Global Network Space Newsletter 20
Summer/Fall 2008

1) IN SOLIDARITY WITH CZECH RESISTANCE

Activists in New York City joined the global day of fasting against Star Wars on June 22

In the spring of 2007, during the Global Network’s annual meeting in Germany, we had a good discussion during our strategy session about the need to reach out to the peace community in Central Europe. The Bush Administration was courting the Czech Republic to create a facility for a Star Wars radar system, and Poland for the deployment of U.S. interceptor missiles. We wanted to find a way to support any resistance efforts in these countries. The result has been a year of connection, conferences, activity and solidarity actions.

In September, 2007 the UK’s Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament held a conference on U.S. Missile Defense. Representatives from Poland and the Czech Republic were there. One of the speakers was Jan Neoral, a Czech Mayor representing the newly-formed “Mayor’s League” — an association against the radar facility and U.S. military in the Czech Republic. He told us that the vast majority of the Czech public was opposed to the radar base; the local villagers were clear that such a facility would bring “new armaments and the escalation of tension between world powers.”

After establishing contacts with the Czech movement, Bruce Gagnon went to the Czech Republic in October for a conference that brought to Prague activists from all over Europe, many from a group called Europe for Peace. Following the conference, which got extensive media coverage in their country, Czech activists organized a 10-day bus trip to 20 cities and towns to take the energy and message from the event directly to the people.

On November 17th, the No To Bases Initiative again held a major protest, with 5,000 people demonstrating in Prague, including the Union of Security Forces of the Ministry of Interior (comprised of hundreds of policemen, firemen, customs officers, prison guards, judiciary security personnel and former workers of Czech public security forces). Groups around the world held solidarity actions and protests on that date at Czech Republic embassies in their countries. Others around the world sent letters to Czech embassies; we faxed a letter on behalf of the Global Network to the Czech embassy in Washington.

To deepen our connections, and to bring our membership up to date on the issues in Central Europe, two representatives— Jan Tamas from the Czech Republic, and Damien Moran, an Irishman living in Poland and active in the movement to resist the U.S. base there — were invited to attend the Global Network annual conference in Omaha last April. Unfortunately, U.S. Homeland Security would not allow Damien to enter the country, so we were denied his report.

In May, frustrated by a government that ignored the will of the people, Jan Tamas, 27, and Jan Bednar, 31, deeply rooted in the principles of nonviolence, began an open-ended hunger strike in Prague to draw attention to the issue. With the support of the membership of the Global Network and many other organizations, hundreds of emails and faxes were sent to Czech embassies all over the world. The number of signatures on the on-line petition (www.nonviolence.cz) swelled as people around the world supported the Czech people’s demand for a national referendum on the base issue. Solidarity hunger strikes spread from Prague to 30 cities in at least six countries around the world; Bruce Gagnon in Maine and Sung-Hee Choi in New York led a group of U.S. citizens whose chain hunger strike lasted well over a month. Strikers were able to educate by way of vigils, leaflets, and articles to local newspapers.

After 21 days, Tamas and Bednar, under pressure from supporters who were concerned for their health, suspended their strike. Czech supporters created a chain hunger strike — personalities from politics, academia, and popular culture took turns with 24-hour fasts. Giorgio Schultze, spokesperson for the New Humanism Movement in Europe brought the hunger strike and issue to the European Union.

Czech activists then put out a worldwide call for a day-long fast against the Star Wars system on June 22nd. Thousands of people renounced food for one day and held public events to bear witness. Meanwhile, efforts continued to increase awareness within the European Parliament that the radar agreement, which was initiated bilaterally between the U.S. and the Czech Republic, in fact affects all of Europe.

On July 8th, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Prague and signed the agreement for the U.S. radar base with the Czech Foreign Minister, Karel Schwartzenberg. The agreement now must be ratified by the Czech Parliament, which is equally divided on this issue. Several thousand citizens were in Prague to protest the Rice visit, and the signing of the agreement.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reacted angrily after the signing of this agreement, indicating that Russia would retaliate militarily if the agreement were ratified, indicating he is still open to negotiations with the US. The Russian foreign ministry warned that the Kremlin would react “not diplomatically, but with military-technical means” if the agreement in Prague came into effect.

On July 9th, a hearing on the U.S. first-strike “space shield” was held at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Speakers included Jan Tamas and Giorgio Schultze, spokesperson for Europe for Peace, and many Members of the European Parliament (MEP). They created a declaration that was read and signed during the meeting, which argued that an agreement made for the security of Europe should be debated by all 27 member states, not just the two (Czech Republic and Poland), and that any decision be delayed until the European Parliament has spoken to the issues.

On July 17th, the declaration was brought to an international conference in Prague by Luisa Morgantini, Vice President of the European Parliament, to increase the pressure on the Czech Parliament before it votes on whether or not to ratify the agreement for the radar base.

Europe for Peace, along with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom have signed on as co-sponsors for the Global Network’s annual Keep Space for Peace Week (October 4-12, 2008). We welcome this organization, and appreciate the heroic efforts that have occurred in Central Europe to resist two more (of the more than 750) U.S. military bases in foreign countries.

The people of the Czech Republic provide a remarkable model of citizens who believe in democracy and refuse to give up. The solidarity actions around the world are a manifestation of the power of organized efforts. You can still sign the on-line petition www.nonviolence.cz to support the efforts of our Czech friends.

We invite you to organize a local activity during Keep Space for Peace Week, so please contact the Global Network at globalnet@mindspring.com with information about what you plan to do that week. We will keep track of the locations of the various actions that will take place.

Mary Beth Sullivan
GN Outreach Coordinator
Bath, Maine
 

Each year in the UN General Assembly, every country in the world except one, determined to prevent war in the heavens, votes to negotiate a treaty, Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS). The United States has been the only country to vote ‘NO” to PAROS for the past three years, and only Israel abstained. Essentially, the US is in an arms race with itself! Indeed, Russia, argued in 2006 that if all states were to observe a prohibition on space weaponization, there would be no arms race in space. And in 2008, Russia and China, which have always been strong supporters of PAROS, submitted a draft space weapons ban treaty at the UN Conference on Disarmament, which was dismissed out of hand by the US, characterizing the offer to make peace in space as “a diplomatic ploy by the two nations to gain a military advantage.”

The US released its National Space Policy in October 2006 opposing “the development of new legal regimes or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit US access to or use of space.” It asserted it will continue to “dissuade or deter others from impeding [its right to operate in space] . . . and deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to US national interests.” US programs to “protect” its satellites and other spacecraft include some of the most aggressive technologies yet to be unleashed on the international community including:

• Micro-satellites to stalk and destroy other nation’s satellites
• Evolutionary Air and Space Global Laser Engagement (EAGLE), a series of orbiting mirrors to direct beams from ground- or air-based lasers at space targets
• Ground-based Kinetic Energy Anti-Satellite Weapon, to shoot down satellites with missiles, and the Kinetic Energy Interceptor, a missile-“defense” system that could double as an anti-satellite weapon

But, as we learned at the Global Network’s annual space organizing conference in Nebraska, the so-called missile “defenses” the US is planting around the world on military bases that threaten Russia and China, in Eastern Europe and in joint theatermissile “defense” programs with Japan, have an offensive mission as well. While based on land and sea, they can be used to attack space-based assets from the earth without actually being in orbit. Many of them travel through space to reach their targets and are designed with “dual-use” characteristics, enabling them to destroy space assets as well as ballistic missiles.

Russia’s Minister Lavrov, introducing the Russian-Chinese draft treaty, noted:

“It is well known that there is an inseparable relationship between strategic offensive and defensive armaments .... The desire to acquire an anti-missile ‘shield’ while dismantling the ‘sheath,’ where the nuclear ‘sword’ is kept is extremely dangerous. And if one also places on the balance pan the ‘global lightning strike’ concept providing for striking with nuclear and conventional strategic means targets in any point of the globe in a matter of an hour after a relevant decision has been made, the risks for strategy stability and predictability become more than obvious.”

US efforts to dominate and control the military use of space also block progress on nuclear disarmament. There are some 26,000 nuclear weapons on our planet—25,000 of them in the US and Russia—with thousands of bombs poised at hair- trigger alert—ready to fire in minutes. It was the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) that ended an ever-spiraling nuclear arms race when the US and Russia agreed that a missile shield is a provocation to the other side to build more nuclear-armed missiles to overcome the shield. START II, ratified by the US in 1996, limited each side to 3,500 long-range missiles. Russia delayed approval until 2000 due to a series of US aggressive acts —the expansion of NATO up to Russia’s border, the unauthorized bombing of Iraq, the bombing of Yugoslavia without Security Council approval. Putin then asked for START III talks to reduce long-range missiles from 3,500 to 1,500 or even 1,000. This forward-looking proposal was accompanied by a stern caveat that all Russian offers would be off the table, including START II ratification, if the US proceeded with plans to build a National Missile Defense (NMD) in violation of the ABM Treaty. Astoundingly, US diplomatic “talking points” leaked by Russia to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists revealed that the Clinton Administration was urging the Russians that they had nothing to fear from our proposed NMD as long as they kept 2,500 weapons in their arsenal at launch-on-warning, hair-trigger alert!!

Despite Putin’s offer to cut to 1,000 warheads, we assured Russia that with 2,500 warheads they would be able to overcome our NMD shield and deliver an “annihilating counterattack”!! Bush took office and withdrew from the ABM Treaty to pursue the US master plan “to dominate and control the military use of space, to protect US interests and investments.”

This fall, PAROS will be addressed again at the United Nations, as it has been since 1985. While the world has the 1967 Outer Space treaty banning weapons of mass destruction in space, a PAROS ban on conventional space weapons is a critical gap to be filled. And there are no agreements dealing with the existing militarization of outer space for use in current wars on earth. Militaries can now rely on satellites for command and control, communication, monitoring, early warning, and navigation using Global Positioning Systems satellites. These space functions are used to direct bombing raids or orchestrate “prompt global strikes” on earth, defined by the United States as “the ability to control any situation or defeat any adversary action across the range of military operations.” Indeed it has been said that the First Gulf War was the first war conducted from space:

"It was the first war in which space systems really played a major role in terms of the average soldier, sailor, airman and Marine,” said Lt. Gen. Roger DeKok, vice commander of Air Force Space Command. “This was the first time that space affected the way our troops fought in the battle.”

The Global Network has formed a PAROS Working Group to focus on the upcoming negotiations for PAROS and to work with our allies around the world to bring pressure to bear on the US to support PAROS and take up the urgent offer from the rest of the world to keep space for peace. For more information contact Ray Acheson at ray@reachingcriticalwill.org or Carol Urner carol.disarm@gmail.com at (503) 320-9108 if you want to get involved in this effort.

Alice Slater
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, New York, New York

I hope that many of you read Bruce Gagnon’s blog and other posting on the unexpected exchange he had on June 22 when the base commander of Kirtland AFB, New Mexico called him on the phone just as we were launching the global day of fasting and solidarity with our comrades in the Czech Republic.

In early April Colonel Robert Suminsby made a speech to the Kirtland Partnership Committee (a private organization of war profiteers who endlessly promote anything military to our community and state). The meeting consisted of nearly 300 civic leaders, and the war base commander rather shockingly told them:

“If left unchecked, the growth of spending on Social Security and Medicare will eventually crush the defense budget.” (KAFB Nucleus, April 11, 2008)

I picked up a copy of the base newspaper one day while at the VA Hospital in Albuquerque waiting for some test results from Agent Orange exposure during the Vietnam War.

We know from articles that have appeared in various publications that the Air Force is launching a major campaign to grab as much of the federal budget from the other branches of the military as possible in their drive to dominate the sky and weaponize space. The new head of the Department of War, who replaced Donald Rumsfeld, recently fired several high-ranking generals in the Air Force who wanted to keep the old weapons programs going instead of getting in step with the radical new high-tech agenda.

Here in New Mexico we are seeing the arrival of many new aircraft and space weapons research and development (R&D) programs. With the coming of the F-22 Raptor in Alamogordo, and the CV-22 Osprey (the tilt wing aircraft to insert covert assassins behind front lines) in Albuquerque, there is also talk of placing the F-35 Lightening here too. In addition, special planes for covert special-ops are to be stationed at Canon AFB in Clovis, New Mexico on the Texas border.

What is happening in New Mexico, with the colonel’s campaign against “entitlement programs” and aggressive military expansion, is an indication of what is planned for other U.S. bases. We need to monitor the internal base newspapers everywhere to learn what is being planned in those communities and spread the word through the Global Network.

Why? These fleets of new aircraft will cost trillions of dollars, at a minimum. Col. Suminsby spoke of needing money to buy a new fleet of airborne tankers to fuel the war birds. The flying gas stations are expected to cost about a trillion dollars alone. This is not counting the cost of the super-secret black programs to build hypersonic and laser weapons for space warfare.

Add all this together and we are talking a lot of money. For us here it will mean we will have sitting out on runways in a state like New Mexico billions of dollars worth of aircraft with a state full of poor, elderly and sick people. It is clear who is terrorizing the American people and planning to terrorize the rest of the world. This attack on our social safety net is not coming from Osama bin Laden or Iraq or Iran.

Col. Suminsby and the war planners know someone is going to have to sacrifice for the planned armada of new weapons systems so they are trying to test the grassroots, to convince people to directly lobby Congress for these weapons (L.A. Times, “Air Force Ads’ Intent Questioned,” Julian E. Barnes and Peter Spiegel, March 28, 2008).

As far as I can tell the only people who will benefit from Col. Suminsby’s plan are the weapons corporations like Lockheed Martin, Bell, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman who build the systems.

President Eisenhower warned the nation in his 1961 farewell address about the influence of the military-industrial complex, a permanent global military force.

Ike said this development had the potential to destroy our country and way of life. It is sure sucking up our money now. We spend more than all the other nations of the world combined on bases, weapons and wars and we are less safe than ever. Our roads are crumbling, our energy sources are out of sync with nature, our jobs have been exported overseas, we have people lining up for food and many have no health care or are afraid to use their health care plans.

We need to do something about the war machine that is eating our country from the inside. This is where the GN can help by connecting the dots around the globe on this new offensive that so far is flying beneath the radars of mainstream media. From the way Col. Suminsby reacted to Bruce Gagnon’s blog it appears they realize they have a real PR problem with selling this large-scale raid on the public treasury to the general public.

Colonel Robert Suminsby, commander at Kirtland AFB in New Mexico, welcomes George W. Bush to his base. The commander has recently called on the public to support cuts in “entitlement program” spending in order for the Air Force to meet its weapons system funding needs.

Why This is Important to the GN

But the F-22, the F-35, the CV-22, and the tankers are not all the Air Force is seeking funds for. The Space Command is working hard to build a horrendously expensive project to control what they call the “commanding heights of outer space.” This will cost us many trillions more. Billions are being spent on a family of directed energy, laser and ray gun weapons to terrorize people from the air and from space.

Like in the old colonial days, when sea lanes were the main means of commerce, the empires were those who had the most ships and longer range weapons to rule the seas. Today space domination is the way to control global commerce, so new generations of military satellites and space weapons are coming online fast.

You have probably noticed the new “Air Force Above All” series of TV commercials depicting a possible attack on our space assets; we own half of all space satellites. The Air Force is trying to play on fear of losing our communications and spy satellites in space. The message is they need more money to build expensive space defenses, which are in essence the first-strike capability of the old Star Wars plan of Ronald Reagan. We are going backwards, not forward.

The U.S. military and many key political leaders have declared that space is ours to control and that we will deny other nations their sovereign right to use space. This is dangerous and provocative.

And once space is littered with “junk” from countries taking out each other’s satellites, we will most likely lose all satellite communications and be earthbound for generations, as no one will be able to traverse the debris field.

Are we going to spend trillions on space weapons when the world is crying for a treaty on the military use of space? If readers of the GN newsletter spread the word, alert others in cities and towns near U.S. bases, we can probably find out about many more local commanders going out to the public to find supporters to lobby for an end to social progress.

Bob Anderson
Stop the War Machine
Albuquerque, N.M.

5) ORGANISING IN POLAND

Let me try to bring people up to speed on current developments in Poland, both at the grassroots level and amongst those thirsty for high-tech weaponry.

With Her Royal Highness, Condi Rice, expected to visit Poland soon after signing a Faustian radar pact with the Czech government on July 8th, it’s still anyone’s guess as to whether the Polish side will reduce its colossal demands for military aid and bend to US pressure to host the 10 interceptors at Redzikowo’s ex-Soviet military base, near the city of Slupsk in Northern Poland.

Challenges of building a Polish anti-missile defense movement

Protests and information evenings are ongoing here while the public remains consistently passively opposed. Some of us participated in and promoted the June 22nd hunger strike called by our Czech colleagues while the Stop the War Coalition organized protests on June 14th in 11 Polish cities, and though numbers were very small, the media covered it quite well. In general though, the media have a very uncritical and pro-missile defense position, and therefore it is quite difficult for us to get our perspectives across to the public.

A united and sustained network of resistance has not developed in Poland yet, unlike in the Czech Republic. If ratification at parliament is required to push through the base, we could only count on about 10-15% of MP’s as dissenters. In addition, there is a major lack of sympathetically proactive people in all spheres of officialdom and in civil society at large against the potential base. Coupling this with the absence of any infrastructurally- rich NGO with a focus on the arms trade, not to add the depletion of activists due to huge emigration in recent years, have all made our efforts quite challenging.

Furthermore, my deportation by Homeland Security and consequent absence from the Global Network space organizing conference in Omaha was an unfortunate lost networking opportunity. However, my deportation was widely covered by mainstream media in Ireland and alternative press in the US (Counterpunch, Democracy Now). The Polish media largely ignored the event.

Investigating the scene of the crime

At the end of March, we took a very positive step forward in organizing the first demonstration at the proposed site for the missile interceptor base, attended by at least 800 people, including many locals. This was put together by a wide variety of anarchist groups connected to the Anarchist Federation, Campaign Against Militarism,

Autonomous Collective, Union of Syndicalists alongside support from Greenpeace, with the Stop the War Coalition, non-affiliated activists and locals also participating positively. It broke the common stereotype of demonstrations by implementing a ‘No Logo’ guideline, facilitating an open air debate at the town hall, samba bands, street theatre, food not bombs, an anti-base newspaper, a legal demonstration around Slupsk followed by an illegal march and unsuccessful attempt to get onto the potential missile base.

Public support was overwhelming but so was police repression. The morning following the protest 23 participants were brutally arrested and have ongoing court cases, based on bogus charges, which are likely to play themselves out over three years. This puts a huge strain on our hope to build local infrastructure and establish a peace house in the area as funds are now, understandably, primarily channeled towards legal costs and potential fines.

At the same time solidarity vigils were held in Prague, Hamburg, Berlin, Dublin, Vancouver and at Fylingdales in England — therefore our first real attempt at outreach was very beneficial. Furthermore, during the Polish Prime Minister’s visit to Washington in February, the Campaign for Peace and Democracy and the Global Network co-ordinated an excellent “Open Letter from US Academics and Peace Groups” to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

The merchants of militarism and their negotiations

Most political commentators agree that U.S.-Lithuanian negotiations [to build the US interceptor missile base there instead of in Poland] are just an exercise intended to put pressure on the Polish government to play ball.

According to the popular Gazeta Wyborcza daily, whose chief editor is signatory to the Project For the New American Century (PNAC), alongside the chief Polish cheerleader for the Anti-Missile Shield, Foreign Affairs Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, US negotiators’ final offering will amount to about $47 million — far below what the Polish government hoped for.

“Non-cash aid” is still in the pipeline though. For example, there is a US offer to service components of the 48 F-16s Poland bought from Lockheed Martin, costing $3.8 billion, under the Orwellian name, “Poland Peace Sky” program. Leaving aside these murky details, it looks increasingly likely that Polish negotiators will not chew their cud and rush into a bad deal, but rather wait and hope for either McCain or Obama to be more generous next year.

The Polish public does not want its government overthrown by the US (like in Iraq) while favorable overtures towards Brussels may play an important role in any future Polish involvement in European Missile Defense.

Pro-shield lobbying and future resistance

The Polish Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance Director, Dr. Andrzej Jodkowski, after almost getting attacked by elderly local residents in Slupsk when he addressed the crowd at our demonstration, has neither developed the Polish version of the [similar American group led by a former pro football player] website nor had much presence in the Polish media. In one of the most surreal episodes I have witnessed in a while, the anarchist black bloc had to save him from being lynched by locals. If we can channel this energy into nonviolent resistance, things may develop well!

The following are just some events that we are organizing towards:

• A summer trip to the Redzikowo base to monitor work and interact/nurture contact with locals, distribute anti-missile base newspapers;

• A call for mobilization to the potential site of the missile base on November 14th/15th 2008 in solidarity with the European Peace Action initiative;

• Participation in a Counter-NATO summit in Krakow, March 2009, during their Ministerial Conference

For English information on the ongoing Polish campaign against Star Wars see www.m29.bzzz.net or www.tarcza.org.

Contact us at campaignagainstmilitarism@gmail.com

Damien Moran
Warsaw, Poland

In Canada, we are starting to see an unprecedented rise of militarism reflected in an increase in spending and recruitment for the military.

At the end of February 2008, the federal government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a national budget with more money for the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND). DND’s budget has gone from $15 billion in 2007 to $18 billion in 2008 and will increase to $20 billion by 2010.

At the same time, in this latest federal budget there was no real spending for climate change, affordable housing, women, or childcare.

Canada’s military budget is more than what the federal government spends for Environment Canada, Fisheries & Oceans, Health Canada, Overseas Development Assistance, Indian Affairs, Justice and Agriculture combined. Further, the federal government has locked in an automatic 2% increase to the military budget every year starting in 2011. No other federal department has this type of guaranteed financial protection.

Canada’s Department of National Defense has a new slogan called “Fight with the Canadian Forces” and an ambitious recruitment program called Operation Connection (www.forces.gc.ca). DND hopes to recruit more than 10,000 new soldiers. It is not surprising that the DND web site looks very similar to the U.S. military’s recruitment web site. We know that the Canadian military is closely integrated with the U.S. military.

In fact, our newly-appointed Chief of Defense Staff, Gen. Walter J. Natynczyk, trained with the U.S. military. He attended the U.S. Army War College and was subsequently appointed Deputy Commanding General, III Corps at Fort Hood. Gen. Natynczyk deployed with the III Corps to Iraq and served there for 15 months. I think that rather than being promoted, he should have been imprisoned for his participation in the illegal war in Iraq.

Last month, DND released a new strategy entitled Canada First Defense Strategy. It announces plans for more military funding, more equipment and weapons, greater partnership with industry and schools, and a more aggressive posture for Canada’s military. Canada is currently engaged in a combat mission in Afghanistan that will continue to 2011. There is no mention of Canadian peacekeeping.

In my province of Nova Scotia, I can see the military’s growing presence in schools and in society. In our universities’ newspapers, DND regularly runs full-page ads luring students to join the military. This year, high schools students can receive credits for extra-curricular activities, such as air cadets.

On May 16, 2008, the Canadian Minister of Industry, Jim Prentice, together with the V-P of Lockheed Martin Canada announced $2 million in funding for a physics program at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Lockheed Martin Canada won a no-bid contract to supply equipment to the Canadian military and this contract required that they invest in Canada as part of Industrial and Regional Benefits - funding a university program met the requirements.

The Halifax Peace Coalition and the Voice of Women for Peace protested the announcement. I stood behind the podium with signs and the local newspaper took my picture. The Minister’s assistant whispered in my ear to ask me to step aside while the Minister spoke and I whispered back “No, I’m not moving.” My almost 4-year-old son, Sam, came with me and walked about the room as the announcements were made.

GN Board member Tamara Lorincz stands a lone vigil at a ceremony last May when Lockheed Martin gave Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia a grant that gets the weapons corporations foot in the door. All over the world the military industrial complex is taking steps to increase their control over academia. Reprinted with permission from The Halifax Herald Limited

After the speeches, a student in the audience asked a pointed question about the “corporate social responsibility of this funding” that the Minister and President never directly answered. Then, as the Lockheed Martin VP left the university for his chauffeured car I told him what I thought of his company.

We are very concerned that Canadian universities are accepting money from Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest weapons manufacturer. The company profits from war - Lockheed Martin has made a killing figuratively and literally in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their strike fighter jets with hellfire missiles have bombed and terrorized people all over the world and use an inordinate amount of fuel that causes climate change.

We should all stay vigilant against the growing militarization of funding, research, and recruiting at our schools and in our communities. In a search on the federal Lobbyists Registration System, I discovered the defense contractors, such as Lockheed Martin, have been aggressively lobbying the Canadian government for the last year (www.ocl-cal.gc.ca).

Militarism is not sustainable. The Earth Charter, an international declaration that was passed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000, lists the 16 principles of a sustainable future. The final principle, Article 16, declares, “Promote a culture of tolerance, nonviolence, and peace.” Within that principle, sub-clause D requires that we “demilitarize national security systems to the level of a nonprovocative defense posture, and convert military resources to peaceful purposes, including ecological restoration.” Canada is moving in the wrong direction; we are focusing more on military than we are on peace. Sadly, we have also lost our commitment to the 2000-2010 UN Decade for “Creating a Culture of Peace for the Children of the World.”

7) EMPLOYMENT EFFECTS OF PUBLIC SPENDING

This table demonstrates results of a recent study, which found that public dollars invested in health care, education, mass transit, or construction for home weatherization and infrastructure create more jobs than investing an equivalent amount in the military (or in tax breaks.) In fact, twice as many jobs are created by equivalent spending on education and mass transit as on the military. The research was conducted by the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst. For more information, contact Miriam Pemberton at IPS (Miriam@ips-dc.org), or Marie Rietmann of WAND (Rietmann@wand.org). The complete study is available at: http://www.ipsdc.org/reports/071001-jobcreation.pdf

8) GLOBAL NETWORK ANNUAL CONFERENCE AT STRATCOM

Admittedly, “StratCom: The Most Dangerous Place on the Face of the Earth” sounded a bit over the top for the title of a conference. But by the time the participants caught their flights home from Omaha, Nebraska in April 2008, there wasn’t anybody disputing whether U.S. Strategic Command deserved the label.

Two hundred people from twelve countries and twenty-eight states gathered April 11-13 at the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space 16th Annual Space Organizing Conference to learn about this remote command in America’s heartland. The local sponsor, Nebraskans for Peace, who for years had been worried about what was going on in its own backyard, couldn’t have been more excited. There’d never been an international conference specifically addressing the transformation that’s taken place at StratCom. But then, until just recently, StratCom had never before represented the threat to the world that it does now.

From the moment George W. Bush was rushed to StratCom’s underground headquarters at Offutt AFB on 9/11, the U.S. nuclear command began to undergo what StratCom Commander General Kevin Chilton described as “not a sea-state change, but a tsunami of change” in its role and mission. In the years since 9/11, the command has seen its traditional and sole responsibility of maintaining America’s nuclear deterrent proliferate to include missions for space, cyberspace, reconnaissance, surveillance, missile defense, full spectrum global strike, information operations, and combating weapons of mass destruction.

9) PROTECTING THE RIGHT TO PROTEST

On June 11th, the British government, under new Labor leader Gordon Brown, narrowly won a vote to enable the police to detain someone suspected of terrorist activities for 42 days without charge.

This is the latest example of what is now a common experience throughout the world - governments tightening their means of control over their citizens in the name of the war against terrorism. On the one hand they warn us that terrorists hate our way of life and our freedom; on the other they are doing the terrorists’ job by severely challenging the right to protest and dissent. As activists around the world know, these anti-terrorist laws are being used against peace demonstrators who are trying desperately to prevent more war, more senseless killing, by non-violently protesting the actions of governments who continue to rely on force rather than diplomacy to resolve conflict.

Another serious challenge to our rights in the UK occurred in April, 2005, when Parliament introduced the Serious Organized Crime and Police Act (SOCPA), which significantly extended and simplified the powers of arrest of the police. Under this Act ‘designated areas’ are specified in which the rights to demonstrate are restricted. For example, the police require six days notice, or if this is not reasonably practicable then no less than 24 hours, to hold a demonstration within one kilometer of Parliament. It is now also a criminal offense to trespass on certain ‘designated sites’ that are specified as in the interests of national security.

Among these sites are the two US missile defense bases in the UK at Fylingdales and Menwith Hill. A person guilty of an offence against this Act faces up to 51 weeks in prison or a fine of up to £5,000 ($10,000) or both.

Recently, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights called for evidence for an inquiry into the human rights issues arising from policing and protest. Yorkshire Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) submitted a body of evidence based on our experience at these bases. The evidence focuses on examples of policing at Menwith Hill. GN friends will already be familiar with the activities of the US Spy Base at Menwith Hill and its role as a downlink station for space- based components of US Missile Defense. Some readers might also remember the demonstration we held there as part of the GN Annual Meeting in 2001. The introduction of SOCPA 2005 legislation has meant there has been a marked difference in policing at the base since that time.

For example, the annual July 4th “Independence From America Day” demonstration, organized by the Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases (CAAB) and GN Advisory Board Member Lindis Percy, has conducted guided tours around the base perimeter for a number of years. There have never been any problems associated with this activity in the past. In fact, the police have previously accompanied the procession of demonstrators along the busy major road that runs along one side of the base. Since the introduction of SOCPA however, we have not been allowed to walk around the base. Last year CAAB received a letter from the police titled ‘Organizers’ Responsibilities’ just before the July 4 demonstration. Walking around the base was not to be permitted and, for the first time ever, a notice under Public Order Act 1989 was served on all participants in the demonstration. This year too the tour around the base was not allowed, although notices were not served to demonstrators. Lindis continues to suffer intimidation and arrest at the base.

It is becoming more difficult to hold protests at places like Menwith Hill US spy base in England

Armed police constantly patrol both Menwith Hill and Fylingdales. Their unlimited Stop and Search powers under Section 44 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act extend to a 5-mile radius around Menwith Hill and a 10-mile radius around Fylingdales. Peace campaigners continue to be targeted by these ‘Stop and Search’ powers. On March 29th, 10 people met at the main gate at Menwith Hill to show solidarity with the Polish campaign to prevent the stationing of US interceptor missiles in their country. Those gathered at Menwith decided to walk partway around the perimeter of the base, but at one of the gates they were stopped by a Ministry of Defense Police (MDPA) Officer who informed them that they were to be detained under Section 44. They were all searched, as the police claimed that they had breached the boundaries laid down by SOCPA, and, because by touching the fence, they had set off alarms in the base.

Official figures show that between September 2001 and June 2006 2,110 vehicles were stopped and 941 drivers and passengers searched at Menwith Hill. Ethnic minorities and Muslim groups in particular, are afraid to attend demonstrations in large groups for fear of arrest and (now long term) detention under anti-terrorist legislation. In addition, large barriers outside the main gate of the base are being used to ‘pen’ demonstrations in and restrict movement and the police continuously photograph and film everything in order to intimidate those present and inhibit protest. Restrictions on protest at these bases are imposed to protect facilities operating in the economic and military interests of the US. Challenging the presence of those facilities is the right, even the duty, of concerned citizens. Rather than impeding or arresting them, the police should be assisting campaigners to exercise that right.

On May 17th, Yorkshire CND coordinated a ‘Breaking the Links’ demonstration at Menwith Hill. CND staff member Sarah Cartin organized the event. She met with North Yorkshire Police to discuss the plans and had regular conversations with the Ministry of Defense intelligence officer for Menwith Hill. She also specifically requested that the barriers used by the police to ‘contain’ protestors at the front gate be replaced with standard metal mesh fences, and that protestors be allowed to safely walk around the perimeter of the fence. Both requests were denied. During the event, further restrictions were imposed due to an alleged ‘counter protest’ in support of the base which never materialized. On the day, police outnumbered peace campaigners by three to one. Police horses and an array of police photographers were present in excessive numbers.

It also evident that the police are intercepting our emails as they have been asking questions about events and individuals that they could only know about from CND emails. They can do this under another piece of so-called antiterrorist legislation. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act of 2000 allows government officials to access anyone’s electronic communications and monitor their activities on the grounds of national security, and for the purposes of preventing or detecting crime, preventing disorder, public safety, protecting public health, or in the interests of the economic well-being of the United Kingdom. For 50 years CND has been a campaigning organization committed to peaceful protest and non-violence. It’s not clear how the police can justify intercepting our email communications. In fact, as Sarah Cartin says, “the work of peaceful campaigning organizations and networks has been crucial in upholding the long and hard-fought-for right to protest that has ensured social change globally and throughout history.” The intimidation of peace protestors and the limitations on protest and penalties for dissent mean that the resolve of citizens to express their views on important issues is being relentlessly undermined.

On April 30 three Christian activists from “Ploughshares Aotearoa” entered the Waihopai U.S. spy satellite base in New Zealand and used sickles to deflate one of the two 30 metre radomes covering satellite interception dishes. The three were granted bail and released and will eventually come to trial.

However, these restrictions do not deter everyone. GN Board member Helen John and Yorkshire CND Committee member Sylvia Boyes were the first to be charged under Section 128 (trespassing on a protected site) of SOCPA. Both women wore peace placards and walked 15 feet into Menwith Hill on April 1, 2006, the day Section 128 came into force. Their case went to trial in October, 2007, and they were both found guilty and given the minimum penalty of three months conditional discharge and a fine of £50 ($100) towards costs. Helen’s appeal to this ruling is scheduled to be heard in mid-July.

When it tries to convict non-violent peace campaigners as terrorists the UK Labour Government is demonstrating that it has lost touch with the tradition of democratic peaceful protest fought for over many years by its own members and supporters. Not only that but it is also showing that it supports the interests of another state (the US) over the rights of its own people. Policing measures are being misused and applied to situations for which they were not intended in order to discourage legitimate protest, and we must continue to challenge bad laws that are used badly. We are aware of the difficulties we face in non-violently challenging the policies of violence and war. But, as governments’ policies continue to fail and as they move us closer towards a police state in order to protect themselves, we also recognize the commitment and determination of those who will not submit to intimidation and do not believe that control applied through increased surveillance and force is the path to real peace and security.

Dave Webb
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Leeds, England

You can now read reports of over 50 Keep Space for Peace Week events in the United Nations 2007 World Space Week annual publication (available on line or from United Nations bookstores in New York and Geneva). Reports are generally abbreviated to a single paragraph, but our messages are present and clear:

• Call for U.S. Support for Outer Space Treaty and PAROS (WILPF Australia at U.S. Embassy)
   

• Keeping Space for Peace at Menwith Hill (CAAB, UK)
   

• Peace on Earth, Not War in Space (Cambridge, USA)
   

• Keeping Space for Peace in Darmstadt (celebrating dismantlement of the August-Euler U.S. Army Base)
   

• Preventing an Arms Race in Outer Space, J. Narayana Rao at Jr. Science College, (Veeraghattam, India)
   

• Non-violent witness at Strat Com conference (Omaha, USA)

Members of Citizens for Peace in Space in Colorado Springs have been working for over 20 years to challenge the prevailing military culture in their community, which hosts five military bases including the Air Force Space Command.

13) ODDS AND ENDS

EXPENSIVE SPACE CONFAB

The Washington Post reported in the spring of 2008 that Gen. Kevin Chilton, head of STRATCOM, warned Congress that cyberspace warfare was fast approaching. “Our adversaries understand our dependence upon space-based capabilities, and we must be ready to detect, track, characterize, attribute, predict and respond to any threat to our space infrastructure.” Chilton described cyberspace as an “emerging war-fighting domain.” He said that “potential adversaries recognize the U.S. reliance on . . . [its] use and constantly probe our networks seeking competitive advantage,” providing the Pentagon justification for developing offensive systems in this area.

The Global Network relies on the support of our individual members and group affiliates to fund our important work to build a global consciousness about space.

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RESOURCES

Newsprint versions of Space Alert! can be ordered from:

Bruce K. Gagnon
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PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 729-0517
(352) 871-7554 (Cell phone)
globalnet@mindspring.com