Gov. Janet Mills at the podium, Senators Susan Collins and Angus King seated at right.
Yesterday, General Dynamics in collusion with the U.S. Navy held a "christening" of their latest warship, a nuclear-capable Aegis Destroyer attended by elected officials.
After decades of determined protest and, at times, civil disobedience leading to arrests outside Bath Iron Works' gates, the shipyard's glorifications of war making are no longer open to the general public. (They're also announced at the last minute in obscure channels, so how our group is able to get wind of their plans in time to organize a response is anybody's guess.)
That 24 of us gathered on short notice was one of the things right about yesterday. (Protester Bruce Gagnon's favorable report is here.)
Some of what was wrong:
🕱 Christening is an obnoxious term for naming a ship that will be used to menace China.
Jesus Christ taught turn the other cheek and love one another. Co-opting his name to do pr for your nuclear weapons system is obscene.
🕱 The destroyer is named after a Vietnam war "hero" (an oxymoron if there ever was one) who's incidentally still living and attended the ceremony. Most people who could remember the moral stain of the U.S. proxy war on China using Vietnam are dead. So, imperial narrative managers figure it's time to refurbish the reputation of a wildly unpopular war that killed millions, poisoned thousands with chemical weapons, and spread cluster bombs that are still killing people in neighboring Laos and Cambodia.
🕱 The cost to the U.S. taxpayer for this warship: around $2 billion.
🕱 The Pentagon just failed its fifth audit, so we'll probably never know why the ship cost so much. The U.S. military also just got the biggest budget ever authorized by Congress, a whopping $832 billion, and an undercount at that as nuclear weapons are funded through the Department of Energy budget.
🕱 As a friend pointed out to the reporter for the Times Record yesterday,
Outside the shipyard celebration, Mary Beth Sullivan of Brunswick was one of about 20 people who gathered to protest, holding signs that decried military spending and aggression.
"The money should be going to human needs in our own community," Sullivan, a social worker, said. "We could be building solar panels or windmills. There're so many other projects we could be building if only we had a different mindset.
There's so much profit in war."
🕱 The reporter chose to follow MB's quote with a rebuttal from Senator Angus King who was in attendance to kiss the ring of General Dynamics:
"There are people who say we shouldn’t spend so much money on defense and we shouldn’t build these ships,” King told the crowd. “The problem is there is evil and aggression in the world. If there’s any doubt of that: Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The whole purpose of building this ship is notifying our adversaries … we have the capacity to punish them if they commit an act of aggression against the United States or its allies.
We are building these ships so they will never have to be used.”
🕱 Kingwas there to demonstrate that no matter whether you have an I (he's an independent), a D (Governor Janet Mills), or an R (Senator Susan Collins) after your name, the war machine owns you.
🕱 All military contracting is sold to local entities (who are then pressured to cough up tax rebates for the wealthy corporations they are lucky enough to attract) as a good jobs program. It is nothing of the kind, producing the lowest number of jobs generated per dollar invested in various economic sectors.
🕱 Ramping up a World War 3 with China is the Pentagon's worst idea yet. If an Aegis is capable of carrying nukes, how is China supposed to know that a war ship menacing the South China Sea isn't about to annihilate Beijing?
🕱 The environmental destruction to places like Gangjeong Village on Jeju Island in South Korea via construction to port U.S. war ships is tragic.
🕱 The climate harms of U.S. militarism are well-documented yet never included in the corporate news reporting that puffs gala events like the war ship celebration.
I'll leave you with more of what went right:
☮ We did get a bit of coverage in local newspapers, both in advance and on the day of -- which amplifies our messages considerably. (Kudos in particular to George and Maureen Ostensen for their publicity efforts.)
☮ A local talk radio show had me on prior to the event to talk about how and why we protest war ships.
☮ A lot of wisdom was shared in our closing circle (depicted above is Mair Honan, who moved many of us by speaking about war-induced grief).
☮ Many hundreds of celebration-goers, cops, security guards, and passers-by saw our messages. Some honked and waved, or thanked us for being there.
☮ Our presence demonstrated that it's possible to dissent from sailing full speed ahead toward nuclear world war.
We are often told here in Maine that Bath Iron Works, our shipyard owned by war industry behemoth General Dynamics, can only build warships because "jobs."
The implication that only Pentagon contracts can provide jobs at union wages with benefits is false. But war contracting is insanely profitable, so the politicians owned by the war industry make sure to also repeat this false talking point.
Maine's congressional delegation knows that building a roster of useful things at BIW would actually produce more good, union jobs than building warships does.
Far more, in fact.
They know because for years their constituents have been sharing economists' research demonstrating this fact. And they know because, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, BIW actually did this.
Below is my op-ed on actual conversion to building for healthcare, published in the Bangor Daily News June 7, 2020 :
Bath Iron Works leads the way in conversion to peaceful production
Last month, a milestone was reached. No, not the 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the United States, though it is related to that sobering statistic. Rather, it’s that heritage shipyard Bath Iron Works has taken its first step in a conversion to building valuable tools for humanity instead of weapons of war.
Even better, several of BIW’s subcontractors are also contributing to the effort to make these essential items for protecting the public’s health.
As part of a coalition that for years has called on BIW’s owner, General Dynamics, to convert the shipyard to producing solutions to the climate crisis rather than weapon systems that contribute to it, I am greatly encouraged by this news. What’s more, we now have a blueprint for how BIW can continue to provide great union jobs, while no longer creating war ships that are increasingly irrelevant and costly.
Second, there must be political will to address the problem. In this case, Puritan chief financial officer reports that Sen. Angus King and other government officials called on Puritan to increase capacity to address the testing deficit. For the climate crisis, as many as 60 percent of registered voters are in support of a Green New Deal — BIW and our elected officials both must take heed of the people’s will.
Third, BIW needs monetary incentives. In this case, the speed and efficiency with which management used federal funding available under the CARES Act is astonishing and impressive. And yet the $75.5 million funded through the Defense Production Act is a pittance in comparison with the multiple billions needed to create Navy destroyers. Think of what that kind of cash infusion could do for the renewable energy industry.
Finally, there is the need for collaboration. While we have often heard how difficult conversion would be, given all of the subcontractors and partners involved, it appears BIW has managed to collaborate with more than 10 other Maine businesses in a matter of weeks. This is both incredibly impressive and exhilarating, as it suggests so much potential for addressing the climate crisis in collective fashion.
When Bath Iron Works remained open to continue building war ships during a global pandemic, it was clear our priorities were badly misplaced. Claiming that building yet another war ship is an “essential” business, when we already have more destroyers than all the other navies in the world combined, is the kind of poor thinking that has characterized the executive branch of the federal government during this crisis.
But maybe we have finally turned a corner. It’s now clear the conversion of BIW to peaceful production is entirely possible, as this rapid shift to address a critical medical shortage shows. And it need not come at the expense of good union jobs. On the contrary, economists’ research has demonstrated time and again that building weapon systems is a poor jobs program in terms of the number of jobs generated. Their estimates show converting BIW to produce clean energy systems instead of war ships would generate roughly 50 percent more jobs — with the same investment — than the 6,000 employed before the pandemic.
A demilitarized Green New Deal is the obvious course forward for a country full of workers desperate for good jobs. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Lisa Savage is an Independent Green candidate for U.S. Senate.
Phil Berrigan being arrested at the Pentagon after one of his many actions. In 1997 he led a plowshares action at Bath Iron Works (BIW) in Maine and was called "a moral giant, the conscience of a generation" by Judge Joseph Field. (Etching by Tom Lewis) Source: Organizing Notes
Thrilled to repost my friend Bruce Gagnon's account of today's trial of some of the group of us arrested at Bath Iron Works war ship celebration last summer.
On June 24, 2019, 22 non-violent peace activists were arrested at BIW during another destroyer 'christening' as they blocked buses and cars full of people trying to enter the shipyard for the event.
On that day nine in the group refused to pay the $60 bail commissioner fee and spent two nights in jail. In the end some of those arrested paid a $152 fine (being told they would lose their drivers license if they did not pay the fine), some had their charges dropped (after a screw up at the DA's office) and seven decided to take their case before the West Bath District Court in a bench trial.
(The entire group had wanted a jury trial but the state reduced the charges to a 'jay walking infraction' that was not severe enough to warrant a jury trial. Thus a bench trial, before a judge only, was in order.)
This morning four of the remaining defendants (Brown Lethem, Natasha Mayers, Ridgely Fuller & Ashley Bahlkow) appeared before Judge Joseph Field for the bench trial. After a long period of sitting around the court house the case was finally called before Judge Field around 11:00 am.
Judge Field is known in peace movement circles as the presiding judge in 1997 following a plowshares action at BIW.
Before dawn on February 12, 1997, Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Christian season of Lent, six religious peace activists, Steve Baggarly from Norfolk, VA, Philip Berrigan, a former Josephite priest from Baltimore, Mark Colville of New Haven, CT, Susan Crane, from Baltimore, Tom Lewis-Borbely of Worcester, MA and the Rev. Steve Kelly, a Jesuit priest from San Jose, CA, calling themselves Prince of Peace Plowshares, boarded the USS The Sullivans, an Aegis destroyer, at BIW. Inspired by Isaiah’s prophecy to turn swords into plowshares, they poured their own blood and used hammers to beat on the hatches covering the tubes from which nuclear missiles can be fired and unfurled a banner which read Prince of Peace Plowshares, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks…Isaiah 2:4.”
On that same day in 1997 in Sagadahoc County District Court, when the Prince of Peace Plowshares were brought to arraignment, Judge Joseph Field felt impassioned enough to say, “Anyone of my generation knows Philip Berrigan. He is a moral giant, the conscience of a generation.”
When we entered the court room today we didn't know who the presiding judge would be. It wasn't until the proceedings were over that we realized that Judge Field had once again made an impassioned statement for peace and our constitutional rights.
When the judge began this morning he said the following:
I personally agree with what you are doing. I support your right to speak out. No damages occurred by your action.
I am horrified about our rights being taken away these days.
I want you to know this. We are not seeing any [positive] leadership out of Washington DC.
Judge Field went on to cancel the $152 fine the District Attorney's office was requesting. Instead he gave the four activists 20 hours of community service at a place "where real people are being touched".
He then sent his clerk back into his office to retrieve his laptop which he then used to search for something which he tearfully read in full before the courtroom. It was a quote by former President Eisenhower:
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.
It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population.
It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway.
We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat.
We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.
This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking.
This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
Judge Field then asked each of the four defendants if they wished to make a statement. Natasha Mayers told the story about a Labor Day rally at BIW in 1994 joined by President Bill Clinton, Sen. George Mitchell, Rep. Tom Andrews, BIW President Buzz Fitzgerald and other national and local labor leaders. They all called for the conversion of the shipyard to civilian production so there is indeed a tradition in Bath along these lines to ensure job and community stability.
The judge responded by asking what kinds of products could be built at the shipyard? Attorney Logan Perkins (Belfast), representing the four, stated, "These are people of conscience who risked their freedom to take a stand against climate change by peaceful assembly.
They are not anti-worker, not anti-BIW. They insist we convert the Pentagon - the world's biggest polluter which is on a death march of producing destroyers at BIW. They have a bold and creative vision to transform our economy to sun, wind, and rail systems."
Judge Field closed the legal proceedings with these words, "Go ye hence and continue to do good work. Keep it non-violent without property damage."
As the judge rose those in attendance applauded this remarkable man and this incredible experience - unlike any we've ever experienced in an American courtroom.
Youth Climate Strike leader Anna Siegel speaking on June 21, 2019 in Portland Maine
As the September 20 climate strike approaches, I wanted to share selected excerpts from the June 21 news conference in Portland for the Bath Iron Works conversion campaign. It would be well worth your while to view the video of the whole event, as much wisdom and insightful calls to action were shared. (If the embedded YouTube video does not work for you, you can view it at the link here.)
Barry Dana, Penobscot Nation:
Love the earth, treat the earth
as you would treat your own mother... Do no harm to the earth, or that harm
will fall upon you and future generations.
We’re living today as though we
have infinite resources, infinite growth, and that is unsustainable.
Anna Siegel, Youth Climate Strike:
When I blew out my 13 candles,
the clock in my head ticked forward: one less year. That is what I believe
climate insecurity is...Youth worldwide don’t know how long they’ll have a
healthy planet, or what the future holds.
Campaigns like this effort to
convert Bath Iron Works are what alleviates these fears and bring light to what
can be difficult activism. We are working on a local solution to the climate
crisis that has global impacts.
Next year when I blow out my
birthday candles I hope I think about the progress we’ve made not how time is
running out.
Luke Sekera, SEEDS of Peace:
As the climate crisis unfolds
and escalates before us, we need to accept responsibility for our roles in the problem in
order to change our behavior patterns. We must also put significant pressure on industrial
polluters to hold them accountable and use their capital investments to
re-imagine their destructive business models as soon as possible.
The military-industrial complex
is among the largest polluters in the United States, and Bath Iron Works here
in Maine is a significant part of it.
Considering how much the US
spends on national defense I know that we have the resource necessary to commit
to converting the practices of industrial centers such as BIW into environmentally sustainable ones.
We are owed a shift in
direction especially as a growing climate crisis poses a national security threat.
Besides the loss of life, what
will the carbon foot print of yet another war be? Will another Zumwalt give us
clean air and water?
I work hard at trying not to be
afraid.
Our military appears to be
failing us, not protecting us. Iran is not the problem -- U.S. imperialism and
America’s ongoing quest for oil and other resources is... What can we expect
from a govt that spends 10 times more on fossil fuel subsidies than on
education?
We need to stop investing in
this war culture and start investing in our youth and restoration of our
planet.
Nickie Sekera, Community Water Justice:
Just as bottled water is being
sold as a false solution to our global water problems, we’re being led to
believe that half of our discretionary spending should continue to maintain a
non-viable excess of dominion.
What we call a just transition
...could help align Bath Iron Works’ own values as published on their website -- which includes being a good corporate citizen and supporting the
environment.
We are only as strong and as
innovative as we can imagine. It is up to everyone of us to put our imaginations
together and mobilize as if everyone’s lives depended on each action.
Justin Beth, Maine Green Independent Party:
Right now we are on the verge
of war with Iran..our government thinks that we need to protect shipping
channels...to secure our oil future here in the U.S. We do not need this oil. If we truly invested in conversion of Bath Iron Works to renewable energy
production, we would then have the means to say, “No we don’t need that oil. We
don’t need to protect those shipping lanes. Let’s get out of those wars. Let’s
invest in the future.”
It is time that we stood up for
Mainers and for Americans that don’t want war. We’ve had enough of it!
It is time for our government
to really respect the needs of the people. The majority of Americans want
a Green New Deal...that promises to end these wars.
The idea of this Bath Iron
Works conversion is the first step on that path to a Green New Deal that we so
very much need...we can be the leader on a Green New Deal here in Maine to end
war and produce the renewable energy that we need for a sustainable future.
Jill Stein, Green Party US 2016 candidate for President:
Conversion at Bath Iron
Works... really should be the launching pad for the Green New Deal.
That Green New Deal would
create 100% clean renewable energy by 2030, which is basically what the science
tells us that we need to do. This is an emergency program, and we should settle
for nothing less.
It’s also a solution to our
broken economy which is failing so many Americans.
The Bath iron workers...have
had to sacrifice gains in wages and pension benefits, have lost health care, in
order to be “competitive” to attract these contracts… the workers are victims
of this economy that forces us into militarization.
The Green New Deal is
essentially a revolution for our economy, our climate, and it makes the wars
for oil obsolete.
BIW workers.. once were
demanding of our elected officials that they fight for Green contracts with the
same vigor that they fight for these war contracts.
Rob Shetterly, Americans Who Tell The Truth:
Militarism is not protecting us
in a dangerous world, it’s making the world far more dangerous.
We’re here because we
love...the earth, all its species, its people, its children, its hope...we will
do what we need to do to protect these things.
Bruce Gagnon, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space:
[During the state-wide campaign
against General Dynamics’ tax giveaway from the state of Maine] I did a 36 day
hunger strike and on most of those days I went to the shipyard at noon during
shift change and I got to speak to a lot of workers. And I can tell you that
there are many workers who said, We’d rather do something else. We’d rather
build something that we’re proud of. We don’t feel so great.
And most of
them that said that were younger guys, people who grew up in schools that were
teaching them about climate catastrophe. And so they really, really understand
the connection when we stand outside the gates with our signs.
Mary Beth Sullivan, Peaceworks of Greater Brunswick:
The climate crisis is the true
security problem that we in the world must organize to confront.
Our vision is that we wrestle
our hard earned tax dollars from the permanent war economy..that we retool our
weapons manufacturing plants and pay our neighbors to build an alternative
energy infrastructure.
The youth of our world are so
very clear what the real crisis is..let’s listen to their vision, and mobilize
to make it happen.
Dud Hendrick, Veterans for Peace:
This is now: a fleet of
warships larger than the next 13 largest [nations] combined, part of the U.S.
military that has the largest carbon footprint on the planet.
Today there are over 800 U.S.
bases on foreign lands, all playing a role in the despoiling of the
environment.
Now we know the consequences of
wanton disregard for our beloved planet are undeniable. Is there time for
change?
We’ve invited each of our Congressional representatives to be here today. None are, not even a
staffer. Tomorrow they will all be at the christening. So will we -- demanding
conversion.
Sue Pastore 350 Maine:
Based on current realities,
what is predictable is great pain for many, a pain that could be avoided or at
least minimized.
We are confident that people
have the power to take effective action and to attend to the crisis.
Success requires action.
Success requires sacrifice...We need to change business as usual. We need to
move on.
The intersection of jobs and
the economy, militarism and violence, and the climate and the health of the
natural world is an undeniable opportunity for such action. In Maine that
interaction and opportunity is revealed at Bath Iron Works...there is
tremendous skill, tremendous infrastructure, so much ability there. Such
potential is limited by its current support of military development...Conversion
removes such limits.
Ken Jones, retired professor, University of Southern Maine:
I wrote a poem entitled “A
Prayer In the Face Of The Destroyer”:
I do not consent to your
presence or your future.
I’ve come to ring the bell of
freedom from war, to awaken us from our dreams of conquest, so that we may see
the storms coming for us all.
We have sown the seeds of our
own destruction.
Let us move our hearts and
spirits so that we see what we have done...let us turn this ship around:
decommission it, unchristen it.
Patsy Messier, Bath Iron Works employee (now retired):
(Note: I delivered Patsy's written remarks as she was working at BIW on the day of the event.)
And, of course, as people get older and wiser, personal changes are inevitable. You learn why it has been so difficult to provide the American Dream for yourself and your families. Why people and huge companies are denying income inequality, climate change, and racial injustice throughout the world. To me, it all boils down to greed. And to change that attitude is like turning a destroyer in the water. It takes patience, hope, and persistence to this task with the goal of making the economy work for all its peoples. It's that important to the whole world!
I believe BIW has the capacity with all the equipment and/or people that are already there for the conversion to happen pretty easily.
Imagine wind turbine platforms, fast trains, or Ships of Peace (Mercy Ships) being built at BIW. I can just imagine the workers' pride then!
Bill Slavick, Pax Christi Maine:
The military-industrial complex
owns Washington, including those Maine has sent there.
The military is the most
polluting operation on the planet.
We started back to school in Maine this week. My students will begin today, but the adults in my district spent almost all of yesterday in state-mandated trainings: suicide prevention in the morning, and child abuse reporting in the afternoon. I should be careful what I wish for because, with the addition of a long mid-day staff meeting, I was out of time and had to work long after the contract day just to be ready for tomorrow. (Yes, I worked this summer, too, some of it compensated by a school improvement grant, much of it not.) When I say I wished for those trainings, it's true. For 20+ years now I've been aware that, despite being trained to teach by an excellent post-graduate program at the University of Southern Maine, I was unprepared for the social work aspect of my job. Yesterday afternoon we practiced looking at photographs of real homes where children were removed in order to practice providing accurate descriptions of what we witness. Glancing at a bedroom with a shelf of children's books, a bureau with the drawers missing, and a mattress you wouldn't let your dog sleep on you might be likely to comment: drug addicts live here. I teach in Somerset County, the largest, poorest county in Maine and the source of more child abuse referrals than any of the other 15 counties. In 2018 Child Protective Services received nearly 50,000 calls which resulted in around 25,000 documented reports of neglect or abuse in our state. Drug addiction, depression and other mental health conditions, obesity, suicide: these are the diseases of despair that characterize the poorest parts of our state. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are both the cause and the effect.
Our next round of professional development will be on creating trauma-sensitive classrooms and schools that support students with high ACEs. Not on how to best teach reading, writing, mathematics or geography. Not on how to engage and motivate students in learning activities. Rather, how to make school bearable, maybe even productive, for a child suffering from PTSD.
Lots of teachers are found on crowdsourced funding sites pleading for money to do their jobs.
Progressive news site Maine Beacon reported yesterday that teachers in Maine spend millions of dollars out of pocket each year to provide basic supplies to students. That sometimes means paper and books, but it also can mean shoes, snow pants and snacks.
"That teachers subsidize schools should come as no surprise. In some districts, teachers are increasingly called on to serve as first responders when it comes to children's basis needs," wrote Emma GarcÃa, an economist for EPI. “That generosity extends to filling the gap when schools, districts, and states don’t provide all the needed educational goods. And for teachers in high-poverty schools, filling the gap is costlier.”
Meanwhile, News Center Maine reported that General Dynamics is staffing up to build six more carbon-belching war ships at their Bath Iron Works plant. Maine needs good paying, full-benefit jobs, and BIW is the biggest employer in our state. Tragically, the money wasted building weapons of mass destruction will hasten climate emergency and produce far fewer jobs than building, say, public transportation would produce. Congress is still voting for the biggest Pentagon budgets ever, well over 50% of the discretionary budget each and every year.
All of Maine's congressional delegation appeared in this "have a wonderful school year" video produced by our new Commissioner of Education. Pender Makin and her communications staff no doubt thought that after eight years of teacher bashing by our former governor, an infusion of optimism and support was warranted. Too bad those in Congress don't put their money where their smile is. They continue to lavishly fund the Pentagon at the expense of education, Medicare for All, or conversion of the military-industrial problem. This is true whether they have R, D or I after their name.
The children in my school don't have much of a voice in government. General Dynamics with its campaign contributions and super PACs does. What's wrong with this picture?
Members of the #Inouye22 being taken to jail Photo credit: Sophia Bahlkow
Media coverage of our powerful Conversion Campaign news conference on June 21 was thin, but coverage is rolling in from both mainstream and alternative sources for our arrests on June 22. And people ask what purpose it serves to be arrested. They might well ask that of the 70 people reportedly arrested outside the New York Times the same day, demanding the mouthpiece of the wealthy cover climate as the emergency it is.
Supporter of Juliana v. U.S. youth climate lawsuit in Portland, Oregon June 4, 2019 Photo credit: Janet Weil
As of this morning, news of our arrest is trending in the Bangor Daily News' Most Popular list.
(Note: The Portland Press Herald did run the Times Record article by Darcie Moore, but the PPH website has been down all morning so I can't share a link, only this photo my friend Maryellen Dunn sent me of the hard copy of the Saturday 6/22/19 edition.)
Bruce Gagnon of Global Network Against Nuclear Power & Weapons in Space being taken to jail. To order your Maine Natural Guard t-shirt and take the pledge to connect global heating to Pentagon carbon emissions, go here.
Photo credit: Sophia Bahlkow
