Heading to Belfast for the Final Week of the Raytheon 9 Trial

Hi Folks,

I’m heading to Belfast this coming week (Mon-Wed) to attend what looks like being the final week of the Raytheon 9 trial. For a background on the nvda taken at the Raytheon plant in Derry during the 06 Israeli bombing of Lebanon (using Raytheon equipment) and a recent excellent youtube clip of scenes from outside the Belfast trial check out www.raytheon9.org

Monday will see defendant Eamonn McCann taking the stand for the defence. Eamonn is a longtime civil rights and socialist activist from Derry. This recent interview on the Counterpunch website is worth a read
http://www.counterpunch.org/harkin05302008.html

If you would like a copy of the booklet “Resistng War Crimes is Not a Crime – The Raytheon 9″ by Eamonn McCann. – a great resource for nvda, info on Raytheon and analysis of the wars in the Middle East (this booklet will not date until Raytheon is run by workers councils and transforms its work to producing some uselful!) Harrry Browne’s review of the booklet http://www.indymedia.ie/article/87408

*send the equivalent of 3 euros plus postage in your currency (disguise your cash from postal theft) to me and I’ll post you one

Ciaron O’Reilly
Catholic Worker,

134 Phibsborough Road,
Phibsborough
Dublin 7,
Ireland.

40th. Anniversary of the Catonsville Draft Board Raid

In May 1968, during the Vietnam War ine people walked into a Selective Service Office, in Catonsville Maryland U.S.A., took hundreds of draft files from a cabinet, took them outside, doused them with homemade napalm and burned them in the name of peace. It raised serious questions about nonviolent resistance to the U.S. war in Vietnam. The action had a major effect on the trajectory of many of our lives and initiated a praxis that today engages U.S. wars in Iraq & Afghanistan

Footage of action….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3SHRc-NTrk
Footage – Phil Berrigan’s Final Warning (R.I.P. Dec. 02) (6 mins)
Phil, a WW2 combat veteran, spent 13 of the last 30 year’s of his life in prison for
nonviolent resistance to U.S. war and war preparations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyHabFrICz4&feature=related

Interviews with Tim Robins, Martin Sheen & other Hollywood stars following their performance of Dan Berrigan’s play “The Trial of the Catonsville 9″ (2 mins 40 secs)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp2jI465C0g&NR=1

Website Background on the Catonsville 9 action and pariticipants
http://c9.mdch.org/

Photos – Liz McAlister, Frieda Berrigan, Catholic Workers and Iraq Veterans celebrate 40th. anniversary of Catonsville 9 with peace presence at Andrews AFB Air Show last Saturday May 17, 2008
http://www.flickr.com/photos/monashaw/sets/721576051249…6095/

National Public Radio – All Things Considered, May 17, 2008 Echoes of 1968:

Fire Sparked Push to End Vietnam War – 12 minute

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90…33944

On May 17, 1968, a quiet suburb of Baltimore became the flashpoint of
the movement to end the Vietnam War.

Nine members of the Roman Catholic Church broke into a Selective
Service office in Catonsville, Md., and stole hundreds of files
containing the draft records of young American men about to be sent to
Vietnam. Using homemade napalm, the group — which became known as the
“Catonsville Nine” — set the papers on fire.