Debbie Nathan

Note to Debbie’s friends and regular readers: I lent my blog to Michael, who just graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul. He’s a friend of my son, as are many of the people he worked with to organize the event described below. (Nachus far di mames!)

At shortly after 7:30 am on Wednesday, July 2nd, 8 people locked down to the sole entrance of an ATK ammunition factory (Alliant Tech Systems), a weapons manufacturer in Anoka, MN. The protesters, who call themselves Project to Stop the War Industry, were locked in until approximately 9:30 am, after which police officers from several different units cut them out using electric saws, slightly injuring the hands of two individuals. The action disrupted the flow of equipment and supplies to ATK, which is the largest producer of cluster bombs in Minnesota, and the largest supplier of ammunition to the US military. ATK also builds weapons containing depleted uranium, over 800 tons of which the US has dropped in Gulf Wars I and II. ATK’s war profits have increased their sales to $4.2 billion for the 2008 fiscal year, a majority of which came from government contracts.

The 8 protesters who locked down were arrested and processed in the Anoka County Jail. A protester who worked as a liaison between the police and those locked down was also arrested and processed. The Anoka County Police department told Indymedia that all those arrested will be charged with obstruction of justice, disorderly conduct, and unlawful assembly. 8 were released on bail Wednesday afternoon, and the juvenile was released after a hearing on Thursday morning after being kept in solitary confinement for 24 hours.

Links to coverage: http://wcco.com/crime/war.protest.anoka.2.762292.html
http://twincities.indymedia.org/
http://kstp.com/article/stories/S497795.shtml?cat=206
http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2008/07/act_of_civil_di.php
http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=516970&catid=2
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20080702172516639
http://www.twincities.com/ci_9771387
http://mnchange.org/protesters-arrested-outside-of-anoka-ammo-plant
http://obrag.org/?p=1190

Visual summary of the day:

The group arrived at roughly 7:50am, and locked down in less than a minute. The police arrived on the scene 10 minutes later.

The police liaison was arrested by the police shortly after their arrival, at 8am.

In addition to units from two police departments, Coon Rapids and Anoka, fire units arrived on the scene around 8:30am.

After giving a verbal warning that lockdowners must either leave or face arrest, police declared that everyone blocking traffic was arrested and began disassembling the lockboxes. They initially seemed baffled by their complexity.

However, with a mix of wire cutters, and an electric saw, authorities slowly made their way through the materials. The lockboxes, comprised of PVC pipe, duct tape, and several other dense materials, were strong, yet PSWI members didn’t believe the police would attack them with electric saws head on (this being very dangerous). Police did not seem to care about this detail, telling one lockdowner, “we’re not gonna stop until we see blood.” Others also reported that they warned them to keep their hands as far down as possible if they wish to keep their fingers. One by one, activists were arrested and taken to jail.

For the final lockdowner, with a bicycle U-lock closed around a company sign, police and fire authorities brought out the ‘jaws of life’. They put a tarp over the activist’s head and body and cut the sign off.

Multiple media sources were on the scene including all four local news stations, as well as reporters from a local daily and the alternative weekly.

Several members were injured during the police action.

Due to its location deep in the suburbs, or ‘behind the Iron Curtain’ as some NLG lawyers termed it, bail was set at an exhorbitant $900 for 7 arrestees and $1,100 for another. Adults were held for a period ranging from 4-6 hours and the juvenile was held separately for over 24 hours in solitary confinement.

Donate to Paypal account: projectatk@gmail.com!

***Statement from PSWI***

Declaration of Dependence

As Americans here in Anoka, throughout Minnesota, and all over the country begin gathering together to celebrate the founding of this nation and the preservation of freedom, liberty, and justice for all, we believe that a different response is in order. In this sixth year of war, we continue to watch as bombs fall on Baghdad and Fallujah. We continue to read as the casualty count of American youth and Iraqi citizens climbs. We continue to read as politicians use threats of pre-emptive war against an Iranian civilian population as political currency to secure the next presidency. We are forced to wonder who this freedom and liberty is meant to serve, how military aggression can be accepted as a peacekeeping measure, and how we can all fire up the grill when people are needlessly suffering under the pretense of democracy.

The prosperous collusion of the US government with private weapons manufacturers like ATK tells us that our reason for staying in Iraq have nothing to do with human welfare, and everything to do with the preservation of power and profit. As a direct result of our government’s total dependence on private contractors to make war, corporations like ATK benefit from the escalation of violence and the indefinite extension of armed occupation. And while there remains at best an illusion of a democratic structure regulating the actions of the US government, contractors like ATK that supply the raw material of military aggression are entirely unaccountable to the taxpayers from whom they draw their profits.

In this anti-democratic atmosphere, working to stop the war means taking direct action to halt the means of its production. We must realize that we live near the war’s laboratories, that the war is embedded in our communities, and that we can confront its operation. While we may be unable to end the war in a day, we can work to stop the flow of armament from our cities to Iraq. We see our action today at ATK as one small part in an overwhelming yet necessary project. We are doing what we can to disable local branches of the war industry in order to challenge the wars of aggression that are being fought in our name. Because elected officials will not block the cycle of death and destruction with legislation, we have to do it with our selves.

- Project to Stop the War Industry (PSWI)

For more information contact Michael Galvin, mdgalvin@gmail.com, (636) 236-8586