Blackwater Retreat Action Report
On Monday April 27 our numbers grew to 100 as a 30 car and van caravan made its way to the Blackwater Midwest site on Skunk Hallow Road just 20 miles SE of Stockton IL. The hardest thing we did that day was to get out to this inaccessible site. Most of the participants were left off at a staging spot on a very narrow two lane gravel road with no shoulders and deep ditches on either side, a half mile from the main entrance.
Once everyone was gathered we proceeded to march up the road to the Blackwater entrance carrying a great banner which read:
Blackwater FORECLOSED:
Moral Bankruptcy
Investigations and Lawsuits, Killing Iraqi Civilians, Tax Evasion, Illegal Arms Smuggling, Illegal Possession of Fire Arms and Human Rights Abuses
The Illinois State Police were waiting for us just behind the gate at the entrance drive onto Blackwater property. At 11 a.m. everyone was assembled on the drive and road leading into Blackwater. With the gate separating the protesters and the State Police we began our program. Anne Feeney led us in a few songs. And then Mona Shaw of the DMCW read the prepared statement below:
"As Catholic Workers and other concerned citizens of the United States we come today to this northwest Illinois Blackwater training site in an act of nonviolent protest. We are here to make a citizens’ foreclosure on this property of a company that is morally bankrupt. We are here to reclaim it for the people of this nation who promote democracy and security by humanitarian efforts.
We stand here today as citizens who live in solidarity with and in service to fellow citizens who struggle with joblessness, homelessness, and inadequate wages. We are here to stop the flow of billions of tax dollars to the privatization of our military and the militarization of our police by companies like Blackwater; a company that is responsible for:
•Killing innocent Iraqi civilians
•Smuggling weapons illegally into Iraq
•Tax evasion
•Illegal possession of firearms
We are here to hold them accountable for all their illegal and immoral actions.
No matter how many times this company changes its name, it can run but it cannot hide from its bloody history or its lawlessness."
Immediately after the statement was read 22 people proceeded onto the Blackwater property by crawling under or over the main gate. We immediately fell into the hands of the IL State Police, were arrested and lead up the Blackwater drive. The 22 who were arrested were:
Eric Anglada, LaMotte, IA, 29 yrs old - New Hope CW Farm
Ed Bloomer, Des Moines CW, 61 yrs old
Kenny Bishop, Champaign CW, 24 yrs old
Frank Cordaro, Des Moines CW, 58 yrs old
Tyler Chen, Champaign CW, 24 yrs old
Elton Davis, Des Moines IA, 47 yrs old - former DMCW
Chris Gaunt, Grinnell, IA, 52 yrs old
Carolyn Griffeth, St Louis CW, 36 yrs old
Lee Jankowski, Dubuque, IA CW, 50 yrs old
Benjamin Johnson, Dubuque CW, 25 yrs old
Chrissy Kirchhoefer, St Louis CW, 31 yrs old
Becky Lambert, Winona CW, 25 yrs old
Mike Leutgeb Munson, Rockford MN, 26 yrs old - former Winona CW
Mary Moody, LaMotte, IA, 44 yrs old - New Hope CW Farm
Laurel Nobilette, Champaign CW, 22 yrs old
Nick Pickrell, Kansas City CW, 27 yrs old
Mona Shaw, Des Moines CW, 57 yrs old
Don Thurstin-Timmerman, Park Falls WI, 67 yrs old - former Milwaukee CW
19 Roberta Thurstin-Timmerman, Park Falls WI, 65 yrs old - former Milwaukee CW
20 Michael Walli, Duluth CW, 60 yrs old
21 Chris Watson, Champaign CW, 22 yrs old
22 Fred Turk, Rock Falls, IL, 71 yrs old
All 22 people were taken up the Blackwater drive, hand-cuffed and charged with Criminal Trespass to Real Property, a simple misdemeanor. We were later transported to Jo Daviess County jail in Galena, IL, booked, processed and released with a June 4th court date. The last person was released around 8 p.m.
This action would not have happened without the generous assistance of:
Rev Jacqueline Ziegler and the Unitarian Universalist Church in Stockton IL, for their gracious hospitality that went beyond providing us with an ideal space to host our Conference and Retreat to actually helping us with logistical concerns.
Dan Kenney and the folks at Clearwater. Their local, ongoing campaign against Blackwater N IL was the foundation of this effort. Clearwater was the major organizer and planner for the Saturday conference.
Martin Hippie and the other local peace activists in the Stockton area. They helped organize and advise the action and served as a liaison between the action and local authorities. Local people take the greatest risk in these actions and are left to deal with the aftermath of them.
To read the entirety of these reports, use the scroll bar to the right of the text.
Click here for a slide show of the conference.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/monasha w/sets/72157617648515232/show/
Click here for first slide show of the direct action.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/monashaw/ sets/72157617637195774/show/
Sample Press Coverage
Monday, April 27, 2009 "Activists Serve Blackwater with Statement of Foreclosure for Moral Bankruptcy" by Jeremy Scahill
http://www.commondreams.org/h eadline/2009/04/27-3
Sat. April 25, 2009 "Preparing to protest" The Journal-Standard - Northwest Illinois
http://www.journalstandard.com/n ews/x126913347/Preparing-to-protest?popular=true
Mon April 27, 2009, "22 people arrested at U.S. Training Center protest" The Journal-Standard - Northwest Illinois
http://www.journalstandard.com/n ews/x50634264/22-people-arrested-at-U-S-Training-Center-protest
April 28, 2009 "'Polite' disobedience: 22 people are arrested after crossing over onto Xe property during a protest in Stockton." Dubuque Telegraph Herald
http://www.thonline.com/article.cf m?id=241422
Listen to story:
http://www.audio-newsstand.com/Listen.aspx?Id= 8e9ee715-8be4-4a9e-a357-959f8f1caf55
Video Clip:
http://www.thonline.com/multime dia/?id=2447
Video of Dan Kenney and Arrests at BLACKWATER, WI Network for Peace and Justice
Click here for second slide show of the direct action.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/monashaw/sets /72157618344371092/show/
Blackwater Retreat Conference Report
This year, 2009, the Midwest Catholic Worker Resistance Retreat focused on Blackwater, a privatized military training facility. For more information about Blackwater, click here. About 150 people attended the 2009 Midwest Catholic Worker Retreat held at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Stockton IL, April 24-27. The retreat called "Close Down Blackwater in Illinois" was sponsored by the Midwest Catholic Workers and Clearwater http://www.noprivatearmies.org/index.html
Speakers included Jeremy Scahill author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army http://blackwaterbook.com/index.php and Kathy Kelly http://vcnv.org/speaker-bio/kathy-kelly, co-coordinator or Voices for Creative Nonviolence.
Workshops covered the history of Blackwater and the resistance to it. Christian Stalberg founder of Blackwater Watch reported on the civil disobedience that North Carolina Catholic Workers did at Blackwater Headquarters last Oct. Mary Moody of New Hope CW Farm and Rosalie Riegle author of "Voices from the CW" led a workshop on who Catholic Workers are and why we do civil disobedience.
Additional conference presenters included Diane Wilson, co-founder of CodePink and the Texas Jail Project.org, and Col. Ann Wright who was one of three US State Department officials to publicly resign in direct protest of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. In Wilson's speech, she announced that Eric Prince, owner of Blackwater was winner of the 2009 "Black Planet award." This award is given yearly by the German Foundation on Ethics and Economics group www.ethecon.org. And Diane Wilson personally promised to track down Blackwater CEO, Eric Prince and deliver his well-earned award.
The evening featured a music concert with internationally-known singer and song writer, Anne Feeney and Rockford based singer David Stocker.
On Sunday morning participants in the retreat joined the congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Church in their worship service. Mona Shaw, DMCW, spoke at the service. Sunday afternoon was spent community building with nonviolence training facilitated by Jeff Leys of the Voices for Creative Non-Violence, and action planning led by Brian Terrell of the Maloy IA CW. Sixty Catholic Workers and friends attended the resistance sessions from 15 different communities including: Des Moines, IA; Maloy, IA; Dubuque, IA; Winona, MN; Duluth, MN; Chicago, IL; Champaign, IL; Rock Island, IL; Bloomington, IN; Columbia, MO; Kansas City, MO; St Louis, MO; Waukesha, WI; Milwaukee, WI; and Norfolk, NC.