This photo came from Global Network board member MacGregor Eddy in California.  It was from a protest at Beale AFB in that state (the base that Bruce Gagnon lived at when he graduated from high school in 1970.  His step-father worked at the base on the cameras for the SR-71 'Blackbird' spy plane.) 

Early KS4P event at Beale AFB in Marysville, CA, 2 arrests on Sept 28, 9 arrestees pictured above on Sept 30th, lots more protesters, but the arrested included four veterans and two clergy and one Global Network board member, aka yours truly. I am on the far left in this photo, Beale is home of the U-2 spy plane and now the Global Hawk drone.

This photo came from Nick Deane in Australia.  His short note read "Things are even happening in Sydney, Australia."  It's a joy to think about how ideas can spread all around the globe.  Can't keep the truth down for long.

RAF Croughton, England on Oct 4 for rally at U.S. satellite communication base by Oxfordshire Peace Campaign

This photo shows the rally in front of RAF Croughton in England.  (The 'RAF' in front of Croughton is a bit of an illusion.  The Pentagon runs Croughton but in order to keep the peasants on the farm they have to give way to local sensibilities about Britain being in charge.  They are not.) 

The US will be spending £200m to turn Croughton into one of it's largest international intelligence hubs. This major Pentagon communication and intelligence base supports many other US military bases in Europe and is involved in world-wide war operations. These include space communications, data links, military drone information, bomber guidance, missile defence, diplomatic communications, and command and control war fighting functions. A connected base is at Barford St John,  Banbury, Oxfordshire.

One of the US spy radomes at RAF Croughton

Protest against drones in front of Home Depot on island of Hilo, Hawai'i

Protest in front of Home Depot - a great example of 'go where the people are'. The big box corporate stores are a huge part of the problem when it comes to corporate domination of our society. The oligarchy is making it harder on all of us to be able to have true dialogue with the masses.

They fear honest discussion and friendships and respect for one another. But a real democratic culture does not best serve corporate capitalism and must be taken down.  Corporate power uber alles.  Always exciting to know that good folks are out bringing to message to others.  It looks like they did a good job of it.

On October 4th groups of Welsh (UK) peace campaigners met on Poppit Sands in Pembrokeshire and in The Hayes, Cardiff to mark the first Global Action Day Against the Use of Drones for Surveillance and Killing.

Campaigners in over 40 countries across the world were taking part in simultaneous creative direct actions. They were demanding that governments stop producing and acquiring military drones, stop enabling them through infrastructure 'investment' - as has the Welsh Government at ParcAberporth, calling for a halt in military drone research and development, and instead help achieve a worldwide ban of these weapons.

ParcAberporth

On Poppit Sands, a group from Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire flew kites into the clear blue sky above the Teifi estuary. Kite flying is a popular national sport in Afghanistan; 80% of drone strike victims so far have been Afghans.

CND Cymru National Secretary Jill Gough said:

Flying kites is a show of solidarity to all people who live in fear of these remote spying and killing machines. There is always money for war, never money for the poor. While we are distracted by austerity and loss of public services, we in Wales must stay alert to the fact that governments across the world are developing these weapon delivery systems and surveillance machines - to the delight of the military hardware manufacturers and
dealers.

If all you have is a hammer - then every problem looks like a nail. Drones are not the solution to international conflict, they lower the threshold to war and initiate a new round in the arms race. They erode our humanity while ignoring international law and the likelihood of finding peaceful ways to resolve conflict.

This misguided policy of killing and terrorising people thousands of miles away with the push of a button must be stopped.

Israeli El-Bit/French Thales designed Watchkeeper Drones, are being developed and tested for spying, surveillance and target acquisition over mid-Wales. The unmanned planes fly from ParcAberporth in Ceredigion, over north Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and to the military training ranges on Mynydd Epynt in Powys. Welsh taxpayers also fund the development of armed drones being operated in the east of England.

Barclays Bank Cardiff

In Cardiff, Côr Cochion (Cardiff Reds Choir) sang songs of peace in the Hayes. They were joined by others to protest at Barclays Bank, which invests in the Israeli arms company El-Bit.

Choir member Wendy Lewis said:

Drones have been used extensively in Gaza against the defenceless civilian population. Barclays Bank has the blood of more than 400 children killed in the August bombing of Gaza, on its hands.

Inside the bank, a letter of complaint was handed to the manager and the choir sang:

"Barclays are funding the arms trade! That's how they keep profits high  Profit they put before people
They don't care how many die.

Plenty of things need investment. Hospitals, schools and much more. People must come before profit
Tell them to stop funding war!"

CND Cymru Vice Chair Ray Davies later reported:

We ended our action before the police arrived, but not before we asked customers to cut up their bank cards in protest.

In Gangjeong village ad vigil was held opposing drones - see the translated "Keep Space for Peace Week" above.  The village has been a leader in connecting the dots and helping to show others what true solidarity means. The Jeju Island campaign against the Navy base that the US will use in its "pivot" to surround China has been doing great outreach to other campaigns throughout the Asia-Pacific and even with activists from Afghanistan to Italy.

Fifteen folks held a midday vigil yesterday at Bath Iron Works in Maine where destroyers are made for the Navy and are being outfitted with 'missile offense' systems.  These war ships are being deployed by the Pentagon to the coastal regions near China and Russia.

We timed our vigil for when the Saturday shift let out and hundreds of workers walked and drove right past us as we stood near the south gate of the shipyard.  Increasingly we are getting positive reactions from the workers who see our signs with wind turbines and rail systems on them and words that say "Made in Bath".  We've been trying to show workers that our goal is to see a transformation of the shipyard to building things that will help us deal with climate change rather than continuing to build weapons systems that are enormously expensive, destabilizing, and only exacerbate our carbon bootprint and worsen climate change.

Photos by Peter Woodruff (retired BIW worker)

October 5th

The Dharna (Squatting) could not be as planned because in the State of Maharashtra, Assembly elections for the state legislature have been announced to be held on 15the October and the Police will not give permission to organize any public events. Permission has to be obtained from the Election commissioner and so the squat took place in the Rly. Pensioners Office. Members of the Pragatisheel Rly. Mahila Samaj and the S.E.C.Rly Pensioners participated.
 

October 6th

October 6th - rally of students held in the Matru seva Sangh Institute of Social Work at Nagpur

October 11-12

National Youth Conference on “Peace, Disarmament and Development” at Nagpur University.

Students, Lecturers and Professors and other public figures (including GN Board member Tamara Lorincz) attended. Among the issues discussed were: The causes of wars; the role of Imperialism and NATO in waging wars; the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; the Destruction of Hiroshima & Nagasaki by nuclear weapons; the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space; Vision for 2020; the UN Space Treaty; the UN Moon Treaty, Non-Aligned Movement, UN and World Peace, Disarmament & Development, Global Military Expenditure and Human Development, Millennium Development Goals etc.

Global Network board member Tamara Lorincz went to Nagpur, India on behalf of our organization to speak at a Keep Space for Peace Week conference organized by another one of our board members J. Narayana Rao.  Tamara is from Halifax, Nova Scotia and is living in Yorkshire, England for a year doing a peace studies fellowship.

Rao wrote from India:

The National Youth Conference has come to an end at 3 PM to day. Tamara will send you a report. But I would like state how correct the decision to send Tamara to our Conference. She has won the hearts of the young people here. The narration of facts on several issues is amazing. Many students want that this sort of meetings should be held in their colleges and university. She and Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat have succeed to ponder over the issues of imperialist Wars, Disarmament, Prevention of An Arms race in the Outer Space. 

The delegates who have come Hyderabad have decided to invite Adm.Vishnu Bhagwat to Hyderabad in December to speak on these issues. They have also assured me that in the Year 2016 or 2017 if the Annual G.N. Conference is held in India, they are ready to host it at Hyderabad. This city is one of the metropolitan cities in India in the South.

I feel that the purpose for which this conference is held has been achieved.

Conference Declaration
 

Lonesome cowboy vigils in the Tucson desert

A small group of us enjoyed the sun at Fylingdales Early Warning/ Missile Defence Radar Station on the North York Moors on Saturday, as part of the Keep Space for Peace Week.

http://montrosepeacevigil.proboards.com/post/5081/thread

PEACE VIGIL-ING and holding signs (and a place) to "Keep Space for Peace"