The Power of Direct Action: Lessons to be learned.

Friends,

As we watch events unfolding on Wall Street (which could easily be renamed War Street), that financial heartland of companies that make up the vast military-nuclear-industrial complex, we see the power of direct action - of people taking to the streets and speaking truth to power.  Of course, it doesn't get much more visible than on Wall Street.  Even then, the corporate news media does its best to tone down events such as these.

Even less visible are the decades of countless direct actions undertaken by generations of peace activists attempting to shine a light on the massive waste of human and financial capital by military planners, politicians and the corporations with whom they dance and whose stocks are traded on Wall Street.

One of those recent direct actions that registered a blip or two on the national (corporate) news scene was last May's gathering at the new Kansas City bomb plant.  This was a wonderful example of citizens speaking truth to power when those who claim to represent them sell out to the Military-Industrial Complex.



The struggle to stop the Kansas City bomb plant has received at least more national attention from the press than other local struggles against nuclear weapons-related activities.  It's definitely one for us to study and learn from.

Here's some related reading on Kansas City:

52 arrested protesting nuclear weapons plant, by Joshua McElwee, in National Catholic Reporter

Kansas City Here it Comes: A New Nuclear Weapons Plant! by Lawrence Wittner, in the Huffington Post

Up Against the War Machine, by John LaForge, in Common Dreams

Together in the struggle,

Leonard