Upper Heyford Ploughshares
21st March 1990
21st March 1990
Statement of Conscience
They shall beat their swords into ploughshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.
But everyone will sit underneath
their vine and fig tree
and none shall make them afraid.
Micah 4: 3,4
Today we come to USAF Upper Heyford to begin the disarmament
of the F-111 and EF-111 nuclear-capable US airforce.
We bring pictures of friends and friends’ children
to give face to the nameless victims
– past, present and future –
of the nuclear arms race and interventionary politics.
We bring a piece of the Berlin Wall
to celebrate the power of grassroots nonviolent direct action,
and to affirm that some property
– like Berlin Walls and nuclear weapons,
gas chambers and concentration camps –
has no right to exist.
We bring blood,
to name these machines as machines of death,
to name war as the bloody business it is,
and to show how precious and precarious our lives are.
We bring household hammers,
to enflesh and enact the beautiful prophecies of the Old Testament:
They shall beat their swords into ploughshares
(Isaiah 2: 4, Micah 4: 3).
For all the intergovernmental talk of disarmament, the arms race has never been so savage,
especially on British soil and in British waters. Britain is effectively an aircraft carrier for the United States, available for nuclear strike or “conventional” attack, such as the bombing of Libya.
The INF Treaty was a confidence trick. It contained no provisions for the dismantling of the nuclear warheads, which will be re-used. It only covered the missile casings. In the six months between signing and US ratification more missiles were built in the USA than will be scrapped under the treaty.
Even if the US and USSR agree to 50% cuts in strategic weapons (START), the destabilising drive towards a First Strike capability will remain untouched. NATO is introducing a whole new generation of nuclear weapons – Trident II, air- and sea-launched cruise missiles, SRAM.
This unilateral arms race must be stopped.
We are inspired by the visions of the prophets Isaiah and Micah,
by the life of Jesus,
by the international Ploughshares Community,
by the countless women and men throughout the ages
who have chosen the way of nonviolence,
even to the point of death.
We choose to say, if need be with our liberty:
The violence stops here.
We say to the war-planners and war-makers, the Pentagon and the Ministry of “Defence”:
Not in our names.
We place our hope, not in leaders and the military,
but in the love and life and nonviolent resistance of ordinary people.
We feel honoured to be part of this worldwide struggle
for a more sane, more just, more caring and disarmed world.
We urge everyone to reflect seriously on these deadly times,
to listen to our deepest response,
and to act with courage and compassion.
We hear the prophet’s cry of old
ring through the prison wall.
We’ve waited thirty centuries
to hear that hammer fall.
If we think we’ve got thirty more
we cannot hear at all
– for swords into ploughshares
the hammer has to fall.
(Charlie King)
Stephen Hancock Mike Hutchinson March 21st 1990
They shall beat their swords into ploughshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.
But everyone will sit underneath
their vine and fig tree
and none shall make them afraid.
Micah 4: 3,4
Today we come to USAF Upper Heyford to begin the disarmament
of the F-111 and EF-111 nuclear-capable US airforce.
We bring pictures of friends and friends’ children
to give face to the nameless victims
– past, present and future –
of the nuclear arms race and interventionary politics.
We bring a piece of the Berlin Wall
to celebrate the power of grassroots nonviolent direct action,
and to affirm that some property
– like Berlin Walls and nuclear weapons,
gas chambers and concentration camps –
has no right to exist.
We bring blood,
to name these machines as machines of death,
to name war as the bloody business it is,
and to show how precious and precarious our lives are.
We bring household hammers,
to enflesh and enact the beautiful prophecies of the Old Testament:
They shall beat their swords into ploughshares
(Isaiah 2: 4, Micah 4: 3).
For all the intergovernmental talk of disarmament, the arms race has never been so savage,
especially on British soil and in British waters. Britain is effectively an aircraft carrier for the United States, available for nuclear strike or “conventional” attack, such as the bombing of Libya.
The INF Treaty was a confidence trick. It contained no provisions for the dismantling of the nuclear warheads, which will be re-used. It only covered the missile casings. In the six months between signing and US ratification more missiles were built in the USA than will be scrapped under the treaty.
Even if the US and USSR agree to 50% cuts in strategic weapons (START), the destabilising drive towards a First Strike capability will remain untouched. NATO is introducing a whole new generation of nuclear weapons – Trident II, air- and sea-launched cruise missiles, SRAM.
This unilateral arms race must be stopped.
We are inspired by the visions of the prophets Isaiah and Micah,
by the life of Jesus,
by the international Ploughshares Community,
by the countless women and men throughout the ages
who have chosen the way of nonviolence,
even to the point of death.
We choose to say, if need be with our liberty:
The violence stops here.
We say to the war-planners and war-makers, the Pentagon and the Ministry of “Defence”:
Not in our names.
We place our hope, not in leaders and the military,
but in the love and life and nonviolent resistance of ordinary people.
We feel honoured to be part of this worldwide struggle
for a more sane, more just, more caring and disarmed world.
We urge everyone to reflect seriously on these deadly times,
to listen to our deepest response,
and to act with courage and compassion.
We hear the prophet’s cry of old
ring through the prison wall.
We’ve waited thirty centuries
to hear that hammer fall.
If we think we’ve got thirty more
we cannot hear at all
– for swords into ploughshares
the hammer has to fall.
(Charlie King)
Stephen Hancock Mike Hutchinson March 21st 1990