Religion and War Resistance in the Plowshares Movement (Cambridge
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P1: KAE CUUS045-FM CUUS045/Nepstad 978 0 521 88892 9 February 7, 2008 2:51 This page intentionally left blank ii P1: KAE CUUS045-FM CUUS045/Nepstad 978 0 521 88892 9 February 7, 2008 2:51 Religion and War Resistance in the Plowshares Movement As the nuclear arms race exploded in the 1980s, a group of U.S. religious pacifists used radical nonviolence to intervene. Armed with hammers, they broke into military facilities to pound on missiles and pour blood on bombers, enacting the prophet Isaiah’s vision: “Nations shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” Calling themselves the Plowshares movement, these controversial activists received long prison sentences; nonetheless, their movement grew and expanded to Europe and Australia. In Religion and War Resistance in the Plowshares Movement, Sharon Erickson Nepstad documents the emergence and international diffusion of this unique form of high-risk collective action. Drawing on in-depth interviews, original survey research, and archival data, Nepstad explains why some Plowshares groups have persisted over time while others have floundered or collapsed. Comparing the U.S. movement with less successful Plowshares groups over- seas, Nepstad reveals how decisions about leadership, organization, retention, and cultural adaptations influence movements’ long-term trajectories. Sharon Erickson Nepstad is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern Maine. Her research focuses on social movements, religion, and peace studies. She is the author of Convictions of the Soul: Religion, Culture, and Agency in the Central America Solidarity Movement (2004), and she has published numerous articles in Social Problems, Mobilization, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Critical Sociology, Sociological Inquiry, and other journals. i P1: KAE CUUS045-FM CUUS045/Nepstad 978 0 521 88892 9 February 7, 2008 2:51 iv P1: KAE CUUS045-FM CUUS045/Nepstad 978 0 521 88892 9 February 7, 2008 2:51 Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics Editors Jack A. Goldstone George Mason University Doug McAdam Stanford University and Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences Sidney Tarrow Cornell University Charles Tilly Columbia University Elisabeth J. Wood Yale University Ronald Aminzade et al., Silence and Voice in the Study of Contentious Politics Javier Auyero, Routine Politics and Violence in Argentina: The Gray Zone of State Power Clifford Bob, The Marketing of Rebellion: Insurgents, Media, and International Activism Charles Brockett, Political Movements and Violence in Central America Gerald F. Davis, Doug McAdam, W. Richard Scott, and Mayer N. Zald, editors, Social Movements and Organization Theory Jack A. Goldstone, editor, States, Parties, and Social Movements Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow, and Charles Tilly, Dynamics of Contention Kevin J. O’Brien and Lianjiang Li, Rightful Resistance in Rural China Silvia Pedraza, Political Disaffection in Cuba’s Revolution and Exodus Sidney Tarrow, The New Transnational Activism Charles Tilly, Contention and Democracy in Europe, 1650–2000 Charles Tilly, The Politics of Collective Violence Stuart A. Wright, Patriots, Politics, and the Oklahoma City Bombing Deborah Yashar, Contesting Citizenship in Latin America: The Rise of Indigenous Movements and the Postliberal Challenge iii P1: KAE CUUS045-FM CUUS045/Nepstad 978 0 521 88892 9 February 7, 2008 2:51 iv P1: KAE CUUS045-FM CUUS045/Nepstad 978 0 521 88892 9 February 7, 2008 2:51 Religion and War Resistance in the Plowshares Movement SHARON ERICKSON NEPSTAD University of Southern Maine v CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521888929 © Sharon Erickson Nepstad 2008 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2008 ISBN-13 978-0-511-39688-5 eBook (NetLibrary) ISBN-13 978-0-521-88892-9 hardback ISBN-13 978-0-521-71767-0 paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. P1: KAE CUUS045-FM CUUS045/Nepstad 978 0 521 88892 9 February 7, 2008 2:51 For my daughters, Linnea and Malaya vii P1: KAE CUUS045-FM CUUS045/Nepstad 978 0 521 88892 9 February 7, 2008 2:51 Because we want peace with half a heart, half a life and will, the war making continues. Because the making of war is total – but the making of peace, by our cowardice, is partial. Father Daniel Berrigan viii P1: KAE CUUS045-FM CUUS045/Nepstad 978 0 521 88892 9 February 7, 2008 2:51 Contents ListofTablesandFigurespagexi Preface xiii Acknowledgments xxv INTRODUCTION: MOVEMENT CHALLENGES AND TRAJECTORIES 1 Part I: The U.S. Plowshares Movement 1 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE U.S. PLOWSHARES MOVEMENT 29 2 TACTICAL LEGITIMATION AND THE THEOLOGY OF RESISTANCE 59 3 SUSTAINING COMMITMENT 87 4 DEATH OF A CHARISMATIC LEADER 116 Part II: The International Plowshares Movements 5 INTERMITTENT RESISTANCE: THE GERMAN, DUTCH, AND AUSTRALIAN PLOWSHARES MOVEMENTS 131 6 INTERNAL TENSIONS AND IMPLOSION: THE SWEDISH PLOWSHARES MOVEMENT 155 7 WITNESSING OR WINNING? THE BRITISH PLOWSHARES MOVEMENT 181 ix P1: KAE CUUS045-FM CUUS045/Nepstad 978 0 521 88892 9 February 7, 2008 2:51 Contents 8 CONCLUSION: FROM FAILED ATTEMPTS TO PERSISTENT RESISTANCE – UNDERSTANDING DIVERGENT MOVEMENT TRAJECTORIES 203 Appendix A: Survey Questionnaire 223 Appendix B: List of Interviews by Author 231 Appendix C: Chronological List of Plowshares Actions by Region 233 Bibliography 239 Index 249 x P1: KAE CUUS045-FM CUUS045/Nepstad 978 0 521 88892 9 February 7, 2008 2:51 List of Tables and Figures Tables I.1 Comparison of Plowshares Activists’ Prison Sentences by Region (percentages) page 18 1.1 Influences on U.S. Plowshares Activists (percentages) 39 3.1 Plowshares Activists’ Participation in Catholic Left Communities (percentages) 92 3.2 Importance of Catholic Left Communities in Sustaining Activism (percentages) 92 3.3 Opposition Experienced by Plowshares Activists (percentages) 94 3.4 Beliefs and Values of U.S. Plowshares Activists (percentages) 97 3.5 Extent of Activists’ Involvement in Catholic Left Communities (percentages) 105 3.6 Characteristics of U.S. Plowshares Activists at Time of First Action (percentages) 108 C.1 Overview of Micro-Foundational Tasks and Movement Trajectories by Country 205 Figures I.1 Movement Progression 6 I.2 Movements with Intermittent Activity 12 I.3 Movements with Limited Expansion 12 I.4 Sustained or Persistent Movements 12 xi P1: KAE CUUS045-FM CUUS045/Nepstad 978 0 521 88892 9 February 7, 2008 2:51 xii P1: KAE CUUS045-FM CUUS045/Nepstad 978 0 521 88892 9 February 7, 2008 2:51 Preface I distinctly remember the moment when I started paying closer attention to the Plowshares activists’ provocative style of resistance. It was the winter of 1991 and President George H. W. Bush had just initiated a major bomb- ing campaign that launched the Gulf War. Months before, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait and President Bush was taking a stand. Although I felt that Hussein’s tyranny and his illegal annexation of terri- tory should be addressed by the international community, I was strongly opposed to the war and deeply disturbed by reports of thousands of civilian casualties. One evening while I was watching the news with my friend Karl Smith, the network covered a story about an anti-war protest that occurred while George and Barbara Bush were worshipping at a church near their vacation home in Kennebunkport, Maine. As the service began, the pastor welcomed the president and his family and then asked the congregation to offer prayer requests. A fifty-one-year-old man sitting near the front said, “I have a concern. Think of the eighteen million people of Iraq; half are children under the age of fifteen. They are children just like the children sitting here. We must think of what it means to be bombed by more than 2,000 planes everyday. We are called to be peacemakers. This is a vicious, immoral attack.”1 He then sat quietly during the sermon, but when the pastor invited everyone to sing the Lord’s Prayer, the man spoke up once more. “Before we sing, I have a word,” he said. “God abhors this bloodshed. It is a crime 1 Quoted in Balz, Dan. 1991. “Protester Disrupts Service at Church Attended by Bush.” The Washington Post, February 18, 1991, p. A27. xiii P1: KAE CUUS045-FM CUUS045/Nepstad 978 0 521 88892 9 February 7, 2008 2:51 Preface for the rich to attack the poor.”2 Secret Service officers quickly dragged him out of the church and placed him under arrest. As we listened to the news coverage of this one-man protest, Karl said, “That’s John Schuchardt.” He had known Schuchardt personally since they had both been involved in the Plowshares movement. This is a pacifist movement initiated by members of the so-called Catholic Left who gar- nered national attention during the Vietnam War when they raided Selec- tive Service offices, dousing blood on conscription files and burning draft records. Years later, they once again engaged in property destruction to resist the escalating nuclear arms race, using household hammers to dam- age nuclear weapons. Obviously these acts are illegal, but Plowshares participants willingly accept the consequences. In fact, trials are part of their strategy. As activists are charged and brought to court, they put weapons of mass destruction on trial.