User:O.oleghe

After the action of these women and after they were acquitted by the jury, many people showed support and solidarity for their decision to prevent the British government from aiding and abetting genocide in East Timor.

"Seeds of Hope was a wonderful act of solidarity with the people of East Timor threatened by British weapons. The support of people around the world throughout our long struggle for independence was crucial, and this action raised the profile of Britain's role in arming Indonesia, and raised the spirits of the Timorese people. The Hammer Blow gives a fascinating inside account of the whole story, and should be read by anyone concerned about solidarity and justice" - Bella Galhos, Timorese human rights activist

"The Hawk Ploughshares Trial was one of the most remarkable instances of a jury accepting the defence of preventing a greater crime. Andrea Needham’s story of the four women campaigners is an amazing narrative, not least in the manner in which they planned the action and went through with it while evading what should have been stringent security measures. The subsequent experience of arrest and detention, especially in “grizzly Risley”, is a revealing story in its own right and the background to the trial, how they prepared for it and worked with a support group says much more about what can be achieved. This is not just a thoroughly readable book but is, more importantly, an inspiration." -Paul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies, University of Bradford.

(published in "The Hammer Blow" by Kickstarter)

One of the women in the plowshares action, Andrea Needham, said the following concerning her decision to disarm the British warplanes. "I had a heavy lump hammer that I’d bought a few months earlier to chip mortar off old bricks when I was rebuilding a wall. I’d decorated it with the words from the biblical book of Isaiah that have inspired so many disarmament actions: “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” On the handle I’d painted “Choose life!” a reference to another biblical line, from Deuteronomy: “I put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life.” For me, this action was all about choosing life: Choosing to say yes to a disarmed world and no to weapons of destruction; to say yes to nonviolence and no to violence; to say yes to accountability for our actions and no to the abdication of responsibility shown by British Aerospace and the British government.

Jo had a smaller hammer, which had been a gift from friends, and Lotta had two hammers, which had both been used in previous Plowshares actions. One of the beautiful things about Ploughshares actions is that anyone can do them. You don’t need to be a technical genius or an engineer; you don’t need to be physically strong; you don’t need any expensive equipment or special skills. All you need is a hammer and a functioning arm. We each had both of those things. We started hammering". (Needham, 2015) (published in "Waging Nonviolence")