Solidarity in Action: Nonviolent Action Trainers' Gathering Strengthens Connections

Trainers, organizers, and facilitators of Nonviolent Direct Action gathered in Asheville, N.C. over the May Day weekend for peer-to-peer exchange, campaign storytelling, tactics and skills swap among Southeast organizers, along with strategical discussions of how to work together more effectively across issues and campaigns in the South.  

Issues that surfaced at the ACTION South Nonviolent Direct Action Trainer’s Gathering were as immediate as Asheville’s Defensa Communitaria police checkpoint vigil campaign in solidarity with Hispanic immigrants, and as far reaching as FBI raids targeting anti-war activists and persons acting to build international relationships. Dissidents caught up in this modern-day Cointelpro State repression are challenging Grand Jury indictments and nonviolent direct action is a tool of the struggle.

Steve Norris of Warren-Wilson College

 Friday night’s meet and greet in the historic Battery Park Hotel rooftop garden included a bird’s- eye view of the “Land of the Sky” and a  sunset view of Asheville’s surrounding mountains. As part of the city-wide YWCA Stand Against Racism events, the Friday discussion centered on the principles and application of nonviolent direct action as used during the historic civil rights struggle. Participants shared personal experiences confronting racism and other persistent injustice using tools of organized nonviolence.

Steve Norris, a professor of Peace Studies and Environmental Justice at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, N.C., led the discussion.

Special guest Oralene Simmons, a nonviolence trainer with  Dr. Bernard Lafayette, and founder of Asheville's 30 year old MLK,Jr. birthday celebration, shared her first-hand experiences with the Asheville Student Committee for Racial Equality during her high-school years. She and other students integrated Asheville's Woolworth lunch counter, the city swimming pools, and public library.
 

Oralene Simmons greets Asheville City Councilman Gordon Smith at Asheville's Woolworth Sit-In commemoration

In1961 Oralene, a native of Mars Hill, NC, went on to become the first person of African-American heritage admitted to Mars Hill College.  Her story is especially poignant. Her great grandfather Joseph Anderson— a slave who laid the bricks that built the college—was seized by contractors as collateral for a debt on the Mars Hill College building and jailed until the debt was paid. His family is now celebrated along with other founding members of the Baptist College.

Panelists Steve Magin, RedMoonSong, Emily Rhyne & Joe Rhinehart

Discussion continued Saturday at Asheville’s Unitarian Universalist Church with panel presentations as varied as Emily Rhyne of Asheville's Defensa Comunitaria,  and Red Moon Song of Earth Haven Eco Village, who spoke of her lifelong practice of “radical simplicity” and “fierce peace,” in her work to end militarism and war. Other panelists included long-time war tax resister Steve Magin, of Madison County, N.C. and Joe Rhinehart, of Asheville’s worker-owned Firestorm Café and Books, who focused on connecting cooperatives with social movements.

Sarah Buchner of UNC-A's SDS gave an update on local efforts in support of FBI-targeted peace activists, and Patrick O'Neill, a cofounder of the Father Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker House in Garner, N.C., told of the recent creative action where he dressed as an ICE officer and arrested Lady Liberty to demonstrate concerns for immigrant rights. Patrick’s activist daughters Bernadette and Moira also attended, adding greatly to the richness of the day as they conveyed their experiences as outspoken college and high school students immersed in traditional educational settings.

Patrick O'Neill with daughters Bernadette & Moira

Kim Carlyle, War Crimes Times!

 War Crimes Times! Editor Kim Carlyle shared some VFP experiences in “taking back” the media and the Veterans' creative methods at the Newsuem to distribute copies of the quarterly newspaper.

Mary Olsen at the Nonviolent Action Trainers' Gathering in Asheville

 Ralph Hutchinson, coordinator of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, rounded off the diverse group of panelists. He provided a “long haul” overview of OREPA’s nearly 30 year campaign to halt production of nuclear weapons at the Oak Ridge, Tennessee Y-12 National Security Complex.

Facilitators included Mary Olsen, regional coordinator of Nuclear Information and Resource Service, and Betsy Crites, Director of N.C. Peace Action, along with Coleman Smith and Clare Hanrahan of the New South Network of War Resisters.  In addition of facilitation help, RedMoonSong and Jim Stockwell headed up the kitchen crew that provided the delicious vegetarian fare.

Participants were active in a variety of local and regional peace efforts, including Pax Christi, NC Stop Torture Now! Katuah Earth First! National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, VFP, Peacetown Asheville, N.C. Peace Action, WRL Asheville and New South Network of War Resisters (conveners), Asheville Freeskool, Nuestro Centro's Defensa Communitaria, Firestorm Cafe' and Books, Communnity of the Beloved  the YWCA's Stand Against Racism, NIRS, Proposition One, VFP TV, and more.

The event was deepened with the participation of numerous elders, including feminist scholar and Asheville native Antigua George, and Brad Lyttle of Chicago, both sharing experiences in direct action going back more than half a century. Lyttle, who was arrested for civil resistance at the Y-12 plant in July 2010, made a last minute detour to be at the ACTION South Gathering prior to his federal trial in Knoxville, Tenn.

May Day Chorus at Asheville's Firestorm Cafe & Books

Sunday participants gathered at Firestorm Café’ and Books after being fortified and inspired there the night before by the May Day Chorus and a rousing round of  labor movement songs and stories from the coalfields.

We spent much of our time Sunday going over some of Gene Sharp’s 198 methods of nonviolent action. The group moved through the list, commenting on their familiarity with and the relevance of the nonviolent methods.  The list provided the framework for hours of good discussion as participants offered personal accounts of how they have seen and participated in these methods in action.

Local organizer, David Clover, with the Asheville Freeskool, said Sunday’s discussion “exceeded my expectations.”  We all agreed that we wanted further opportunities to engage in-depth discussions with more diverse participants. The discussion was videotaped by Kasha Baxter, a producer with VFP-TV and Ellen Thomas, of  the anti-nuclear effort, Proposition One.

"Many thanks for your extraordinary organizing and leadership!” said John Heuer board member of NC Peace Action and member of the Eisenhower Chapter of the VFP, ‘Thanks for all your hard work organizing this event.”

Mothers Against Family Separation march in Asheville

At the close of the Trainers' Gathering, many participants joined Defensa Communitaria activists and allies to participate with “Mothers Against Family Separation," a public demonstration against the deportations of immigrants in Western North Carolina.

Collaboration, we all agreed, is vital to the success of our movements, and organizers plan to gather again soon to review the weekend with the aim of making the next gathering of S.E. regional trainers' even more dynamic and inclusive.

"I found my time well spent and rewarding. I met good people and made good connections. The venues worked well, the food was great, and the sessions were well-facilitated. There is much more to be done, but this is a great step forward." Kim Carlyle, VFP 099
  
"Come you discontented ones and give a helping hand..."

Report by Clare Hanrahan & Coleman Smith 
Support for the gathering came from a grant of redirected war taxes from the Nonviolent Action Community of Cascadia, with additional support from local activists, allies, and donors,  including our dear friends Judith,  Antigua , &  Monica. Special appreciation to  NC Peace Action for encouragement and participation. Passing the hat for sliding-scale donations was critical, as were the  hundreds of hours of in-kind contributions from organizers and supporters. Thanks to everyone!

"The Law is in the Service of Death": Nuclear Weapons Resisters Jailed in Tennessee

"The no trespass law at Y12 is one of a web of laws used to protect Weapons of Mass Destruction...The laws and the courts defend weapons for doomsday. The law is in the service of death. My action at Y12 was to willfully do good in the service of life." 

--Steve Baggarly testifying at Knoxville trial

 The scales of justice were tipped against the defendants long before the trial began," according to a report by the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance. Eight of the twelve Y-12 nuclear resisters convicted of federal trespass at the Y-12 nuclear bomb plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, are being held in the Blount County Adult Detention Center in Maryville after a three-day trial ending May 11 in Knoxville. The Y-12 facility processes uranium for new hydrogen bombs being built to replace W76 warheads on Trident submarine ballistic missiles

Nuclear Resisters gather prior to Federal trial in Knoxville

Asheville organizers Coleman Smith and Judith Hallock of New South Network of War Resisters, joined with the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance and other regional activists in support of defendants who traveled from throughout the U.S.

Judith Hallock, a founding member of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, was one of 23 arrested in July and convicted on state charges for blocking the road into the Y12 facility.

According to a report by John LaForge in Nukewatch, U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton prohibited the defendants from relying on justification defenses, specifically declared irrelevant  their moral, political or religious beliefs, and declared, "Whether the production of nuclear weapons at the Y-12 National Security Complex violates international law is irrelevant to the present case."

Sr. Mary Dennis Lentsch of Washburn, Tenn. at the gates of Y-12 bomb plant.

Conviction on federal charges carries a potential prison sentence of up to one year for those resisters who crossed the barbed wire fence onto federal property at the bomb plant. Prison and jail time is not a new experience for these valiant activists, each with exemplary records of civil resistance to the crime of nuclear weapons production. 

Sr. Jackie Hudson, 76, of Poulsbo, Washington; Sr. Carol Gilbert, 63, and Sr. Ardeth Platte, 75, both of Baltimore, Maryland; Jean Gump, 83, of Bloomingdale, Michigan; Steve Baggarly, 46, of Norfolk, Virginia;  Bonnie Urfer, 59, of Luck, Wisconsin; and Michael Walli, 62, of Duluth, Minnesota.are all being held at the Blount County Adult Detention Center.  The men are reported to be together in one small unit, while the women have been split between two separate units. 

Fr. Bill Bichsel, 82, of Tacoma, Washington who was already serving a three month prison sentence for the Disarm Now Plowshares action, remains at the Knox County Sheriff's Detention Facility, where federal marshals had delivered him in shackles from a prison in Washington state to stand trial in Knoxville.

The other defendents are Beth Rosdatter, 50, of Lexington, Kentucky.; Sr. Mary Dennis Lentsch, 74, of Washburn, Tennessee; Bradford Lyttle, 83, of Chicago, Illinois; and Dennis DuVall, 69, of Prescott, Arizona. (Ill health prevented a 13th defendant, David Corcoran of Chicago, from participating and the court scheduled an August 22 trial.).

Members of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance and other supporters have begun visiting the prisoners during the one hour per week they are permitted to have visitors, according to a report by the Nuclear Resister, and commissary accounts have been established for all of the defendants. Contributions for that purpose should be sent by check payable to Sue Ablao and note it is for the Y-12 Resisters. Sue¹s address is: Ground Zero Center For
Nonviolent Action, 16159 Clear Creek Road NW, Poulsbo, WA 98370.

The complete postal addresses for the peace prisoners are listed below and can also be found at http://www.nukeresister.org/inside-out/. Individually addressed letters to the activists held in Blount County
may not contain photos, cards, or any enclosures in addition to your letter.  Your letter should be written on standard 8.5 x 11 paper.

To write individually to Bonnie Urfer, Jackie Hudson, Carol Gilbert, Ardeth Platte, Jean Gump, Michael Walli and Steve Baggarly:

(Inmate's Name)
Blount County Adult Detention Center
920 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway
Maryville, TN 37804-5002

To write to Bill (Bix) Bichsel:
William Bichsel, IDN 1155703
Unit 2B
Knox County Sheriff's Detention Facility
5001 Maloneyville Rd
Knoxville, TN 37918



Report by Clare Hanrahan of New South Network of War Resisters

Asheville Area War Tax Resisters Steve Magin and Jim Stockwell
(holding banner) add a War Tax Resistance message to MoveOn rally 

Steve Magin lives simply in a mountain holler of Madison County in Western North Carolina where he helps local farmers and friends each tax season as a volunteer tax preparer.  He tries to pay his fair share.  This tax day, April 18, Steve made his annual trek into Asheville to the IRS office, checkbook in hand. He was ready to pay his federal taxes, with one condition:  He would not pay for weapons and war.

 

Once again, as has happened year after year in this endless war economy, Steve did not get the official assurance from the IRS employees that his tax monies would not be used to support militarism and war. And once again, Steve left the office without submitting his check and paying for war.

 

For more than a decade Steve Magin has made this courageous pilgrimage of conscience, and every year he redirects his resisted war taxes to support local and regional work promoting peace and social justice.

 

After his visit to the IRS office, Steve joined several other members of the WNC War Tax Resisters, WRL Asheville, and the New South Network of War Resisters at the Asheville Postoffice.  We distributed the latest copies of the War Crimes Times, a locally produced publication of Veterans for Peace.  The theme of the issue is:  "How is the War Economy Working for You," and includes a centerfold with the War Resisters' League tax pie chart. 

 

After many conversations with tax payers at the mailbox, we marched to a local park to join the MoveOn.org gathering calling on corporations, particularly Bank of America, to pay their fair share.  We added our voice to the gathering with the message that true patriots must question where their tax dollars go, and take personal responsibility to withdraw support of war crimes.  The MoveOn gathering drew about 100 people, and we continued with distribution of the War Crimes Times, which most people readily accepted. 

 

Steve Magin will be speaking about his life as a war tax resister and the direct action he takes each tax day, as a panelist on April 30 at the Southeast Nonviolent Direct Action Trainers' Gathering in Asheville convened by the New South Network of War Resisters with support of N.C. Peace Action and the Nonviolent Action Community of Cascadia and numerous local organizations and donors.

 

For more information about ways and means of war tax resistance contact:  National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee and for inspiration, watch the video "Death and Taxes" – a 30-minute film about motivations, methods, risks, and rewards of war tax resistance, edited by Asheville's own Carlos Steward.

Hundreds Rally to Resist Tennessee's "Secret City" Y-12 Bomb Plant

 Soldiers in camouflage uniform were dispatched  from the federal side of the barbed-wire fence after the April 16, 2011  rally at the gates of the Y-12 bomb plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Their mission?  To untie the hundreds of paper peace cranes fluttering along the length of the perimeter fence.  

We who marched to the gates of this hellish place through the streets of Tennessee's "secret city," came from throughout the Southeast and as far as Michigan. We were perhaps outnumbered  by the armed security forces on alert behind the barbed wire. Numerous high powered cameras recorded our arrival, no doubt zooming in to capture close-ups of the gathered resistance to the crime and to President Obama's $6.5 billion allotted to pay for more nuclear weapons production at Oak Ridge.

The W-76 and W-76-1 thermonuclear secondaries produced at Y-12 are designed and produced to unleash 100 KT of uncontrollable and indiscriminate heat, blast and radiation, six times more than the Hiroshima bomb, according to a 2009 report in the  Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

As we approached the gates, with Japanese Buddhist drumming and chanting, an officer with the bomb plant security detail issued his gruff order:   "You have five seconds to vacate the road or you will be arrested."  We all complied. There were to be no arrests this time. This was a contrast with the July 2010 civil resistance there where 37 were arrested declaring "Independence from Nuclear Terrorism."  A court date for dozens of these is expected in May at the federal courthouse in Knoxville.

 "U.S. law and international law as U.S. law prohibit threatening or inflicting indiscriminate harm and unnecessary suffering, in any circumstance in war or peace.  Because all nuclear weapons “cannot be contained in space or time,” any use would, ipso facto, constitute a crime against humanity and a war crime including those prepared for use at Y-12."
International Law, Y-12 & Civil Resistance

Story and photos:  Clare Hanrahan

Walking for a Nuclear Free Future: Asheville to Oak Ridge, TN

Pilgrimage for a Nuclear Free Future steps out from Asheville, NC  to join the April 16 Direct Action and march from Bissell Park in Oak Ridge to the gates of the Y-12 bomb plant.

The mountainS of Western North Carolina once again reverberate to the Buddhist drum and the  sounds of the mantra NA MU MYO HO REN GE KYO.  This is the deeply resonate chant of the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist order as they make their way, step by step,  to the gates of the Y-12 nuclear bomb factory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. A dozen walkers set out from Asheville on April 8 for  the 12th annual pilgrimage to the "Secret City," part of the Manhattan Project where fuel was enriched for the world's first atomic bomb.  I joined them for two days of walking through the greening mountains, rich farmland and blooming meadows. Along the way we found a resting spot on the shady lawn of a man who told us his father had worked at Oak Ridge and had since died from a form of cancer caused by the radiation exposure.  "Ya'll are welcome to rest here as long as you want," he told us.

The rural route to Oak Ridge winds through some of the most beautiful land in the country. Our friends Brother Utsumi and Sister Denise have been walking the highways and byways of the Southeast U.S. for over twenty years, each step a prayer for peace. On this walk every step seemed weighted with grief over the ongoing tragedy in Japan.  Bro. Utsumi's sister and other family members live close to the earthquake and Tsunami disaster area. "We Japanese have a special duty to speak out against the use of nuclear weapons and power," he told me.  His particular focus has been the nuclear bomb plant in Oak Ridge. Brother Utsumi is a Japanese Buddhist monk, and Sr. Denise is an American woman and former journalist who joined the order twenty years ago.  The two are a familiar presence at actions for peace throughout the Southeast.

The Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Complex in Oak Ridge, TN  is the last full-scale operating nuclear weapons production plant in the United States.  Y12 makes the thermonuclear "secondaries" --the part that turns an atomic bomb into a thermonuclear bomb. A new bomb plant is proposed for Oak Ridge as a "Uranium Processing Facility" to manufacture parts for the thermonuclear warheads, according to the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, a grassroots group that has been educating and acting for the abolition of nuclear weapons for close to thirty years.

On Saturday, April 16, an Action for Abolition will draw nuclear resisters from throughout the country to the gates of the proposed $6 billion dollar new bomb plant.  This youth-organized event will begin in Oak Ridge at 1 p.m. at Alvin K. Bisselll Park, corner of Oak Ridge Turnpike and Tulane Avenue and march to the Bear Creek Road entrance to Y12 on Scarboro road in Oak Ridge.  According to the organizers, some people may choose to risk arrest in acts of civil resistance during this action for abolition.  For more information contact organizers at: orep@earthlink.net or call 865-776-5050.  A carpool from Asheville is forming and will leave Earth Fare parking lot in West Asheville at 9:30 a.m. Saturday April 16 and return late that evening.
  
"Nuclear bombs, whether they're used or not, violate everything that is humane. They alter the meaning of life. Why do we tolerate them?"   Arundhati Roy, Author

Photos:  Coleman Smith, Story by Clare Hanrahan 

Sr. Denise & Bro. Utsumi explaining the Peace walk while environmentalist Rusty Sivils listens

Meeting the Farmers of Cerro Verde

Farmers from Cerro Verdo.  Photo: Coleman Smith

Saturday we sauntered down the dusty road near Guiones Beach in Nosara to the weekend open market. We caught up with our new friend Mainor a local organic farmer and his friends. His farm, or finca, called Cerro Verde, is located about 30 km southwest of Nicoya, Guanacaste, Costa Rica.  Mainor said he was part of the Asociacion de Agricultores Organicos de Cerro Verdo.  His booth, nestled back in a hedge of hibiscus, was one of only a few where indigenous farmers were selling local produce. Most vendors at the Saturday market were North Americans, Germans and Italians selling a variety of homemade breads and confections as well as imported clothing and jewelry. Other local indigenous "ticos" were offering coconuts as a source of refreshing water, tamales, hand-crafted furniture and carved wooden sculpture.  

Mainor introduced us to the fruto dorado or Golden Fruit, also known as the breadnut tree or Ojoche.  The  nutrient-dense seed of the Brosimum species served as a survival food for the ancient Mayans, and is also valued for the beauty of the wood, used in furniture making.

As we moved through a patchwork conversation with Mainor (he spoke only Spanish), we felt connected  through our common experiences with and appreciation for organic farming, a loving care for the land, and our understanding of permaculture (see previous post). After the market, Mainor walked with us back to Casa de la Rosada to see the raised bed organic food production of our local host and to talk seed exchange and farming needs in the tropics. 

Reporting from Nosara, Costa Rica: Clare Hanrahan & Coleman Smith of newsouthnetwork@gmail.com

Contact Asociacion de Agricultores Organicos de Cerro Verdo:  organicoselcerro@hotmail.com

Pura Vida: Perma-Surfing in Nosara

Its dry season in Nosara, Costa Rica, and Jay Culberth is up at dawn most mornings to water his vegetable beds at Casa de Rosada. Jay is a Georgia native who comes from a long line of nurserymen and a farming environment. He is also a student and practioner of Permaculture. His father, uncle and brother are all nurserymen in Thomasville, Georgia, where Jay's grandfather was a Methodist preacher. Jay first came to Nosara two years ago, drawn by the Pacific waves here that are "most consistent for surfing," he said, allowing ample opportunity to improve one's skills and "to shred,"  as he put it. 

Jay harvesting basil and other greens for ensalada

But its in the garden where his family gift of the green thumb shows.  Jay has turned the hot, dusty soil surrounding the Santa Fe style hill-top casita, where he and his partner Sarah  live, into an oasis of edible plants intermixed with tropical ornamentals, including a large Reina de la Noche, a small tree known for its use inducing visions.


Sarah is an excellent cook for Nosara's surfing school, Surf Simply, and makes good use of the organic produce from Jay's garden in her delicious menus.

Sarah in her Costa Rica cocina

We are here in Costa Rica as guests of Monica Tilhou, an Asheville friend and Sarah's lively and generous mom. Monica is an eight-year resident of Nosara, with many friends among the local "Tico" families and residents.Sara and Jay live at Casa de Rosada.  

While Monica, Clare, Sarah, and Jay all speak Spanish, Coleman's 12th grade Spanish hardly suffices;  he relies on the others for translation, which is often. There is the Tico Times, though. It's the first English language newspaper in Costa Rica; going a long way to bridge the cultural and socio-economic differences between the local indigenous peoples and the gringos, an affluent American/European/Mediterranean mix of touristas and expatriates.


We're helping Monica with home renovation projects and repairs in exchange for an enjoyable and timely respite from years of community organizing. A special aspect of our visit has been the opportunity to meet and visit with many of the native-born "Ticos" who have lived here for generations.

Despite the overwhelming presence and impact of North American tourists and year-round residents that fill the restaurants, beaches and bars, that special feeling of "pura vida" continues to blow through it all, like the soft Pacific breeze carrying the scents of the season.

Reporting and photos by: Clare Hanrahan & Coleman Smith reporting from Casa de Rosada, 300 meters north of the Mini-Super in Costa Rica.


Contact:  newsouthnetwork@gmail.com