Two protest day in Maine @ Bath & Wiscasset

 

About 100 folks gathered along the side walks outside Bath Iron Works 

The usual parking lot entrance was closed by police

 

Mary Beth with BIW crane in background

Police opened another entrance farther away from our crowd. This is where the arrests were made.

We concluded the BIW protest with a short march along their production facilities

 

2nd Protest on US 1 in Wiscasset

At the foot of the bridge on busy US highway 1

At the intersection before the bridge

Lincoln County cops with nothing to do in yellow vests

Closing circle with a solidarity song

 

Yesterday was my birthday and there could not have been a better gift than having two protests in the midcoast region of Maine.

We began the day with an 8:30 am assembly at the Navy Bath Iron Works (BIW) shipyard to protest another 'Christening' of a destroyer soon to be sent to either the Red Sea to attack Yemen, the Black Sea aimed at Russia or the Yellow Sea off China's coast. There are currently seven more destroyers being built at BIW by General Dynamics which is up to its neck in complicity for the genocide in Palestine.

Nine people were arrested for blocking one of three entrances into BIW's spacious parking lot. (We successfully kept the other two entrances closed.) What used to be an open event for the public is now (due to our constant protests at these ceremonies) by invitation only. See the Portland Press Herald coverage of the protest here.

The Bath police were out in full coverage of our protest as well as the Maine State Police, Massachusetts State Police and New Hampshire State Police. They even had the Coast Guard patrolling the river along BIW. They must have been expecting some big doings.

Later that day we did an hour-long protest at the US 1 bridge in Wiscasset which is one of the slowest moving traffic jams during the summer in Maine. Thus we knew it would be a good spot for a 2nd protest since it is fairly close to BIW and on the route that activists heading back north would take anyway to get home. 

So during that hour we had thousands of cars crawl by us with many waving and honking. One Wiscasset policeman told me 'You guys were great. This is how it should be in America'. A nice comment for sure.

Next week we do this all over again at the Air Force Thunderbirds airshow in Brunswick at the former naval air station. We begin at 9:00 am with another huge traffic jam allowing us to hand flyers to the cars crawling into the event which serves as a major military recruiting event for the younger generation.

Our peace folks in Maine are really special.

Bruce

Photos by MB Sulllivan and Press Herald. (Click on the photos for a better view)