Philip Berrigan - The Plowshares Movement

The Plowshares Movement

On September 9, 1980, Berrigan, his brother Daniel, and six others (the "Plowshares Eight") began the Plowshares Movement when they entered the General Electric Nuclear Missile Re-entry Division in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania where nose cones for the Mark 12A warheads were made. They hammered on two nose cones, poured blood on documents and offered prayers for peace. They were arrested and initially charged with over ten different felony and misdemeanor counts. On 10 April 1990, after nearly ten years of trials and appeals, the Plowshares Eight were re-sentenced and paroled for up to 23 and 1/2 months in consideration of time already served in prison. A documentary was made about this action called "In the King of Prussia" by Emile de Antonio.

Since this action over seventy Plowshares actions have taken place around the world against weapons of war. Several of the initial ones involved Berrigan himself.

Berrigan's final Plowshares action was in December 1999, when he and others banged on A-10 Warthog warplanes in an anti-war protest at the Warfield Air National Guard Base. He was convicted of malicious destruction of property and sentenced to 30 months in prison. He was released on 14 December 2001. In his lifetime he had spent about 11 years in jails and prisons for civil disobedience.

In one of his last public statements, Berrigan said,

The American people are, more and more, making their voices heard against Bush and his warrior clones. Bush and his minions slip out of control, determined to go to war, determined to go it alone, determined to endanger the Palestinians further, determined to control Iraqi oil, determined to ravage further a suffering people and their shattered society. The American people can stop Bush, can yank his feet closer to the fire, can banish the war makers from Washington D.C., can turn this society around and restore it to faith and sanity.