Following our October 3 event at Bath Iron Works (BIW) in Maine we gathered in front of the shipyard administration building for a photo.  We'll be back here for another vigil again on Thursday, Oct 15 as the Maine Peace Walk passes through Bath at the time of the 3:30 pm shift change.

Then we also plan to return on Saturday, October 31 at the time of the next 'christening' of another Aegis destroyer from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. Thousands of people come for the ceremony so there will be a huge crowd for us to communicate with on that day.

From Paul Mobbs' blog:

I've been keeping an eye on Croughton for over 30 years. Ever since I got interested in the place when the USAF tried to restrict access to the public rights of way in the early 1980s.

The 499 bus isn't as well used, or as frequent as the other (500) bus route to Brackley, but it takes you through some very different countryside. South from Banbury, across the valley to Kings Sutton, and then over the Taynton limestone-strewn fields to Charlton, Croughton and Evenly – or 'Flora Thompson' country, as members of the local rambling club used to call it (which was why preserving the route across Croughton was important).

Today's event is part of the 'Keep Space for Peace' week – a global event, highlighting the militarization of space as the "fourth" dimension of conflict (after land, sea and air). Croughton is a hub, a way-station in the 'Western' (but mostly American) "C4ISR" network.

The whistle-blower Edward Snowden came here once to fix the computers, but we know a lot more about this place from the use of open-source intelligence analysis. Croughton has links to most major intelligence centres in Britain, to other European intelligence hubs, and to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen – meaning this site is directly involved in the use of armed drones in extra-judicial killings. What's more, the US is currently planning to significantly expand that role here with $100 million of new investment in staff and technology.

I pick my way carefully across the fields. Now that the ankle is working I don't want to make a mess of it again. Slowly though the stiffness recedes, and I can push hard against the soft, recently harvested soil without concern.

The fields gently undulate as I go south-south-east to join up with The Portway – an ancient trackway, quite possibly Roman or older, and one of a number which criss-cross the landscape in these parts. Taking a left on the road, around the site perimeter, a short while later the sight of a police van indicates I've found the start of the march.

When the march reaches the site the sun comes out. It's turned into a really nice day.

I'm up first on the speaker list. I've spoken about my research for the last two years here, and when asked in May I wondered what I'd be able to say without repeating myself. However, events have moved quickly this year, meaning that there's much to relate – as outlined in the YouTube video made about the day...

Peggy Seeger was interviewed live on Cerys Matthews' show on 6 Music the next day. Catch it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06dwdx0#play

The interview starts a minute or two after 11am (i.e. 1 hour in) and continues for nearly an hour.  And at 1.47.54 Peggy thanked the audience who came to last night's Oxford CND concert for singing beautifully!

Art Laffin and others from the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker have been holding weekly protest vigils at the Pentagon (very early in the morning as the military personnel arrive via the subway) and the White House for a long time.  Each year during Keep Space for Peace Week he pulls out his space related signs and takes them to the Pentagon and White House. 

Here is his brief message that came along with the above photo:

Yesterday, we were four strong at our weekly Pentagon vigil. During the vigil we held signs saying: "Keep Space for Peace" and "No Weapons in Space." An Air Force major upon seeing the "No Weapons in Space" sign replied: "I hope so!"

In the Pentagon metro station there are numerous slick panel size ads showing Northrup Grumman's latest weapons. My friend, Andrés Thomas Conteris, took the enclosed photos of me holding the "Keep Space for Peace" sign in front of one of the photos, which I thought you might like to see.

Kiruna Women for Peace at their manifestation with banners and flyers  against war in space  and drone- testing  in the north of Sweden (NEAT area)
 

Global Network board member JV Prabhakar organized a lecture in a technical education institution and a pocession in Visakhapatnam, India. Around 500 young people participated. ! Prabhakar (2nd from left in the picture above with sun glasses) writes:

The call given by Global Network Keep Space for Peace Week across the world, is well received in India, many youth are demanding, Govt of India to reduce military expenditure and to provide that budget for employment. Youth are against purchasing weapons and military helicopters from USA worth 120 Billion dollars. Weaponisation space means preparing for war on earth to destroy our mother earth, together we have to fight to stop. Prabhakar JV with Ksn Raju principal of Matrix technical college students. Demanding no to war. Support peace. Support Global Network.

Members of Yorkshire CND and others joined the special CAAB weekly protest at the gates of the NSA Menwith Hill spy base in Yorkshire on a very wet (but not too cold) evening!

A great turnout with enough people to protest at both gates. We started at the main gate but as others arrived a group was able to check out the other and just as well as it seems like cars were being directed to go that way.

The MoD police were very cooperative and stopped each car leaving to give them time to read the banners/placards that were being displayed.

At the Main Gate ...
(some pictures from CAAB facebook page)

Felice Cohen-Joppa writes from Arizona writes:

As workers arrived, five Tucson peace activists held signs early this morning outside the Raytheon missile factory during Keep Space for Peace Week. The Raytheon Peacemakers group demonstrates there monthly against war and those who profit from it. Star Wars "kill vehicles”, surveillance drones, weapons for armed drones, cruise missiles, Mavericks, AMRAAMs, microwave crowd control beams, cluster bomb and much more are manufactured here. No Weapons in Space or on Earth!

10 October 2015
Keep Space for Peace Seminar
Gangjeon Village, Jeju Island, South Korea