disarmers plan to brake the bail

bread not bombs / english / press / disarmers plan to brake the bail

CONTENTS:
(1)    Disarmers plan to break their bail
(2)    Background
(3)    Come to their trial
(4)    Other ways of support
(5)    Ploughshares news-prisoners' addresses
(6)    Contact details
(7)    Statement by Ann-Britt Sternfeldt


(1)    20th MARCH: BREAD NOT BOMBS PLOWSHARES PLAN TO BREAK BAIL AT BARROW.

Having been unexpectedly released from prison on January 21st, after four months on remand, the three Swedish disarmers-Ann-Britt Sternfeldt, Annika Spalde and Stellan Vinthagen-have decided to openly break their bail conditions by returning to the Barrow shipyard in the north of England on Saturday 20th March.
They are inviting other people to join with them in a "citizens' inspection" of the shipyard. This action will not involve property damage.
If you would like to be involved in this action, please contact the Bread Not Bombs Plowshares group at the Liverpool Catholic Worker (see item (6) below). All forms of involvement and support are welcome.

(2)    THE BACKGROUND STORY

In the early hours of Sunday September 13th 1998 the three Swedish disarmers entered the VSEL Barrow shipyard, where Britain's fourth and final Trident submarine, HMS Vengeance, was still under construction. They intended to nonviolently and carefully disarm the submarine with household hammers-to beat "swords into ploughshares". The group symbolically dismantled equipment in the shipyard but were all arrested before they could get to HMS Vengeance.
They were charged with "conspiracy to commit criminal damage" and remanded in custody. Four months later, on January 21st, they were unexpectedly released. A trial date has been set for May 4th at Preston Crown Court.

(3)    COME TO THE TRIAL!

There is going to be a "Festival of Hope & Resistance" around the trial- with workshops and entertainments and actions, as well as vigils outside the courtroom and attendance within. It will be a time to meet people from around the world, show your support for the three on trial, explore issues around nonviolence and civil disobedience and to further the resistance against the Trident nuclear threat.
The trial begins on 4th May, but the Festival runs from 1st to the 9th of May.
Participation is warmly invited.
For further information, please send your address details to the Liverpool Catholic Worker (see item (6) below for details).

(4)    POSSIBLE SUPPORT ACTIVITIES
· Come to the trial
· Offer help with the "Festival of Hope & Resistance"
· Visit the Bread Not Bombs Plowshare website and reproduce their statements in your newsletters
· Send a message of support
· Prepare further nonviolent resistance to Trident and the whole nuclear threat
· Send in a donation to help with campaigning costs
· Come to the "Citizens' Inspection" on 20th March
· Tell friends and colleagues about the action and trial


(5)    OTHER PLOUGHSHARES NEWS

The Bread Not Bombs Plowshares group are part of the international "ploughshares movement"-a movement which began in the USA in 1980. The movement takes its inspiration from the prophecies of the Jewish prophets Isaiah and Micah, who wrote of beating "swords into ploughshares".
Ploughshares actions are characterised by a strict adherence to nonviolence, communal preparation, the attempted disarmament of military equipment with hand-tools, and by participants taking full and open responsibility for their actions. Prison sentences have been as high as 18 years.
The Bread Not Bombs Plowshares group acted in co-operation with the Trident Ploughshares 2000 (TP2000) Campaign. TP2000 groups have engaged in numerous disarmament attempts at the Coulport and Faslane Trident bases in Scotland.
On Monday 1st February a TP2000 group-"Aldermastion Women Trash Trident"
· swam into Barrow, got on board HMS Vengeance and disarmed equipment. The two women, and three of their support group, have been charged with "criminal damage" to the submarine.
Contact details:
Aldermaston Women Trash Trident: c/o 20 Tennyson Road, Portswood, Southampton SO17 2GW, England (email waty@gn.apc.org).
Trident Ploughshares 2000, 42-46 Bethel Street, Norwich, Norfolk
NR2 1NR, UK
tel + 44 (0) 1603 611953
fax + 44 (0) 1603 666879
http://www.gn.apc.org/tp2000/
email: tp2000@gn.apc.org

The following US ploughshares prisoners are currently in prison. Please drop them a line.
GODS OF METAL PLOWSHARES
Kathleen Boylan #20047-016
FPC Alderson
Box A
Alderson WV 24910
USA
(release: mid-July)

Ardeth Platte, OP #10857-039
Pembroke Station
Route 37
Danbury CT 06811-3099
USA

Carol Gilbert, OP
Kent County Jail
Unit A, 104 Vickers Dr
Chestertown MD 21620
USA

Fr. Frank Cordaro #13093-047
FPC Yankton
PO Box 700
Yankton SD 57078
USA

MINUTEMAN III PLOWSHARES
Daniel Sicken
c/o Bill Sulzman
Plowshares
PO Box 915
Colorado Springs
CO 80901
USA

Sachio Ko-Yin
c/o Bill Sulzman
Plowshares
PO Box 915
Colorado Springs
CO 80901
USA

If you would like to join a ploughshares/plowshares email discussion list, please email: plowshares-subscribe@onelist.com If you have a question for the list manager:
plowshares-owner@onelist.com

(6)    BREAD NOT BOMBS PLOWSHARES CONTACT DETAILS

To write to the three activists, and to receive further information about the Hope & Resistance Festival:
Bread Not Bombs Plowshares, c/o Liverpool Catholic Worker, 1 Horne
Street,Liverpool L6 5AH, England
telephone: +44 (0)151 264 8741
mobile: 0403 615 894
email: plowshares@hotmail.com

Bread Not Bombs Plowshares website: http://www.plowshares.se/bnb/english.htm
To receive further "Bread Not Bombs Plowshares" email newsletters (like this one): stephen@gn.apc.org and put "BNB Subscribe" in the Subject heading.

(7)    BREAKING BAIL-Ann-Britt Sternfeldt

After four months on remand, we suddenly get released. Without any chance to be prepared. There we stood in a cold and windy Preston, trying to understand that we were free.
Some of the people who had come to our hearing went back to lessons at the university. Others hurried away to get a train back home. We hadn't expected to be released into this situation-still waiting for a trial, with no ideas about the outcome. No possibilities to go home to Sweden, since the police kept our passports. No chance to visit friends and relatives. No chance to walk in the forest with my dog. We were stocked in England until our trial 4th May. And it was only 21th January.
We were released without applying for bail, without agreeing with any conditions. Our solicitor said that she had never experienced anything similar. Usually there are lot of problems with getting clients out on bail, and we got it without even asking.
It was then I really understood the reason of being in prison. The possibility of doing political work, of putting pressure on authorities. The possibility of drawing attention to nuclear weapons. When I was in prison I couldn't imagine the thought of going back to Barrow. But now I can. The reason is that I don't want the authorities to destroy our political power, and by "throwing us out" they took a lot of that away. That's why we have decided to go back, to break our bail conditions by entering Barrow again.
One could imagine that freedom is the biggest thing, but sometimes it isn't.
ANN-BRITT STERNFELDT


"And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into
pruning hooks"
Isaish 2:4

END OF NEWSLETTER-please feel free to reproduce any of the above material.