, and justice groups at the Phila. Federal Building where the initial FOIA requests were made to the regional office of the FBI.  Before leaving the National Constitution Center, statement of the campaign was read.  So begins the  Phila. 'DON'T SPY ON ME' Campaign.

FRIDAY, JUNE 16 Day After (2500) mad milestone of war...Toll the bell of peace and solemnly vigil at noon on the west side of Phila. City Hall, 15th & Market Sts, the day after the report of the 2500th U.S. war death. newspaper article "Don't just do something", as Dan Berrigan once said during the Vietnam War", "Stand there". Can we imagine the number of Iraqis killed - 100,000 plus! Oh God, we must see their deaths in the faces of the U.S. dead. Remember all those who have died - U.S., Iraqis - and Vigil for Peace and right now take the DECLARATION OF PEACE,

June 22, 6:30PM, Phila. at Friends Center, 1501 Cherry St., Phila., PA. Area Organizing Meeting for the Declaration of Peace Campaign, initiated by the Brandywine Peace Community in the Phila. Area. For all Phila. Area Anti-War, Peace, and Community Groups, all Declaration of Peace Pledge signers and prospective signers.  Find out more about the Declaration of Peace campaign and pledge. Join in reviewing and shaping plans to implement  throughout the Phila. Area. this vital, new national campaign. Join us on June 22, 6:30PM, at Friends Center, 1501 Cherry St., Phila., PA.  Together we can make it happen!

July 3rd, 7PM, Declaration of Peace Demonstration (& the 1st Philadelphia Area Declaration of Peace Pledge Signing,  Phila. Federal Building, 6th & Market Streets, Philadelphia, PA. Read all about the event!

July 9 - 4:30 PM - COMING HOME: What they never told you when you enlisted. Dr. Jon Bjornson.

Dr. Bjornson is a retired psychiatrist who was a Major in the Army Medical Corps in Vietnam, 1964-65, serving as Chief Psychiatric Consultant, U.S. Armed Forces, Vietnam.  Dr. Bjornson was one of the organizers of Vietnam Veterans Against the War in Pennsylvania, 1968 - 72, testified at Winter Soldier War Crimes Hearing in 1971on the war crimes and the medical aspects of war crimes,  and demonstrated in Washington returning his medals in 1971. Dr. Bjorson was on the staff of the Wisconsin University Medical School and later at Thomas Jefferson in Philadelphia. He is the author a number of medical journal papers. He is a consultant with the Vietnam Veterans program at Graterford State Prison and has counseled both Vietnam Veterans and now Iraq Veterans suffering the scars of war. He is a currently a member of Veterans for Peace and Physicians for Social Responsibility  in Philadelphia. He is married with two children and 3 grand-children.

 

Monday, July 17th, 2006 ST. PATRICK'S FOUR PEACE ACTIVISTS Clare Grady and Danny Burns were released, after serving six months in prison for resisting war in Iraq. Danny was released from the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center, and Clare, from the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center.  Teresa Grady was released on May 19th.  Peter DeMott is scheduled for release from the Binghamton halfway house on Sept. 17th, 2006.
Vigil, July 17th - Beginning at 8:30AM, Federal Detention Center, 7th & Arch Sts.,Philadelphia, PA.
Clare, as she leaves prison, wants us to keep in mind and bring to public attention all the war resisters, political prisoners, and prisoners of conscience jailed across the country -  including: Lt. Ehren Watada, the first officer to refuse activist and political prisoner for the independence of Puerto Rico, now being held at FDC Philly; the Cuban 5; death row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal, and all who struggle for justice and for peace.  We will gather at 8:30 am, 7th & Arch Streets, at the entrance of the prison.  Clare's release time is unknown (Clare thinks that it will most likely be around 11 am).
After Clare's release the vigil was moved to the Federal building (601 Market St.), around the corner from the prison, to bring attention to the
Declaration of Peace, which is a pledge to take action to bring the troops home now; and by Sept. 21st, to have a Congressionally established a comprehensive plan to end the US war in Iraq; and oppose future US military interventions.  Throughout the vigil, people will also leaflet in front of the Federal Building about Teresa and Clare Grady, - all long time members of the Catholic Worker - who were arrested two days before the start of the U.S. invasion after pouring blood around an entranceway to a military recruitment station in Ithaca, New York.  Their trial on NY state charges ended in a hung jury. Nine months later, the Federal government filed charges against the four which included federal charges of conspiracy, trespass, and damage to property.  Each were found guilty and sentenced: Danny Burns (six months); Peter DeMott (eight months, four of which in a halfway house); Teresa Grady (4 months); Clare Grady (six months).
For more about the Saint Patrick's Four, visit www.stpatricksfour.org

 

Down by the Riverside and at Lockheed Martin August 6 - 9  Remembering Hiroshima & Nagasaki, Resisting Militarism, the War, & Lockheed Martin

August 6, 7:30PM - Hiroshima Day Anti-War Candlelight Memorial 30th Street Bridge,
August 9, Noon  - Nagasaki Day of Remembrance & Resistance at Lockheed Martin, Valley Forge, PA. (Report)

 

Wednesday, AUGUST 16, Noon, Phila. City Hall, west side, 15th & Market Sts. Music, poetry, speakers, and the Phila. DECLARATION OF PEACE Walk and "Special Delivery" delegations to offices of PA Senators Santorum (Widener Bldg., south side of Phila. City Hall) and Specter (Phila. Federal Bldg., 6th & Market Sts.). Thousands and thousands of people across the U.S. are taking the DECLARATION OF PEACE pledge, declaring peace, and making the DECLARATION OF PEACE a significant campaign of people and groups across the country taking peaceful steps demanding that "the troops be brought home now." Thousands of DoP pledgers are also pledging to engage in nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience across the U.S., including Philadelphia, and in Washington, D.C., if a comprehensive plan to end the war is not established by Congress and underway by September 21, 2006, International Peace Day.   

During this month's Congressional Summer Recess (as Cindy Sheehan's "Camp Casey", August 6 - September 2, makes its appeal for peace near the Bush Ranch in Crawford, TX), people across the country are taking to their U.S. Senators and Congresspeople the DECLARATION OF PEACE Congressional Pledge, imploring them to make a pledge to work to establish a comprehensive plan for peace by September 21, 2006, International Peace Day.

Prior to the Center City DECLARATION OF PEACE Walk and "Special Delivery" of the DoP Congressional Pledge to the U.S. Senators, "Special Delivery" delegations will make vigiling visits during the AM hours to the local offices of Phila. Area U.S. Congresspeople (i.e.: Representatives Robert Brady, Chaka Fattah, Alyson Swartz, Curt Weldon, Rob Andrews, etc.) with the Congressional Pledge.  Should you wish to join a DECLARATION OF PEACE Congressional Pledge "Special Delivery" delegation, call the Brandywine Peace Community, 610-544-1818.  Read a full account of the events

Thursday, August 17th, 6:30 PM DECLARATION OF PEACE Nonviolence Training Sessions: - Nonviolent Direct Action Training Workshop for all those planning to participate in the DECLARATION OF PEACE direct action and nonviolent civil disobedience in Philadelphia; All sessions are being lead by Dion Lerman at Friends Center/Martin Luther King Room, 1501 Cherry St., Phila., PA (more)


Thursday, August 24, 6:30PM, Peacekeeper Training for those who wish to play the vital of role of peacekeepers at the planned DECLARATION OF PEACE demonstrations in Philadelphia; All sessions are being lead by Dion Lerman at Friends Center/Martin Luther King Room, 1501 Cherry St., Phila., PA (more)

 

Monday, Sept. 4 Declaration of Peace/U.S. Labor Against the War at the Labor Day parade. (Call the office for more info.)

Thursday, September 7, 6:30PM, Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Training Session. All those planning on participating in the Declare Peace Nonviolent Civil Disobedience actions at Senator Santorum's office (September 25) are required to attend. All sessions are being lead by Dion Lerman at Friends Center/Martin Luther King Room, 1501 Cherry St., Phila., PA. (more)

 

Sunday, September 10 - "HEY MR. GANDHI! How about taking on the American Empire?" Reflections on the art of people power 100 years after Satygraha was invented, and its potential for today's victims of empire, with: GEORGE LAKEY, trainer, organizer, author, and director of Training for Change.
George Lakey, 68, has led over 1000 workshops over five continents, taught peace studies at colleges and universities, led activist projects on local, state, and national levels, and  authored seven books on nonviolent social change, peace, and organizational development.  He is Director of Training for Change. Lakey's first arrest was in the civil rights movement and his first book,"A Manual for Direct Action" (with Martin Oppenheimer) was a handbook for that movement in the '60s.  He was smuggled into the Burmese jungle to teach pro-democracy students in a guerrilla encampment, and was part of the first Sri Lankan team of Peace Brigades International, giving protective accompaniment to human rights activists in the midst of civil war.  He was a crew member of the sailing ship Phoenix which took medical supplies to the Vietnamese in defiance of the U.S. government.  In 2003 he co-authored the most extensively researched training curriculum in the field of civilian peacekeeping: Opening Space for Democracy 634 pp., see www.TrainingforChange.org This year George Lakey is the Eugene M. Lang Guest Professor of Issues in Social Change at Swarthmore College.  His upcoming workshops can be found on:  www.TrainingforChange.org Following the program, there will be a short outdoor vigil marking the anniversary of September 11, 2001, anniversary of terror, five years of "Bush's war", and honoring 100 years of Nonviolent Action.

 

Rally to Defend the Constitution! National Constitution Day, Sunday, September 17, 2:30 pm Independence Mall, 5th & Market, Philadelphia Featured speakers: John Dean, former White House counsel and author of Worse than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush; Michael Coard, host of The Radio Courtroom on WHAT 1340 AM  Angel Ortiz, former Philadelphia City Councilman and a lead sponsor of the Philadelphia anti-PATRIOT Act Resolution Readings of translated poetry written by Guantanamo Bay detainees
Puppets from Spiral Q Puppet Theater   Additional speakers to be announced. For more information please contact us at info@aclupa.org or 215-592-1513 x123. Rally info

 

 

Wednesday, September 20, 2006, 7PM International House, 3701 Chestnut St, Phila., PA Admission: $10. $8 for Students and Seniors

Scribe Video Center Producers' Forum & Brandywine Peace Community Presents "THE CAMDEN 28" (Director: Anthony Giacchino, 2005, US, Video, 82 mins.) http://www.camden28.org/
How far would you go to stop a war?  On August 22, 1971, twenty-eight men and women carried out a powerful act of civil disobedience against the U.S. war in Vietnam by attempting to break into a draft board and destroy draft files in the Camden, NJ Federal Building.  The activists were part of a nonviolent anti-war movement popularly known as the "Catholic Left." Apprehended "in the act", the activists stated that their actions were meant to show their belief that killing and war was morally indefensible and must be stopped even at the risk of one's liberty.  By conducting their action in Camden, NJ (then and now, one of the poorest cities in the nation), the activists wanted to demonstrate the war's damaging effect on an impoverished people. 
Winner of both the Philadelphia Film Festival's Audience and Jury Awards for "Best Documentary", THE CAMDEN 28 is a riveting story of resistance, backdrop of one of the most turbulent periods in U.S. history.
After the film, join filmmaker Anthony Giaccino, members of the Camden 28, the Brandywine Peace Community, and some of today's generation of peace activists for a discussion about how the events portrayed in the film resonate in today's climate and how we can move from opposition to resistance.


Thursday, September 21, 7:30PM, International Day of Peace Candlelight Vigil to Declare Peace, in front of historic Christ Church, 2nd & Market Sts, Phila. followed by short walk to the Phila. Federal Building, 6th & Market Sts; [Part of nationwide candlelight vigils observing International Peace Day and the start of the Declaration of Peace Week throughout the country and in Washington, DC.]

 

 

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8 Historian ALAN DAWLEY "WHY PEACE MOVEMENTS ARE IMPORTANT"
Alan Dawley is the author of "Changing the World: American Progressives in War and Revolution" (Harvard University Press, 2003), Professor of History at The College of New Jersey, and a member of the steering committee of Historians Against the War (www.historiansagainstwar.org).

 

November 4, 10AM Stop the Violence: End Poverty; Stop the War: March Under the EL & Justice Tour Begins at Frankford Transportation Center at 10 AM. Concluding Rally (3PM) at Independence Visitors Center, 5th & Market.

read more and see video

 

Tues., November 21, 9:30AM, corner of Broad St. & JFK Boulevard (Northeast side of Phila. City Hall, a short block from the Criminal Justice Center), Stand with the "PHILA. DECLARE PEACE 14" in Vigil prior to their 10:30AM Phila. Municipal Court Status Hearing, where they will receive their future court date.

The American people have rejected Bush's policy of war and occupation in Iraq, demanding with our votes that Congress act for peace. Bush Won't Listen.  Congress Must Act!

Between September 21 - 28, as part of the Declaration of Peace campaign, people nationwide demanded that Congress establish a comprehensive plan to end the war and bring the troops home now.

On September 25, at the Philadelphia office of Senator Rick Santorum,  14 people were arrested for nonviolently demanding that our Senators and Congresspeople act to end the war. The "Phila. DECLARE PEACE  14" now face prosecution in Phila. Municipal Court on misdemeanor charges of defiant trespass, criminal trespass, and criminal conspiracy. On Tuesday, November 21, all fourteen are slated for a "status hearing" where they will simply receive a future court date. 

Stand with the "Phila. Declare Peace 14"! Following the vigil, people will walk to the Criminal Justice Center/Phila. Municipal Court, 1301
Filbert St. (Filbert & Juniper)
                               
Demand that our Senators and Congresspeople,  the New Congress which We Elected, Act for Peace.

The "Phila. Declare Peace 14" are: Beth Friedlan, Karen Wisniewski, Sylvia Metzler, Mary Jo McArthur, Bernadette Cronin-Geller, Melissa
Elliott and Ronald Coburn, all of Philadelphia; Timothy Chadwick and Robert Daniels, both of Bethlehem; Robin Lasersohn and Thomas Mullian, both of Media; Robert M. Smith, of Swarthmore; Marjorie Van Cleef, of Bryn Mawr; and Silvia Brandon-Perez, of Tobyhanna, P
a

 

Sunday, December 10 - "Who Decides?  -- If Not The People, It's Not Democracy."

Ben Price, Projects Director Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). www.CELDF.org
 
Ben Price is a cum laude graduate of West Chester State University, Pennsylvania. He has been an activist for Campaign Finance Reform,
Electoral Reform, Fair Trade and Peace issues, and past president of the Pennsylvania Consumer Action Network. He served as contributing editor for the monthly newsletter Groundswell (1995 1999) and in 1997 began writing about the distorting effects of corporations on democracy. As an activist for Campaign Finance Reform legislation, he was involved with the Alliance for Democracys Democracy Brigades and participated in non-violent civil disobedience actions at the nations Capitol. In 2002 he ran an independent campaign for U.S. Congress in the 19th Pennsylvania House district. After attending the Legal Defense Funds Democracy School in 2003, Ben attended Guiding the Conductors classes to prepare to teach the history, law and lore of corporations. He is a certified lecturer for the Democracy Schools.
 
Ben accepted the position of Project Director in the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund's Corporations and Democracy Program in
2005. As Project Director, Ben organizes and educates community groups and municipal governments to challenge the Corporate State's usurpations of people's rights and governing authority. Working with people to create democracy in their communities, where they live, in violation of state and federal preemptions, means engaging in "non-violent civil disobedience through local law-making."
 

"Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and
these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those
whom they oppress." :  Frederick Douglass

Friday, December 22, 7PM - Christmas Candlelight Vigil for Peace Lockheed Martin (the world's largest weapons corporation, the Iraq War's chief profiteer), Mall & Goddard Blvds., Valley Forge, PA (behind the King of Prussia Mall) In a Time of War: For Peace, a Child is Born! Join us in the Peace of the Season, in music, caroling, speakers, bell-tolling and reading names of U.S. and Iraqi war dead!
Join us where the weapons are built and the light of peacemaking must shine!




2005
Sunday, January 9, 2005 - Monthly Potluck - "Four More Years with the War President: What to Expect and Is There Any Hope?" Frida Berrigan, Senior Research Associate at the World Policy Institute's Arms Trade Resource Center, and board member of the War Resisters League. 

 

Monday, January 17, 2005, Noon - Martin Luther King Day of Nonviolent Resistance - Lockheed Martin, Mall & Goddard Boulevards,Valley Forge, PA. January 17, 2005, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, three days before the outrage of George W. Bush's 2nd Inauguration. Resisting "the giant triplets of American society: racism, materialism, and militarism" (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, April 4, 1967).
  
February 13 - Monthly Potluck - "After the Planned Elections: What Now Iraq", an expert panel discussion that included Jim Fine, long-time American Friends Service Committee staff in the Middle East, who was the former co-director of the AFSC Legal Aid office in Jerusalem.

March 13 - Paul Lyons, who teaches social work and history at The Richard Stockton College of NJ, will speak on his new book "The People of This Generation:  The Rise and Fall of the New Left in Philadelphia" published by the University Of Pennsylvania Press.

Sunday, March 20 Anti-War March

Friday, March 25, Noon, Good Friday Stations of Justice & Peace, a Trail of Mourning & Truth and Nonviolent Civil Disobedience at Lockheed Martin, the Iraq War's #1 profiteer. Lockheed Martin, Mall & Goddard Blvds., Valley Forge, PA (behind the King of Prussia Mall). A Trail of Mourning & Truth, walking the length of the Valley Forge site with stops for reflection on the war, militarism, Lockheed Martin, faith and resistance; Nonviolent Civil Disobedience at the world's largest weapons corporation and the Iraq War's #1 profiteer.

Sunday, April 3, 2005 3:30 PM, Episcopal Cathedral, 38th and Walnut, Phila., PA "Prophets & Martyrs: Interfaith Service Remembering Archbishop Oscar Romero and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.", marking the 25th anniversary of the  death of  Archbishop Romero (March 24, 1980) and the 36th anniversary of the death of Dr. King (April 4, 1968), an Interfaith Service honoring their lives and remembering their prophetic vision and call for peace and justice.  Keynote <>speaker: Princeton Theological Seminary Prof. Mark Taylor. In addition to Professor Taylor, the audio-visual Interfaith Remembrance and Service will feature the audio broadcast of excerpts from sermons by both Archbishop Romero and Dr. King, music from both El Salvador and the civil rights movement, and  <>testimonies will be given from people impacted by the legacies ofboth Romero and King, including Luis Ramos, a Salvadoran who came to Philadelphia in the 1980s as part of the sanctuary movement and who has been a key figure in Central American solidarity work for 17 years, and Judy Claude, a former member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the south in the early 1960s and former Director of the Bread and Roses Community Fund in Philadelphia.
The Interfaith commemoration is being co-sponsored by the Romero Interfaith Center and the Philadelphia Area Interfaith Peace Network which includes the Brandywine Peace Community, Catholic Peace Fellowship, Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia, and the Shalom Center. For more information: 610-544-1818

 

Sunday, April 10 - 30th Anniversary of the End of the Vietnam War (April 30, 1975), Panel & Poetry Reading: an historian and peace activist panel of military veterans with: W.D. Ehrhart (www.WDehrhart.com); Paul Lyons, historian and author of the "The People of This Generation: The Rise & Fall of the New Left in Philadelphia";  Tim Lilienthal, former midshipman at the US Naval Academy and Marine Reservist (1996-2000), son of a military family - his grandfather & great uncle served in the Navy & Marine Corps, respectively, for over 20 years, and his father was a Marine in the Vietnam War and is currently a Tech. Sgt. in the Air National Guard,
Since leaving the military, he has been active in solidarity work with Latin America via involvement in the SOA Watch and the US-El Salvador
Sister Cities Network; and Pat Gunn, Navy veteran (1972 - 1972) and Navy reserves (1976 - 1978), a vocal representative member of Military
Families Speak Out [against war in Iraq], whose son, Jason, is a veteran of the Iraq War. Poetry reading by W.D. Ehrhart, decorated Vietnam Marine combat veteran, historian and scholar, renowned and award-winning poet, author or editor of 18 books of prose and poetry including: Passing Time: Memoir of a Vietnam Veteran Against the War (McFarland & Co.; 1989), Just for Laughs (Vietnam Generation Inc. & Burning Cities Press, 1990), Vietnam-Perkasie: A Combat Marine Memoir and Beautiful Wreckage: New & Selected Poems.


Tax Day, April 15, 2005 - "YOU PAY; LOCKHEED MARTIN PROFIT$" - Brandywine Peace Community Tax Day Vigil  11:30 am to 1:30 pm at Lockheed-Martin - World's #1 Weapons Corporation, Iraq War's #1 Profiteer  - Mall & Goddard Blvds., Valley Forge, PA (behind the King of Prussia Mall)

Sunday, May 8, 4:30PM - University Lutheran Church, 3637 Chestnut St., Phila., PA
Anti-War Origin & Proclamation of  Mother's Day - Mary Day Kent Executive Director, Women's International League for Peace and
Freedom, United States Section; "AIN'T I A WOMAN" [Sojourner Truth] Dramatic Presentation by Rev.Hilda Campbell African-American actress and storyteller; Director, Human Relations & Leadership for the Eastern PA. United Methodist Conference; Member of theatre group, TOVA; and minister at St. Daniel's United Methodist Church in Chester, PA


May 15: Counting the Cost; Stopping the War Phila. Area Counts the Cost of The War in Iraq:
May 15,
2PM, Independence Mall Visitors Center.

On
May 15, 2005, protest of the rising death toll and the on-going military occupation of Iraq, wear a number symbolizing one of the 100,000+ Iraqis, U.S. soldiers, and other foreign nationals, who have died since the beginning of the war.

SIGN-UP NOW at www.CountingTheCost.org so we can send you your number right away.

PARTICIPATE in
Philadelphia's Counting The Cost permitted demonstration and anti-war "DIE-IN" dramatizing the human toll of
the war and occupation in
Iraq.

JOIN US on Sunday, May 15, 2PM, at the Independence Mall Visitors Center (lawn area), 6th & Market Sts., Phila., PA for music, speakers, names of war dead - Iraqi, U.S.- read and illustrated, and "DIE-IN" ceremony. 

For more information about the May 15 demonstration in
Philadelphia, call the Brandywine Peace Community, 610-544-1818
or e-mail brandywine@juno.com
  
Local sponsors include: Brandywine Peace Community, Catholic Peace Fellowship, Delaware County Wage Peace & Justice,
Mishkan Shalom Synagogue, Phila. Regional Anti-War Network, A Quaker Action Group, and the
Shalom Center (list still in formation).

For more information about the national campaign or how to sign-up for a number, call the Women's International League for Peace & Freedom 215-563-7110 or e-mail: annie@countingthecost.org  Other National Sponsors include: Global Exchange, National Lawyers Guild, and Veterans for Peace..Register
Now! 
Endorsed by Brandywine Peace Community.


Wednesday, May 25 at noon, Broad & Walnut Sts. (Noon - 1:30PM) for an Anti-War Protest with banners, posters, and reading names of the war dead - Iraqi, U.S. Secretary of "Defense" Donald Rumsfeld will be speaking before the World Affairs Council at the Park Hyatt Hotel.
 

Lockheed Martin +  RUMSFELD +  Boeing = War in Iraq & War in Space!


The voice of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, the number # 1 and # 2 leading Pentagon weapons producers and the chief "Star Wars" and space weaponeers, Rumsfeld will not speak of the 100,000 plus deaths in Iraq, victims of his policy of "endless war" that includes
"Star War" missile defense and the weaponization of space. So we must.

(NOTE: the World Affairs Council website annoucing the Rumsfeld Luncheon and Speech states: "The [World Affairs] Council thanks the Boeing Company for support of this event")

*******************************************************************************

June 12 - "STOPPING TRAFFIC: Putting the Brakes on Illegal Handgun Trafficking in Pennsylvania" with Diane Edbril, Executive Director, CeaseFire PA and Bryan Miller, Executive Director, CeaseFire NJ Prompted by the alarming surge in handgun violence throughout the area, Brandywine's June potluck supper and program - June 12, 4:30PM, University Lutheran Church, 3637 Chestnut St., Phila., PA - will be on "STOPPING TRAFFIC: Putting the Brakes on Illegal Handgun Trafficking in Pennsylvania" with the directors of CeaseFire PA and CeaseFire NJ, Diane Edbril and Bryan Miller.
Diane Edbril is the Executive Director of CeaseFire PA, a state-wide, non-profit organization dedicated to reducing gun violence. She attended law school in
New York City and spent several years as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn during which time she first came to understand the impact of guns and gun violence on our society.
Diane Edbril will be joined at the
Brandywine potluck supper and program on June 12 by Bryan Miller, executive director of CeaseFire NJ.
After a twenty year career in international business in over sixty countries, Miller left to become an anti-gun violence organizer after his brother, an FBI agent, was gunned down in  November 1994 at the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Headquarters by a lone gunman wielding a concealed assault weapon.

 

Monday, July 11, Noon - Norman Solomon, nationally syndicated columnist, will speak on his new book at  on Monday, July 11 from 12 noon - 1:30PM, at Friends Center (Rufus Jones Room),1501 Cherry St., Phila., PA.

In his just-released book, "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death," Solomon  examines 50 years of press-corps complicity in promoting U.S. military endeavors.  From Vietnam to Panama to Iraq, he reveals a consistent strategy of distorting facts, demonizing the enemy and labeling dissent as “unpatriotic.”

Just back from a trip to Iran during the elections, Solomon will give us the critical tools we need to separate real news from propaganda--to help prevent the next repeat performance.

Norman Solomon is a nationally syndicated columnist on media and politics.  He is the founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, a national consortium of policy researchers and analysts. His columns have appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and USA Today.  Solomon has appeared on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, and Book TV and has been a guest on various National Public Radio programs.  His most recent book is War Made Easy and his earlier book, Target Iraq: What the News Media  Didn't Tell You, has been translated into Italian, German, Hungarian, and Korean. 

To read more about Norman Solomon and "War Made Easy," go to www.warmadeeasy.com

July 16 - August 9:

60th Anniversary of the Start of the Nuclear Age 1945-2005

 July 16, 1945 - the first atomic test blast, code-named "Trinity";
August 6 and 9, 1945, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

60 YEARS SINCE THE TERROR BEGAN
 REMEMBERING HIROSHIMA and NAGASAKI,
 RESISTING WAR & LOCKHEED MARTIN

 

Saturday, July 16, 12 Noon - Protest in "Lockheed-ville". Noon - Town Square Vigil with banners and leafleting Main & Chester Aves., Moorestown, NJ (map & directions) [[home to Lockheed Martin and its production  of Aegis warship combat systems and Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense - "Star Wars"] 2:30PM - Demonstration at main entrance to the Lockheed Martin Aegis Naval weapons complex, Marne Highway near Bortons Landing Rd.

 

Saturday, August 6, Noon - Area Hiroshima Day Rally Lockheed Martin, Mall & Goddard Blvds., Valley Forge, PA (behind the King of Prussia Mall - map & directions.) Speakers, Music, "Die-in", Ceremony of Remembrance & Resistance Joining hands in a human chain of peacemaking in front of Lockheed Martin & Nonviolent Civil Disobedience.

 

Sunflowers carry the hope of a world free of nuclear weapons and war.  Bright and beautiful, a nutritious miracle from which Native Americans once made bread, sunflowers were even used near the catastrophic Chernobyl nuclear reactor to extract cesium 137 and strontium 90 from contaminated ponds.

 

Sunflowers now carry a new meaning and have become the symbol of a world free of nuclear weapons and war. On June 1, 1996, Ukraine transferred to Russia for dismantlement the last of the 1900 nuclear warheads it had inherited from the former Soviet Union. The Defense Ministers of the Ukraine, Russia, and the United States gathered at an emptied nuclear base and celebrated the historic act of nuclear disarmament by planting sunflower seeds at a nuclear base that once house 80 long-range nuclear missiles.

 

Next Saturday, Hiroshima Day, as we remember the 60 years of war and continuing nuclear terror, you are invited to bring sunflowers to

Lockheed Martin which incorporates the continuing legacy of Hiroshima and war. As a statement of the reclamation of the land on which Lockheed Martin sits, of the reclamation of our country for peace, of a reclamation of a determined hope for a world free of nuclear weapons and war, bring your sunflowers, bring your friends, bring sun-block and water.

 

Tuesday, August 9, Nagasaki Day Sundown Candlelight Vigil in Philadelphia

7:30PM - SS Peter & Paul Roman Catholic Cathedral*, 18th & Ben Franklin Parkway & Walk to Phila. City Hall, 15th & Market Sts., for Mayors for Peace Proclamation. 

(*August 9, 1945, Nagasaki's ground zero was the Urakami Roman Catholic Cathedral)

 

Sunday, September 11 - "CLINGING TO THE PROMISE OF PEACE"

Commemorating the 4th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks:  Complete Program, litany and text of remarks by all the speakers.

 

Monday, September 26th Civil Resistance at the White House: Part of the September 24 - 26  -  Mobilization to End the War in Iraq - Washington, DC. Mass Nonviolent Resistance at the White House. The Civil Resistance at the White House was the first nationally organized expression of resistance to the war. The Brandywine Peace Community organized a Philadelphia Area Affinity Action group to participate in the September 26th action in which people circled the White House and were arrested for Nonviolent Civil Resistance to Bush's War.  See News Reports.

 

Sunday, October 9 - "ANOTHER WAY: A PANEL ON NONVIOLENT ACTION POSSIBILITIES IN ISRAEL/PALESTINE"

with: *Elizabeth Walz and *Shaina Adams, Fellowship of Reconciliation Peacemaking Delegation to Israel/Palestine, and Nonviolence Training in Bethlehem; and *Peter Lems, program associate for Iraq at the American Friends Service Committee [AFSC] who has made a number of trips to Iraq and the Middle East, including a delegation to Palestine/Israel in August.

 

About Sunday's panel:

 

Elizabeth Walz is currently the Director of Lay Formation at St. Vincent de Paul Parish.  In 1999, along with Phil Berrigan, Susan Crane and Steve Kelly, SJ, she participated in the Plowshares vs. Depleted Uranium disarmament action for which she spent a year in prison.  

 

Shaina Adams graduated in May from Trinity University, where she majored in Sociology and Religion.  She is currently doing a year of service as an AmeriCorps  VISTA, working with the SHARE Food Program in North Philadelphia.

 

From May 24 -June 11, Elizabeth Walz and Shaina Adams traveled in Israel and Palestine with a Fellowship of Reconciliation's [FOR} Peacemaking Delegation. The delegation met with numerous groups of Israelis and Palestinians working for a nonviolent resolution to the conflict there. Walz and Adams did nonviolence training in FOR's Creating a Culture of Peace, Nonviolence Training for Personal and Social

Transformation program, working with Palestinian nonviolence trainers in Bethlehem.

 

Peter Lems is the program associate for Iraq at the American Friends Service Committee advocating and educating around issues of Iraq and U.S. foreign policy. Since 1988 he has worked for a variety of organizations focused on the Arab world, including the Palestine Human Rights Campaign, the Palestine Human Rights Information Center - International, and the Association of Arab-American University Graduates. A graduate of Earlham College in history and peace & global studies, Lems travelled in an AFSC delegation to Israel/Palestine in August.

 

Wednesday, October 26 - NOT ONE MORE DEATH - NOT ONE MORE DOLLAR candlelight vigil at Phila. City Hall (west side), 15th & Market Sts. followed by a candlelight procession to the Phila. Federal Building with a stop enroute at the office of Senator Rick Santorum.

 

Sunday, November 13 - "Overcoming Oiloholic Addiction: Going After the Oil Pushers"  - Charles Lenchner

Charles Lenchner is the coordinator of Philly Beyond Oil, a new coalition working on energy and oil related issues. Charles is an Israel-American who grew up in Israel. In 1987 he was a founder of the 'Shministim', draft age group of refuseniks. He later served two short terms in military prison for refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories. Since then he has worked and consulted for a variety of nonprofit and politically progressive groups in Israel and the United States.

 

Sunday, December 11 (a Human Rights Day Observance) "Health & Human Rights in Haiti" A panel presentation and discussion with Dr. Robert Boucher and Johanna Berrigan, both of whom as health care professionals, have

traveled over the past year to Haiti investigating massive human rights violations and health care from the perspective of human rights, and Tom Griffin, human rights and immigration attorney recently back from another fact finding trip to Haiti.

 

Mon, Dec 12 Protest the Bush Agenda of War & Militarism, of "Staying the Course" of Death and Occupation

George Bush is Coming to Phila. on Monday (December 12) to speak to the Phila. World Affairs Council at the Bellvue Hotel, Broad and Walnut Streets. His words about war will not be the only ones heard on Monday in Philadelphia.

Gather from 10 am to 1 pm at Broad and Walnut Streets for a reading of the names of war dead - Iraqi and U.S. - and voices of war resistance and justice.  We will take a message of public opposition to this war to the world's chief war-maker! Bring your sign, bring a friend, bring your voice to Phila. on Monday. (Inquirer article)

 

Thursday, December 22, 7 PM, Christmas Candlelight Vigil for Peace at Lockheed Martin, Mall & Goddard Boulevards, Valley Forge, PA. (off Rt.. #76, behind King of Prussia Mall) (Directions and Map.) In this time of empire and war:  to us a child is born! Christmas Candlelight Vigil for Peace with: Reading of Names of

War Dead - U.S. and Iraqi - bell-tolling, caroling Christmas Story, and "To Us a Child is Born, Then & Now" homily by Elizabeth Walz* and litany. 

[*Elizabeth Walz is director of Lay formation at St. Vincent's dePaul Parish. In 1999, along with Philip Berrigan, Susan Crane, and Steve Crane, SJ, Liz participated in the "Plowshares vs. Depleted Uranium" anti-war action disarming delivery systems for depleted uranium munitions at a Naval Air Station in MD for which she served

a year in jail. It was legendary peace activist, Philip Berrigan's last Plowshares act of resistance. Last summer, Liz Walz traveled to Israel and Palestine conducting nonviolence training for Fellowship of Reconciliation.]

 

************************************************************************************************************
2004

January 11 - Monthly Potluck Showing of the movie "UNCOVERED: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War" which examines the Bush Administration's distortions of fact which took the U.S. to war in March 2003.

 

January 19, Martin Luther King Day of Nonviolent Resistance to Lockheed Martin - Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his philosophy of nonviolent direct action at the Lockheed Martin weapons complex, Mall & Goddard Boulevards, Valley Forge, PA. (behind the King of Prussia Mall). The opening rally included: Elizabeth Terry, long-time activist for justice and Executive Director of The Other Side, Inc.; Rabbi Arthur Waskow, noted author and director of the Shalom Center; Phoebe Schellenberg, U.S. coordinator of Global Women's Strike; Shafiq El-Amin of the Minority EXperience Network; and Michael Hoffman, a Marine veteran of the Iraq war. The rally was followed by  Nonviolent Civil Disobedience at the main entrance to the arms giant.

 

February 8 - Monthly Potluck The area premiere of "The Arsenal of Hypocrisy: Space Program & the Military-Industrial Complex". The video, produced by the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space,  features archival footage and expert commentary. on the history of the U.S. Space Program, provides background to the Bush Administration's Mars exploration, and explains what's at stake with "Star Wars" missile defense and the increasing militarization of space.

March 14 - 15, 2004 The Dover [Air Force Base] - DC Memorial Procession: A Trail of Mourning & Truth.

 

April - People arrested the day after the start of the U.S. bombardment and invasion of Iraq, March 20, 2003, for blockading the Phila. Federal Building are sentenced in groups of five to ten to seven days imprisonment for refusing to pay a Federal Court imposed fine. Each group does their jail time at the Phila. Federal Detention Center. Vigils of support accompany each of the Federal Court appearances. Vigil at Federal Courthouse and walk to Phila. Federal Detention Center, located just behind the Courthouse, takes place on days that people are ordered to report to jail. On day of release, each group is met by vigilers in front of the Federal Courthouse. Emily Bogner and Kurt Spiridakis,  Maine; Michelle Brix, Phila; Bernadette Cronin-Geller, Phila.; Gerard Givnish, Phila.; John Hohenstein, Phila.; Rev. Patricia Pearce, pastor, Tabernacle Church, Phila.; Janeal Turnbull Ravndal, Pendle Hill, Wallingford, PA; Kathleen "Kaki" Sjogren, Phila.  You can read statements made by the defendants at:  http://www.markis.com/brandywine/cdstmt.htm).

April 9 Good Friday Stations of Justice & Peace and Nonviolent Civil Disobedience at Lockheed Martin, Valley Forge, PA.  
Ten people are arrested for a concluding act of Nonviolent Civil Disobedience.

April 15 YOU PAY; LOCKHEED MARTIN PROFIT$ Tax Day Protest at 30TH St. Post Office.

May 6 War Protest in front of Hyatt Regency Hotel in Philadelphia where Undersecretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, in Donald Rumsfeld’s stead, speaks to the World Affairs Council just as news of torture at Abu Ghraib is breaking.

 

May 9, Monthly Potluck Mother's Day, "A Cry of Women for Peace"  - Lou Ann Merkle and women artists from "Peace by Piece" present slides and share the stories behind their exhibit, "Collateral Damage: Echoes in the Soul". The program included videos, sculpture, photography, collage and printmaking.

 

May - June Demonstrations at offices of Senators Specter and Santorum with Military Families Speak Out.

June 13 - Monthly Potluck "The Bush Debacle: Where the Bush Administration Taking Us in World Affairs" - Craig Eisendrath, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and a former U.S. foreign service officer, speaks. Eisendrath is the author of numerous books and a play, including Bush League Diplomacy: How the Neo-Conservatives Are Putting the World at Risk

June 14 - "The Hope of Peace in the Darkness of War", along with the House of Grace Catholic Worker, a large gathering to hear S. Olga Yaqob, Catholic Iraqi nun and missionary in Baghdad slums and prison, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Catholic Bishop, peacemaker who has made frequent visits to Iraq; and Brian Buckley, Catholic Worker, who as part of the "Najaf Emergency Peace Team", demonstrated in front of the largest U.S. military base in Iraq,

July 3 Evening Speak-out/Candlelight Walk to Independence Mall, Ceremony to End the War of Occupation of Iraq.

July 11 - Monthly Potluck "The Legacy of Hiroshima and Why We Remember" - Yoko Nishimura, from  Hiroshima, Japan, whose mother was a "Hibakusha", a Hiroshima bombing survivor, speaks.

 

July 16 - August 9 Vigils, Protests, and Nonviolent Civil Disobedience at Lockheed Martin [Moorestown, NJ and Valley Forge, PA] commemorating the anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki, Aug 6 & 9.

August 17 Protest of Bush at Boeing in Ridley Township, PA. [Photos]

Sept More People arrested the day after the start  of the U.S. bombardment and invasion of Iraq, March 20, 2003, for blockading the Phila. Federal Building are sentenced in groups of five to ten to seven days imprisonment for refusing to pay a Federal Court imposed fine. Each group does their jail time at the Phila. Federal Detention Center. Vigils of support accompany each of the Federal Court appearances. Vigil at Federal Courthouse and walk to Phila. Federal Detention Center, located just behind the Courthouse, takes place on days that people are ordered to report to jail. On day of release, each group is met by vigilers in front of the Federal Courthouse.  Gret Gentile, Joshua Grace, Catherine MacDonald, Holly McLaughlin,  Jeff Monjack, Meenal Raval, and Charles Sherrouse, all of Philadelphia. You can read statements made by the defendants at:  http://www.markis.com/brandywine/cdstmt.htm).

 

September 9 - "1,000+ U.S. Dead in Iraq - Thousands + Thousands +  Iraqi Dead: How Many More?" Hundreds of people holding candles mark the 1000 U.S. death in Iraq at Phila. City Hall.

September 12 - Monthly Potluck "Voices of Sorrow, Voices for Peace" a Special 9-11 (3rd) Anniversary Memorial for Peace with music; poetry; Litany of Stones, Ashes, and Flowers with guest reflections: * Bob McIlvaine, member of  September 11th families for PEACEFUL TOMORROWS, whose son was killed in the World Trade Center;* Military Families Speak Out: Pat Gunn, whose son was wounded in Iraq; Mildred McHugh, whose son is in Iraq; and Sue Niederer, whose son was killed in Iraq; and * Rev. John McNamee, author of  Diary of a City Priest.

Sept 25 NO STAR WARS: No Way! No How! Demonstration at Lockheed Martin, Valley Forge, PA marks start of International Days of Protest to Stop Militarization of Space. [Photos]

October - More People arrested the day after the start of the U.S. bombardment and invasion of Iraq, March 20, 2003, for blockading the Phila. Federal Building are sentenced in groups of five to ten to seven days imprisonment for refusing to pay a Federal Court imposed fine. Each group does their jail time at the Phila. Federal Detention Center. Vigils of support accompany each of the Federal Court appearances. Vigil at Federal Courthouse and walk to Phila. Federal Detention Center, located just behind the Courthouse, takes place on days that people are ordered to report to jail. On day of release, each group is met by vigilers in front of the Federal Courthouse. Michael Brix and Marion Brown, both of Phila., PA; Cassandra Heino-Haw and husband Christopher Haw, of Camden, NJ; and Lillian Willoughby of Deptford, NJ.  You can read statements made by the defendants at:  http://www.markis.com/brandywine/cdstmt.htm).

 

October 10 - Monthly Potluck  Showing of  "UNCONSTITUTIONAL" , documentary film about the impact of the post 9-11 USA Patriot Act's impact on civil liberties.

November 14 - Monthly Potluck  "Election Retrospective: "Whither America? Imperialism Heavy or Lite? Accelerated or Stabilized Class Warfare? Stability or Crash?" - renowned economist, media analyst, and author, Professor Edward Herman speaks.

Saturday, November 27, noon - 5pm Thanksgiving Holiday "LOCKHEED-VILLE" (where the business of war matters and human needs don't) Shanty-town demonstration with large wooden shanties and lean-tos at Lockheed Martin, Mall & Goddard Boulevard Valley Forge, PA

December 11 - Memorial for Bill Stuart-Whistler at the Delaware County Peace Center.

 

December 12 - Monthly Potluck  Voices Rising in the Darkness  Seasonal Celebration of Resistance (dedicated to Bill Stuart-Whistler - Nov. 10, 1926 - Nov. 8, 2004, GE engineer/GE resister, anti-war activist) with video tape of Bill's last interview done weeks before his death, also poetry by Beth Friedland and Laurie Pollack, and music by Tom Mullian.

Wednesday, December 22, 7pm - Christmas Candlelight Vigil for Peace at  Lockheed Martin, Mall & Goddard Boulevards,Valley Forge, PA. 

In this  time of empire:  to us a child is born!