Transcripts For LINKTV Democracy Now 20240713 : vimarsana.co

Times were hard. There was no food, no electricity, no water. No medicine. Help was not getting their. We were dying. And President Trump was killing us. With his bureaucracy and his inefficiency. You know, he said he could not get help because we are an island surrounded by water, lots and lots of water, ocean water. From the quote president of the United States. [boos] in the midst of all that darkness, when men came down to visit me and i could tell you i was not a bernie supporter in 2016. I was not. Started feeling the burn when he came down to the city of san juan, or to rico. Cameras, noshow, just a man with a big heart with a lot of passion and a lot of compassion, and he won me over. Expert. Climate change i am a Climate Change survivor. [applause] warm the oceanw is going to get or how hot how high the tides are going to go. Say it louder. Say it louder. Say it louder i do know this one thing. Climate change is real. Climate change kills. 3000 Puerto Ricans did not open their eyes this morning because of a president that was too concerned about looking good rather than doing good. And yes, we are not going to spend too much time talking about a racist, demagogue from is even if ohmic xenophobic, paper throwing president. Lock him up lock him up lock him up1 you know what . Lets vote him out. Vote him out vote him out vote him out bethe time is now to uncompromising. The time is now to be relentless. The time is now to be fearless. The time is now to be bold. The time is now to stand with Bernie Sanders. [cheers] congresswoman alexandria ocasiocortez. Holy cow whats up, new york city . I am in the United States congress now. [cheers] that is a long, long way from being a sexually harassed waitress in Downtown Manhattan one year ago. This new historic , anhman congressional class overwhelming amount of them now reject corpus pack money. That is thanks to bernie. Of thermous amounts house of representatives endorsed medicare for all. That is thanks to bernie. More people now than ever recognize the Climate Crisis as an existential threat, but also our greatest Economic Opportunity and that is thanks not just to the climate work of Bernie Sanders, but the climate activist that are part of Mass Movement politics in the United States. [cheers] a United States that really, truly, and authentically is operated, owned, and decided by working and all people in the United States of america. It is multiracial, multigendered, multigenerational, and multigeographic. We have to come together, not ignoring our differences, but listening to them, prioritizing them, understanding and justice, understanding that we operate in a context where slavery evolved into jim crow, involved into mass incarceration, evolved into the realities we have today. And with that, i would like to , the ally ian call him tio bernie. To some others he is brother. Sanders. My to bernie today unbelievably, while we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any , 25 hedgetry on earth Fund Managers make twice as much money as all of the kindergarten chers in america [boos] we are going to honor our , not the hedge Fund Managers. And that is going to change under our administration. The three wealthiest americans own more wealth than the bottom half of american society. [boos] 1 have seen their by 21 trillion over the last 30 years. [boos] streetay we say to wall , youhe billionaire class anymore. Na get it all [cheers] street from the isre we are at this moment new york citys largest fossil fuel power plant. [boos] clear. Us be it is no secret that that plant is located right next to the citys largest Public Housing development. [boos] pass a greenill new deal that will end the environmental racism we see right here in queens. [cheers] communities all across this country. Together not our environment, but we will finally put an end to environmental racism. Look ifwilling to youre willing to fight for a of compassion and justice and decency, if you are willing to stand up to trumps desire to divide us up if youre prepared to stand up to the greed and corruption of the corporate elite, if you and millions of others are prepared to do that, there is no doubt in my mind that not only will we win this election, but together we will transform this country. Thank you all very much. Make a president ial candidate vermont senator Bernie Sanders speaking on saturday at a massive rally in queens, new york. He was endorsed by new york congresswoman alexandria ocasiocortez, Carmen Yulin Cruz the mayor of san juan, puerto rico and phil maker michael moore. The rally was held in Queensbridge Park between the nations largest Public Housing development and the largest powerplant in new york city. When we come back, seven catholic peace activists go on trial today for breaking into the kings bay nuclear summary base in georgia. We will speak to 79yearold peace activist Liz Mcalister. If convicted, she gets been the rest of her life e in prison. Stay with us. [music break] this is democracy now , im amy goodman. Seven catholic peace activists are going on trial today for brbreaking into the Kings Bay Naval base, one of the Largest Nuclear Submarine Base in the world. The activists, who are known as the kings bay plowshares 7, face up to 25 years in prison if convicted. On april 4, 2018 on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther s assassination the activists entered the based armed with just hammers, crime scene tape, baby bottles containing their own blood, and an indictment charging the u. S. Government with crimes against peace. Their goal, to symbolically disarm the Nuclear Weapons at the base, which is home to at least six Nuclear Ballistic missile submarines. Each submarine carries 20 trident thermoNuclear Weapons. The activists that they were following the prophet isaiahs command to beat swords into plowshares. Over the past four decades, activists in the Plowshares Movement have taken part in about 100 similar actions at nuclear arms facilities beginning in 1980 at the General Electric Nuclear Missile plant in king of prussia, pennsylvania. That action was led by the legendary peace activists father daniniel berrigan and his brothr philip berrigan, a former catholic priest. Philip berrigans widow liLiz Mcalister took part in the kings bay plowshares action. Liz mcalister, who is a former catholic nun, turns 80 next month. She is now facing the possibility of spending the rest of her life behind bars. She is going on trial today with her codefendants, father stephen kelly, mark colville, patrick oneill, carmen trotta, clare grady, and Martha Hennessy who is the granddaughter of dorothy day. They all have been charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor. I sat down with Liz Mcalister about the kings bay plowshares action and her lifelong commitment to peace and resistance. Liz mcalister was held in pretrial confinement from april 2018, the date of the action, to last month almost a year and a half behind bars. I began by asking her why she decided to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience at the Kings Bay Naval base in georgia. I have participated in a plowshares witness some years ago. Clare grady was part of that as well. We went to Griffiths Air Force did d disarmamement action there. That. Went to prison for i think it was a couple of years, three years, Something Like that. That time has gone. It was time again for me. I figured i had at least one more opportunity to do this. Im looking at turning 80 next month, next november. So as that began to develop, i found in myself that i had to say yes to participating in that. And that we chose the Triton Submarine was an added call to my heart and spirit because they are so bloody dangerous. That we have, i thought we were up to eight as the people. The munitions ive noticed the submarines are ever used. That is the end of life on earth. That is the end of life on earth. Say no to that step we dont have that right to destroy gods creation. Developed and a as we began moving toward the action, i felt more and more deeply committed to being part of that part of that witness, being part of that statement that we do not have the right to destroy the earth. And these machines can do that. Amy can you talk about what you did . You go to georgia. You go to the space where the trident submarines are based, their Nuclear Submarines they are Nuclear Submarines. What did you do . You all divided up. I think we were basically three distinct well, related groups. First of all, we were all together. We cut through fences and we found a path and we walked that path for some distance. It was a beautiful, beautiful walk. It was early evening. We could hear the frogs in the. Ond croaking and then at a certain point, we split up because we were going and three Different Directions to three different sites. Andi was with steve kelly carmen trotter. And we were trying to get near the bunkers where the weapons were stored. And that took us a very of a very committed very steep hill. We lay at the top of that hill for some time and we could see the guards walking. We could see there are two towers that they had and we saw the change of the guards and one of the towers. Waiting until the other two groups could get to the sites that they were interested in addddressing. Amy you are in a a highly secee area of the base. You just walked on. Yes. Well, we had to cut some fences and things like that to just walk on, but we did that. Began to move across ,his road interestingly rabbit run is whatat they call area. There were f fences on both sids ofof the road. So you could not just walk onto the road from the hill we had climbed. So we had to cut through that barricade in order to get on that road and then beyond that wherelose to the place the munitions were stored. Ourat that point, we met first couple of security people. They put guns on us and told us to freeze and so forth. Amy did you explain to them why you were there . Oh, we did. Yes. That we were here to witness against the d destruction of ths earth, which is represented by the weapons on this base. Amy how did they respond . They looked at us and did not respond. They sent somebody to put cuffs rest, do searches, and the of it. Amy you have been doing this for decades. Youth out of the jonah house, the catholic worker house in baltimore in 1973 . Yes. Amy and while we have been broadcasting this, we played images of the catonsville 1968,t back in may 17, where your brotherinlaw Daniel Berrigan, father Daniel Berrigan, her husband phil in then, were involved burning of draft records, protesting the vietnam war from using napalm that was used by the u. S. Against the vietnamese. You and Phil Berrigan had just gotten together recently in those years. Introduction to the movement. A nun. E educated as take. As a teacher. I taught history of art in new york for number of years. Loved it. What was happening with the at that point is my students had boyfriends, fiances mother being drafted into the war in vietnam. They were breaking down. And what do you say to these young people who have their lives ahead of them and everything their planning and grabslives is now up for in this war . It makes no sense at all. Me to become to active on their behalf. I cant teach them history of art, as if tt were really important,t, if theyre not looking at somome kind of futur. But their future was being robbed from them. Veryhat called very, deeply to me. I could not love these kids young adults, whatever they are first, second, Third Year College students, and not try to speak out for the right to life, the right to future, there future,lives right to and vietnam was the focus at as we and is that got ththrown out of vietnam, the focus then became these weapons of mass destruction. In the building of them in the research on more and more Deadly Weapons of master structure and in the multiplication of that. So how do we find a w way to resist Nuclear Weapons became our focus. And we had found ways to resist the war by destroyoyg draft files. What can we do to resist these weapons . Obviously, cannot dismantle them, but you can get near them. You can put blood on them. You can say no to them in that fashion. And we began looking for ways to do that. If that makes any sense. To 1980i wanted to move in the king of prussia action. Again, with father dan and phil. I want to turn to a clip from in the king of prussia. This scene features father dan recitingng what he told the jude and jury during the trial. I just want to say, this is highly unusual film because the director it was a dramatization, but using the actual people who are involved in the protest. Again, father dan. Youve heard about hammers and blood. These are the hammers of hell. These are the hammers that will break the world to bits. That are the hammers flanked the end of the world. The judge knows it. The prosecutor knows it. We have seen people walk away fromom these things. Wewe have seen them disclaim th. We have seen them say they are not responsible for them. We have seen all sorts of death. Age like e dance of they are murderers. Amy an excerpt from the film the king of prussia. And that was father dan, father Daniel Berrigan playing himself. Yes. Amy Liz Mcalister is the sisterinlaw of father Daniel Berrigan, one of the plowshares members of the Plowshares Movement all over this world. Talk about that moment and what that action meant and is unusual dramatization of that action. Firstl, it was one of the of the plowshares actions, and thus it was quite new. But it had been building. I was close to that process. Philip also participated in that action, so i was home wiwith the kids, so to speak amy you had three kids by then. Yes, i think so. Freda, jerry, and k. We were all present in a sense for it and supporting it. Therefore,andnd something we were uncertain abououand fearfulul they might e severely hurt in that process. But we prayed and left it in gods hands and it came through unhurt. And did their witness in court and their witness from prison. Amy i wanted to go to an interview that i did with your latend phil in 1997, her husband Phil Berrigan, while he was in jail in maine for taking partrt in another plplowshares action. I think this one was at the bath iron works. This is philip berrigan. About 55,eyre been 56 plowshares actions happening in the United States and abroad. Western europe and australia. This was another in the series. We disarmed firstrate weaponry, nuclear weaponry. Into not onlyne airbases, but also shipyards and war plants in order to do this. Our the scripture that guides us is the Second Chapter of isaiah of the prophecy of isaiah. He speaks about the nations leading swords into plowshares and spears into pruning honks. We know the government wont do this, so it is incumbent upon us who are threatened by these weapons to do this. We have been doing this since 1980. Amy that is the late Phil Berrigan. I interviewed him when he was in prison in maine. Talk about hospitality houses, the catholic worker houses. Talk about your house, jonah house, that you founded with Phil Berrigan inin baltimore nott so far from catonsville. Was nonviolence, resistance, communitity. Those were the three things that were of deep concern to us that we remain nonviolent, that we engage in resistance and an ongoing kind of fashion, and that we build community. Because there is no way of continuing to engngage in direct action and resistance outside of community. You have got to have that kind to keep onto be able keeping on with it. So that is what we started. We spent about a year, weekly meetings, with friends who are interested in exploring that, and then we moved to baltimore and that first house there. Amy why didid you call a jonah house . Because jonah was the reluctant prophet. Amy i want to go back to 1972. According to the evening news, on march 17, 1972, theyre talking about the harrisburg seven. The seven were charged with conspiring to write draft boards in nine states, blow heating pipes in washington utility tunnels, and kidnap president for an Affairs Advisor Henry Kissinger. You are one of the harrisburg seven. Talk about that action. That was not in actition. That was conversations about how how to raise awareness about what is going on in this country. What it was based on was could you do a cicitizens arrest of someone like Henry Kissinger and get them to talk truth so that could get out truth so they could get out . We thought about that and we re