Susan Crane (peace activist)

Last updated

Susan Crane is a peace activist, a member of the California Catholic Worker movement [1] and a participant in the Plowshares movement. After decades of civil disobedience related to campaigns against nuclear war, she was sentenced to jail time in Germany in 2024. [2]

Contents

California Catholic Worker House

Crane is a longtime member of California Catholic Worker House, [3] an organization that provides support for people who are struggling with poverty and homelessness. [4] This organization continues the work of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement.

Susan Crane
OccupationPolitical activist
Years active1990s-Present
Organization(s)Catholic Worker Movement, Plowshares
Known forPacifism

Plowshares movement

Crane has been involved in four notable direct action protests through the Plowshares Movement where she worked alongside notable peace activists such as Sr. Anne Montgomery. [5] In the mid-1990s, Crane belonged to an anti-war organization known as Jubilee Plowshares. [6]

In 1998, Crane poured her own blood on a nuclear destroyer. [7] In 2011, she was part of a group known as Disarm Now Plowshares. [8] Crane has been critical of U.S. involvement in NATO and refers to the organization as a "war making force" believing it is beyond "anybody's control." [9]

Büchel Air Force Base

Beginning in 2018, Crane and 17 other peace activists broke into Büchel Air Force Base in Germany where U.S. nuclear weapons were being stored. [10] These weapons are known as B61s. [11] This direct action was known as part of the "Büchel is everywhere" campaign. [12]

Volkel Air Base

In 2023, Crane was arrested at Volkel Air Base in The Netherlands. She was interviewed about this direct action protest by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now in August that year and was quoted as saying, "We're very concerned about the legality of the United States sending nuclear warheads to the five countries in Europe, particularly to the Netherlands and to Germany, because it's against the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The treaty says that nuclear countries can't share, as it were, their nuclear weapons with nonnuclear countries, and nonnuclear countries can't accept these weapons. So, as far as we're concerned, the Volkel Air Base...is a crime scene..." [13] Crane was sentenced to serve 7 months in prison for this protest. [14]

Arrests & trials

Personal life

Crane has two children. [23] She also lived in Ukiah, California where she was a tax resister. [24] In 1988, she was part of a group that erected a peace pole in front of the Fort Bragg Library. [25]

Publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Berrigan</span> American anti-war activist (1923–2002)

Philip Francis Berrigan was an American peace activist and Catholic priest with the Josephites. He engaged in nonviolent, civil disobedience in the cause of peace and nuclear disarmament and was often arrested.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plowshares movement</span> Christian pacifist movement

The Plowshares movement is an anti-nuclear weapons and Christian pacifist movement that advocates active resistance to war. The group often practices a form of protest that involves the damaging of weapons and military property. The movement gained notoriety in the early 1980s when several members damaged nuclear warhead nose cones and were subsequently convicted. The name refers to the text of prophet Isaiah who said that swords shall be beaten into plowshares.

The Saint Patrick's Day Four are four American peace activists of Irish Catholic heritage who poured their own blood on the walls, posters, windows, and a US flag at a military recruiting center to protest the United States' impending invasion of Iraq. Peter De Mott, Daniel Burns, Teresa Grady, and Clare Grady each were members of the Ithaca Catholic Worker community, which teaches that Christians should practice non-violence and devote their lives to service of others. They each served between four and six months in federal prison for their action on Saint Patrick's Day, March 17, 2003, in Lansing, New York, near Ithaca where they reside.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Dear</span> American Catholic peace activist

John Dear is an American Catholic priest, peace activist, lecturer, and author of 35 books on peace and nonviolence. He has spoken on peace around the world, organized hundreds of demonstrations against war, injustice and nuclear weapons and been arrested 85 times in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience against war, injustice, poverty, nuclear weapons and environmental destruction.

Clare Grady is an American peace activist and a member of the Catholic Worker and the Plowshares movements. She advocated against use of cruise missiles for first-strike capability in the 1983 Griffiss Plowshares action. In the process of the protest, military equipment was damaged and splattered with blood. In 2003, she and three others made up The Saint Patrick's Day Four, who conducted a protest action at a military recruiting center in Lansing, New York against the impending Iraq War. She participated in the Kings Bay Plowshares action on April 4, 2018, which resulted in a conviction and sentence of one year and a day.

Thomas P. Lewis was an artist and peace activist, primarily noted for his participation with the Baltimore Four and the Catonsville Nine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Vitale</span> American priest and activist (1932–2023)

Louis Vitale, OFM, was an American Franciscan friar, peace activist, and a co-founder of Nevada Desert Experience. His religious beliefs led him to participate in civil disobedience actions at peace demonstrations and acts of religious witness over 40 years. In the name of peace, Vitale has been arrested more than 400 times. Vitale stated that Francis of Assisi, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. provided him with inspiration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Kabat</span> American anti-nuclear activist (1933–2022)

Carl K. Kabat was an American priest of the Catholic religious order Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, best known for his eccentric, nonviolent protests against nuclear weapons. He served more than 17 years total in prison over his lifetime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth McAlister</span> American peace activist and former nun

Elizabeth McAlister, also known as Liz McAlister, is an American peace activist and former nun of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary. She married Philip Berrigan and was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. McAlister served prison time for nonviolent acts of civil disobedience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Büchel Air Base</span> Military air base in Germany

Büchel Air Base is a military air base of the Luftwaffe in Büchel (Germany), near the city of Cochem and at about 70 km from Spangdahlem Air Base. It is home to the Taktisches Luftwaffengeschwader 33 of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) and the 702 Munitions Support Squadron of the United States Air Force (USAF). Since 1985, tactical Air Force Wing 33 has been operating German Panavia Tornado airplanes, which can deliver twenty B61 nuclear bombs, the only remaining nuclear weapons in Germany. As of 2023, Büchel was one of six active air bases in five European countries with B61 nuclear bombs in underground WS3 Weapon Storage and Security System inside aircraft shelters, per nuclear sharing.

Molly Rush is a Catholic anti-war, civil and women's rights activist born in 1935. She co-founded the Thomas Merton Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, along with Larry Kessler in 1972, She was one of the Plowshares eight defendants. They faced trial after an anti-nuclear weapons symbolic action at a nuclear missile plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jackie Hudson</span> Catholic nun and anti-nuclear activist (1934–2011)

Jacqueline Marie "Jackie" Hudson, was an American Dominican sister and anti-nuclear activist. She spent the first 29 years of her working career as a music teacher. After her retirement from education, she dedicated her life to anti-war activism, during the course of which her actions led her to be arrested several times. In 2011, after a decline in her health in prison, Hudson died from multiple myeloma at the age of 76.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Megan Rice</span> American activist (1930–2021)

Megan Gillespie Rice S.H.C.J. was an American nuclear disarmament activist, Catholic nun, and former missionary. She was notable for illegally entering the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, at the age of 82, with two fellow activists of the Transform Now Plowshares group. The action was a nuclear disarmament protest referred to as "the biggest security breach in the history of the nation's atomic complex."

Ardeth Platte, O.P., was an American Dominican religious sister and anti-nuclear activist. She was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1999.

Sister Anne Montgomery, RSCJ was an American non-violent activist and educator of young children who was part of the Plowshares movements and campaigned against the US government for peace. Aside from teaching, she worked with the poor, advocated for peace and the Catholic Worker Movement. Anne Montgomery House in Washington, D.C., run by the Society of the Sacred Heart, is named for her.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kings Bay Plowshares</span>

The Kings Bay Plowshares are a group of seven Catholic peace activists who broke into the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base and carried out a symbolic act of protest against nuclear weapons. The name of the action and the wider anti-nuclear Plowshares movement comes from the prophet Isaiah’s command to "beat swords into plowshares."

Stephen Michael Kelly is an American Jesuit priest and peace activist. He spent six years in prison for hammering on D-5 Trident missiles and other Plowshares movement actions. He has spent at least a decade behind bars, with six of those years in solitary confinement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Hennessy</span> American peace activist

Martha Hennessy is an American Catholic peace activist and member of the Catholic Worker Movement co-founded by her grandmother, Dorothy Day.

Mark Colville is an American social justice activist and Catholic worker. He is the founder of the Amistad Catholic Worker community in New Haven, Connecticut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frida Berrigan</span> American peace activist and author.

Frida Berrigan is an American peace activist and author. She published the 2015 book, It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into Rebellious Motherhood, about her life in a family of prominent activists and her own philosophies of parenting. Raised in the Plowshares movement, she has been featured in documentaries and studies of the movement, including award-winning director Susan Hagedorn's 2021 The Berrigans: Devout and Dangerous. Frida Berrigan has documented and interpreted the movement's history and meaning from her first-hand perspective for a global audience.

References

  1. ↑ "Small Acts of Resistance to Nuclear Proliferation Spark Hope for a Better World – Catholic Worker Movement". catholicworker.org. Retrieved 2024-05-12.
  2. ↑ Hartsough, David (May 11, 2024). "Susan Crane to Start Prison Sentence for Protesting Nuclear Weapons".
  3. ↑ "Donor Advised Fund Supports Homeless Individuals in Redwood City". Philanthropic Ventures Foundation. 2018-04-19. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  4. ↑ "Redwood City Catholic Worker House". Catholic Worker Movement. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  5. 1 2 Tsuchida, Chelsea (2010-12-03). "Elderly activists on trial in Tacoma". The Trail. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  6. ↑ Romano, Bill (November 29, 1995). ""Peace activists ousted from court; protesters on trial for vandalizing Lockheed missiles."". Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.
  7. ↑ "Chalk Dust". Ukiah Daily Journal. May 10, 1998.
  8. ↑ "Peace activists get jail time for Navy base breach". Reuters. March 29, 2011.
  9. ↑ Susan Crane Interview with David Hartsough . Retrieved 2024-05-09– via www.youtube.com.
  10. ↑ Admin, LACW (2018-07-21). "PEACE ACTIVISTS GAIN ENTRY TO GERMAN AIR BASE WHICH DEPLOYS U.S. NUCLEAR BOMBS". Los Angeles Catholic Worker. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  11. ↑ "Peace Activists Gain Entry to German Air Base Which Deploys US Nuclear Bombs". duluthreader.com. 2018-07-19. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  12. ↑ "Nuke Free Europe: Human chain against nuclear arms in Büchel (Germany) – IPB – International Peace Bureau". ipb.org. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  13. 1 2 "Activists Arrested at European Air Bases Protesting U.S. Nuclear Weapons". Democracy Now!. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  14. ↑ "The Long Struggle for Nuclear Disarmament: A Catholic Worker Panel – Catholic Worker Movement". catholicworker.org. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  15. 1 2 Akizuki, Dennis (October 9, 1993). "2 Lab Protesters Reject Ruling, Must Go to Jail". Mercury News.
  16. ↑ "5 Anti-War 'Santas' Arrested in Concord". San Francisco Chronicle. December 21, 1993.
  17. ↑ "Conspiracy Charges". Elko Daily Free Press. August 25, 1995.
  18. ↑ Anderson, Glenda (June 4, 1996). "Missile-Hammering Activist to be Released Friday". Ukiah Daily Journal.
  19. ↑ Meadows, K.C. (February 12, 1997). "Local Activist Arrested Again in Maine Protest". Ukiah Daily Journal.
  20. ↑ Anderson, George (1998). "A Prisoner for Peace: An Interview with Stephen Kelly". America Magazine.
  21. ↑ "Peace Activists to Prison for 'Malicious Destruction'". America. April 8, 2000.
  22. ↑ "Susan Crane Archives". Solitary Watch. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  23. ↑ "Teacher, Mother, Activist Battles for an End to War". Ukiah Daily Journal.
  24. ↑ Riegle, Rosalie G. (2013-01-01). Crossing the Line: Nonviolent Resisters Speak Out for Peace. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN   978-1-62189-518-3.
  25. ↑ Page, Peter (June 14, 1988). "Peace Pole Gets BOS Nod". Ukiah Daily Journal.
  26. ↑ Wilcox, Fred (2001). Disciples & Dissidents: Prison Writings of the Prince of Peace Plowshares. Haley's. ISBN   978-1-884540-52-3.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.