Protesters Crash USS Intrepid Homecoming
While hundreds gathered to welcome the return of the USS Intrepid to its Manhattan pier on October 2, more than a dozen peace activists carried banners and leafleted along the waterfront to protest what one demonstrator called “an obscene monument to war.” The Intrepid, which deployed during World War II and the Vietnam War, has served as a military and space museum since 1982.
Nearly two years ago, the warship was hauled to Staten Island for extensive repairs. Although the monument is a privately run enterprise, virtually every cent of the $60 million that was originally deemed necessary for the overhaul of both the aircraft carrier and the dilapidated pier was paid for by federal, state, and local governments. Before it was all over, the already exorbitant cost of the project ballooned to $120 million.
Drawing more than 750,000 visitors per year, including 50,000 schoolchildren, the Intrepid has become one of the city’s most popular tourist destinations. According to the museum’s website, its mission is “to honor our heroes, educate the public, and inspire our youth.” On display are 30 aircraft, the once nuclear armed USS Growler submarine, and a variety of other military hardware used in the United States’ many wars.
“Many of the exhibits are ahistorical in the way they portray the wars that the Intrepid has been involved in,” said Matt Daloisio, a member of the Catholic Worker and the WRL National Committee, who has toured the museum on more than one occasion. “There is no mention whatsoever of the victims of war, or the victims of the planes and armaments that they celebrate on the boat.”
—Eric Stoner
Keep Space for Peace Week
Demonstrators line the highway outside the Vandenberg Air Force Base main gate near Lompoc, Calif. Photo: Jim Haber
Each fall the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space organizes a week of local actions to raise consciousness about the need to prevent a new arms race in space. The Global Network’s website, www.space4peace.org, contains images and reports from Korea, Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, and various cities in the United States.
For Keep Space for Peace Week, 15 concerned citizens including members of the War Resisters League “anti-tested” on Oct. 11 at the Vandenberg Air Force Base main gate. At VAFB, Minuteman ICBMs are still test-launched and spy satellites are placed in polar orbit. For several years, Vandenberg personnel have covered the large entrance sign with black fabric. Activists guess this may be to prevent activists from throwing blood at the sign, as they have in the past, or to keep their sign out of demonstrators’ pictures.
Steve Stormoen of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and Sanderson Beck, founder of Peace Communications, spoke of the cost and dangers of placing weapons in space. As a representative of Nevada Desert Experience, which focuses on stopping nuclear weapons, WRL National Committee member Jim Haber talked about how upgrading the nation’s missiles and bombs violates the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. No arrests were made, although WRL member MacGregor Eddy did leave after being approached by base security for a ban and bar violation if she remained. However, there was noticeably less hostility from passers-by and base personnel than in previous years.
Keep Space for Peace Week is co-sponsored by the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom and Europe for Peace.
More information and photos are at vandenbergwitness.org.
Gandhian author and former War Resisters’ International chair Narayan Desai met with War Resisters League national staff and members on October 8 while on a speaking tour of the United States. Topics discussed included the upcoming U.S. presidential election, the global financial crisis, and the U.S.-India nuclear agreement. When asked if he had any advice for the younger generation, he suggested that they “find their own way and not the Gandhian way.” He said that the solution is to “make them think more and not just give them ready-made answers. We don’t have the answers ourselves.”
Staff Change
WIN has a new editor/publisher.
The newest member of the WRL National Office staff, Clare Moen, took the helm at WIN Magazine early in September. Clare comes to us from Chicago, where she had an extensive and lively writing and editorial career, having worked in educational publishing and written for queer community publications, along with teaching English as a second language and volunteering with the Young Women’s Empowerment Project.
Since moving to New York last year, Clare has been active with the New York City chapter of the Icarus Project, a mental wellness collective. She lives in Queens with her partner and two cats.
We’re glad she chose New York and glad she chose WRL. Welcome aboard, Clare!
