A reflective reunion of the Plowshares Eight was held on September 9, 2020. One hundred forty people joined Zoom with the understanding that humanity still lives under the threat of nuclear weapons.
A moment of silence began the gathering to recall Fr. Daniel Berrigan, Philip Berrigan, Elmer Maas and Sr. Anne Montgomery. Dean Hammer, Fr. Carl Kabat, Molly Rush, and John Schuchardt each spoke briefly to recall aspects of the action.
Forty years ago, the first of what has grown to be more than 100 Plowshares actions (the most recent Plowshares action is the Kings Bay Plowshares 7) was taken at the GE plant In King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, where eight people hammered Mark 12A missile nose cones and poured their own blood in opposition to nuclear weapons.
Plowshares Actions are deeply rooted in Isaiah 2 “…and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” From the Plowshares 8 original statement: “In confronting GE, we choose to obey God’s law of life, rather than a corporate summons to death. Our beating of swords into plowshares is a way to enflesh this biblical call.”
Each participant in the action had different views to share. (The Nuclear Resister has lengthy reflections in a current issue.)
Molly Rush said, “Do everything you are capable of doing,” and “Hope is a decision you act on.”
Dean Hammer spoke of the Plowshares 8 being a community of conscience and a conspiracy of feeling. He said, “Nuclear weapons damage our collective imagination, a Plowshares action helps to heal the wounded imagination.” And, “the trauma we endure from the fact as well as use of nuclear weapons is a deep-seated psychological dilemma and our social imagination must be healed through atonement and expression of grief and sorrow.”
Father Carl Kabat said he had just “gotten out of stir, the day before,” when he went to the group and asked to join. He is approaching his 87th birthday and has spent 18 years total in prison for anti-war protest. He recalled that his job was to keep the guard occupied so the others could enter the plant and hammer the nose cones that get packed with thermonuclear material and that ultimately no hammer made a dent.
John Schuchardt showed a photo of a Madonna unearthed as recently as 20 years ago, from the Nagasaki’s Urakami Cathedral targeted with atomic bomb “Fat Man” as ground zero. She is known as the “Atomic Bomb Mother of God.”
There was a musical interlude with Anne Feeney and her son singing her iconic, great song: “Have You Been to Jail for Justice?” with the immortal lines: “Have you been to jail for justice? I want to shake your hand, Then you’re a friend of mine.”
From Australia, Dr. Helen Caldicott spoke of her deep respect for the Plowshares activists, saying “You folks walk in the shoes of the fisherman.” She said we are all (must be) physicians on a dying planet and the question really is: “Why are we still here?”
John Schuchardt reminded the gathering that when the Plowshares 8 were on trial, it was the judge who turned his back on the law, making a mockery of the legal system, holding it in contempt. Expert witnesses including, Richard Falk, Robert Aldridge, Howard Zinn, Robert J. Lifton and George Wald, were not allowed to testify on behalf of the defendants, depriving them of their right to defense. At one point, the judge actually mocked defendant Elmer Maas who was speaking in his own defense. The group stood in court and turned their backs to the judge as an act of self-respect. To hammer home the point that the crime was at the GE plant, defendants left court during the lunch break, returned to the site and were re-arrested.
In 1982 a film was made that re-enacted the trial: In the King of Prussia, by Emile de Antonio. It is available for free for you to watch on Youtube with Martin Sheen as The Judge and the defendants playing themselves.
Other anecdotes were told, memories shared and anti-war, anti-nuclear exhortations were expressed. The gathering lasted for nearly three hours! A few of these highlights are below.
Several activists, including Marcia Timmel and Mr. Ireland spoke of trials where necessity defense was allowed by a judge and juries did not convict or a judge used latitude in sentencing for less harsh jail time.
Liz McAlister, of Kings Bay Plowshares, said there is an “absolute need for continued public direct action, we have to find ways to end our dependence on weapons of mass destruction.”
Filmmaker Helen Young, who made The Nuns, The Priests and the Bombs told how in getting to know the activists, during the making of the film, she developed great respect and love for them and that the world owes a debt of gratitude for their actions.
The last words spoken with regard to the Plowshares 8 action 40 years ago were that “Love is at the heart of it all,” by John Schuchardt.
