There are going to be two protests at Bath Iron Works (BIW) here in Maine during the month of October. The first will be on Saturday, October 5 from 11:30 am to 12:30. That vigil will be part of Keep Space for Peace Week and will be held on Washington Street in Bath.
The second, and likely larger protest, will be held on Saturday, October 19 during the “christening” of the Navy’s first Zumwalt class “stealth” destroyer, DDG-1000. This protest will come at the end of the Maine Drone Peace Walk and will be from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm and will be held on the corner of Washington Street and Hinckley Street. Just across the street from this spot many people will be lining up to enter BIW for the “christening” ceremony. Yes indeed it is a sacrilege and presumptuous to give the blessing of Christ (the Prince of Peace) to a first-strike killing warship.
Long-time noted peace and justice activist Kathy Kelly will be on the last couple of days of the walk and will speak at the BIW protest.
The Associated Press has reported, “A super-stealthy destroyer that could underpin the U.S. Navy’s China strategy will be able to sneak up on coastlines virtually undetected and pound targets with electromagnetic ‘rail guns’ right out of a sci-fi movie. Using electric pulses, not chemical explosives, the ‘rail gun’ can shoot a 40-pound metal slug from New York to Philadelphia at up to 5,600 mph — more than seven times the speed of sound — with 32 times the force of a car traveling at 100 miles per hour.”
The new stealthy DDG-1000 being built by General Dynamics in Bath will cost between $4-7 billion each. The Navy did not actually want the destroyer because it would eat up too much of their shipbuilding budget. But the Obama administration, which was strongly supported in his run for president in 2008 by the Chicago-based Crown family (which are majority stockholders in General Dynamics), has insisted the ships be built.
Previous versions of Navy destroyers, outfitted with ‘missile defense’ systems cost about $1.5 billion each.
These protests will be sponsored by Maine Veterans for Peace, the Smilin’ Trees Disarmament Farm, Maine Campaign to Bring Our War $$ Home, CodePink Maine, and the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.