Phila. Stop, National Speaking Tour, U.S. Naval Base Resisters on Korea’s Jeju Island

The new base, where AEGIS guided missile cruisers and fast-attack submarines will likely escalate tensions among China, Korea, and the United States undermining peace in the region.

AEGIS battle command and weapons systems, around which the fleet of AEGIS guided missile cruisers and destroyers, are built and tested in Moorestown, NJ, at the large  Lockheed Martin complex.  Lockheed Martin is  the world’s largest war profiteer.  AEGIS is central to the U.S. Navy’s ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) deployment against China.

Since 2007, the people of Gangjeong on Jeju Island and their supporters have campaigned everyday against state violence, corporate power, war profiteering, and environmental destruction. They have done so nonviolently and passionately. As a result of their work for peace, the tiny village of Gangjeong now has one of the highest “crime” rates in all of South Korea. More than 220,000 police officers (as of 2012) have been stationed in Gangjeong. So far, more than 700 arrests have been made, leading to approximately 200 court cases for more than 650 people, approximately $270,000 in fines levied, and 46 imprisonments.

More than 30 international activists have been blacklisted, deported, or denied entry. All for the “crime” of peacefully resisting the construction of a naval base that threatens villagers’ livelihoods, the local ecology, and the peace of northeast Asia.

Many of Gangjeong villagers are farmers whose struggle for justice has meant sacrificing their crops. They are working full time for the struggle and rely on odd jobs and occasional field labor to survive. Many people owe thousands of dollars in legal fines they cannot afford to pay.

Come out to the program on March 26 in Philadelphia, and hear this incredible story, see the struggle, and donate to the brave peacemakers who are giving everything they can in this fight for justice.

Organized by Philadelphia Committee for Peace and Justice in Asia
Co-sponsors: The Alternative Seminary, ANSWER Coalition-Philadelphia, Brandywine Peace Community, Circle of Hope, International Action Center-Philadelphia

Jeju: In the Crosshairs of War, a film by Regis Trembly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT2rQ4eoU0w