Demonstrate against Fleet Week Oct

[Lincoln Cushing <lcushing@igc.org>]

MEDIA RELEASE 
9/18/95

Bay Area Peace Navy to Protest Fleet Week October 7

As it has for eleven years, the Peace Navy will once again be 
protesting Fleet Week, a series of events hosted by the Navy 
League, the City of San Francisco, and others to celebrate the 
Navy's role in the Bay Area. Fleet Week includes "Youth 
Excellence Day," which promotes military careers to high school 
students, the Parade of Ships, and air shows featuring the Blue 
Angels flying team.

The Peace Navy has long criticized Fleet Week as a poor use of 
public funds. Aside from some corporate sponsorship, subsidized 
costs include City of San Francisco personnel, Coast Guard staff 
and equipment (the demand for security on the bay requires 
trucking in boats from as far away as Lake Tahoe and Long 
Beach), and the Navy itself; the Blue Angels alone cost an 
estimated $98,000 per performance.

The Peace Navy will be using the event as an opportunity to 
challenge this glorification of U.S. power projection and to express 
outrage at another current example of unbridled militarism, the 
recent French testing of atomic devices in the Pacific.

Two years ago the event's sponsors announced that because of 
base closures and declining corporate support, Fleet Week would 
be changed to "...the San Francisco Bay Fest, a more broadly-
based celebration of the sea without the exclusive emphasis on 
the Navy." Oddly enough, this was almost identical to proposals 
the Peace Navy has been making for years. Unfortunately, none 
of these changes are evident so far, and the Peace Dividend 
remains a mirage.

For more information:

Lincoln Cushing
Bay Area Peace Navy Fleet Week Coordinator
(510) 845-7111
e-mail: lcushing@igc.org