Missouri Anti-Nuclear Break-in (1984)

Mon Nov 12, 1984

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On this day in 1984, four Plowshares peace activists broke into a Minuteman missile site near Kansas City, Missouri and smashed weapons equipment. The four protesters were Larry Cloud-Morgan, an indigenous rights activist and Anishinabe spiritual leader; Paul Kabat, a Catholic Priest; Carl Kabat, also a Catholic Priest; and Helen Woodson, mother of seven.

The group called themselves the “silo pruning hooks” in reference to the Biblical mandate to “beat swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks”, and used a compressor-driven, 90-pound jack hammer to damage the weapons equipment.

The activists received sentences varying from 6 to 18 years. After his arrest, Carl Kabat told United Press International “It is up to the people to disarm. Governments will never disarm. Ordinary people will have to do extraordinary things if this planet is to survive.”