Organizing Notes

Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He offers his own reflections on organizing and the state of America's declining empire....

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Location: Brunswick, ME, United States

The collapsing US military & economic empire is making Washington & NATO even more dangerous. US could not beat the Taliban but thinks it can take on China-Russia-Iran...a sign of psychopathology for sure. We must all do more to help stop this western corporate arrogance that puts the future generations lives in despair. @BruceKGagnon

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Global Network History in Pictures

During most of our 25 years of operation artist Will Park from Florida has provided us with art work to illustrate our concerns. 

These photos below are from past Global Network (GN) annual conferences. They are not in any particular order (was just too hard to put them that way on this blog). Each year we try to meet in a different country and place where the US has a space weapons base or a weapons production facility.

We thank all of our members and friends over these last 25 years for helping spread the message of Keep Space for Peace!

(Click on any of the photos for a better view.)

Bruce

GN members joined Gangjeong village leaders in 2012 on Jeju Island for a news conference to denounce the construction of the Navy base in their village.

At the conclusion of our 2011 annual conference in Andover, Massachusetts we posed outside of Merrimack College for a group shot.

GN founding member journalism professor Karl Grossman spoke at our 2005 event in New York City inside the Musician's Union Hall.

Founding member Bill Sulzman from Colorado speaking during our 2006 annual event in Vancouver, Canada held in conjunction with the World Peace Forum.

In 2003 we joined Australian activists for a protest against their president the day before our annual GN conference in Melbourne.

In 2002 we held our annual conference in Berkeley, California and kicked things off with a protest outside of Lockheed-Martin space production center in Sunnyvale.

Our 2001 annual confab was held in Leeds, England and was hosted by Yorkshire CND.

When we met in Leeds in 2001 one of the speakers was Jeremy Corbin who today serves as leader of the Labour Party in the UK.  He has long been an active peacenik.

Lindis Percy from England spoke during our rally in front of the US Treasury Department during a protest the day before our 2000 conference was held at American University.

In 1998 we held our annual conference in Colorado Springs and went to Falcon AFB ('Space Warfare Center') for a protest the day before the conference began.  As we stood along the desolate country road outside the base snow began to fall.

GN board member Agneta Norberg (left) stands alongside Norwegian journalist Bard Wormdal during our 2013 conference in Kiruna, Sweden - up in the high north where the US-NATO have created a major space operations center.

In 2009 we met in Seoul, South Korea and during the conference made a side trip to Kadena AFB to protest the US deployment of PAC-3 'missile defense' (MD) system that is aimed at China.

In 2004 the GN met in Maine.  We gathered for a protest in Bath and then held our conference at a church in Portland.

Korean-war veteran Tom Sturtevant joined our protest in Bath, Maine in 2004.  His sign showed that he understood the provocative nature of US deployments of 'missile defense' in the Asia-Pacific long before it became a well-known issue.

During the 2004 protest in Bath, Maine we marched to the Bath Iron Works shipyard where Navy Aegis destroyers are being built and outfitted with MD systems.  We called for the conversion of the shipyard to sustainable production.

Some of the participants enjoying the warm Santa Barbara, California weather during our 2014 conference held at a beautiful Catholic retreat center..

GN board convener (and webmaster) Dave Webb from the UK spoke during our protest outside Vandenberg AFB, California prior to our 2014 conference.  The base is a major space operations center.

Our protest in front of the White House in 2000 the day before our conference began.

In 2007 we met for the 3rd time in our history in Darmstadt, Germany.  Board member Regina Hagen suggested we wear eye patches and hold white cranes as we stood outside the European Space Agency headquarters as workers arrived in the morning.  We were suggesting they were not clearly seeing the dangers of the growing militarization of European space programs.

Mary Beth Sullivan spoke at our 2007 conference in Darmstadt, Germany.  She served as our outreach coordinator for a couple years before returning to her career as a social worker.  MB still often speaks about the need to convert the military industrial complex to peaceful purposes.

GN founding member Dr. Michio Kaku delivered the keynote address at our 2005 meeting in New York City.

A crowd shot of the participants during the 2005 GN confab in New York City.

Protesting outside Raytheon in Andover, Massachusetts prior to our 2011 annual conference.  Raytheon is a big Star Wars contractor.

Lynda Williams (left) and Lindis Percy (right) outside the US's NSA spy base at Menwith Hill in Yorkshire, England prior to the start of our 2001 conference.

In 2015 the GN met in Kyoto, Japan for our conference.


We timed our 2005 GN conference to coincide with a large disarmament march directed at the UN's NPT Review conference in New York City.   

Some of our GN gang as we joined the 2005 disarmament march through the streets of New York the day after our annual conference.

Our 2015 conference in Kyoto, Japan included a bus ride to the coast where we had a meeting with Ukawa villagers who continue to protest against the recent deployment of a Pentagon MD radar that would help direct missiles toward China.

In 2010 the GN was invited to co-sponsor a space conference in Nagpur, India that drew students from all over the country.

Sung-Hee Choi briefed us before we crawled under the razor wire on sacred Gureombi rock along the Jeju Island coast in 2012.  Minutes later 16 people, including many from the GN, were arrested for trying to non-violently interfere with Navy base construction operations.

A group of our international GN delegation in Gangjeong village on Jeju Island, South Korea during the 2012 conference.

Standing in the freezing cold in 2008 we kicked-off our annual GN conference with a protest outside the gates of Offutt AFB where Strategic Command (StratCom) is based.  StratCom is now in charge of nuclear missiles, bombers, space operations, missile defense, and cyber warfare.  Activists in Nebraska say that StratCom's new mission is 'Offensive'.

Board member Regina Hagen (Germany) speaks during our 2008 conference in Omaha, Nebraska.


Tim Rinne (left) from Nebraska and I in Darmstadt, Germany during our 2007 conference.

In 2015 prior to our GN meeting in Kyoto a delegation from our organization went to Okinawa for a solidarity visit with people fighting against US military bases on their island.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Brother Jonah said...

It's almost 40 years since the premiere of Star Wars. Kids who watched the glorification of High Tech Death are now in positions of great power. Some of the top selling Christmas presents were Star Wars toys. Teach them young.

Oh, I didn't put a date on the toys being top sellers for Christ-mas presents. Every year starting since 1977. Same theme with different characters, teach the kiddoes that it's all right to kill people who either were born non-human or voluntarily gave up their humanity. Just like every gift-giving holiday since Nimrod. Who did pretty good for himself without any of the evolved Weapons of Mass Deception. If you could accurately use the terms "pretty" and "good" to describe any of it.

12/25/16, 8:34 AM  

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