Peace Activists Turn Back Navy Invasion
LaForge, John M.
PEACE ACTIVISTS TURN BACK NAVY INVASION For the last several years, the U.S. Navy has sent a big recruiting tour ship up the Great Lakes, stopping in eleven cities to do public relations. Four...
...They also put on a mock wedding in which the "bride," Duluth, married the "groom," militarism, in the Church of the Almighty Dollar, with the Chamber of Commerce presiding...
...The ship's chief recruiter told the press his "target audience is nine- and ten-year-olds...
...Four years in a row, a regional band of anti-militarists has met the ship in beautiful Duluth, Minnesota, with satirical theater and nonviolent confrontation...
...Protesters brought some unwelcome realism to the scene, dragging body bags into the landing zone...
...Thousands of people came out for the first "invasion," cheering and waving flags...
...About a dozen activists were arrested at each assault and served time in jail...
...In June, the Navy announced that it had canceled its Duluth port call, because of "poor recruiting results and anti-military demonstrations...
...The Navy has staged mock invasions of a public park in the last two years—complete with colored smoke, war paint, amphibious landing craft, and Marines "shooting blanks at the spectators," as the local paper reported...
...John M. LaForge Barbara katt (jonn LaForge wrote this story from jail, where he was serving time for his part in the Duluth demonstrations...
Vol. 59 • September 1995 • No. 9
