Peace activists to meet the U.S. Navy Fleet arrival at Seafair on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 in Elliott Bay

Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action
www.gzcenter.org

Seattle, Washington:  Local activists will stage a water-based nonviolent protest against the glorification of weapons of war at the Seattle Seafair festival.  Peace activists will meet the U.S. Navy fleet in Elliott Bay.

This year the Peace Fleet will be joined with the original peace ship, the Golden Rule, that set sail in 1958 to the South Pacific to stop nuclear testing in the atmosphere, and which inspired the many peace makers and peace ships that followed.  See http://www.vfpgoldenruleproject.org.

Other peace activists will meet on the Seattle waterfront on the rooftop of the Bell Street Pier Cruise Terminal at Pier 66 at the same time for a nonviolent demonstration against weapons of war. 

What:  Peace activists at Seafair.  This is the fifteenth year for this demonstration. 

When:  Tuesday, August 2, noon, Peace Fleet in Elliott Bay.  Demonstration on land on the rooftop of the Bell Street Pier Cruise Terminal at Pier 66 at 1 PM.
            
Where:  Elliott Bay, near Pier 66.  Demonstration on land on the rooftop of the Bell Street Pier Cruise Terminal at Pier 66.

For the fifteenth year, peace activists will address the public display of warships and warplanes in our community.  The Golden Rule will be open to the public in Bell Harbor Marina from August 3-6, while moored several hundred feet from Navy warships.

Why would we demonstrate for peace at a Seattle maritime festival?  Because the celebration of warships in our harbor helps bring about the normalcy of modern war.

The fleet arrival at Seafair is a public relations and recruiting event for the U.S. Navy.  Previous years have brought Trident nuclear submarines complete with nuclear warheads and Navy warships used to launch Tomahawk cruise missiles in the first and second Wars on Iraq and the War on Afghanistan.  The fleet is displayed for four days in downtown Seattle at tremendous cost to taxpayers while crucial social services in education, health care, and transportation are being cut for lack of funds.

Fact Sheet -- Peace activists at Seafair on August 2, 2016

The Peace Fleet is an incarnation of earlier demonstrations: the People’s Blockade of U.S. Navy vessels carrying munitions during the Vietnam War; and the Peace Blockade in Hood Canal, demonstrating against the arrival of the first Trident submarine, the USS Ohio, at the Trident submarine base at Bangor in 1982.

The Peace Fleet began on August 2, 2000 when the Trident submarine, USS Alabama, arrived in downtown Seattle for Seafair, complete with up to 192 nuclear warheads.

In 2011, Seafair and the Navy changed the public viewing area on the rooftop of Pier 66 into a private event.  This is the location where in previous years the public had been invited to view the Parade of Ships.  In past years, the number of peace activists including the singing group, the Raging Grannies, equaled the number of other rooftop observers.  This is the first year since 2010 that the rooftop of Pier 66 will be open to the general public.

2012 was the first year for the Coast Guard’s permanent rule for its no-protest zone, or so-called “safety zone,” in Elliott Bay.  The Coast Guard agreed with the ACLU that Peace Fleet boats should be able to remain in the area between the Coast Guard’s 100-yard exclusionary zone from Navy vessels and the safety zone which extends 100 yards from Pier 66.  See below the Coast Guard map for Pier 66 for 2014 showing the Seafair Parade of Ships route along the waterfront.

In 2013, the US Navy did not attend Seafair due to military budget cuts in FY 2013 resulting from the Budget Control Act of 2011, also known as sequestration.  The Department of Defense decided in 2013 to halt participation in community relations or outreach events that come at additional cost to the federal government.  In April 2013, a spokesperson for the Navy’s 3rd Fleet said that the round-trip bill for fuel alone for three warships from San Diego to attend the Seattle Seafair festival in 2012 cost $1.1 million.

On May 18, 2016, on a vote of 277-147, the House of Representatives passed a $610 billion for National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2017.  Of the 10 Washington State representatives, DelBene, Larsen, McDermott, and Smith voted against the defense bill.

On June 14, 2016, on a vote of 85-13, the Senate passed a $602 billion National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2017.  Both Senators Murray and Cantwell voted for the defense bill.

The Peace Fleet this year, as in past years, will require no public funds or public resources. 

The next Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action event is August 7-8 at the Ground Zero Center in Poulsbo, and at the Bangor submarine base, in commemoration of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

On August 9, Peace Fleet vessels, the Golden Rule, and other vessels will sail past the Trident submarine base in Hood Canal in a Boats by Bangor nonviolent demonstration.