Catholic Workers Head to British GCHQ at Cheltenham on eve of 10th Anniversary of the Wars

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Friday September 02, 2011 12:34

by CW - Catholic Workers

Catholic Workers Head to British GCHQ at Cheltenham on eve of 10th Anniversary of the Wars

"At the gates of GCHQ"

Following a mass conducted by the Catholic Worker at the Greenbelt Music festival
http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/ held at Cheltenham racecourse, Catholic Workers from Giuseppe Conlon House and the CW Farmhouse headed to vigil at nearby GCHQ (British Government Communications Headquarters)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Communications_...rters

The readings of the day were read...
Jerimah 20:7-9 & Matthew 16:21-27

...and following prayers shared..

- We gather on the eve of the 10th. anniversary of what George Bush Jr. declared to be a "war without end". We are reminded of Peter Ustinov's words ""War is the terrorism of the rich, Terrorism is the war of the poor!" We call to mind the dead, orphaned and bereaved of these 10 long years of war.

- We are reminded that "Truth is the first casualty of war!". We come to Cheltenham the home of GCHQ where lies were spun to justify the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq. We repent the slaughter that followed.

- We give thanks for the prophetic nonviolent resistance to the wars that has emerged from within the military and state departments. In the shadow of GCHQ we recall the courage of Katharine Gun who resisted at GCHQ the lies that preceded slaughter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Gun

- We give thanks for the courage and nonviolent resistance of Ben Griffin (British SAS) and Joe Glenton (British Army) and all those in civil society who took risks and put their bodies on the line to resist these wars on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.

- We pray for our brothers and sisters who remain in jeopardy in chains and before the courts - Bradley Manning (U.S. Army) Michael Lyons (British Navy) Julian Assange (WikiLeaks)

- In these 10 long years of war our hearts have become hardened our compassion fatigued our outraged deadened. We pray for healing. Our ears to be opened to the cries of the poor, our eyes to be opened to what shit is going down, our mouths to be opened to speak truth to power and our faith to be strengthened to walk the nonviolent way of the cross to confront the masters of war.

GCHQ is connected to the Echelon warmaking system and we are in turn connected to an international network of nonviolent resisters.

On the morning of the 30 April 2008 three Catholic Workers entered the Waihopai Spy Base part of the Echelon system connected to GCHQ, they used a sickle to deflate one of the two 30 metre domes covering satellite interception dishes.On March 17th 2010. Catholic Workers Sam Land, Fr. Peter Murnane and Adi Leeson were found not guilty of all charges relating to this ploughshares action. This past week the New Zealand government, under directions of their U.S. masters, have struck back in the N.Z. HIgh Court
http://ploughshares.org.nz/

Like Julian, Bradley, Michael these three remain in jeopardy for us and we remain on the streets for them. We will be speaking out and acting up over the coming month, around the 10th. anniversary of these wars.