The Pitstop Ploughshares

Five members of the pacifist Catholic Worker Movement in Ireland are set to go on trial this week for disarming a US war plane in February 2003. The plane was involved in hostile activities in Iraq. “The peace activists poured human blood on the runway that has been servicing U.S. military flights, troop and munition deployments to U.S. military bases in Kuwait and Qatar,” a statement on their site WarOnTrial.com reads. “They constructed a shrine on the runway to Iraqi children killed and threatened by U.S./British bombardment and sanctions. The shrine consisted of copies of the Bible and Quran, rosary and muslim prayer beads, flowers, photographs of Iraqi children and Brigid's crosses. They then began to take up the runway, working on its edge with a mallet.” The group has drawn support from Roman Catholic activist and American actor Martin Sheen and South African Anglican Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu. Ongoing protests where the five committed their act of civil disobedience resulted in three of four companies contracting with the US military to ferry soldiers and weapons to Iraq to leave Ireland and relocate operations. The five activists have been nicknamed the “Pitstop Ploughshares.” They face jail time for their acts of religious faithfulness.  Most Christian groups - including the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches - opposed the invasion of Iraq.